The Urban Landscape and The Future of Cities

Martha Schwartz Author

01/24/2023 Added

162 Plays

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Martha Schwartz is a landscape architect, urbanist, and climate activist. Her work and teaching focuses on the urban public realm landscape and its importance in making cities “climate ready”. For more than 40 years, Martha Schwartz Partners has completed projects around the globe, from site-specific art installations to public spaces, parks, master-planning and reclamation. Schwartz is also a tenured Professor in Practice at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and recently founded MAYDAY. Earth, a non-profit focused on communications and education about Nature Based and Geoengineering Solutions.

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[00:00:00.000](upbeat music)
[00:00:06.930]Today you are part
[00:00:08.100]of an important conversation about our shared future.
[00:00:12.030]The E. N. Thompson Forum on World Issues
[00:00:14.190]explores a diversity of viewpoints
[00:00:16.045]on international and public policy issues
[00:00:18.960]to promote understanding and encourage debate
[00:00:21.780]across the university and the state of Nebraska.
[00:00:25.200]Since its inception in 1988,
[00:00:28.140]hundreds of distinguished speakers
[00:00:29.940]have challenged and inspired us, making this forum
[00:00:33.814]one of the preeminent speakers series in higher education.
[00:00:39.420]It all started when E. N. Jack Thompson
[00:00:42.381]imagined a forum on global issues
[00:00:45.330]that would increase Nebraskan's understanding
[00:00:47.610]of cultures and events from around the world.
[00:00:50.790]Jack's perspective was influenced by his travels,
[00:00:54.180]his role in helping to found the United Nations,
[00:00:56.970]and his work
[00:00:57.803]at the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace.
[00:01:02.100]As President of the Cooper Foundation in Lincoln,
[00:01:05.130]Jack pledged substantial funding to the Forum,
[00:01:07.924]and the University of Nebraska,
[00:01:10.110]and Lied Center for Performing Arts agreed to co-sponsor.
[00:01:14.640]Later, Jack and his wife Katie,
[00:01:16.860]created the Thompson Family Fund
[00:01:19.440]to support the Forum and other programs.
[00:01:22.590]Today, major support is provided by the Cooper Foundation,
[00:01:27.478]the Lied Center for Performing Arts,
[00:01:30.000]and University of Nebraska Lincoln.
[00:01:32.850]We hope this talk sparks an exciting conversation among you.
[00:01:39.480]And now, on with the show.
[00:01:41.384](upbeat music continues)
[00:01:43.635](audience applauding)
[00:01:46.620]Good evening, and welcome to tonight's event,
[00:01:49.620]featuring Martha Schwartz.
[00:01:51.540]I'm Katherine Ankerson, Executive Vice Chancellor
[00:01:54.210]at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
[00:01:57.180]I know who I am.
[00:01:58.376](audience chuckles)
[00:01:59.610]I'm excited to be here with you for this talk,
[00:02:02.520]which is part of the E. N. Thompson Forum on World Issues,
[00:02:05.730]and also part of the Hyde Lecture Series.
[00:02:08.430]I'm happy to see all of you here at the Lied Center,
[00:02:12.270]and to welcome those of you who are watching online.
[00:02:16.830]Since 1988, the Thompson Forum
[00:02:19.290]has brought us critical thinkers, policymakers,
[00:02:22.740]and leaders who are shaping our global society,
[00:02:25.950]to discuss issues that affect us all.
[00:02:28.950]We're grateful to the Cooper Foundation,
[00:02:30.900]which provides the major funding for the Forum.
[00:02:33.960]To the late Jack Thompson, who conceived of this series,
[00:02:36.840]and to the Thompson family for their continued support.
[00:02:40.318]We'd also like to acknowledge
[00:02:42.150]the Lied Center for Performing Arts,
[00:02:44.040]and the University Honors Program,
[00:02:46.650]for their partnership on the Thompson Forum,
[00:02:48.450]and the media sponsors, KZUM and KRNU.
[00:02:53.970]This season's theme, Creativity to Solve Global Challenges,
[00:02:58.440]illuminates the discussion about how we,
[00:03:01.020]as individuals and a society,
[00:03:04.110]can utilize our creativity in unexpected ways
[00:03:07.343]to solve both everyday and complex problems.
[00:03:11.790]It invites us to imagine a future beyond our reality
[00:03:15.810]and to lean into solving challenges creatively,
[00:03:19.920]rather than with the same methodology.
[00:03:23.070]Our speakers are inspirational in many ways,
[00:03:26.250]solving global challenges with sometimes simple solutions
[00:03:30.450]that dramatically change lives.
[00:03:33.210]These stories encourage us to realize the importance
[00:03:36.540]of creative, inventive thinking and problem solving,
[00:03:40.140]and entice us to employ those methods in our own lives.
[00:03:44.490]Tonight's event is also part of the Hyde Lecture Series,
[00:03:47.400]a long-standing endowed program
[00:03:49.470]in the College of Architecture.
[00:03:51.600]Each year the college hosts experts
[00:03:53.625]in the disciplines of architecture, interior design,
[00:03:57.120]landscape architecture and planning,
[00:03:59.280]that enrich the ongoing dialogue around agendas
[00:04:02.310]which are paramount to the professions and our graduates.
[00:04:06.000]The 2022-23 season features speakers from across disciplines
[00:04:10.470]united under the theme "Information Stimulus:
[00:04:13.920]New Paradigms in Planning and Design".
[00:04:16.939]The evolution in information technology
[00:04:19.467]is being driven by novel means of uncovering,
[00:04:23.310]transferring, and disseminating information.
[00:04:26.970]Advanced paradigms have emerged
[00:04:28.980]through the information drawn from other disciplines,
[00:04:31.710]and the generation of innovative methods and tools.
[00:04:36.900]New representational approaches and practices
[00:04:39.780]have enabled designers to present information
[00:04:42.180]in new and more effective ways,
[00:04:45.090]stimulating conversations and helping to find consensus
[00:04:49.620]in design and community engagement processes.
[00:04:53.490]We would also like to thank
[00:04:54.780]the American Institute of Architects Nebraska,
[00:04:58.140]the American Planning Association, Nebraska Chapter,
[00:05:01.350]and the American Society of Landscape Architects
[00:05:04.020]Nebraska/Dakotas Chapter, for their support this evening.
[00:05:08.790]We would like to formally acknowledge
[00:05:11.100]the Indigenous tribal nations
[00:05:13.020]as the original stewards of the land,
[00:05:15.750]and that we reside on the past, present,
[00:05:18.240]and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca,
[00:05:22.380]Otoe-Missouria, Omaha, Dakota, Lakota,
[00:05:27.120]Kaw, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples,
[00:05:30.510]as well as those of the relocated Ho-Chunk,
[00:05:33.510]Sac and Fox, and Iowa Peoples.
