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Samuel van der Swaagh

11/26/12

Critical Issues Reflection Paper #5

 

In Alex Steffen’s TED Talk, Steffen spoke about the conflicts within the green movement and attempts to provide a solution. During the speech, Steffen raises a point that I believe addresses Campbell’s development and property conflicts. While talking about the problem of finding sustainable sources of energy, Steffen says, I paraphrase, “going green is setting us up for not solving the problem because in our rapidly urbanizing world future cities will need to generate a ton of energy.” Consequently, less developed countries that are also urbanizing will be left in the dust, and will have to resort to less sustainable sources of energy (e.g., oil). The result is a disproportionate distribution of energy resources. In short, the ‘green’ movement toward renewable energy is leading us deeper down the trail of ignoring social equity and environmental protection. I would also add that the search for alternative sources of energy will also neglect real economic development because as Campbell states in his paper, “gains in conservation are often cancelled out by rising demand for the final product.” In other words, as countries move toward renewable energy, the lowering demand for oil will be only cancelled out by the rising oil demand of urbanizing underdeveloped countries.  Steffen argues that in order to redirect the green movement, we must stop viewing cities as places of environmental problems and embrace the idea of cities as places of opportunity.

 

As the discussion moved toward this idea of cities representing a “new start,” Steffen presented an interesting fact about dense cities. According to the TED Talk, dense cities tend to emit fewer overall Greenhouse Gases than other areas with low density population. Steffen indicated that such a correlation is due to cities’ higher capacity to crowd source. This particular fact led Steffen to his idea of building “dream neighborhoods” all around the globe, which he believes will remedy the green movement’s neglect of the property and the development conflicts. In the movie clip, Steffen recognized that soul of a city’s economic development is its manufacturing and consumerism businesses. Consequently, in order to create a city that attracts people and provokes residents to stay within the neighborhood, which will reduce GHG emissions dramatically, sustainable development planners must utilize the idea of crowd sourcing navigation and notation. If more cities implemented this idea of local production, organic farming, or creating spaces that more productively utilize every square foot, cities will become more bountiful and self-sufficient. This reduces the need for city dwellers to trucking out to other areas and extracting resources from foreign environments. Thus, social equity, economic development, and environmental development would have been addressed in that more opportunities would be open for employment, innovation, and stewardship.

 

Steffen aims to create places that facilitate such development by raising structure and areas that best use space capacity and surrounding resources. As Steffen said during the end of the Ted Talk, “It’s not about the greenery above, but about the systems below.” I would interpret Steffen statement as encouraging city planners to start building infrastructures that are more efficient and creative in using resources, and open opportunities, rather than finding ways to cancel out air pollution. Steffen suggests that if urban planners adapt his concept of going from a “dream home to a dream neighborhood,” not only will the environment benefit, but also people and the economy.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.