Cities are at the center of our environmental future

Abstract

The global environmental challenge becomes tangible and urgent in cities. Thus, it is critical that we understand the capabilities of cities to transform what is today a negative environmental impact to a positive one. We must make cities part of the solution. One point of entry to this question is to view cities as a type of socio-ecological system that has an expanding range of articulations with nature's ecologies. Today, most of these articulations produce environmental damage. How can we begin to use these articulations to produce positive outcomes - outcomes that allow cities to contribute to environmental sustainability? The complex systemic and multi-scalar capacities of cities provide massive potential for a broad range of positive articulations with nature's ecologies