[00:05:36.930]Through our acknowledgement,
[00:05:39.015]we work to develop positive, ongoing relationships
[00:05:41.940]to our Indigenous tribal nations
[00:05:43.830]and the rich tribal diversity in the state of Nebraska.
[00:05:48.630]Tonight we have the privilege of hearing
[00:05:51.090]from Martha Schwartz, who has worked at the heart
[00:05:54.180]of creative problem solving for global challenges.
[00:05:57.960]Her talk will address the urban landscape
[00:06:00.180]and the future of cities.
[00:06:02.580]Martha is graciously spending time in classes
[00:06:05.610]and other activities with our students and faculty tomorrow.
[00:06:09.446]Her presence will stir up creative juices
[00:06:13.890]in innovative thinking across campus.
[00:06:15.870]I'm excited for our students to experience time with her.
[00:06:19.860]And we greatly appreciate the opportunity for our students
[00:06:22.800]to learn from someone with such a wealth of experience.
[00:06:27.330]Following Martha's talk, we will have a short Q&A,
[00:06:30.750]where you can participate by texting ENT918 to 22333,
[00:06:37.650]or going to PollEv, P-O-L-L-E-V.com/ent918,
[00:06:44.670]on a computer or browser.
[00:06:46.860]Now I have the honor of introducing this evening's speaker.
[00:06:51.450]Martha Schwartz has an extensive background in academia
[00:06:54.780]as a tenured professor in practice
[00:06:56.700]at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design,
[00:06:59.970]a position she held for 16 years before her retirement.
[00:07:03.990]She's a landscape architect, urbanist, and climate activist.
[00:07:10.140]Her work and teaching focus on
[00:07:12.570]the urban public realm landscape
[00:07:14.910]and its importance in making cities climate ready.
[00:07:18.750]For more than 40 years,
[00:07:20.520]she and the firm Martha Schwartz Partners
[00:07:23.310]have completed projects around the globe,
[00:07:25.980]from site specific art installations to public spaces,
[00:07:29.400]parks, master planning, and reclamation.
[00:07:33.810]Martha is now heavily engaged
[00:07:35.550]in strategic land use and landscape planning
[00:07:38.220]and assisting leadership in preparing for the effects
[00:07:41.430]of climate change that their cities will face very soon.
[00:07:46.440]Additionally, Martha founded Mayday.Earth,
[00:07:49.740]a climate change nonprofit,
[00:07:52.050]focused on answering the distress call from our planet
[00:07:55.200]due to unchecked global warming caused by climate change.
[00:07:59.580]Please join me in welcoming Martha Schwartz.
[00:08:03.056](audience applauds)
[00:08:11.262]Thank you.
[00:08:15.000]Kathy, thank you so much for that introduction.
[00:08:19.710]I really appreciate that.
[00:08:23.790]There's one little mistake,
[00:08:25.440]is that I've been at Harvard for 30 years.
[00:08:28.620]Oh God. (Martha laughs)
[00:08:31.497]No, that's, 16 sounds better to me.
[00:08:34.770]But also, I just want to say that
[00:08:41.760]I'm really happy, there are so many people out there.
[00:08:44.790]I have never been on a stage like this.
[00:08:47.220]So this is,
[00:08:49.170]I should've had a little bit more wine
[00:08:51.340](audience laughs)
[00:08:52.173]to kind of straighten me out.
[00:08:54.328]But I'm happy that the landscape architects are here.
[00:08:58.770]But I have to say I'm even happier that those
[00:09:01.650]who are not landscape architects are here,
[00:09:05.670]because one of our biggest problems
[00:09:09.180]that I see that we're facing, seriously, is that
[00:09:14.190]we don't have enough landscape architects in the world.
[00:09:19.440]And we're going to find that dealing with nature
[00:09:24.423]and the land is going to be imperative,
[00:09:27.810]one of the major things we're going to be looking at
[00:09:30.270]to be able to help us in climate change.
[00:09:33.570]So I hope this goes well.
[00:09:36.510]I also have to apologize in advance
[00:09:38.700]that I probably am going to go too long,
[00:09:41.850]but the last part is kind of funny.
[00:09:43.830]So there we go.
[00:09:45.270]So today we're gonna hear about the urban landscape
[00:09:49.110]and how important that actually is going to be
[00:09:53.360]in terms of our future in climate change.
[00:09:56.640]And the focus will be on adaptation.
[00:09:59.070]However, there are other aspects of cities
[00:10:02.067]and planning and architecture that can be done
[00:10:05.250]and planned for that will help cities
[00:10:06.660]to protect themselves and their citizens.
[00:10:08.970]So first we're gonna talk about
[00:10:11.400]where are we really in climate change?
[00:10:13.590]And if you're just looking at the IPCC,
[00:10:15.523]you don't have a lot of information.
[00:10:18.390]So we are currently at 1.1 to 1.3,
[00:10:22.020]depending on where you are on earth,
[00:10:23.550]of warming above pre-industrial levels.
[00:10:26.280]And it's not gonna take much to hit
[00:10:29.010]our Paris Agreement target at 1.5 degrees.
[00:10:33.633]Geneva, in the September 13th,
[00:10:39.090]there was a climate change science,
[00:10:42.120]that they say that we are heading for the wrong direction,
[00:10:45.930]according to a new multi-agency report
[00:10:48.720]coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization.
[00:10:52.440]And it warns that "Without much more ambitious action,
[00:10:56.700]the physical and socioeconomic impacts of climate change
[00:11:00.360]will be increasingly devastating."
[00:11:02.970]And this is coming from scientists, not from politicians.
[00:11:07.620]So the report from the United in Science Organization
[00:11:11.910]shows that greenhouse gas concentrations
[00:11:14.370]continue to rise to record high.
[00:11:17.430]The report says that "The emissions
[00:11:19.260]reduction pledges for 2030 need to be seven times higher
[00:11:24.389]in order to be in line with the 1.5 degree goal
[00:11:27.090]of the Paris Agreement."
[00:11:29.160]We're probably not gonna do that.
[00:11:31.680]Sea level and ocean warming is rising much faster
[00:11:34.710]than the scientists have predicted.
[00:11:36.840]The Fifth IPCC Assessment Report revealed
[00:11:39.720]that the ocean had absorbed more than 93% of the heat
[00:11:44.130]from greenhouse gases, causing ocean temperatures to rise
[00:11:48.150]and negatively affecting the benefits
[00:11:49.918]that humans derive from the ocean,
[00:11:52.800]such as decreasing food security,
[00:11:55.350]increasing the prevalence of diseases,
[00:11:57.180]causing more extreme weather events,
[00:11:59.310]coastal degradation, bleaching of coral,
[00:12:01.510]and also the heat absorbed by the ocean
[00:12:04.950]will be re-released in the atmosphere in the future.
