The Green Apple

Yale's Environment 360 recently reported on NYC's status of green in the United States. Hoping to surprise some people by the findings: a dense city, with a majority unknowingly living greener than their sub-urban counterparts...well doesn't it seem obvious?

• Fill people into a small area - people/sq mile
• give them an established metro system among other transportation alternatives - energy efficient transportation
• make everything expensive -based on spatial constraints and demand the prices generally go up - less electricity useage

And you've got at least three simple reasons for people living more efficiently.

But this report raises questions about how much better NYC could be, and if New Yorkers knew how and tried to improve their environmental impact what kind of role model would the city then become?! Owen remarks that "unconscious efficiencies are the most desirable ones, because they require neither enforcement nor a personal commitment to cutting back." Why is it so difficult to get people to care a little more for the environment? How is it possible that other countries and cultures can care and give so much more back to the environment than us?

Imagine something like Bjarke Ingels Group's "Perfect Denmark" a redesign of the built environment around us to work with energy cycles. People begin moving into these urban ecosystems designed for balance, designed to help the environment recover from the past century and a half of humankind's utter disregard for its health.

With time the once gridded out land envisioned by Jefferson where the country is occupied by people spread across those massive 640 acre parcels (which continues to subdivide) are now moving back into urban centers, letting the land return to its previous state. Policies now shift to look after the land with factors included that weren't conceived when Hamilton, Jefferson and others debated the Land Ordinance. Satellite imagery begins to show these more progressive policies taking effect as certain geopolitical entities regrow into lush forests and grasslands. Now documentation proves that living in a clean, dense city with our block by block landscape acting more like living cells, improves the land and environment we inhabit. And through the development of this environmental awakening an American culture hatches, one that glues the people together stronger than that of a victorious outcome in war or terrorism. Rather than bumper stickers claiming United We Stand with a virile lung inflation whenever read, the true actions of a people shine -an archetype if you will.

Potential is the greatest thing we have, and in the case of improving our natural and built environments, and reversing the damaging human impact on earth - we have plenty to look forward to.