[dohboi]

Yes, I meant to add--nicely put.

[Lore]

"I look forward to the day when our roads become bike lanes. Then mountain-bike trails. Then oxen paths."

Pretty awesome, huh?

Then, fields of untraversed rubble.

[dohboi]

Nice, again.

Oxen may be in short supply.

[Subjectivist]

Oxen are quite tasty compared to long pig.

[Graeme]

5 Reasons to Be Optimistic About Sustainable Urban Mobility

According to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects, cities will add over 2.5 billion people in the next 40 years, with 90 percent of this growth coming from cities in emerging economies. China and India alone are expected to add 276 million and 218 million urban residents by 2030. While there is no question that future generations will live primarily in cities, whether they will do so in a socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable way remains to be seen.

With rapid urban growth come a number of challenges for city leaders, many of them related to increasing motorization and urban sprawl. Too often, cities are trending in the wrong direction. Urban air pollution, for example, contributes to over one million premature deaths each year and costs 5 percent of GDP in developing countries. Roughly 3,400 people die in traffic crashes every day, the majority of these pedestrians and cyclists in less developed countries. In the United States, commuters spend 4.8 billion hours in traffic each year, translating to USD 101 billion in lost economic productivity. At a global level, cities continue to be major contributors to climate change, and account for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

While these numbers paint a bleak picture of the urban future, they don’t tell the whole story. Around the world, cities are taking ambitious action to improve quality of life through connected, sustainable urban mobility. While the challenge is great, shifts in behavior, technology, and politics show that there is hope that future generations will inherit more sustainable cities.

Here are five reasons to be optimistic about the future of our cities.

Private vehicle travel peaks in the developed world
The economic case for sustainable cities is strong
Cities take the lead
Sustainable mobility solutions are scaling up
New technology unlocks new possibilities

wri

[clif]

According to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects, cities will add over 2.5 billion people in the next 40 years

While AGW continues to severely affect the climate ....

making it harder to grow food ......

fresh water more scarce ....

societies more fragile ....

Officials in Sao Paulo acknowledge that the housing shortage in the metropolitan area is creating a desperate situation. But there are few ready solutions.

State officials say there is a shortfall of 400,000 housing units in the metro area, but independent research estimates the need for housing is much higher. Already as many as half the city's 10.5 million people live in illegal, unregulated housing

Add 2.5 billion and unsolvable problems like this become extreme catastrophes.

[Newfie]

Interestingly enough, as they run out of housing they are also running out of water.

[dohboi]

"How do meaningless platitudes help real humans?"

That's about the only thing helping real humans anymore...

[Graeme]

City of the Future Part 3: Sustainable Energy

This is an 8-part series on the City of the Future. Today's article, the third in the series, focuses on the need to embrace and institute renewable energy concepts within current city planning.

Advancements in energy have historically been key drivers in building towards a greater tomorrow. We continue to increase our technological capabilities, and at the same time, prices and demand for non-renewable resources continue to skyrocket. In a world dependent upon these limited resources, your city will become one of the first leaders in benefiting from sustainable, green energy. Indeed, it is our world's next benchmark advancement, and the "City of the Future" will utilize it to reduce costs, preserve the environment, and ensure what is needed for future generations.

Everyone wants to live in a place where their children will thrive and future generations will continue to prosper. We must help our cities deliver on their vision for leveraging sustainable green energy by working with city land business leaders to identify the best opportunities to establish renewable energy systems and overseeing the work needed to make it a reality.

Here is what your City of the Future looks like:

A continued commitment to the "greening" of America by instituting renewable energy systems. Your city has developed renewable energy systems that optimize water, waste, and energy management. This commitment to using alternative energy has yielded tremendous long-term benefits in the form of lower cost energy sources and decreased greenhouse gas emissions.

Efficient energy has secured a better future for our children. The "City of the Future" maintains an environment that encourages the use of clean and renewable energy sources. Our children no longer have to rely on energy acquired from unreliable sources or worry about the consequences it has on the environment. We have flourished by seeking out and implementing sustainable energy systems wherever feasible.

Your city has experienced dramatic cost reductions with a strong focus on energy efficiency. Most of all of the energy produced in the United States is wasted. The "City of the Future" has cut down on its waste by implementing cutting edge technologies that assist in the conservation of energy and other natural resources. It has emerged as a leader among cities, sustaining sufficient energy for its people and lowering costs in the long run.

inc

[dohboi]

Thanks for these updates, G.