[00:12:09.270]So we're not done with global warming by a long shot.
[00:12:13.380]The world's glaciers are melting and receding at a rate,
[00:12:15.840]quote, "unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years".
[00:12:20.700]And the world's coastal cities
[00:12:21.930]are being warned to prepare for the possibility
[00:12:24.150]of two meters of sea level rise,
[00:12:26.310]if not more by the end of the century,
[00:12:28.350]with profound consequences for humanity.
[00:12:31.721]There is also a huge amount of carbon in the permafrost,
[00:12:35.280]about 1,500 gigatons.
[00:12:37.050]And I'm sure you all know a gigaton is a billion tons.
[00:12:40.260]So there are 1,500 billion tons of carbon dioxide.
[00:12:44.373]And once the feedback loops are set into motion,
[00:12:48.690]there is going to be real problems,
[00:12:51.810]where more and more methane will be released.
[00:12:54.690]And if that happens, there will be no pulling it back.
[00:12:58.890]So up to 90% of coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean
[00:13:01.920]may bleach or degrade by the year 2050.
[00:13:04.950]70% of the oxygen that you and I and we all breathe
[00:13:09.720]comes from the ocean.
[00:13:12.390]Reefs are the foundation of ocean health,
[00:13:14.970]and without them, marine life with cease to exist.
[00:13:18.300]No coral reefs means no oxygen from the ocean,
[00:13:22.759]which will definitely make life
[00:13:25.530]a little bit more difficult for us.
[00:13:29.160]By 2050, countries will have to be able
[00:13:31.110]to feed their own populations,
[00:13:33.090]and therefore there will be less trade in food.
[00:13:36.540]And the bottom line is that cities, states, and countries
[00:13:38.820]will have to be able to become
[00:13:40.140]more and more self-sufficient.
[00:13:43.920]And for most of human history, people have lived
[00:13:45.960]within a surprisingly narrow range of temperatures
[00:13:48.360]in the places where climate
[00:13:49.680]supported abundant food production.
[00:13:52.991]But as the planet is warming,
[00:13:54.880]the band of heat is actually shifting north.
[00:13:59.820]Now, because of all of this,
[00:14:03.746]there's a great climate migration that is starting.
[00:14:09.180]And this is going to be affecting cities all over the world,
[00:14:14.790]because people are going to be looking for work in cities
[00:14:18.480]because they've lost their homes.
[00:14:21.480]And migrants move for many reasons,
[00:14:23.430]and the models help use
[00:14:25.140]which migrants are driven primarily by climate.
[00:14:30.360]Now I don't have that here,
[00:14:31.650]but basically there are lots and lots of articles
[00:14:37.568]that really talk about the great climate migration,
[00:14:40.710]which is really happening now.
[00:14:45.073]Next, there are a few more things
[00:14:47.520]that you should know about climate change, beyond emissions.
[00:14:53.610]I'm going to go through a number of scientific articles
[00:14:56.670]that I collected as kind of evidence to create
[00:14:59.550]a different perspective about whether or not
[00:15:02.250]we will be able to avoid climate catastrophe,
[00:15:05.940]even if we magically make the global goal
[00:15:08.910]of the Paris Agreement.
[00:15:13.530]A huge problem is that we have
[00:15:16.620]all this giant blanket of carbon dioxide
[00:15:22.620]carbon dioxide up in the atmosphere, 1,500 gigatons.
[00:15:26.040]So this is a data visualization that shows Mount Carbon,
[00:15:30.180]made from the carbon dioxide we've put into the atmosphere.
[00:15:33.750]And Mount Carbon is 10 times higher than Mount Everest.
[00:15:38.310]So as long as we have this thick blanket
[00:15:40.950]of carbon dioxide overhead,
[00:15:42.300]our planet will actually keep heat trapped.
[00:15:48.172]David Keyes, who's a Harvard physicist
[00:15:50.610]and geoengineer and environmentalist,
[00:15:54.240]writes, quote, "Carbon casts a long shadow onto the future.
[00:15:57.810]A thousand years after we stop pumping carbon into the air,
[00:16:00.525]the warming will still be half as large
[00:16:03.210]as if it was on the day we stopped."
[00:16:05.460]So that means that we're gonna need
[00:16:07.170]a lot of carbon capture machines.
[00:16:10.140]The Arctic ice cap reflects heat back out
[00:16:13.230]due to its high albedo.
[00:16:15.060]And just in case you don't want know what albedo is,
[00:16:17.370]albedo is a measurement of a material and its reflectivity.
[00:16:23.160]So it's a pretty simple idea.
[00:16:24.630]It's how much light and heat does it reflect?
[00:16:29.010]So the fact that the the ice cap is melting,
[00:16:35.520]we have a much bigger ocean, which is absorbing more heat.
[00:16:41.400]The scientists are doing an amazing job
[00:16:43.410]working on climate change.
[00:16:44.460]However, they are not shy about letting us know
[00:16:46.771]the things they don't know,
[00:16:48.750]which they call the known unknowns,
[00:16:51.030]as well as what they call the unknown unknowns,
[00:16:53.310]which is they don't know what they don't know,
[00:16:55.140]but they know that they're out there.
[00:16:57.480]So given the complexities of many of the Earth's systems,
[00:17:00.300]such as the atmosphere and ocean currents,
[00:17:02.670]we don't have the computing sophistication yet
[00:17:06.960]to model these things.
[00:17:08.850]So that's going to be quantum computing.
[00:17:12.240]So there's a lot that the scientists
[00:17:14.190]don't really know about climate change.
[00:17:17.520]And they know it.
[00:17:18.690]They know they don't know it.
[00:17:20.430]But now scientists have determined that arctic fires
[00:17:23.010]can reshape a landscape for decades, by thawing the ground,
[00:17:26.790]allowing more methane to release into the atmosphere.
[00:17:29.520]And these northern blazes are increasing the inability
[00:17:33.480]to keep the global heating
[00:17:35.070]from eclipsing international goals.
[00:17:36.930]So it just means that it's a feedback loop
[00:17:39.630]that will actually bring up more methane
[00:17:42.390]and have more fires.
[00:17:45.750]Warming oceans release heat into the atmosphere.
[00:17:49.320]And much of that extra sunken heat
[00:17:51.690]will eventually be belched out back into the atmosphere,
[00:17:54.930]because of the overheating seas.
[00:17:57.960]And as I said, they're actually warming much more quickly.
[00:18:03.480]And the effects of the ocean warming
[00:18:06.000]may be imperceptible to us, but they are far reaching,
[00:18:10.290]and they're driving fishing fleets further out to the ocean
[00:18:13.560]and ushering tropical fish into polar waters
[00:18:15.780]and worsening flood hazards for coastal communities.
