As the already much-punditized ten-year anniversary of the WTO protests approaches, my pal Lynn Allen’s got a fine essay about Worldchanging.org cofounder and local urban-planning doyen Alex Steffen.

Allen calls Steffen’s message…

…both sobering and, strangely, optimistic—an analysis of the state of the physical, cultural and political earth right now, the slippery slope we are headed down and the “bright green” options that we can choose to pull ourselves out of what would otherwise be total collapse.

Allen particularly likes that Steffen’s two recent Town Hall speeches were introduced by Seattle municipal bigwigs, City Councilperson Richard Conlin and Mayor-Elect Mike McGinn. She hopes Conlin and McGinn will heed Steffen’s plea to turn Seattle into the dense, forward-minded eco-city it already thinks it is.