Cities 07

I’ve recently added a minor in sustainability to my coursework at the U. A week or two after telling my Dad this, he tells me a small story: He was telling a friend of his about his daughter minoring in sustainability. She asks him what IS sustainability? He couldn’t answer.
I tried to explain it to him over the phone, as simply as I could and it was difficult because there’s so much that goes into ideal sustainability – so many different areas of life to focus on, plan for and change. I ended up with some jumbled expression of “planning for today while planning that tomorrow we can have the same thing” but that wasn’t at all what I wanted to say. What I should’ve done was point him towards Stephen Wheeler’s piece, which breaks it down nice and simple for an introduction to sustainability.
Wheeler adds another although related focus on livability. “Sustainable development is development that improves the long-term health of human and ecological systems.” (pg489) Concerning the idea of human life as a core element to sustainability I would suggest that anyone interested look into the Human Development Index, found at http://hdr.undp.org/. This organization looks at both the environment development and human development that affects one’s life in every country. For the human development index, they look at GDP, life expectancy, and adult literacy. In essence, they look at how much money is available, health care and education. Titled “Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis”, you can get an idea of the HDR’s very thorough look at all elements creating unequal and ultimately unsustainable environments in our world today.
Back to Wheeler! He gives us nine implications for urban development to be considered to create a sustainable environment: compact, efficient land use, less automobile use, efficient resource use, restoration of natural systems, good housing and living environments, a healthy social ecology, sustainable economics, community participation and preservation of local culture and wisdom. I can think of nothing more important to our future development than these nine problems. It seems to me the passion and money is available the world over again and again – it’s the power we lack.
Of the nine implications, a couple struck my fancy. Encouraging efficient, compact land use seems to be nearly impossible in today’s market. In my case study of Rosemount Minnesota, I encountered much talk of land use and learned from it the unfortunate trends of suburban America. With a majority of land tagged for single-family houses on 2 acre lots and a 480 acre business park using 13 acres each, Rosemount is the worst example of efficient, compact land use. The only area designated as mixed use is the limited “downtown” area, a strip of about five blocks. I’ve also heard some interesting statistics recently about our national debt. The Current is hosting a lecture series with some influential federal official talking about the manner in which Americans individually and as a country spend money we do not have and that it will eventually be our downfall. A sustainable economy, Wheeler explains, has three principles: it will be a “restoration economy”, serve real-human needs and will be locally-oriented. Our economy is so far from this and, again, so much power to change the economy falls in the hands of very few people.
I enjoyed Wheeler’s piece even though I find it, as always when speaking on sustainability, overwhelming the immense amount of change that needs to happen to ensure a brighter present and future. It’s great though to see a comprehensive look at what it means to be sustainable. This sort of text really needs to be publicized so everyone will know not only what a sustainability minor studies but how they can at least begin thinking about the changes needed.