[00:18:19.170]The bottom line for the ocean
[00:18:20.760]is that the scientists really don't know that much,
[00:18:24.270]which is going on and what's happening there,
[00:18:28.740]More carbon dioxide is being put into the atmosphere
[00:18:31.770]due to the upwelling process of the ocean floor
[00:18:35.790]and carbon dioxide that has been absorbed
[00:18:38.040]and sunk to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean
[00:18:40.440]for thousands of years is starting to up well
[00:18:44.160]due to the warming of ocean currents in the Southern Ocean.
[00:18:48.660]And this is going to have great implications
[00:18:50.370]for fighting climate change.
[00:18:51.420]So it's just the different currents are starting to pick up
[00:18:56.174]all this carbon dioxide embedded
[00:18:58.530]down in the soils of the ocean
[00:19:01.230]and putting it back up into the atmosphere.
[00:19:03.270]So we don't even know what that really means
[00:19:05.010]or when that's gonna happen.
[00:19:08.460]That's the New York Times.
[00:19:09.930]They always have something happy for you.
[00:19:12.240]So as the Earth warms up,
[00:19:14.100]there's more water in the atmosphere,
[00:19:15.600]and therefore more clouds.
[00:19:17.250]Many scientists had hoped that more clouds
[00:19:19.140]with higher albedo would help to moderate warming
[00:19:22.320]and balance the climate system.
[00:19:24.990]But this study shows the opposite is true.
[00:19:27.990]These clouds are now less bright,
[00:19:30.540]due to changing ocean currents,
[00:19:31.797]and are actually absorbing more heat.
[00:19:37.110]James Hansen, I guess you've probably heard of him,
[00:19:39.960]he's a climate scientist who shook Washington
[00:19:42.180]when he told Congress 33 years ago,
[00:19:44.087]in the 1980s, that human emissions
[00:19:47.550]of greenhouse gases were cooking the planet.
[00:19:50.250]I believe that Hansen is one
[00:19:52.620]of the most important climate scientists in the world,
[00:19:55.470]and whatever he says should be listened to,
[00:19:59.730]Hansen is now warning that he expects
[00:20:02.790]the rate of global warming to double in the next 20 years.
[00:20:06.840]He's warned scientists that they are
[00:20:09.330]dangerously underestimating the climate impact
[00:20:12.150]of reducing sulfate aerosol pollution.
[00:20:15.660]Sulfates are very reflective,
[00:20:18.390]and help to cool the environment.
[00:20:20.850]In this case, global warming is being accelerated
[00:20:23.670]by the decline of sulfate aerosol pollution
[00:20:27.060]that we've cleaned up.
[00:20:27.990]In other words, we've taken down pollution
[00:20:30.240]that we shouldn't have.
[00:20:31.740]But it turns out that this could lead global temperatures
[00:20:34.710]to surge well beyond the levels
[00:20:37.050]prescribed by the Paris Climate Agreement
[00:20:39.600]as soon as 2040, quote, "Unless appropriate countermeasures
[00:20:45.090]are taken", end quote.
[00:20:48.030]I don't know what those measures are,
[00:20:49.260]but just putting more aerosols, sulfate aerosols back.
[00:20:54.030]According to the research papers,
[00:20:55.740]crossing into a hothouse Earth period,
[00:20:58.260]would see a higher global temperature
[00:20:59.820]than at any time in the past 1.2 million years.
[00:21:02.820]The climate might stabilize,
[00:21:04.230]with a four to five degrees of warming,
[00:21:05.697]and the seas would be 30 to 100 feet high.
[00:21:10.290]Parts of the earth would be uninhabited.
[00:21:12.510]Even if countries succeeded in meeting
[00:21:14.460]their carbon dioxide targets,
[00:21:15.840]we could still lurch into an irreversible pathway
[00:21:19.390]if we continue on like this.
[00:21:21.660]And according to the authors of this paper,
[00:21:24.180]the current plans to cut carbon may not be enough
[00:21:28.350]if their analysis is correct.
[00:21:30.450]This is written a bit ago,
[00:21:34.530]and their analysis is correct.
[00:21:38.400]The scientific consensus is that no amount of adaptation
[00:21:42.120]or resilient planning can lead us
[00:21:44.940]to a stable secure climate future.
[00:21:47.880]That's where we are.
[00:21:50.430]However, adaptation can at least deal with
[00:21:53.370]the immediate impacts of climate change,
[00:21:55.860]and that's where we're going.
[00:21:59.400]The other problems that we're having
[00:22:00.900]is that we've fallen short of goals.
[00:22:04.050]We have to put our global leadership
[00:22:06.198]and the oil companies into our evaluation
[00:22:08.820]if things are going to move forward or not.
[00:22:12.360]This is an unknown, and it's an unknowable,
[00:22:14.820]and very impactful part of the climate change predictions.
[00:22:18.210]Unfortunately, the problem are humans.
[00:22:22.800]That's a big problem.
[00:22:23.940]That's probably the biggest problem.
[00:22:26.070]And the target of 1.5 degree centigrade,
[00:22:28.860]set seven years ago, when there was less carbon in the sky,
[00:22:32.700]will almost certainly be overshot.
[00:22:35.730]That really is a consensus from most of the scientists.
[00:22:40.230]We're not gonna make that 1.5 degrees.
[00:22:42.870]And many climate experts believe that the outcome of that,
[00:22:47.730]of not making it, is inevitable.
[00:22:50.010]Glen Peters, a climate policy expert and a research director
[00:22:53.910]at the Center for International Climate
[00:22:55.590]and Environmental Research, in Norway,
[00:22:58.050]said in an email to the E&E News, quote,
[00:23:01.957]"Individually and private, I don't think I know
[00:23:04.290]many climate scientists that think
[00:23:06.240]the 1.5 degree centigrade is possible."
[00:23:10.053]So when you start reading about it,
[00:23:12.930]you find that to be true.
[00:23:15.210]They don't think that's gonna be possible.
[00:23:17.610]And recently there was a 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference
[00:23:21.690]held in Montreal.
[00:23:22.620]I don't know if you're aware of that.
[00:23:25.590]There were about 190 countries that came together.
[00:23:30.240]The problem is that biodiversity is declining worldwide,
[00:23:34.530]at rates never seen before in human history.
[00:23:38.340]The issue of biodiversity is extremely pressing,
[00:23:42.060]but it has been overshadowed by climate change.
[00:23:46.290]Insects are at the base of the food chain,
[00:23:48.986]but they build rich soils,
[00:23:50.880]which contain protein and minerals.
[00:23:53.070]And proteins, guess where they come from?
[00:23:55.590]They come from plants.
