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the nature of sustainable development
the nature of sustainable development
advantages and disadvatages of sustainable development
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Recently, there are growing debates over the sustainability and the liveability of our cities. Some argue that sustainable development is necessary if human want to stay alive, while some oppose to sustainable development as they placed sustainability in the opposite side of liveability and suspect that these practices may hinder their present luxurious lifestyle. However, it is a common fallacy in people’s mind. The concept of sustainability is compatible to liveability, instead of contradicting to each other. In the following essay, this argument will be justified.
Some people may concern that sustainable practices in urban content may obstruct the liveability of the city. In the year 2012, Hong Kong awarded as the most liveable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (Yoo, 2012) and also ranked third among Asia’s cities in the research done by the ECA international (ECA international, 2012). Hong Kong, with extremely bad air quality and income disparity ranked top in the liveability charts owing to its’ high global connectivity, extensive infrastructure and good transport connections. This reflects that some people assume a liveable city should have great connections, efficient and having extensive infrastructure that supporting the global business and trading. As they evaluate liveability from the economic point of view, no wonder they are being conservative towards sustainable measures which they believed will increase the cost of businesses and hinder the economic development of the city (Munier, 2006).However, they are having this view point due to their misunderstandings towards sustainability and liveability.
There are a lot of different definitions of “sustainability”.According to Collins Dictionary, it m...
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...://www.un.org/en/sustainablefuture/sustainability.shtml
World Footprint. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2014, from Global Footprint Network: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/gfn/page/world_footprint/
Roberto Camagni, Roberta Capello and Peter Nijkamp. (2001). Handbook of Urban Studies. London: SAGE Publications.
Shahriar Shafiee, Erkan Topal. (2009). When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished? Energy Policy, 181-189.
WONG, E. (2013, September 12). China’s Plan to Curb Air Pollution Sets Limits on Coal Use and Vehicles. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/world/asia/china-releases-plan-to-reduce-air-pollution.html?_r=0
Yoo, A. (2012, July 09). And the Best City in the World Is…. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from Times NewsFeed: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/09/and-the-best-city-in-the-world-is/
Adler, Ben. "What “Clybourne Park” Misses About Gentrification." Next City. N.p., 2 Aug. 2012. Web. 04 May 2014.
The fifth section compares and contrasts the two opposing visions of environmentalism: Livingstone 's “big-city modernism” and Prince Charles 's “agrarian utopianism” (p. 215). After evaluating the contrasting visions, Glaeser supports the urban dense living. The sixth section highlights the challenge of sustainable urban development in developing economies. He compares the carbon emissions per household between China, India and America. The growing car usage including the “Tata’s $2500 car” suggests rise in future traffic jams and carbon emissions (p. 220). The final section
Look at the civilized, beautiful capital cities in every developed country all around the world which is the central of high fashioned and convenience facility. To live in the city, it seems like the nature surrounding is not important to us anymore. In “The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature” David Suzuki presents the connection between human and the nature and how we depend on the surrounding environment. However, within the past century, most of our modern technologies have been developed in order to provide people needs of goods and products (63). Many of the products we made are causing much more harm to the environment than the value that products provide. Technological development has damaged our environment to the point
Wong, Edward. "China’s Plan to Curb Air Pollution Sets Limits on Coal Use and Vehicles." 12 September 2013. New York Times. 18 November 2013.
