Bike Lanes, Micro Wind Turbines, Pneumatic Garbage Collection—And Other Ways To Make Urban Areas More Environmentally Friendly

The Wall Street Journal

12 Setember 2011 

By MICHAEL TOTTY

Roofmeadow

"Can cities be part of the environmental solution instead of part of the problem?
The question isn't an idle one. Urban populations around the world are expected to soar in the next 20 years, to five billion from more than three billion today. If the current rate of urbanization holds steady, cities will account for nearly three-quarters of the world's energy demand by 2030. Most of the increase will come in rapidly developing countries like China and India; China's cities alone will have to deliver water, housing, transportation and other services to 400 million additional urban dwellers by 2030.

 

So, cities aren't going to have be made a little greener; they're going to have to be rethought from the ground up. The goal: compact living environments that require less resources and that get the most out of the land, water and energy they do use."

 

Click here to read the entire article.