[00:23:57.630]We eat the plants,
[00:23:58.680]and therefore we have needed protein and minerals,
[00:24:01.450]and that's how we get them.
[00:24:03.390]And every living animal needs protein and minerals.
[00:24:07.290]Pollinators are also collapsing,
[00:24:09.060]such as bees, butterflies, bats.
[00:24:11.730]25% of our food needs these pollinators.
[00:24:17.010]Biodiversity, in case you're unsure what that is,
[00:24:20.460]is the variety of life on the planet
[00:24:22.560]and are fundamental to ecosystems.
[00:24:25.500]The loss of biodiversity is unprecedented in history,
[00:24:29.130]except for the loss of the dinosaurs,
[00:24:31.200]and most life 66 million years ago,
[00:24:33.750]that's when the last kind of loss of biodiversity happened.
[00:24:39.720]So losing biodiversity is like a Jenga tower.
[00:24:43.320]I don't know whether you guys play Jenga, we did,
[00:24:46.200]where you build a tower out of pieces of wood,
[00:24:51.000]and where you can take out the pieces of wood,
[00:24:54.330]out of the tower, it often stays standing.
[00:24:58.290]So the person who actually takes
[00:24:59.700]the last piece out and falls, loses.
[00:25:03.180]But the scientists don't know
[00:25:05.040]what combination of pieces will make it collapse.
[00:25:08.970]That is an analogy to biodiversity.
[00:25:11.670]They don't know what will happen
[00:25:13.950]until it's completely collapsed.
[00:25:19.110]So there are three major questions
[00:25:22.980]that came out of this convention.
[00:25:26.520]What are the three most important things,
[00:25:29.010]or the most dangerous things,
[00:25:30.993]that we're facing in climate change?
[00:25:33.600]And what is actually dealing,
[00:25:36.922]what are the processes and problems
[00:25:40.170]that are actually taking down biodiversity?
[00:25:43.980]So the first thing about diversity, the problems are:
[00:25:49.860]Humans, taking over ecosystems for our own purposes.
[00:25:56.640]Two, the direct exploitation by humans of both land and sea.
[00:26:04.380]The last one is climate change.
[00:26:07.560]We are the perpetrators, we're the perps.
[00:26:11.010]So biodiversity underpins global nutrition
[00:26:14.160]and food security.
[00:26:16.380]Millions of species work together to provide us
[00:26:18.600]with a large array of fruits, vegetables,
[00:26:20.460]and animal products essential to a healthy balanced diet.
[00:26:24.300]But we are losing them.
[00:26:27.270]We, however, are at the top of the food chain.
[00:26:31.620]Nobody needs us.
[00:26:33.360]So if biodiversity goes,
[00:26:35.910]it will be more dangerous to humans than climate change is.
[00:26:39.690]In other words, humanity is more dangerous.
[00:26:46.470]The loss of a humanity is more dangerous
[00:26:48.840]due to the loss of biodiversity.
[00:26:51.690]We can kind of make it through climate change, kind of.
[00:26:55.800]So how do we stop unchecked global warming?
[00:26:59.070]That's what the scientists call what's going on now.
[00:27:01.830]It's just moving up.
[00:27:03.360]It's getting warmer and warmer, hotter and hotter.
[00:27:05.907]And as we know, it's the heat that is creating
[00:27:11.130]most of all the impacts that we're feeling.
[00:27:15.600]So how do we stop unchecked global warming?
[00:27:17.880]And this is a very important, but overlooked piece,
[00:27:20.276]of the climate change discourse, except for the scientists.
[00:27:25.770]And solutions for the built environment
[00:27:28.140]and how the urban landscape can save cities,
[00:27:30.750]I think is something very important
[00:27:32.730]that we have to talk about,
[00:27:36.060]mostly because when we build cities,
[00:27:38.670]the people in the built environment,
[00:27:40.710]they don't even think about
[00:27:41.640]landscape architecture or the land.
[00:27:44.430]But it's time to start thinking about it.
[00:27:48.060]The overwhelming evidence of the IPCC,
[00:27:50.550]I'm gonna talk a little bit more about biodiversity
[00:27:54.460]and the land and even a little bit about nature,
[00:27:58.980]but biodiversity in the ecosystems
[00:28:02.730]are really the place of biodiversity.
[00:28:06.300]But they are all in trouble.
[00:28:10.140]Biodiversity and ecosystem services,
[00:28:12.150]they both present a very ominous picture.
[00:28:15.030]Biodiversity is critical to health to ecosystems.
[00:28:19.170]And as the components are highly connected,
[00:28:22.200]if one of the components is lost,
[00:28:24.600]the entire ecosystem can fail.
[00:28:27.540]What's happening now is
[00:28:28.500]our global biodiversity is declining so quickly,
[00:28:31.020]and the rate of species extinction is accelerating,
[00:28:34.170]with grave impacts on people
[00:28:35.910]around the world now very likely.
[00:28:40.140]So halting deforestation.
[00:28:43.365]This is coming from COP26 and some of the articles
[00:28:47.760]that came from COP26, which was interesting
[00:28:50.070]and actually focused on adaptation.
[00:28:53.100]So over a hundred countries have been pledged
[00:28:55.500]to halt and reverse deforestation.
[00:28:58.530]Land clearing accounts for almost a quarter
[00:29:01.050]of greenhouse gas emissions, largely to produce agriculture,
[00:29:04.560]like palm oil, soy, and beef.
[00:29:07.380]Leaders signed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration
[00:29:09.600]on Forest and Land Use, committing to protect vast areas,
[00:29:13.380]like the Siberian Taiga and the Congo Basin.
[00:29:17.201]In Prince Charles' words,
[00:29:19.897]"After billions of years of evolution,
[00:29:22.427]nature is our best teacher."
[00:29:27.420]I agree with him.
[00:29:29.160]Gates observed that climate adaptation
[00:29:31.230]has taken a backseat to mitigation,
[00:29:33.990]'cause everybody's worried about
[00:29:35.610]bringing down carbon dioxide,
[00:29:36.870]and making a lot of money on it, also, with their EDFs,
[00:29:40.500]which it's a whole economy.
[00:29:45.150]But we don't really have the ability to really judge
[00:29:50.310]whether these EDFs are taking down carbon dioxide.
[00:29:53.280]They're not.
[00:29:54.300]So they don't really count.
[00:29:56.858]But the third shift was that we saw
[00:29:58.890]even more visibility for climate adaptation.
[00:30:01.500]He said that if we don't help people
[00:30:03.210]in low and middle income countries thrive,
[00:30:06.180]despite the warming that is already underway,
[00:30:09.060]the world will lose the fight against extreme poverty.
[00:30:12.570]And we need to think about this,
[00:30:13.980]because we created this situation.