But if we use history as our guide, the last time there was a mega-collapse of civilization in the Western world at least, the place that managed to preserve some bits of that earlier civilization were mostly not in cities. It was relatively remote monasteries in Northern England, Ireland and other places on the fringes of (or beyond the margins of) what had been the Roman Empire.

[Graeme]

Renewable Cities Conference in Vancouver — Be There!

There are a lot of good cleantech conferences out there. It is quite hard for us to choose which ones we attend and which we skip. Clearly, I’m a big fan of the World Future Energy Summit (+ Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week as a whole) and EVS. But another big one that is new to the scene is starting up in 2015 approximately halfway around the world, in the wonderful city of Vancouver. I will happily be there as one of the speakers, and CleanTechnica is an official media partner.

The conference, Renewable Cities, is much broader than renewable energy or electric vehicles, and even bigger than cleantech as a whole. It is focusing on the real front lines of climate action and societal sustainability — cities.

There are some very big names who will likely headline the conference, but as they are not 100% finalized yet, I can’t allude to who those people are. Just trust me that they are big. But even without them, the other speakers, panelists, and session leaders are clear leaders from whom we can certainly learn a lot. For example, Gregor Robertson, the Mayor of Vancouver and the driver of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan, will be there; as will Eric Martinot, who is a professor & Senior Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, as well as the research lead behind REN21’s global status reports. Other session/panel leaders will include Joyce McLaren of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Anna Leidreiter of the World Future Council, Alterra Power Executive Chairman Ross Beaty, Copenhagen Deputy Manager Brian Hansen, and others.

Partners include the World Future Council, the Solutions Project (whose key spokespeople include Mark Ruffalo and Mark Z Jacobson), REN21, Go 100% Renewable Energy, Renewables 100 Policy Institute, the City of Vancouver, and others.

cleantechnica

Vertical farms: "Making nature better"

Do not be confused by the drab facade of the warehouse in this Northwest Indiana industrial park. It's a farm... and it could well be the future. They're called "vertical farms" -- The entire operation is indoors, and it's a trend that could turn urban areas into agricultural hotbeds.

You'll find arugula and parsley, basil, kale and other greens that grace our plates.

"We are growing nine varieties of lettuces,'' said Robert Colangelo, the founder of Green Sense Farms.

Or you could call him Mr. Salad.

"I guess. I'll take that. I could be called worse," says Colangelo.

This is how he does it, with a pink light from a light-emitting diode, or LED

"It gives you a very concentrated amount of light and burns much cooler. And it's much more energy efficient," says Colangelo.

No sun? No problem.

Researchers believe plants respond best to the blue and red colors of the spectrum, so the densely-packed plants are bathed in a pink and purple haze. They're moistened by recycled water; bolstered by nutrients; and anchored in a special mix of ground Sri Lankan coconut husks.

"We take weather out of the equation," says Colangelo. "We can grow year round and we can harvest year-round."

cbsnews

[ennui2]

The other day, Graeme, I ridiculed you for posting vertical farming articles, and here you go living up to the stereotype. Haven't you learned that growing arugula on the shady side of a skyscraper isn't going to do jack sh*t for the world? And this article is even worse because the plants are all being lit by electric light. You call that sustainable???

[onlooker]

I think Graeme like other Cornucopians and optimists make the mistake of not seeing the full gamut of our predicament. Huge population, diminished carrying capacity (and diminishing as we speak) and a readily available substitute for fossil fuels as an energy source. In particular with its use as transportation fuel and for fertilizers and pesticides. So it is not a problem to be solved it is a predicament to hopefully be managed on the downside of the Overshoot curve.

[dohboi]

Interesting points, pstarr. But wouldn't even that scheme require lots more people returning to the land, and of course a lot fewer people consuming a lot less in general?

On G, I agree that a lot of the articles are gloss or worse, but there is some value in keeping track of what kinds of delusions are being peddled to the general public.

The simplest way to dismantle this one would be a calculation of the energy necessary to bring sufficient water up seven (or 57...) flights to keep your crops alive, then compare that with the amount of energy you are likely to get from those crops. I'm betting even on the second floor the numbers start to get ugly. Add artificial light and things really get absurd fast.

[Graeme]

Vertical farms are NOT ridiculous. I think it is a little premature to dismiss this evolving concept. You just have to go to wiki to get an idea of how serious cities are considering this idea. I'm sure there is a lot more information in cyberspace if you just look for it in the right place.

