Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen is an American futurist who writes and speaks about sustainability and the future of the planet...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
thinking optimism political
Optimism is a political act. Those who benefit from the status quo are perfectly happy for us to think nothing is going to get any better. In fact, these days, cynicism is obedience.
motivation inspiration creating
Urban retrofitting: creating different sorts of spaces and uses out of places that are already there.
creativity cities innovation
To be young and aware is to know you’re being lied to; to know that a bright green future is possible; to know that we can reimagine the world, rebuild our cities, redesign our lives, retool our factories, distribute innovation and creativity and all live in a world that is not only better than the alternative, but much better than the world we have now.
home reality political
We have to craft new political realities, not only in places like India, Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, but here at home as well. Another world is possible.
climate generations energy
By looking at climate change as a clean energy generation problem, we're setting ourselves up not to solve it.
enough something-better
It's not just enough to survive. We've got to make something better than what we've got.
stuff garbage
There is no such thing as garbage, just useful stuff in the wrong place.
powerful people cynical
Powerful people doing bad things LIKE cynical, despairing citizens.
zero mean balance
Carbon zero simply means that the emissions you are releasing either are zero or balance out to zero.
thinking opposites law
There's no law of physics that says we have to be an unsustainable society - in fact, quite the opposite. The planet's ready to work with us if we're ready to think differently, but we do have to make that jump and start to do things in new ways.
people use energy
The denser places get, the lower the amount of energy people use to get around it.
heart ideas people
At its very heart, Worldchanging is about using the best of people's new ideas, bringing them together and applying them to the massive problems that we all face.
cities decision etc
Cities are responsible for the vast majority of the creation of the economy. They're also places into which we pour the vast majority of resources, the vast majority of energy and the places where a huge percentage of the decisions about how systems are built and how products designed, etc., happen.
compassion people community
For most people, using the Internet broadens their sense of who 'we' is and actually ends up leaving us in a place of greater compassion and understanding. It leaves us more connected to a larger group of people and more at one with a lot more people in our community.