You Live in the Eco-City of the Future

'a glass-domed underground city deep beneath Siberian ice'

'Tianjin Eco-City In China: The Future Of Urban Development?'

Nonsense.

I've read these articles and far too many like them. A writer comes across beautiful architectural renderings of a fantastic house / office / city of the clean and efficient future. The plans are always lofty and the drawings are inspiring. The article praises the many virtues of this not-yet-but-soon-to-be-built green and efficient development.

But, what are the chances that those plans will ever actually be built? From what I have seen those chances are vanishingly small.

Yet, many of us are making real progress in energy efficiency while living real lives in our real homes. In just two years I've cut our home's winter natural gas usage by 46%! But, looking at the outside of our home you won't see most of the improvements. So, don't look for my house in a glossy eco-home magazine quite yet.

So, what does the 'home / office / city of the efficient future' look like? It will look a lot like the cities, offices and homes we live in right now. There will be changes of course, but many of them will be subtle and unobtrusive.

That clean and efficient future we are anticipating won't just magically appear. We must rebuild, retrofit and improve what we have now until our homes, offices and cities are clean, efficient and surprisingly ... familiar. Fortunately, we already have the technology needed to cut the world’s greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050. The alternative is to sit and wait for a clean, efficient never-never land to be delivered to us.

So, let's get to work, the future is almost here.

More Info:

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Tianjin Eco-City In China: The Future Of Urban Development?

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