REH wrote: > C'mon Chris. You misread what I meant. I meant we do NOT need to worry > about numbers replenishing themselves, we already have plenty.
I understood this, but my point was that this high population density in a city as large as NYC is fragile, because it so strongly depends on food inputs from outside. If you'd distribute the same number of people to a rural area (or 100 cities surrounded by rural areas), then the self-sufficiency and proximity to the food sources would be much better, and the transportation distances of food and other daily consumer goods could be shorter. > However, the city is the ideal way > to deal with such numbers. If you don't spend all of that energy on > nonsense jobs that do nothing for the human spirit or competence, you will > have the money to pay for your energy. I use much less energy resources > than an average family in the suburbs with a large house. I also am > limited to two rooms. How many rooms does the average house have to > provide energy for? How much energy is lost in poor insulation and the > outside walls of separate housing? New York is large enough to effect the > weather in the coldest times. Air quality is not great but Europeans who > come here from France and Germany always comment on how good our air is. > We have the best public water works in America. We do, however, have to be > on constant guard that the corporations in the suburbs with their waste and > poor sanitation systems don't pollute the sources of that water. My > building is far more efficient in its seventeen floors than a comparable > suburb serving the same number in houses. Our streets take less energy to > care for. The public services are low per capita because of the proximity. Comparing with urban sprawl, of course you are right -- but if you'd compare with cities the size of Zurich (or smaller), then the energy efficiency could be even greater. Around one third of households in Zurich or Basel are car-free. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
