Cities are where all the action is! Whether it be jobs or amenities or 'development' cities take the big piece of the cake. Naturally, city-seekers are on the rise.
In a rapidly urbanizing there will be 8 bn people living in cities by mid-century. There are 171 cities in China that currently have more than 1 million inhabitants, and that number is expected to rise to 219 by 2025. Where will all the energy needed for this number come from??
How can cities be sutainable? Do terrace gardens and lush lawns make for 'green cities'? Not unless there is more than meets the eye.
At TED's annual meet, it was Alex Steffen who touched upon how cities can become sustainable, and not 'steal from the future, to sell in the present and call it GDP!"
Evey city, he said, is an opportunity to look at ways in which to reduce emissions and live sustainably. It could be in dense communitues that share spaces and ensure surplus capacities of gadgets and services. It could be as simple as Passivhaus effects achieved by using the wind to cool or the sun shine to heat a room!
Energy use can drop as much as 90 pc!
There already are examples of this new thinking set in action. Since 1998, Bogotá, Colombia has built more than 300 kilometers of protected bikeways. While in Belgium,a public-private consortium consisting of Belgian rail management company Infrabel and solar developer Enfinity has installed 16,000 solar panels on the roof of a 3.4 km (2.1 miles) long tunnel between Antwerp and the Dutch border, creating enough electricity to power 4,000 trains a year. Electricity becomes 30 percent cheaper for the user!
Often, as we have been saying, simple solutions abound. We just need to pop them out of our heads. It shouldn't need more global warming to pop them out!
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