{"id":276,"date":"2006-06-23T12:30:41","date_gmt":"2006-06-23T16:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/?p=276"},"modified":"2014-08-19T12:46:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T16:46:00","slug":"world-urban-forum-3-sustainable-city-or-sustainable-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/2006\/06\/23\/world-urban-forum-3-sustainable-city-or-sustainable-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"World Urban Forum 3 \u2013 Sustainable City or Sustainable Illusion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"world-urban-forum-3-side-event-on-ecological-footprint-of-cities-by-william-rees-vancouver\"<\/a>
\nVANCOUVER – 7:43 a.m. and it is standing room only at today\u2019s first \u2019side event\u2019 \u2013 \u2018One small step for cities, one giant leap for the planet: Practical solutions for cities stepping towards a lighter footprint\u2019<\/p>\n

A quick headcount reveals one hundred people present plus media who\u2019ve turned out to chill with \u2018Dr. Doom\u2019 otherwise known as \u2018Dr. Content\u2019. UBC Professor William Rees is founder of the Ecological Footprint approach. His powerpoint slides illustrate practical ways cities can reduce their consumption patterns. He sprinkles his talk with stories of progress \u2013though not success\u2013 and the body language of the room confirms that on this single issue of sustainable production, we\u2019ve all drunk the Kool Aid.<\/p>\n

The bad news?<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of your children may be farmers\u2026\u201d says Professor Rees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Torontonians need only look down the 401 to Motown. Detroit is the first major industrialized city in history reverting its hollowed-out urban centre back to active farmland. Oops. Suddenly, it ain\u2019t our kids who are becoming farmers.<\/p>\n

How did we get here? Rees reminds us that today\u2019s consumer society is a social construct of the post-war advertising industry. Consequently, \u201cConsumption [has become] a modern religion. Today\u2019s \u2018Throwaway Society\u2019 would consider my mom\u2019s habit of saving a glass jar and re-using that jar again and again just plain weird,\u201d Rees muses.<\/p>\n

Are there any examples of good sustainable cities? Rees is not aware of any.<\/p>\n

The most ecological cities still have a rising GNP\/GDP confirming that, \u201cGlobalization prevents us from creating sustainability.\u201d The key problem though is surprisingly paradoxical, the real challenges include for example, convincing the Mayor of Lagos (Nigeria) that his city is consuming \u2018too little\u2019. The real challenge is to, \u201cconvince them of creating sustainable cities\u201d out of cities comprised of slums. Our \u2018Throwaway Society\u2019 keeps them unconvinced.<\/p>\n

(China\u2019s cities are the true real problem. I may return to this question in a later spacing wire<\/a> report.)<\/p>\n

However, \u201cmicro-examples of sustainability\u201d do exist. Turin, Italy has \u201cmicro-utilities\u201d and \u201cmicro-technologies\u201d to generate power for its residents rather than giant power plants.<\/p>\n

Here in West End Vancouver, a high concentration of rental units translates into 133 housing units per hectare (Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke average 15 units), it is little wonder that 60% of West End residents are cyclists compared with 89% daily car use by residents of Vancouver\u2019s Maple Ridge suburb. Oh yeah, the \u2018D\u2019 word again \u2014 Density. It is mandatory for sustainable smart growth.<\/p>\n

Cuba experienced its own \u201cmini-peak-oil\u201d event after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Russian food imports stopped suddenly. Result being that today 70% \u2013 80% of all leafy vegetables consumed in Havana are grown within the \u201curban hinterland\u201d, ie within Havana\u2019s city limits.<\/p>\n

Rees likes my definition of \u2018Glocalization\u2019 which I raise during the Q&A. Glocalization is the city-state being replaced by the neighbourhood-civilization.<\/p>\n

I ask Professor Rees if he can think of any micro-examples of reducing the ecological footprint at the neighbourhood level. Dr. Content doesn\u2019t disappoint. \u201cYes, have you heard of the 100 Mile Diet?\u201d. A collective of people in Vancouver have committed to consuming food which is only grown within a 100 mile radius of their neighbourhood and no more, thus reducing the ecological footprint of the food they eat from a global footprint to a local one. Instantly I think of Dufferin Grove Park\u2019s Farmers\u2019 Market and ask if he knows of any operating \u201c\u2018100 Mile\u2019 farmers\u2019 markets?\u2019\u201d He hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The Friends of Trinity-Bellwoods Park are currently looking into bringing a farmers\u2019 market to their downtown park and are researching how to differentiate theirs from the nearby Dufferin Grove one on Thursdays. Hmmm\u2026.<\/p>\n

After the side event ends, Dr. Rees and I continue the discussion as we walk through security checks heading towards a special lecture, \u2018The Wealth of Cities: Towards an Assets-based Development of Urban Regions\u2019.<\/p>\n

The good news?<\/p>\n

\u2026Many of our children may be farmers.<\/p>\n

HiMY SYeD World Urban Forum 3, Vancouver<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER – 7:43 a.m. and it is standing room only at today\u2019s first \u2019side event\u2019 \u2013 \u2018One small step for cities, one giant leap for the planet: Practical solutions for cities stepping towards a lighter footprint\u2019 A quick headcount reveals one hundred people present plus media who\u2019ve turned out to chill with \u2018Dr. Doom\u2019 otherwise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[114,105,115,116,106,107,108,109,110,111,102,112,113,101],"views":832,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himy.ca.muslimwiki.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}