[00:30:17.070]He ended by saying, quote,
[00:30:19.387]"That's what the focus on adaptation should address,
[00:30:21.930]helping the poorest people and nations of the world
[00:30:24.660]to adapt to climate change."
[00:30:27.420]However, I don't totally agree with what he says,
[00:30:31.200]because it sounds like he thinks we're gonna be
[00:30:34.680]dandy here in the global north, no problem.
[00:30:39.240]He's completely wrong.
[00:30:41.190]And actually most of us think the same way as Bill Gates.
[00:30:45.307]"We're fine. Not a problem.
[00:30:47.100]It's just getting a little hot."
[00:30:48.780]But as climate adaptation is absolutely necessary
[00:30:51.510]to protect cities around the world from climate change,
[00:30:54.150]and we in the global north countries believe
[00:30:56.730]that saving our cities are going to be
[00:30:58.950]accomplished through, guess what?
[00:31:01.620]New technologies.
[00:31:03.570]This is a pipe dream,
[00:31:05.730]from a kid who is stuck on video games.
[00:31:08.400]Unless we better understand the benefits of nature
[00:31:10.800]and that being too smart can be stupid.
[00:31:13.500]And if we continue to believe that we are going to be saved
[00:31:16.560]by smart building, smart houses, smart appliances,
[00:31:21.210]smart cars, et cetera, et cetera, smart technology,
[00:31:26.430]it can help us a lot.
[00:31:28.890]However, without nature,
[00:31:31.125]and working with nature-based solutions,
[00:31:34.320]millions and probably billions of people will perish.
[00:31:37.501]We are in a very dangerous place,
[00:31:39.780]and the need to transform our position
[00:31:41.640]of the Earth's captain and commander
[00:31:44.040]to a supporter of Captain Earth,
[00:31:47.190]we need to get in line with that,
[00:31:49.080]and work both with our technologies
[00:31:52.190]and understanding what we need to repair and support nature.
[00:31:58.230]We will all depend on adaptation to protect ourselves,
[00:32:01.080]here in the United States.
[00:32:03.480]But especially this is more important
[00:32:05.850]to the global south countries as they're not rich enough
[00:32:08.880]to build new infrastructure and technologies,
[00:32:11.250]such as windmills for energy.
[00:32:14.160]So after being in Africa all last October
[00:32:18.720]and lecturing in 12 different universities,
[00:32:23.010]I really saw Africa.
[00:32:25.650]And because they don't really teach landscape architecture,
[00:32:29.916]they are going to be getting money
[00:32:31.740]from the United States and Europe for adaptation.
[00:32:35.820]But who's gonna do that?
[00:32:37.620]That's not their wheelhouse.
[00:32:39.660]Unless architecture is starting
[00:32:41.040]to learn about nature, fundamentally.
[00:32:43.950]They will not know what to do with that money
[00:32:46.110]in order to protect themselves,
[00:32:47.550]because they don't have any landscape architecture.
[00:32:51.360]So right now, I woke up one day, I said, well, okay,
[00:32:54.540]I was asked to actually create that for them,
[00:32:57.480]for every university, and obviously I couldn't do that,
[00:33:00.030]but I woke up one morning while I was there
[00:33:02.250]and I came up with an idea which is like,
[00:33:06.487]"Why doesn't Harvard give some money?
[00:33:10.950]But more importantly, some information
[00:33:13.620]to the people of the global south,
[00:33:16.380]just in terms of inequity and trying to deal with that.
[00:33:20.700]And that we would have a Harvard Pan-African initiative
[00:33:24.150]to share our knowledge with Africa
[00:33:26.100]by creating an online course
[00:33:28.500]on climate change and adaptation,
[00:33:31.530]which will be based in the landscape architecture program,
[00:33:34.770]as adaptation is the landscape architect's wheelhouse.
[00:33:38.790]And they will need to understand
[00:33:41.310]what they not only need to do, but how to do it.
[00:33:46.710]So let's go on and now talk about cities
[00:33:50.220]and why are cities so important
[00:33:52.590]in addressing climate change?
[00:33:53.970]And this article says that ending climate change
[00:33:56.490]begins in the city, and cities are a key to combating
[00:34:00.300]climate change due to their size and ability to change.
[00:34:03.180]However, this article addresses
[00:34:05.124]only mitigation and technology.
[00:34:08.730]Oh that's shocking.
[00:34:10.290]But this really frustrates me, 'cause, well, you know what?
[00:34:15.000]That's not gonna make it.
[00:34:16.890]So the urban land has very little written about it,
[00:34:19.380]how to protect our cities.
[00:34:20.307]And this is a terrible oversight,
[00:34:21.960]most likely due to the lack of understanding
[00:34:23.880]of the science of climate change, number one,
[00:34:26.460]and also, most people view the landscape as a commodity,
[00:34:30.360]to build on, and an opportunity to decorate buildings.
[00:34:33.840]That's what most people think about landscape architects.
[00:34:37.020]So the cities will be going through extreme changes
[00:34:40.200]as they will be heavily impacted by climate change.
[00:34:42.720]And this means that cities will need to create
[00:34:45.240]more open land within our cities.
[00:34:49.440]And I'll tell you why.
[00:34:50.880]And thus landscape architecture will be central
[00:34:53.784]to how we plan and design our cities.
[00:34:56.730]And this will mean that the land that the city sits on
[00:35:00.660]will become more and more valuable than ever,
[00:35:03.870]but only if we can let it work as part of nature.
[00:35:08.640]70% of the world's population will live in cities by 2030.
[00:35:12.900]The world's population is projected
[00:35:14.580]to reach 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.
[00:35:20.880]And the report also estimates that by 2030
[00:35:24.000]the world could have gone from 31 to 43 mega cities.
[00:35:27.930]So you architects are gonna be very busy.
[00:35:31.491]Bill Gates has calculated that the world will have to build
[00:35:34.650]the equivalent of one New York City each month until 2060.
[00:35:41.070]So yeah, you guys are gonna be really busy,
[00:35:44.130]in order to create enough housing
[00:35:46.080]for the expanding global population by 2060.
[00:35:50.610]Cities are key contributors to climate change,
[00:35:53.130]as urban activities are the major source
[00:35:55.320]of greenhouse gas emissions.
[00:35:57.510]And cities consume two-thirds of the world's energy,
[00:36:00.870]creating 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions.
[00:36:04.329]But the heat that they generate are like smokestacks,
[00:36:08.220]putting up even more heat into the atmosphere.
[00:36:12.150]And the impacts of climate change have costly impacts
[00:36:14.480]in cities' basic services, such as infrastructures,
[00:36:17.730]housing, human livelihood and health,
[00:36:20.430]mostly caused by the rising heat.
[00:36:23.970]It's true that the redesign of cities would have the biggest
[00:36:26.640]and positive ability to combat climate change
[00:36:29.400]through taking down carbon dioxide.
