Really interesting article in the current issue of NewStatesman (written by an author with an interest in the engineering company that the article discusses) concerning what we'll need to change (answer: everything) if we want to save the Earth.
[R]apid urbanization demands that we ask [what we should be doing differently when we build cities.] It is expected that by 2030, 60 per cent of the world's popultion will be urban dwellers.
This poses a considerable infrastructure problem. What kind of growth could it be? Is it possible to make an urban centre not just carbon-neutral, but carbon-positive? Can new cities be planet-firendly? Our future is very tied in to how we resolve and manage growth of our cities. . . .
[Thus] Arup, the civil engineering company responsble for the Sydney Opera House, the Pompidou Centre and Tate Modern is creating Dongtan, the world's first eco-city, on an island off Shanghai. [One wonders if they've allowed for rising sea levels or built some sort of defense against same?]
Dongtan . . . will be a city for hundredes of thousands and as close to carbon-neutral as is possible today. All housing will be within seven minutes' walk of public transport. Most citizens will work within the city, which will produce sufficient electricity and heat for its own use, entirely from renewable sources. There wil be no emissions from vehicles. Food will be produced on the island. Buildings (of local materials) will use traditional and new construction techniques.
And yet it is not good enough. . . . Population shifts, increasing scarcity and the wanton consumption of arable land and natural resources (renewable and non-renewable) are pushing us ever closer to global disaster.
This is a crucial and sobering point in history. Despite setbacks and mistakes, progressive national and local governments are taking the initiative. There is still time for corrective action.
Our future is very much ours to decide It will not utlimately depend on technology or the economy. What we leave to those that come after us will be determined by us, and whether or not we rise to the challenge [that] we now face.
Photo found here.
2 comments:
And growing things on the rooves is a favorite concept of mine.
Ruth,
Me, too. It exchanges what has been -- every building subtracts from the green space on the planet -- for what should be -- every building has a roof that replaces the green space that it displaces. It's all such a good idea. Would we rebuild LA or NY or DC on these models? That's the crucial question that follows the even-more-important question: will we control our population?
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