We tend to think that nature and cities are polar opposites. Yet this is not true. As my research on Bangalore or Bengaluru – India’s IT hub – shows, for centuries, the population of this region grew because of nature, not despite it.
In my book Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future, I take a deep dive into the ecological history of an Indian city, going way back in the past to the 6th century CE.
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The coronavirus pandemic has been an all-around nightmare, but there are a few silver linings. One of these is a renewed focus on the environment. Emissions plummeted worldwide when countries went into lockdown in the spring, and cities have since been implementing new measures to keep pollution down and get people to be more active and environmentally conscious.
In keeping with the trend, ridesharing market leader Uber announced on Tuesday that it will transition to a 100 percent electric car fleet by 2030. Lyft, its main competitor, made a similar announcement in June. Are the ride-hailing companies’ commitments to greening linked to the pandemic? It’s unclear; they likely would have implemented this switch at some point in the near future anyway, and the pandemic may simply have accelerated it (as it did for other technologies and trends, like automation and remote work).
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More than a quarter of all trees worldwide grow in tropical rainforests. But the destruction of the rainforest continues to progress. Worldwide, an area of forest the size of thirty football fields disappears every minute. In March 2020 alone, a forest area of around 645,000 hectares has been destroyed. This is equivalent to an area of more than 900,000 football pitches. In addition to the destruction of biodiversity and the habitat of animals, deforestation – per definition the act of clearing a wide area of trees – is displacing the indigenous population of these countries. Norway is the first country to commit itself to a complete ban on deforestation.
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A city where cars are banned. A city where everything you need is just a walk away. A city with green spaces and playgrounds instead of car parks. These are the plans of Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, for the French capital.
It’s 2016, and Paris is suffering: the smog is so thick you can’t see the Eiffel Tower, and air pollution is the highest it has been in every ten years. Subsequently, every second car has to stay in the garage. On one day cars with an even number at the end of the license plate are allowed on the roads, the next day those with an odd number. In exchange, local public transport is free. After some time the situation calmed down, but to Mayor Anne Hidalgo it was clear: there were too many cars in Paris. She needed to redesign the city center consistently and prioritise cyclists and pedestrians in the future.
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A federal state in eastern Austria has become a role model for Europe: Burgenland covers its entire electricity demand by using renewable energy sources. Furthermore, it produces so much electricity to provide other regions with it. This could be done all over Europe. It only takes political willpower.
At first sight, the narrow strip of countryside in the east of Austria, Burgenland, has little in common with Iceland. Flat plains here – rugged cliffs there. The quiet Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland – steaming geysers on the small island in the North of Europe. Vineyards here – moss landscapes there. But as different as the regions may be, both manage to make the most of their geographical advantages and generate energy from it. While Iceland mainly uses geothermal sources, Burgenland relies on wind power.
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For about a year now, I have become more aware of the huge impact that one family can have on the world, in terms of waste and carbon emissions, and I have been determined to reduce mine as much as possible. After my first year studying Biology at university, I suddenly thought to myself that things had to change.
Looking back on it, I feels as though I had an epiphany of some sorts which made me think about the items I threw “away”, and that my eating meat (which almost seems unreal to me now) was having a detrimental effect on the planet and the animals which I had deluded myself about. I slowly started introducing ideas of ways to be eco-friendlier to my family, which thankfully, they were happy to adopt after learning more about the problems we face.
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Fifteen years after the Zero Waste Textile initiative started in San Francisco in 2003, the city has diverted 80 percent of all waste generated in the city away from landfill disposal through source reduction, reuse, recycling and composting programs—the highest rate of any major U.S. city according the Environmental Protection Agency. Although there is still a lot to go before reaching the goal of zero waste by 2030, there are clothing companies closing the loop between the production and recycling of our clothes.
For those uninitiated in the idea of a circular economy, “closing the gap” refers to the practice of designing, sourcing, producing, and providing clothes, shoes or accessories “with the intention to be used and circulate responsibly and effectively in society for as long as possible in their most valuable form, and hereafter return safely to the biosphere when no longer of human use.” In other words, it is the well-known mantra of reuse-reduce-recycle, just applied to our clothing.
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Nestled among the peaks of the Himalayas between China and India — Bhutan is a land of remote mountain valleys, rich in natural wonders — and with a population less than one million, one of the most sparsely populated countries in Asia.
Contrary to the declines across the rest of the world, flora and fauna populations are showing a reverse trend. For a large number of species under threat in the region, the country has proven to be an important last refuge. Its mountain peaks host some of the few remaining populations of snow leopard and red pandas reside near bamboo stacks in the high mountain forests.
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It is the US city that is a magnet for millenials and that is positioned at the forefront of a new kind of economy: one powered by startups developing creative ways to turn waste into valuable new products. No, we are not talking about the high-profile green innovators of San Francisco, Portland or Seattle, but the quiet achiever of Charlotte, North Carolina. The city, which in 2017 was ranked the top destination in the country for millenials to move to, has in recent years been undertaking a range of eco-friendly measures popular with younger Americans, including vast expansions of bike lane networks and public transport systems, not to mention the addition of swaths of parkland. Now city authorities are about to take things to a whole other level as Charlotte becomes the first American city to commit to the circular economy as a public sector strategy.
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What lines can we not afford to cross when it comes to our impact on the planet? As the world races to achieve the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it is vital that the pursuit of sustainable development is undertaken within the absolute limits of what the earth can support.
For answers, many are turning to science-based targets, which are already being employed in the effort to reduce carbon emissions. A range of collaborators including the UN Global Compact are behind the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which has introduced quantifiable targets based on sound science. It has been adopted by 169 major corporations in order to tackle climate change. Lise Kingo, CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact has linked science-based targets to the realization of SDG 13 (Combatting Climate Change).
However, carbon emissions are just one of the many ways in which humans impact the environment. Genuine sustainable development thereby needs to avoid endangering other crucial planetary life support systems, such as biodiversity, soil nutrients, and freshwater. Where the SDGs can provide a vision of a world in which both the human and natural ecosystems thrive, science-based targets can quantify what this world looks like in practice.
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Since publishing my first book seven year ago, I have spent much time speaking before a diversity of audiences on the subject of sustainability. Over the course of hundreds of conversations, people have opened up about the role of individual citizens and consumers in creating and manifesting a “better world” for themselves, their children, and future generations. I have found that a “sustainability generation” has been awakened and has mobilized as force for good, to better themselves and the world.
Increasingly, people have become more knowledgeable about the complex and interrelated dynamics of the communities in which they live. Although not all people define or validate sustainability the same way, there is a fundamental and advancing understanding that humans and our behaviors, represent the common denominator for a better future. The context of sustainability has deep roots in environmental conservation and management, however, people are now understanding and validating the entrenched realities for social equity and economic prosperity.
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