[00:36:32.160]However, that is totally dependent
[00:36:34.410]on bringing down emissions.
[00:36:36.570]So as the planet continues to heat up,
[00:36:39.660]what can cities do to protect themselves?
[00:36:42.420]Buildings alone won't be able to cool down a city.
[00:36:51.390]Well, cities are a real integral part of solutions,
[00:36:58.740]but in order to save our cities,
[00:37:02.610]we are going to have to integrate performative landscapes.
[00:37:07.260]Not just decorate the buildings,
[00:37:09.570]but actually have the land working for all the impacts
[00:37:12.750]that cities are going to find themselves in,
[00:37:15.390]which is called adaptation,
[00:37:17.280]to provide livable environments for people.
[00:37:20.130]And while climate change has different impacts
[00:37:21.930]across the globe, cities often share the same issues.
[00:37:28.290]And cities will suffer heat island effect
[00:37:30.450]as the temperatures within cities can be
[00:37:31.950]up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the outskirts.
[00:37:36.570]And it is considered by science as the most harmful
[00:37:39.960]of the effects of climate change, on cities,
[00:37:42.606]and has a profound impact on both
[00:37:45.189]human health and energy consumption.
[00:37:48.960]Urban heat island effect is the most dangerous
[00:37:51.870]and deadly of all climate effects.
[00:37:54.278]And extreme heat is far more lethal than hurricanes
[00:37:57.540]or tornadoes or earthquakes or even all of those combined,
[00:38:02.760]in any given year here in the United States.
[00:38:06.930]It's heat island effect.
[00:38:10.110]And historically it's heat waves that cause
[00:38:12.090]the most weather related deaths in the US.
[00:38:13.950]Cities are often much more hotter, as I said.
[00:38:17.070]And therefore, people living in cities
[00:38:19.617]are in much more risk than others.
[00:38:25.230]So lethal heat is somewhat the new normal
[00:38:27.900]in many of the global south countries.
[00:38:29.730]And urban heat island effect is familiar
[00:38:31.470]to around 80% of the world's population now,
[00:38:35.010]at a global temperature of just 1.2.
[00:38:40.230]The effects of urban heat island effect are these:
[00:38:43.500]A worse air quality.
[00:38:44.910]Worse water quality.
[00:38:46.260]Respiratory illnesses.
[00:38:48.600]Children and elderly are more vulnerable.
[00:38:50.820]Nighttime temperatures are even hotter,
[00:38:52.740]because the buildings are actually releasing the heat
[00:38:55.530]and people have to leave their buildings.
[00:38:57.990]There's risks of heat stroke.
[00:38:59.850]The use of more energy for air conditioning,
[00:39:01.710]causing strained energy resources.
[00:39:04.050]Stresses native plants and animal species.
[00:39:07.624]And also supports new vector-borne illnesses.
[00:39:12.600]The drivers of the urban heat island effect,
[00:39:14.700]I'm sure the architects know about this,
[00:39:17.280]but urban materials such as concrete and asphalt
[00:39:19.770]absorb heat and then release them.
[00:39:22.350]Urban geometries,
[00:39:23.490]how you actually put your buildings can trap heat.
[00:39:28.410]Waste heat from transport, human activities.
[00:39:30.810]Weather and geography.
[00:39:32.370]And loss of tree canopies.
[00:39:34.440]You just cut down the trees to build the buildings.
[00:39:36.330]But that was not a good idea.
[00:39:39.240]We're gonna have to figure out how to redo that.
[00:39:43.410]So reduced natural landscapes in urban areas
[00:39:47.100]cause much of the problem.
[00:39:48.720]Trees, vegetation tend to cool the air by providing shade,
[00:39:51.750]transpiring water from plant leaves,
[00:39:53.820]and evaporating surface water.
[00:39:55.860]Hard dry surfaces in urban areas provide
[00:39:57.829]less shade and moisture that natural landscapes,
[00:40:00.930]and therefore contribute to higher temperatures.
[00:40:04.560]Areas with less trees typify climate inequity,
[00:40:08.199]as less greening creates less value,
[00:40:11.370]and areas with less value suffer more from heat.
[00:40:15.780]The consequence of sea level rise,
[00:40:17.520]storm surges and high tides will continue
[00:40:19.410]to devastate coastal cities around the world,
[00:40:21.546]costing cities huge amounts of money for repairs,
[00:40:25.350]as these storms impact infrastructure,
[00:40:27.330]housing, human livelihoods and health.
[00:40:29.610]They're going to need a landscape for that.
[00:40:32.430]The world's coastal cities are being warned to prepare
[00:40:34.620]for the possible two meter sea level rise by 2050.
[00:40:38.280]Although, if any of the Antarctic ice shelves go,
[00:40:44.820]it'll be a lot sooner than that, and they're starting to go.
[00:40:49.830]And as you see, New York,
[00:40:51.810]which is up in the left hand corner,
[00:40:56.790]is not going to be doing well.
[00:40:58.260]And I live there, but I found a house that's very high up,
[00:41:01.949](audience chuckles)
[00:41:03.729]and by 2050, it's great,
[00:41:06.450]but it's an island.
[00:41:08.820]Yay. Okay.
[00:41:10.350]But at least it's an island.
[00:41:12.210]All right, you gotta look.
[00:41:14.040]So droughts will also be an issue for cities,
[00:41:16.230]as the climate is unstable.
[00:41:18.180]We have too much rain, then we don't have enough rain,
[00:41:21.390]and that's just going to continue.
[00:41:23.610]A growing list of cities in the world
[00:41:25.140]are facing serious challenges
[00:41:26.640]in providing adequate fresh water to the residents.
[00:41:30.150]And the United Nations predicts that by 2025,
[00:41:32.610]two-thirds of the world's population
[00:41:35.190]may be living under water stress conditions.
[00:41:38.190]And these are 10 cities that I put up here.
[00:41:40.356]But actually India is in the worst situation.
[00:41:46.050]Globally, agriculture will be highly affected,
[00:41:48.900]due to the irregularity of the climate.
[00:41:51.240]As a matter of fact, so much of our food
[00:41:53.160]comes from the global south countries,
[00:41:54.660]because they are countries that produce agriculture,
[00:41:59.310]like you do here.
[00:42:01.470]But because of the irregularity of the climate
[00:42:03.831]and because of too much rain, not enough rain,
[00:42:06.425]because of ocean invading the coast,
[00:42:11.245]there's less and less food being done.
[00:42:14.280]And this'll be a problem,
[00:42:15.390]as food production goes down and populations grow,
[00:42:18.600]and trading food is already now starting to crumble.
