In our latest entry, we explored the danger that climate change poses to cities and how if we did nothing it would get worse. But there is still hope and it depends on everyone to win the fight against climate change. That is why we bring some solutions for the governments and citizens to reduce their waste and, hopefully, transform the city into a healthier, more pleasant place to live.
Urban growth
The issue of a growing population is not a problem per se for the fight against climate change. Some people even regard it as an opportunity to make green cities more effectively. One of those people is Dan Ringelstein, director of urban design and planning, who wrote for Medium: “Instead of looking at rapid urban growth as a threat, we should consider it our best opportunity to save the planet. It’s a chance to reimagine the very nature of our cities from the ground up, and build a future that is more in balance with the Earth’s resources and ecosystems.” About this quote, Heather Leighton adds in her article: “Through energy, (solar panels, recycling and waste management, high-performance insulation, etc.), transportation (electric vehicle fleets for cities, autonomous vehicles, micro-transit, etc.) and technology (using data to track individual impact, truly reaching "smart city" status), Ringelstein believes positive impacts can be made.”
Transport
Another way of reducing carbon emissions is through the use of public transport instead of private. It might be less comfortable but it is cheaper taking into account that for a private car you need to pay for insurance, car parks, taxes and gasoline every year.
In case a private car is necessary there is the option of using an electric car because even if it is a hybrid car it doesn’t create as much greenhouse gas as a normal car.
You can also do carpooling, which means sharing your car with another person who has the same destination. There are apps like Blablacar that can be used for that.
Although the best solution is up to the government as they can make the public transport electric with amazing results. Ringelstain explains a case: “Shenzhen set a benchmark in 2017 by becoming the first city in the world to run its entire bus network — a fleet of 16,000 vehicles — on electricity. The impact has been dramatic: the city has reduced overall emissions, improved air quality, and met its 2020 target three years early. London, New York, and other major cities are introducing electric bus pilot programs, with pledges to go all-electric within the coming decades.”
Smart city
A way of creating a sustainable city is creating a “smart city”. The definition for it comes from the article of Ringelstein: “This term has been claimed and defined by tech companies, but its possibilities are so much greater than simply applying a layer of IT over the built environment and mining the data it produces. We should be helping to define the parameters of how such data is used. How might networked infrastructures — from sophisticated environmental sensors to the common mobile phone — help urban citizens better understand their individual consumption patterns? How can the “intelligence” gathered from smart city technologies help designers better understand the environmental impacts of a building envelope or site plan? Beyond making cities run more efficiently, all of this should be aimed at enhancing natural systems and quality of life.
The responsibility for harnessing this information falls on the shoulders of both citizens and city leaders. Data can help us measure and understand the individual and collective impacts of energy use — and this type of awareness can influence decisions and empower individuals to embrace their role in creating a more sustainable future.”
In short, smart cities are the epitome of what we want to convey in this article, along with some separate suggestions
Better infrastructures
We already talked about how infrastructures can fail when facing high temperatures or the corrosive power of water, so they should be replaced with materials that aren’t malleable such as stainless steel.
Education
Average people too need to know what to do to stop climate change and the consequences for not doing it. Society chooses what big companies want them to choose, which normally involves a huge amount of waste. If they all learn to choose the most sustainable way this problem can be put down almost entirely.
The education must start in schools for the children not just to learn how to recycle, but also not to waste energy at their homes and know that it is a very serious issue that is already causing trouble and getting worse. Adults should go to workshops about how to choose sustainability to change their habits for the better.
Small business
Another way of sustainability is choosing small businesses. We already have a podcast and a video about the importance of this topic , so we will just say that it helps the local economy and that can help build better, more sustainable cities.
We hope that these suggestions can inspire readers to follow a sustainable lifestyle and demand solutions to their government, or at least change something for the better and stay informed about the possible solutions.
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