Despommier had originally challenged his class to feed the population of Manhattan (About 2,000,000 people) using 13 acres (5.3 ha) of usable rooftop gardens. The class calculated that, by using rooftop gardening methods, only 2 percent would be fed. Unsatisfied with the results, Despommier made an off-the-cuff suggestion of growing plants indoors, vertically. The idea sparked the students' interests and gained major momentum. By 2001 the first outline of a vertical farm was introduced and today scientists, architects, and investors worldwide are working together to make the concept of vertical farming a reality. In an interview with Miller-McCune.com, Despommier described how vertical farms would function:

“ Each floor will have its own watering and nutrient monitoring systems. There will be sensors for every single plant that tracks how much and what kinds of nutrients the plant has absorbed. You'll even have systems to monitor plant diseases by employing DNA chip technologies that detect the presence of plant pathogens by simply sampling the air and using snippets from various viral and bacterial infections. It's very easy to do.
Moreover, a gas chromatograph will tell us when to pick the plant by analyzing which flavenoids the produce contains. These flavonoids are what gives the food the flavors you're so fond of, particularly for more aromatic produce like tomatoes and peppers. These are all right-off-the-shelf technologies. The ability to construct a vertical farm exists now. We don't have to make anything new.[15]


Chowdhury and Graff applied advanced industrial engineering design philosophies to modernize current greenhouse technology as it pertains to hydroponics and aeroponics. The results of the Waterloo team's work showed that there is sufficient technical grounds to begin implementing Despommier's ideas for skyscrapers. However, Chowdhury and Graff showed that the designs will be dramatically different from what Despommier envisioned at Columbia.

Unlike traditional farming in non-tropical areas, indoor farming can produce crops year-round. All-season farming multiplies the productivity of the farmed surface by a factor of 4 to 6 depending on the crop. With some crops, such as strawberries, the factor may be as high as 30.[27][28]

Furthermore, as the crops would be sold in the same infrastructures in which they are grown, they will not need to be transported between production and sale, resulting in less spoilage, infestation, and energy required than conventional farming encounters. Research has shown that 30% of harvested crops are wasted due to spoilage and infestation, though this number is much lower in developed nations.[21]

Despommier suggests that, if dwarf versions of certain crops are used (e.g. dwarf wheat developed by NASA, which is smaller in size but richer in nutrients[29]), year-round crops, and "stacker" plant holders are accounted for, a 30-story building with a base of a building block (5 acres (20,000 m2)) would yield a yearly crop analogous to that of 2,400 acres (9,700,000 m2) of traditional farming.[21]

Despommier argues that the technology to construct vertical farms currently exists. He also states that the system can be profitable and effective, a claim evidenced by some preliminary research posted on the project's website. Developers and local governments in the following cities have expressed serious interest in establishing a vertical farm: Incheon (South Korea), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), and Dongtan (China),[36] New York City, Portland, Ore., Los Angeles, Las Vegas,[37] Seattle, Surrey, B.C., Toronto, Paris, Bangalore, Dubai, Shanghai and Beijing

There are problems outlined in the wiki article, and in this article in the Economist published in 2010. However, more recently in Jan this year, New Scientist published this article:

URBAN warehouses, derelict buildings and high-rises are the last places you'd expect to find the seeds of a green revolution. But from Singapore to Scranton, Pennsylvania, "vertical farms" are promising a new, environmentally friendly way to feed the rapidly swelling populations of cities worldwide.

In March, the world's largest vertical farm is set to open up shop in Scranton. Built by Green Spirit Farms (GSF) of New Buffalo, Michigan, it will only be a single storey covering 3.25 hectares, but with racks stacked six high it will house 17 million plants. And it is just one of a growing number.

Up, Up and Away! The Economics of Vertical Farming

With rising population and purchasing power, demand for food and changing consumer preferences are building pressure on our resources. Vertical Farming, which means growing food in skyscrapers, might help to solve many of these problems. The purpose of this study was to construct a Vertical Farm and thereof investigate the economic feasibility of it. In a concurrent Engineering Study initiated by DLR Bremen, a farm, 37 floors high, was designed and simulated in Berlin to estimate the cost of production and market potential of this technology. It yields about 3,500 tons of fruits and vegetables and ca. 140 tons of tilapia fillets, 516 times more than expected from a footprint area of 0.25 ha due to stacking and multiple harvests. The investment costs add up to € 200 million, and it requires 80 million litres of water and 3.5 GWh of power per year. The produced food costs between € 3.50 and € 4.00 per kilogram. In view of its feasibility, we estimate a market for about 50 farms in the short term and almost 3000 farms in the long term. To tap the economic, environmental and social benefits of this technology, extensive research is required to optimise the production process.

macrothink