This week our discussion will take a turn to the creative side, as we discuss our visions of a future Washington, DC. We will be envisioning the District in 200 years time, in two different ways. First, we will describe how we think the District would look if few changes are made in the way our society functions. Then we will incorporate our hopes, visions, and dreams for what the District might look like if we were to change some of our less beneficial practices.
While much of this vision will be based on our in-class discussions, please feel free to join in and share your opinion regardless of whether you were there. Consider issues such as energy, food, water, transportation, and housing. Click "comments" to join the discussion!
Quote of the week:
"Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us."
- Henrik Tikkanen
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Oh very angry, the post I just wrote has been lost in cyberspace!
ReplyDeleteSo again:
DC in 200 years-
Overcrowded, greenery has been chocked out because of the need for housing and human space. The sea is closer to DC because of melting ice caps. The temperature and seasons are more extreme or summer is extended and very hot. Naturally grown food is very hard to find, where will it be grown? How can it grow in these climates? Hunger will be a much greater problem and the disparity between the rich and poor will be deeper. The air quality will be very poor and disease rates are too. Skin and lung cancer are rampant.
DC in a hopeful future;
Families will be smaller (3 or 4 people), homes will be smaller and created with green technology. Apartment and business buildings will be constructed with the same techniques. All businesses will be certified green- and strive to have as little impact on the environment as possible. Grocery stores and fast food joints will not longer exist. Each family will own a garden, those without a house will be given a small plot of land to grow food. Small markets will sell organic and local products at inexpensive rates. Meat will be organic and local and very expensive so as to be consumed sparingly on special occasions. Public transportation will be the main mode of transportation (it'll run flawlessly!) and all vehicles will be run on solar, electric, or alternative energy. Consumerism will be markedly less pervasive and there will be a cultural acceptance of reduce, reuse, recycle. There will be tax breaks for "using less".
This doesn't seem that unreasonable and I hope we actually reach something like this far more quickly than 200 years.
If we were to make minimal changes in the way we lived, I don’t think the way we consume energy would be that different. Maybe some people and/or businesses will take the initiative to invest in solar energy. However, these numbers will be very miniscule compared to the majority. I do think however that local governments will start trying to make an example for the public by investing in cleaner alternative energy for their offices. The majority who hasn't looked to alternative energy sources will find themselves forced to do so within a few years. As the earth's supply of natural resources dwindles, it will become increasingly expensive and perhaps socially taboo to continue to use traditional energy sources. If transportation trends were to continue throughout the next 200 years, people will start becoming increasingly sick. Washington, DC will become a gray haze like Tokyo from all of the air pollution. Poor air quality will result causing increased respiratory illnesses. In addition, legislation reforms will be made to permit taller buildings in DC to deal with the housing shortage. This will result in a darker, gloomier city deprived of natural light and trapped with air pollution.
ReplyDeleteIf we were to make big changes the picture would be much different. Driving individual cars to and from work/school would become increasingly rare as public transportation improves. More government funds will be put into improving the efficiency of the metro system by building additional lines. Also, more and more restaurants will service organic food exclusively. Hotdog vendors will be replaced by organic food stands serving only all-natural and hormone-free foods to the larger population of people walking on the sidewalks. Owning flashy and expensive clothes, jewelry, cars, and homes will fall out of vogue and be looked down upon by society. Rather than signifying a person's high-status, such things will classify a person as wasteful and selfish.
PATH CONTINUED: DC it is hard to say how it will be swayed in 200 years because I consider DC progressive clean. It is fairly clean throughout the city with a wide recycling and garbage program. They promote public transportation by limiting the parking spots throughout the city, providing zip car service, bicycle services and easily navigated metro services. But I think the larger climate impacts will have at least some effect on DC in regards to the landscape changing. Here is where I have to agree with Mary in that I think the boundaries outside of DC will become even smaller because of the flooding that will occur, taking away our present shoreline. I also believe that DC will start becoming even more humid than it is now! Starting maybe in April, a dry season and then just hot. I also believe that we will be more prone to hurricanes with the heat and water increase. I think they will try to institutionalize the process of growing food so that they can control it and the green spaces in the city will vanish from over development and growth.
