Can Cities Sustain Life in the Greenhouse?

Data from the Global Environmental Monitoring System indicate that pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and total suspended particulate routinely appear in the lower atmosphere of major cities at concentrations well above health guidelines set by the World Health Organization. As well, cities are major contributors to the build-up of greenhouse gases which now threaten climate change. These findings underscore the detrimental relation that has evolved between urban industrial society and the atmosphere. If this peculiar civilization is to be changed, three principles—equity, sustainability and peaceful development—must guide the reevolution of urban life. The paradigm of commodification needs to be replaced with a model of a commons of life. The article provides a theoretical framework and strategy for reforming global climate policy and urban sustainability planning in a manner consistent with life in the commons.

[1]  J. Byrne,et al.  Environmental justice : discourses in international political economy , 2002 .

[2]  S. Narain,et al.  Global warming in an unequal world : a case of environmental colonialism , 1991 .

[3]  A. Mccarthy.  Development , 1996, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[4]  John Byrne,et al.  Governing the atom : the politics of risk , 1996 .

[5]  J. Byrne,et al.  A Common Future or Towards a Future Commons: Globalization and Sustainable Development since UNCED , 2002 .

[6]  Susan R Fletcher.  Global Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol , 2005 .

[7]  P. Hawken,et al.  The Jo'burg memo : fairness in a fragile world ; memorandum for the World Summit on Sustainable Development , 2002 .

[8]  Nafis Sadik,et al.  The state of world population. , 1995 .

[9]  I. Gorst.  Survey of energy resources , 1985 .

[10]  Kamala Muhovic-Dorsner.  Evaluating European Climate Change Policy: An Ecological Justice Approach , 2005 .

[11]  John Byrne,et al.  An equity- and sustainability-based policy response to global climate change , 1998 .

[12]  I Sewerin.  [Health consequences of the Chernobyl accident]. , 2001, Ugeskrift for laeger.

[13]  Chantana Banpasirichote,et al.  The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power , 1997 .

[14]  B. Field.  Environmental Economics: An Introduction , 1979 .

[15]  B. Metz.  International equity in climate change policy , 2000 .

[16]  Bill Keepin,et al.  Greenhouse warming: Comparative analysis of nuclear and efficiency abatement strategies , 1988 .

[17]  Dixy Lee Ray.  Energy and civilization , 1983 .

[18]  J. Byrne,et al.  Nuclear Power and Technological Authoritarianism , 1987 .

[19]  S. Gardiner.  Ethics and Global Climate Change* , 2004, Ethics.

[20]  M. Redclift.  Development and the Environmental Crisis: Red or Green Alternatives , 1984 .

[21]  J. Howe.  State of the world 1992: Brown, L.R. et al. New York and London: Norton, 1992. 256 pp., $10.95 paperback , 1993 .

[22]  N. Toly,et al.  A Tale of Two Regimes: Instrumentality and Commons Access , 2005 .

[23]  P. Nelson.  An African Dimension to the Clean Development Mechanism: Finding a Path to Sustainable Development in the Energy Sector , 2004 .

[24]  L. Mumford.  The Culture of Cities , 1939, Nature.

[25]  Juan Martinez-Alier,et al.  Ecological Economics: Energy, Environment and Society , 1987 .

[26]  M Nordberg,et al.  Stormy weather. , 1993, Emergency medical services.

[27]  David T. Mage,et al.  Urban air pollution in megacities of the world , 1996 .

[28]  J. Byrne,et al.  The Production of Unequal Nature , 2002 .

[29]  A. Lovins,et al.  Soft energy paths: Toward a durable peace , 1977 .

[30]  W. Heijman.  Steady-State Economics , 1998 .

[31]  Unfccc.  Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , 1997 .

[32]  J. Byrne,et al.  Ellul and the Weather , 2005 .