Sustainability Archives - Enlightenment Blog

With fewer cars on US streets, now is the time to reinvent roadways and how we use them

Posted on August 17, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Sticking closer to home because of COVID-19 has shown many people what cities can be like with less traffic, noise, congestion and pollution. Roads and parking lots devoted to cars take up a lot of land. For example, in Phoenix, Los Angeles and New York City these spaces account for over one-third of each city’s total area.

When stay-at-home orders went into effect in many parts of the U.S. in March, streets and parking lots went dormant seemingly overnight. Within days, municipalities across the U.S. started shifting these spaces to other uses that better suit people.

Organic farming matters – just not in the way you think

Posted on August 15, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Is organic agriculture the solution to our global food system challenges? That’s been the premise and promise of the organic movement since its origins in the 1920s: farming that’s healthy, ecological, and socially just.

Many people – from consumers and farmers to scientists and international organisations – believe that organic agriculture can produce enough nutritious food to feed the world without destroying the environment, while being more resilient to climate change and improving the livelihoods of farmers.

But as with many important issues of our time, there are more passionate opinions about organic agriculture than there is scientific evidence to support them. And there’s nothing black or white about organic agriculture.

Bike-share companies are transforming US cities – and they’re just getting started

Posted on August 13, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Residents of major U.S. cities are becoming used to seeing docks for bike sharing programs nestled into parking spaces or next to subway station entrances. Adorned with stylish branding and corporate sponsors’ logos, these facilities are transforming transportation in cities across the country.

The modern concept of bike sharing – offering bikes for short-term public rental from multiple stations in cities – was launched in Copenhagen in 1995, but U.S. cities only started piloting their own systems in the past decade. Washington D.C. led the way, launching SmartBike DC in 2008 and an expanded network called Capital Bikeshare in 2010. This program now boasts over 480 stations and a daily ridership of 5,700.

Within a few years, bike-share systems launched in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and dozens of other cities. In 2016 there were 55 systems across the country with a total of over 40,000 bikes.

Leonardo da Vinci designed an ideal city that was centuries ahead of its time

Posted on August 11, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

The word “genius” is universally associated with the name of Leonardo da Vinci – a true Renaissance man, he embodied scientific spirit, artistic talent and humanist sensibilities. Exactly 500 years have passed since Leonardo died in his home at Château du Clos Lucé, outside Tours, France. Yet far from fading to insignificance, his thinking has carried down the centuries – and still surprises today.

The Renaissance marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity, after the spread of the plague caused a global crisis resulting in some 200m deaths across Europe and Asia. Today, the world is on the cusp of a climate crisis, which is predicted to cause widespread displacement, extinctions and death, if left unaddressed. Then, as now, radical solutions were called for to revolutionise the way people live and safeguard humanity against catastrophe.

Organic agriculture is going mainstream, but not the way you think it is

Posted on August 10, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

One of the biggest knocks against the organics movement is that it has begun to ape conventional agriculture, adopting the latter’s monocultures, reliance on purchased inputs and industrial processes.

“Big Organics” is often derided by advocates of sustainable agriculture. The American food authors Michael Pollan and Julie Guthman, for example, argue that as organic agriculture has scaled up and gone mainstream it has lost its commitment to building an alternative system for providing food, instead “replicating what it set out to oppose.”

New research, however, suggests that the relationship between organic and conventional farming is more complex. The flow of influence is starting to reverse course.

When cities were Nature’s haven: a tale from Bangalore

Posted on August 8, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

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.

Uber Wants to Go All-Electric by 2030. It Won’t Be Easy

Posted on August 5, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

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).

First country in the world: Norway boycotts rainforest products

Posted on August 3, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

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.

People before profit: The Degrowth Movement values people, not money

Posted on August 2, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Globalised capitalist economies continue to rely on numbers and economic growth, although they reveal little about inequality and sustainable well-being. How people live is not only a question of chance, but strongly influenced by the people in power. The Degrowth movement deeply questions the ways of living, producing and consuming shaped by the powerful, and asks for a democratic approach. It stands for a realizable reorganisation of values, lifestyles and the economy.

Recognising that endless economic growth is destructive to human well-being, it calls for the shrinking of some economic segments, specifically those that damage the ecosystem. The meaning of Degrowth is to build economies around segments such as education and care. Both are, among others, examples of undervalued contributors to society, which has been highlighted throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

How Mayor Anne Hidalgo is turning Paris into a car-free city

Posted on August 1, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

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.

Electrified only by renewable energy? Burgenland in Austria shows how it’s done!

Posted on July 30, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

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.

The Cleveland Model: The city’s flourishing economy has worker participation to thank

Posted on July 29, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Cleveland, USA was once a booming industrial city. When many of the local companies moved to low-wage countries, the city’s economy and social fabric collapsed. Mass unemployment and poverty resulted. Twelve years ago, the first cooperatives were founded in one of the poorest areas of the city. They rely on the participation and co-determination of the workers and sustainable economic activity. Together with the city government, the cooperatives developed a regional economic plan and created the economic upswing. This success became known as the “Cleveland Model” and became a model for cities around the world.

The cityscape of Cleveland in the US state of Ohio is a good illustration of the city’s history. Cleveland is full of old factory buildings and the skyline is dominated by skyscrapers from the interwar and postwar period. That was the golden age of Cleveland, when the USA was the driving force of world industry. The Midwest, with cities like Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland, was the heart of this industrial nation. However, when companies in the region began moving production to lower-wage countries in the 1970s, Cleveland’s economy also began to crumble. The former industrial metropolis became a city marked by poverty and emigration.