Common Ground: Green Cities or Shadow Cities?

June 2005 | Editor’s Note

Green Cities or Shadow Cities?

Sixty years ago, the leaders of some 50 nations gathered in San Francisco to sign the original United Nations Charter. Coinciding with the Nazi defeat, that gathering was an emblem of hope for a world brutalized by economic collapse, war, the holocaust, and the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Japan, and the USSR.

This June, San Francisco hosts another UN gathering — World Environmental Day. Although the political landscape is altogether different from 1945, the stakes are no less daunting. Once again, a group of politicians are gathering “to write a new chapter in the history of global cooperation,” this time focused not on war and peace, but rather on building “an ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic, and socially equitable future.”

For the first time in human history, the majority of Gaia’s inhabitants now live in cities. Indeed, people are moving to urban centers at a rate of more than a million a week. Cities consume the most resources and produce the most pollution. In the developing world, 85% of the urban population now lives in slums. According to the UN, in 25 years, a quarter of the world’s population will be living as squatters in these “shadow cities,” presaging a crisis whose social, political, and environmental consequences world leaders are only beginning to assess.

Hence the theme of the San Francisco conference: “Green Cities.” Mayors from over 100 world cities will sign a set of urban environmental accords that commit their municipalities to reduce waste and greenhouse gasses, boost renewable energy, expand open space and green jobs, and promote clean, affordable mass transit, safe drinking water, and air quality controls by 2012. These 21-action steps (for a full list, visit www.wed2005.com) could begin a significant and positive change towards planetary health.

The question is whether the political will exists for these accords to express more than good intentions and window dressing. It is no coincidence that mayors are the main actors in this démarche, given the Bush administration’s predatory environmental policies. But a shift in the winds may be at hand. Some of Bush’s most ardent supporters, including Christian evangelicals, conservative hawks, corporate leaders, and a host of the nation’s mayors are now paying heed to the impact of global warming and the need for sustainable energy policies.

Among them, the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, whose scuba-diving epiphany in the Pacific has made him passionate about the devastating impact of rising ocean temperatures and pollution on coral reefs. The Rev. Jim Ball of the Evangelical Environmental Network started a “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign for hybrid vehicles. And last May, rebuffing President Bush, a group of 132 US mayors representing 29 million citizens in 35 states joined a bi-partisan coalition to fight global warming and support the Kyoto Protocol.

This is not just a war of words. Conservative and liberal mayors alike are acting. To meet Kyoto’s targets of an initial 7% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, Salt Lake City has now become Utah’s largest buyer of wind power and Washington’s Seattle City Light will become the nation’s first utility with no net emissions of greenhouse gases.

Corporate leaders such as GE’s Jeff Immelt have denounced Washington’s “Do-nothing” policy on climate change. Robert “Bud” MacFarlane, former National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration, along with two dozen members of the Energy Future Coalition — a mix of national security hawks and greens — sent a stinging letter to President Bush saying that dependence on imported petroleum poses a risk to homeland security and economic well-being.

But more than global warming and oil-dependency are on the SF agenda: it is the very survival of cities and the humanity they support. The environment is now a global social justice and public health issue. And where national leaders and policies fail, cities and citizens must take up the charge.

— Carl Nagin

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