Who hasn’t seen the critical examples of overpopulation that are always depicted with large cities, tall buildings and many people? It is a common thought that cities are the cause of air pollution and are in no way thought of to be sustainable or as having a smaller footprint than those residing in rural zones. Yet, this chapter shows that the criticisms have no bearing when it comes to cities and rather, cities are better in terms of stronger economies, those who live in cities have smaller families, and the more the city is developed the lower the level of poverty (unlike rural areas which shows to have a higher level of poverty). The misconception that cities are actually overusing resources and contributing to environmental degradation is not the case. The chapter cites that this is not so, it is rather “industries and commercial and industrial enterprises (or corporations) and middle and upper income groups with high consumption lifestyles.” (56) These wealthier people who want to live more luxuriously, often live on acres of land with multiple cars, thus do not often reside in the city. The chapter continues to list the positive roles of cities, for example, “lower costs per household and per enterprise for the provision of piped, treated water supplies…collection and disposal of human wastes.” (56) Another positive is the efficient use from recycled waste, also a smaller demand for land relative to the population in cities. The fourth advantage is listed as more efficient heating techniques, and fifthly, a greater use of public transportation. The rich culture found in cities is also cited in the chapter. It concludes with the need for “good governance,” whereby the goals are met and cost is not past onto others, without it the cities are left to be sources of pollution, sickness, and waste
Quickened procedures of urbanization in the twenty-first century, as we have seen, are to a great extent moved in urban areas in creating nations, and the greater part of these new urban natives are living in informal or illicit advancements. Urban design, then again, moves past the investigation of space; it is the act of effectively forming the city in a wanted manner (Németh, 2010). It is evident that urban communities can frequently be overpowering places, and that we require a decided state of mind and clear center so as to explore their complexities. Urban originators enhance the livability of urban communities by making an interpretation of arrangements into physical systems, setting up configuration criteria for advancement ventures,
From the home to factories, families and industries are reliant on the use of nonrenewable fossil fuels to feed the needs of the everyday human. Fossil fuels are the main source of energy over clean, renewable sources such as the use of wind, solar energy, and water to power our homes, schools, and industries. In fact, about 85% of energy use comes from fossils fuels. The main reason being that using fossil fuels is cheaper than wind and solar energy. “For nearly two centuries, fossil fuels have been the cheapest source of energy” and widely abundant (Marburger, A global framework: international aspects of climate change). However, overtime fossil fuels will disappear due to the lack of time to replenish itself with the human races rapid use of it. Despite its current status of availability, there are many controversial issue in using fossil fuels; the most prominent issue being that it is the cause of rapid climate
Thomas Buttafarro, Jr. Joseph Deluca , Katelyn Gensler. (2009), London The World’s City. BDG Consulting, Inc. London.
However, tracing the roots of gentrification is not a standard process, as the phenomenon’s characteristics may differ according to the context where the theory is applied. It involves complex social relationships, cultural shifts, and global economy pressures that are shaped in diverse forms throughout the city’s landscape, among other factors. These may be some of the main reasons why gentrification studies have been generally carried out under the lo...
I consider it’s not very appropriate to say “sustainable X” because these “X”s are only sub-systems which exchange energy and materials within a larger overall system. Only a single small system reaching the “equivalence of sustainability” (if this ever exists) doesn’t mean the whole system is sustainable. That is to say, the hierarchy and complexity of systematical thinking must be taken into consideration of the definition of “sustainable city”. We should evaluate the city-system in its ecosystem and context. Sustainable is used to describe the overall complex system in which there are sub-systems exchanging energy and
Chaffey, J. (1994). The challenge of urbanisation. In M. Naish & S. Warn (Eds.), Core geography (pp. 138-146). London: Longman.
In a world where over half of the human population calls a city their home, the need to restructure and revolutionize the way we design our urban environments has never been greater. Currently, the notion that these vast metropolises of metal, concrete, and sludge could one day be fully realized pillars of sustainability is certainly laughable. However, when these same cities are constantly growing and multiplying across the globe, all the while using a greater and greater chunk of our planet’s energy, this impossible task becomes a necessary focus. To strive towards the closed, continuous loop of “true” sustainability could greatly alter the image of the modern city. Any improvement over the current state of urban affairs could carry weight, and even if that goal is not entirely fulfilled, the gained benefits would be immense.
Abrahamson, M. (2013). Urban Sociology: a global introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 15-16
It has taken 20 to 30 years, based on images taken in space of the Earth during the late 1960s, for people to realize that the environment ‘is like a bathtub of limited capacity’. Cities have been developing based on human culture whilst trying to be sustainable at the same time. Although it may be sustainable, the production process and the energy producing systems where they burn fossil fuels, contributes to the amount of carbon emissions that we produce each day. Green city is an expression for eco-city which is a city built off the principles of living within the means of the environment. It has been perceived as a concept rather than it circumstantially solving an ecological collapse like the ‘green Disneyland’ in Masdar City described
Fossil fuels are energy that is in the form of coal, oil, or natural gas that comes from organisms from millions of years ago. The cycle to create fossil fuels takes millions of years to form and is therefore considered a nonrenewable resource of energy. Fossil fuels have been the primary source of energy for man ever since the age of machines, but one of “the main problem[s] with fossil fuels is that there is a limited amount of them” (Problem with Fossil Fuel). As countries become more developed, like the United States, they too will become more thirsty and dependent for fossil fuels. “In 2004, America spent approximately $270 billion to fufill its oil need.” and “90% of all transportation is fueled by oil” (Nakaya 10). With the global rate of fossil fuels going up it is inevitable that they are going to run out, forcing countries to choose an alternative energy source. The other huge problem with dependence on fossil fuels is the effect that the emissions have on the climate. Fossil fuels are made of carbon chains and in order for the reaction...