Eine Stadt als Ökosystem

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Ecologist Nancy Grimm of Arizona State University and her colleagues are addressing these questions. "When we think of global change, images of melting ice caps and pasture replacing tropic rainforest come to mind," Grimm says. "What drives these changes" In fact, much of the current environmental impact originates in cities, and with demographic transition to city life the urban footprint is likely to continue to grow."

Umweltverschmutzung ist also tatsächlich auf Überbevölkerung, Urbanisierung und Industrialisierung zurückzuführen.

"Urban areas are hot spots that drive environmental change," says John Briggs. "They are complex, adaptive socioecological systems, centers of production and consumption, in which the delivery of the ecosystems services link society and ecosystems at multiple levels."
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Cities literally are proving to be a hotbed for environmental research. Studies by urban ecologists reveal that city centers are physically hotter. Known as the heat island effect, urban and suburban temperatures are "2 to 10 degree F (1 to 6 degree C) hotter than nearby rural areas," according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This rise in temperatures translates into "increases in peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution levels and heat-related illness and mortality."

Und man bietet sogar eine Lösung an:

"The relatively young and highly interdisciplinary field of urban ecology has demonstrated how well-designed cities can actually have less overall impact on the environment than equivalent dispersed rural populations," says Jonathan Fink, director of ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability. "The kind of counter-intuitive research results described in Grimm's paper show how an ecological perspective can help urban planners and engineers find ways for society to live more harmoniously with nature."

Nun, es wurde ja auch mal Zeit, dass der Mensch sich und sein Leben als Teil der Natur sieht. Und diese Idee steht einer absoluten Urbanisierung im Wege.