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This blog could make itself a lot more useful by talking about the drawbacks and benefits of living in a city while dealing with climate change. How do you cope living in a 7 or 8 story building when the air conditioning goes out? What about when the elevators do? These nuts and bolts issues will increasingly be of interest to people but they are rarely discussed in anything more than a drive-by fashion.

What are the health effects of living in constant air conditioning? Can one cope without air conditioning? Personally and building-wise? How? Are there any measures we should take to limit energy output? How are the green roofs faring right about now?

Are there further adaptations we can make to stop the heating? What might some of those be?

Where do people in the city go to be outdoors? Are the pools well-run and maintained? What about the parks? How are the trees doing?

Is the condo model with high condo fees the best model to deal with city living, long-term? Do condominium managers actually know what it is like to live in a city? Or do they live in the suburbs? Or, does it even matter? Should it?

And city agencies - do they treat people in apartments differently than those living in houses? What about those living in houses vs. those living in condos? That's a big topic, but where is the discussion? Or just the acknowledgement that the reality can be very different for each of those three sets of people.

Finally, what about the populace itself? Think about rootedness and where you come from. Likely where you come from has a much greater sense of rootedness than where you live now in Washington, DC. What are the implications of this? Are there any? Constant change in businesses and residential units and affordability - what does that mean in terms of mitigating the effects of climate change? Will as much effort be made if people are constantly shuttling in and out? Who will make the effort? Who will commit to it?

by Jazzy on Jul 8, 2012 8:49 am • link • report