[MCN] Can a city be "sustainable"? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

[Lance Olsen]

https://www.pnas.org/content/116/35/17134 <https://www.pnas.org/content/116/35/17134>

Excerpts

But mainly, says Seto, cities aren’t sustainable by themselves because they aren’t isolated from their surroundings. In many ways, they are more like organisms that ingest “food” from outside, in the form of electric power, fuel, water, or literal foodstuffs, and excrete “waste” to the outside, in the form of trash, wastewater, pollution, heat, and carbon dioxide. 

Still, says Seto, our global ecosystem would be a lot closer to sustainability if cities were less voracious in their consumption and profligate in their wastes. “Think about all the resources it takes to build and operate our cities,” she says: “The energy, the food, the wood products, the impact on biodiversity. That footprint becomes huge.”

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“We don’t need to guard [ i.e., defend/protect ourselves ] against alarmism, against depression, against anger, against despair when it comes to climate change.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/07/we_are_not_alarmed_enough_about_climate_change.html <http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/07/we_are_not_alarmed_enough_about_climate_change.html>


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Excerpt:  "Environmental psychologist Susi Moser, also talks about the importance of acknowledging our underlying fears and distress about climate change as an important coping strategy. Moser (2012) calls it ‘the bravest thing’ – getting real, accepting reality without illusions, and accepting that better tomorrows may not come.”

https://www.isthishowyoufeel.com/blog/how-do-people-cope-with-feelings-about-climate-change-so-that-they-stay-engaged-and-take-action

 


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