Increasing Importance of Environmental Education: Climate Change, Cities & Preventive Measures

Climate change has become an imminent challenge that our world is facing daily. Moreover, this topic has been very controversial for decades. Nevertheless, it is time to stop denying the pure facts that scientist have laid in front of us. Recently, the American Association for the Advancement of Science conducted a study. It stated that scientific evidence is mounting up reasons for the human activities being counted as the factors responsible for climate change. The study reports on behalf of the experts involved that the change has assumed threatening proportions for the society.

Knowing this information is vital for us as a global society to work together to help solve the issue of climate change and the increasing importance of environmental education.

Urban cities usually bring to mind polluted, overpopulated, and crime-ridden areas. But according to Peter Calthorpe, an urban environment means one that is dense and walkable. Calthorpe also believes that lifestyle and conservation are environmental imperatives that should be incorporated into urbanization to take into account the urban growth.

Importance of Conservation

Conservation is how efficiently our society is functioning. A major example of conservation is the use of renewable energies. This past afternoon we toured the Green Lighthouse at the University of Copenhagen. The Green Lighthouse was the first carbon neutral building in Copenhagen. The University of Copenhagen has also imposed drastic goals to reduce its carbon emissions by 20%, which they just reached.

The majority of these reductions came from technical changes to promote conservation. For example, the Lighthouse optimizes solar energy and uses LED lights. The other aspect that Calthorpe wants to include in urbanism is a lifestyle. This way of living incorporates our general habits, what we eat, and how we get from place to place. Transportation in Copenhagen perfectly showcases this. There is a large emphasis on biking. Furthermore, there are many places throughout the city where the authorities have prohibited driving. Partly, one can extend the reason for this to the fact that Copenhagen was developed before the rise of automobiles.

However, it is harder for most of the global cities, to emphasize particularly this way, on alternative forms of transportation. This is more so because driving is so dominant. Another important aspect of sustainability is regionalism. Regionalism promotes a community atmosphere. When Government functions on a smaller scale it increases the emotional investment, the citizens have in the Government. Similarly, it augments the political wellbeing of the country. Citizens feel that they have the ability to effect change because government functions on a more local scale. It also engages the citizens more in a political and activist sense.

Learning by Visiting & First-hand Experiences

Exploring the topic of climate change more deeply demands critical examination and discussion. These activities pertain to the ways in which urbanism could potentially be the most practical and the best solution. This call for the tours through cities like Copenhagen, Freiburg, Paris, and London. Through these tours, people get exposed to and see firsthand specific ways of the designs of these cities. The designs address the topic of climate change. Moreover, they also help their communities be able to lead happier and healthier lives.

Meanwhile, Peter Calthorpe discusses one of the best ways to address the issue of climate change in his book. His book Urbanism: in the age of climate change, discusses this measure. The book states that we can address this challenge by implementing new urbanism planning and design. It simply is reasonable. For the US and other countries to begin to decrease the amount of GHGs that they are emitting into our atmosphere, people are going to have to live in a place that is more sustainable. A place that does not require the need to burn fossil fuels for energy.

Using the principles and design strategies of new urbanism, cities will be created in a way that provides more connection and better accessibility as well. Under this principle, the residents will take nearly all their daily trips from home, using alternative transportation modes. These include acts like walking, biking, short car, or using major transit.

The Exemplar Cases of Freiburg and London

As Peter Calthorpe states in his book,” To solve the climate change issue, we need to focus on ends, not means.” For good transit to work properly, it needs to be accessible. It needs to be connected in a way that brings destinations closer together. In Freiburg, known for co-op communities, all your daily life needs could be found within a two-mile radius. Everything from your doctor to the workplace to the grocery store etc was in one centralized location. With Freiburg’s great transportation system and network, this was the epitome of the kind of accessibility that Calthorpe discusses in his book.

You will also feel directly related to Jane Jacobs reading when in London. London has a lot of neighborhoods that have a lot of mixed use as far as housing and work is concerned. Throughout the banking/business districts, there are pocket parks and many nice green spaces in which people are able to feel safe and enjoy. There are many street lights arranged along the walking paths and parks. Having lots of lighting can help ensure a person feels safe at night time walking on the sidewalk which in return is a small design solution that could potentially help prevent crime.

And the Fact Boils Down to…

The importance of using alternative energy cannot be undermined. You will also see that we have the technology and knowledge to design alternative types of energy that can not only harness the wind but also convert poop and the heat from the sun into energy!

Being able to see these things gives us hope for our future because there is so much initiative taking place in our world. The next step that we need to do now is to extend some of these best practices that we have studied in Europe, to the world!

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