Yule Heibel on 2008-11-20
All predictions of the future turn out to be hare-brained, it seems...
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20 Nov 08
Yule HeibelGreat defense of cities by Paul Hawken.
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Urban migration represents a kind of collective wisdom, and how we configure our cities will be critical to our survival. Regardless of the myths about living close to the land, cities are where human beings have the lowest ecological footprint. It takes less energy, wood, material, and food to provide a good life for a person in a city than in the country. Rather than perceive the city as an ecological sink sucking up the resources of the countryside, which cities can do, cities can also be a kind of ecological ark, places where humanity gathers while we peak in population and develop ecological intelligence for a new civilization. There is wisdom in this that is rather extraordinary. It was not predicted that cities might be the best strategy for our long-term survival and well-being. Yet that is exactly what is happening.
UNQUOTEsustainlane paul_hawken sustainability cities urbanization environment ecology
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For most of the 19th and 20th century, cities, despite the hardships and suffering experienced in ghettos, were seen as places where culture and intelligence concentrated and evolved. In the latter part of the 20th century, urban decay, environmental problems, and ethnic riots created a rush for the exits and rampant urban sprawl. Cities became more dangerous and inhuman. Post-war modernist planners and architects made matters worse by creating concrete monuments to themselves, hollowing out downtowns into commercial centers that felt like mausoleums at night.
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Ehrlich predicted England would cease to exist by the end of the 20th century and India would have collapsed while mass starvation swept the globe.
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Birth rates steadily declined and are still declining. In the developed world, they average 1.6 children per woman. In the developing world, the rate is 3 per woman. In countries such as Japan , authorities even ask women to have more children. Given existing trends, population will peak sometime at or before the middle of the 21st century, and then will begin to draw down for decades, possibly leveling out at 2 billion late in the next century.
One of the reasons population rates continue to drop is because of cities. A contributing factor to birth control in the world is the urban environment. Population planning is an individual act, but the incentive to plan a family is heavily influenced by urban migration. People are leaving rural areas where children are an asset, and relocating in cities where too many children are a liability.
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Urban migration represents a kind of collective wisdom, and how we configure our cities will be critical to our survival. Regardless of the myths about living close to the land, cities are where human beings have the lowest ecological footprint. It takes less energy, wood, material, and food to provide a good life for a person in a city than in the country. Rather than perceive the city as an ecological sink sucking up the resources of the countryside, which cities can do, cities can also be a kind of ecological ark, places where humanity gathers while we peak in population and develop ecological intelligence for a new civilization. There is wisdom in this that is rather extraordinary. It was not predicted that cities might be the best strategy for our long-term survival and well-being. Yet that is exactly what is happening.
The viability of the urban environments, however, is not a given.
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The sustainable city is a place that interacts with its region and resources in a symbiotic way so as to increase the quality of both environments.
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For too long, we believed that more meant better, that energy-, concrete-, and automobile-intensive cities would bring us a better life. That tall tale is being replaced by common sense understanding that what makes for a fulfilling urban existence is neighborhoods, farmer’s markets, parks, mobility, quiet, greenery, and meaningful livelihoods, all of which require less resources and better design.
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The worldwide diaspora of immigrants, refugees, and peasants to urban slums is growing. The World Bank has predicted that more than five billion people will be receiving less than $2/day by 2030 in today’s dollars.
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In Darwinian terms, the slums and squatter cities are a rapid breeding pool for human evolution. Leaders, activists, and scholars will emerge from these places, but so too will demagogues, jihadists, thieves, and mobs. That famous lyric “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose” may be true for seekers and monks, but it is not true for the bulk of humanity. Freedom and the rule of law are valued and honored when people have something to lose. Neighborhoods work, and are safe and livable because there is a “we” there. The greening of the world’s cities is a profound act of social healing and justice, because sustainability addresses whether people feel hope or despair, are secure or threatened, want to cooperate or compete.
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