Cities might be our lifeboats, but we need to be villagers again

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any argue that our cities will be our “lifeboats” during the unfolding dilemmas of climate change.

As humanity wrestles with the changes settling upon it from our disrupted climate we will, they argue, retreat to our cities.

Elizabeth Farrelly has written in the Sydney Morning Herald about our need to again be living in villages in her story: “Why we need to become village people again”.

Those who advocate the idea of “lifeboat cities do, I think, see a city as little more than a series of interconnected villages that live happily within their specific confines, but then cooperate with all those around.

“We can't all have it all. The attempt just brings sprawl, congestion, unhealth and suburbia's deathly boredom. But perhaps there's another way.

“What if we leave the what of dwelling, and start with the where. For many of us, now, the ideal "where" is small, local, walkable, pretty and sustainable. In short, the village,” she writes.

Working to keep 'cool' Melbourne cool

"Lifeboat Cities" by
 Brendan Gleeson.

Cities have been described as society’s “lifeboats” by the director of Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute.

Professor Brendan Gleeson wrote about the crucial role cities will play in our future in his 2010 book, “Lifeboat Cities” and now a forthcoming book adopts a similar theme.

The book, “Cool Melbourne: Towards a Sustainable and Resilient Zero Carbon City in a Hotter World” discusses how Melbourne can endure and prosper in a hotter world.

A story published by The Guardian headed: “Cool Melbourne: whichever party wins the election, climate change is urgent” argues cities must urgently plan for a zero-carbon economy to protect themselves from the worst effects of global warming.

The Guardian explains that the three experts, writing in this edited book extract are is the deputy director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, Professor John Wiseman; the professor of atmospheric science at the University of Melbourne, Professor David Karoly, and a research associate at the University of Melbourne, Alexander Sheko.

The story is based on an edited extract from the chapter in the forthcoming ebook “Melbourne: What Next?”

Former New York mayor reflects Gleeson's 2010 views

Brendan Gleeson's
 "Lifeboat Cities".

It was in 2010 that Brendan Gleeson published his book “Lifeboat Cities: Making a New World” and now the former New York City mayor is saying effectively same thing.

Michael Bloomberg said, in his new U.N. job, that cities hold the key to confronting climate change.

The three-term mayor and billionaire businessman, who was the keynote speaker at the opening of a three-day U.N. meeting on making urban areas – whee about 70 percent of the world’s population is expected to live by 2050 – more liveable, sustainable, economically successful and environmentally friendly.

The Huffington Post story headed: “Cities hold key in fight to slow climate change, Bloomberg says” explained that city mayors, at least in America, have executive powers to reduce city emissions.

Adaptation interest needs to focus on our cities

Our interest in adapting to climate change needs to focus on our cities.

Something like 75 per cent of the world’s potential population of nine billion is expected to be living in our cities.

Our cities, along with deforestation and the breeding of livestock for food, are pushing climate change beyond survivable limits and we need to urgently consider what we should do ensure their liveability.

It was in 2010 that the University of Melbourne’s Professor of Urban Policy Studies, Brendan Gleeson, published his book, “Lifeboat Cities” in which he was optimistic about correctly planned cities being our refuge as climate change really began worsen life.

Writing in a story headed “Sweltering in the city: Surviving climate change in our great urban metropolises”, The Carbon Brief discusses rapid population growth and the profound impacts urbanization is having on our environment.

Salvation seems to be in our cities

The words of Brendan Gleeson and the content of a report on the ABC appear to have an oblique connection.

Brendan Gleeson's
 "Lifeboat Cities".

Gleeson, the director of the Urban Research Program at Griffith University and also a Professor of Urban Policy Studies at the University of Melbourne, wrote “Lifeboat Cities” in which he discussed the idea that out cities could be a bulwark against the rigours of climate change.

The new report on the ABC argues that those who live in cities fare better than their rural counterparts in terms of health, education, employment and wealth.

The story headed: “City dwellers fare better than country cousins” discussed the reality that rural people were more inclined to be conservative than those who lived in our cities.

Prof Brendan Gleeson.

Having read Gleeson’s book, the likelihood that city people are less conservative than their country counterparts suggests that those of our intensive urban areas are psychologically better equipped to respond to the rigours of climate change.

Interestingly, Brendan Gleeson has changed my vocabulary – listening to him soon after “Lifeboat Cities” was published in 2010 he talked a lot about  “resource depletion” and “oil scarcity” and indicating his tiredness with the term “peak oil” he said: “I’ll reach for my gun each time I hear someone say ‘peak oil’”.

Understanding the reasons for his objection, I now avoid the term whenever I can.

-       Robert McLean.