ReplyDeleteNEW PATH: My views on the goals of where DC should be within the next 200 years have been influenced by a recent panel I attended on Urban Climate Reform. There were three speakers Glen Abrams from Philadelphia Water Department, Michael Thomas from Clayton Water Authority and Sam Riley from Association of State Floodplain Managers. They all were presenting realistic attainable solutions to help urban areas restructure how they implement sustainable water strategies. So hopefully first there will be in place a Clean Water Restoration Act to protect freshwater systems and preserve streams and wetlands. This will be in place to defend communities from flooding, along with a new green infrastructure. On top of buildings, like the Media Production Center at AU, will be green rooftops as well as more trees all along the sidewalks. Also rebuild some areas to have vapor-transpiration (as in more tree canopies). With this the fish stock and species count will rebuild. Also all the bus transportation with be hybrid vehicles. And parking in DC will be limited to one car per household. Instead people can use seg-ways all around the city, powered by solar energy. Also, all the buildings will be charged by solar energy and have window access so that the lights only have to be used at night or dark days, otherwise everything is naturally lit. There will also be sections of the city “cornered off” for growth of food and community gardens sponsored by each corporation in the city.
DC in 200 years:
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I agree with Laura, in that I don’t share such a pessimistic view of DC’s future. I find DC to be cleaner than others, and I think that it has more green spaces than other cities I have been to. I think that over the next 200 years, the steps that will be taken to counteract the negative effects of humans on the environment will depend on whether or not there are drastic sudden changes in our surroundings. I think, unfortunately, that the world (and DC) will be taking baby-steps toward a greener planet until the unpleasant effects show up on our front doors.
I think that there will be drastic changes in our weather and coastlines and as waste builds up because of consumption and developing countries stop accepting our waste “exports” people will be spurred into action because the amount of environmental degradation will be much more apparent.
My ideas:
It is my hope, that some of these larger issues don’t have to go so far before we start to make changes that will really make a difference. I see DC focusing on increased efficiency in public transportation, while living situations become more concentrated as we strive to keep areas of the city green and avoid urban sprawl. Hopefully, people will be having smaller families and they will be teaching their children to be smarter and less wasteful consumers. This “grassroots” change in attitudes of the people along with changes of ideas of policymakers to enact changes in regulations that create the right incentives for businesses as well as people to make the right decisions when concerning the environment.
I hope that there will be a lot of clean, efficient technology helping us, while not damaging the environment; I hope the emphasis of the technology industry will shift from developing newer and newer technologies to replace old ones, to creation of durable goods that are easily adapted to improvements so that waste can be greatly reduced.
If we continue on the path we are now, the District, along with the rest of the country, will likely not be a pretty place in two centuries. If current trends continue, there won’t be oil to use to power the city any longer, and all indications point toward power returning to coal. Thus I can imagine the air quality in this future district would be very poor. Another major problem that I can see in the future District is poor water quality in the reservoirs surrounding the Potomac from which we get our drinking water. It would be likely only the wealthiest would be able to afford to filter this water, creating a huge public health problem.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest however, it is actually slightly difficult to come up with too many doom-and-gloom scenarios for the District. Truth is, I view DC as one of the more sustainable and progressive cities in the nation, and I believe this upward trend in environmental stewardship will continue. For example, the US Green Building Council is headquartered in DC, and already many buildings are taking their LEED building codes into effect in both the commercial and residential sectors. I can imagine entire city blocks built to fully integrate themselves into little pockets of environmental efficiency and sustainability.
Furthermore, transportation efficiency will continue to improve. Within the District, public transportation is heavily relied upon and already significantly decreases the environmental impact of all 2 million residents of the metro area (and who knows what that population would be in two centuries). Additionally I can also see the water situation improving just as much as I can see its degradation. If one compares the condition of the Potomac now to pollution levels from three decades ago, there is marked improvement. A quick look at most parts of the Anacostia River is a rather “dirty” reminder of the Potomac’s sordid past, however, and that would certainly need some work as well.
Finally one must look past the District to see where DC gets its energy. With any luck, in two centuries the energy grid will have been re-routed to move vast amounts of wind energy from the plains states out to the east coast, allowing DC to run without as many greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, in two centuries technology will have taken leaps and bounds and ideally wind might even be obsolete as an efficient energy source. This would entail not just energy of course, but all of the factors of production that produce the things the District uses every day (very little of which actually comes from within the boundaries of DC) not being outsourced. In the ideal world of the future, the “ecological outsourcing” described by Paul Wapner would be no more than a neat history lesson.
I’m going to have to side with Laura and Franziska in that I do see such positive changes being made. In fact I can imagine they would start in a place like DC and percolate out from there. As citizens, the government, and corporations become more aware of the state of the environment these changes will slowly take place. Two hundred years is a long time, particularly at the rate at which our lifestyles currently change. With any luck, we’ve peaked the Kuznets curve and in two centuries we’ll have coasted way down to the bottom again, but on the side of progress.