Energy and the cities

This year's publication of the Worldwatch bestseller "State of the World" is about the cities and called "Our Urban Future". And cities are a problem. Urban sprawl is a phenomenon that may have its origin in the U.S. and is more dominant there, but is also contagious and plagues many other countries. The Worldwatch publication is useful and gives a lot of examples on how things can be changed, but browsing through them still leaves the reader with an uneasy feeling and the nagging question: "How can all the good examples be multiplied and transferred?"

Is there a risk that we, who have sustainability as our ideological guiding star, gets to much comfort from reading good stories? Should we also read more about the drivers that create the uncontrolled megacities to be able to understand and handle the difficulties? Like Rem Koolhaas (Dutch Architect), Mutations, and Charles Jencks, Architecture 2000 and beyond? If we do, we may not sleep as well, but we may understand more!

The Megacities are growing in number and in size and especially so in developing countries. A growing proportion of the people there lives in cities and to a growing extent in slum-areas (favelas, bidonvilles) attracted by opportunities for a better life that are seldom realised. And for the affluent part of the cities the model of activity is SHOPPING. How can we address these trends? Should they be reverted or embraced and changed by use of better technologies?