Thank you to everyone who has been visiting my site lately and I apologise for not having more posts up for you to read, Brisbane to Bogota is my first real attempt at blogging and I’ve been doing my best to understand the computer technobabble associated with designing and establishing a blog. I think I am getting there and I hope that my tardiness has not put off too many readers, it may not be evident yet but it is my intention to create something interesting and unique that inspires you to join my on my journey of sustainability.
Today is Blog Action Day and as we near the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December and International Day on Climate Action on the 24th of October, initiated by www.350.org, it becomes more apparent that people of the world want action on climate change. As the United Nations Climate Change Conference nears, governements have an opportunity to listen to the citizens of the world, and we have an opportunity to stand up and let the governments of the world hear us.
As this blog mostly refers to cities and how to make them more sustainable, I thought I would use this opportunity to write about climate change and cities.
Cities only cover 2% of the lands surface (*1) they “consume three-quarters of its resources and produce three-quarters of its waste” (*2). The impact of cities are greater than the area that they cover for example, according to O’Meara the city of London needs “roughly 58 times its land area just to simply supply its residents with food and timber” (*1). Cities are becoming increasingly overpopulated and under-resourced, according to the United Nations 2008 became the first year in history that over 50% of the worlds populations lived in cities, this trend is predicted to increase, in fact between 2007 and 2050 urban populations will increase from 3.3 billion to 6.4 billion(*3). To accommodate these increased populations cities will need to be resilient, robust and sustainable.
Cities are heavily resource reliant and they contribute dramatically to climate change. The affects of climate change are already felt in many cities, as summers have become hotter and droughts become longer, water shortages and water restrictions become more typical, as they have in a number of Australian cities.)
In some parts of the world slums account for more than 70 percent of urban populations they are already seeing the cost of climate change as flooding and natural disasters.
According to the UN “this year alone, 117 million people around the world have suffered from some 300 natural disasters, including devastating droughts in China and Africa, and massive flooding in Asia and Africa, costing nearly $15 billion in damages” (*4).
Cities also have a unique opportunity to initiate change and advance technological innovations, by implementing alternative energy, sustainable transport initiatives, food production alternatives and improved infrastructure, such as solar orientation and by adhering to other sustainable urban design principles. Governments, planners and policy makers have an opportunity to change the way we build our cities, by reducing urban sprawl, increasing city connections with efficient public transport and by designing more transit oriented developments (TODs). Governments have a responsibility to encourage urban density by building up rather than out, by protecting our green zones and ensuring that our cities are healthy, vibrant, safe and liveable places.
We, as citizens can also contribute to making our cities more sustainable, here are a few ideas;
- Reduce your resource intake (i.e reduce your ruminant meat intake, meat consumption is heavily resource dependant and the livestock industry produces 18% of worlds GHG emissions, from gases such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N20) which all contribute to climate change (*5). (Food for thought: The ruminant meat industry accounts for more climate change than all forms of transport.)
- Improve your consumption patterns (buy only what you need and reconsider what you don’t need. Despite its impact on the environment having anything you want has become an expectation in rich nations, necessities are no longer considered to be simply food, shelter and water but rather holidays, televisions and large houses (*6). As Guardian writer George Monboit illustrates in his article about population;
Those who emphasise the dangers of population growth maintain
that times have changed: they are not concerned only with population
growth in the poor world, but primarily with growth in the rich world,
where people consume much more (*7).
- Reduce your waste by curtailing what you buy in packaging; buy local grown produce and dispose of your waste in responsible ways, such as compost heaps or worm farms for food scraps, the latter are ideal if you are in a flat or apartment with a deck, (if you don’t have garden or deck space to do this, city farms will often accept compost from members of the community).
- Consider moving closer to public transport and catching public transport, riding your bike, car pooling or walking to work / uni / school.
- Reduce your food miles, by buying from local farmers markets or consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) co-operative.
- Write a letter to your MP, asking what they intend to do in your city to reduce its carbon footprint and create a more sustainable city.
These are only a few tips that you could consider doing to reduce your carbon footprint, and although I don’t want to turn this blog into another ‘green-tips’ blog, as the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen looms ever closer, I think we could all reconsider our responsibility in reducing our impact on the planet. We are sharing this planet with over 6 billion other people and some of them are already feeling the effects of climate change. Its time we all act. Climate change is not in the future, it is already here and this is our time in history to stand up in solidarity, make personal changes and demand our governments listen!
References:
(*1) Pearce, Fred. 2006. Bright Lights Green City. 2026: A Vision for the Nation’s Future. The Australian. Reprinted in Introduction to Sustainable Development (STP108) Unit Reader 2008. Murdoch: Murdoch University.
(*1) O’Meara, M. 1999. Introduction: Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet. Worldwatch Institute. Reprinted in Introduction to Sustainable Development (STP108) Unit Reader 2008. Murdoch: Murdoch University.
(*3) Leiwen, Jiang., Malea Hoepf Young and Karen Hardee. 2008. Population, Urbanization, and the Environment. Worldwatch Institute. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5852 (accessed October 13, 2009)
(*4) UN Habitat. n.d. http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=5155&catid=550&typeid=24&subMenuId=0
(*5) Stehfest, Elke., Lex Bouwman, Detlef P. van Vuuren, Micheal G. J. den Elzen, Bas Eickhout and Pavel Kabat. 2009. Climate Benefits of Changing Diet. Springer Link 95: 83-102. ProQuest. http://il.proquest.com (accessed August 27, 2009)
(*6) Hamilton, Clive. 2005. Affluneza. NSW: Allen and Unwin.
(*7) Monbiot, George. 2009. Population Bombs. www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/01/29/ population-bombs/ (accessed August 27, 2009)