[00:42:22.320]Countries are now starting to hoard food,
[00:42:24.150]and by 2050 countries will have to provide food
[00:42:26.910]for their own people as agriculture will likely diminish,
[00:42:29.760]as global arable lands are diminishing,
[00:42:32.910]and the climate reduces agricultural output.
[00:42:36.270]The bottom line is that states, countries, and cities
[00:42:39.690]will have to become more and more self-sustainable.
[00:42:44.271]So the failure of urban infrastructure
[00:42:47.370]is actually very common in other cities, they're typical.
[00:42:52.200]So this is New York.
[00:42:54.810]So in New York there's over
[00:42:56.850]a thousand miles of New York City water mains
[00:42:59.040]that are more than a hundred years old,
[00:43:01.590]leading to frequent and disruptive breaks.
[00:43:04.410]And service infrastructure in New York
[00:43:06.450]is increasing the risk of disruption,
[00:43:09.780]leading to cascading failures during extreme weather
[00:43:12.930]and climate related disruptions,
[00:43:15.630]which is happening in floods,
[00:43:18.148]because there's so much concrete
[00:43:20.490]and asphalt and hard surfaces,
[00:43:22.410]there's no place for the water to go
[00:43:24.090]to percolate back into the soil
[00:43:25.770]and actually repair our aquifers.
[00:43:30.544]But in the meantime,
[00:43:31.680]it's killing people in their basement places.
[00:43:39.600]So urban dwellers are particularly vulnerable,
[00:43:41.820]in part because many of these infrastructure systems
[00:43:44.220]are reliant on each other, like in New York.
[00:43:47.580]And as climate change impacts increase,
[00:43:49.890]climate-related events will have large consequences
[00:43:53.340]for people living in cities.
[00:43:56.190]Lastly, New York can't afford to repair
[00:43:58.110]all the failing infrastructures.
[00:44:00.090]So this is also true for most cities.
[00:44:02.430]And if New York can't figure out
[00:44:04.170]how to deal with their infrastructure,
[00:44:06.000]there are a lot of other cities who will follow.
[00:44:09.330]As infrastructures crumble or fail,
[00:44:11.880]we'll need to be less dependent on centralized systems,
[00:44:15.270]as cities and populations have grown and sprawled
[00:44:18.090]beyond the ability for centralized services
[00:44:20.670]to deal with extreme climate events.
[00:44:24.210]The good news is that rebuilding infrastructure
[00:44:26.430]gives us a chance to update urban infrastructure,
[00:44:30.330]because the infrastructure we have was in the Anthropocene.
[00:44:33.900]We're on another...
[00:44:40.542]We're in the Holocene now.
[00:44:42.210]We're on a different planet.
[00:44:44.850]So we have to actually understand,
[00:44:46.200]we need to build and design and engineer for another planet.
[00:44:50.860]So to deal with climate change,
[00:44:53.670]which our former infrastructure wasn't built for,
[00:44:56.490]it does give us an opportunity
[00:44:58.020]to integrate nature-based solutions,
[00:45:00.060]which are far less expensive and a lot more sustainable.
[00:45:06.510]This is my agenda for the future of our cities.
[00:45:10.710]The goal is to design for efficiency,
[00:45:13.080]sustainability, and self-reliance.
[00:45:17.280]So we will plan and design
[00:45:19.650]for efficient land use policies in cities.
[00:45:23.040]We have to build for proximity.
[00:45:25.860]We need to build for renewable energy and efficiency.
[00:45:29.460]We have to build for efficient future public transport.
[00:45:32.100]This is key.
[00:45:34.890]In flexibility,
[00:45:36.050]we need to increase the area of the urban landscape.
[00:45:40.470]We need to create sustainability for our food and water.
[00:45:45.810]We need self-sufficiency through recycling.
[00:45:50.430]We need our circular economies.
[00:45:53.550]We need urban biodiversity.
[00:45:56.130]We insert working ecological systems,
[00:45:59.490]not tree pits, but ecological systems.
[00:46:04.710]I'll talk about that a little bit later,
[00:46:06.510]into cities, God forbid.
[00:46:09.060]And beauty and human health.
[00:46:11.400]That's what we need to do for our future cities.
[00:46:13.830]And there are four things we need to do
[00:46:15.270]to address climate change.
[00:46:16.860]We have to stop emissions,
[00:46:18.870]take down atmospheric carbon dioxide,
[00:46:21.750]cool the earth,
[00:46:22.950]and lastly, we must regenerate nature.
[00:46:27.840]And there are three important types of climate responses.
[00:46:30.262]Mitigation goes to the root of the problem,
[00:46:33.210]which is greenhouse gas.
[00:46:34.860]Mitigation is about stopping carbon dioxide emissions
[00:46:37.800]and drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide.
[00:46:41.910]Adaptation is also a type of mitigation,
[00:46:44.190]which addresses the impacts of climate change.
[00:46:46.590]And adaptation refers to adjustments
[00:46:48.930]in ecological, social, or economic systems,
[00:46:52.560]in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli
[00:46:57.208]and their effects or impacts.
[00:47:00.300]It refers to changes in processes, practices, and structures
[00:47:03.510]to moderate potential damages,
[00:47:05.970]or to benefit from opportunities
[00:47:08.580]associated with climate change.
[00:47:09.900]'Cause there are a lot of opportunities out there too.
[00:47:12.330]And in simple terms, countries and communities
[00:47:15.600]need to develop adaptation solutions and implement action
[00:47:19.710]to respond to the impacts of climate change
[00:47:22.080]that are already happening,
[00:47:24.450]as well as we need to prepare for future impacts.
[00:47:29.190]And you know what, guys?
[00:47:30.360]We need to do that now, not wait until it happens.
[00:47:34.380]So "Drawdown", I hope all of you have read this.
[00:47:36.990]I have made all of my students get this book.
[00:47:40.350]I've even made all the people in my company get this book.
[00:47:44.280]It's a very, very useful book.
[00:47:46.470]And it's one of the most impactful, important books
[00:47:49.110]I've ever read, that gives clear ideas
[00:47:50.850]on what we can do to draw down carbon dioxide.
[00:47:53.686]Hawken organized a team to map, model, and measure
[00:47:58.200]the most substantive solutions
[00:48:01.200]which could make carbon removal a reality.
[00:48:04.050]The work is done by 230 research fellows from 22 countries,
[00:48:09.003]and the work was done and proposed
[00:48:13.131]100 solutions to draw down greenhouse gases.
[00:48:17.280]And "Drawdown" is about how to mitigate
[00:48:19.320]or draw down that 1,500 gigatons of carbon dioxide
[00:48:22.650]using existing technologies we have today, and in new ways.
[00:48:28.620]The book is largely a reference book,
[00:48:30.210]both smart and easy to digest.
[00:48:32.310]And it is a bible we actually use in our office.
[00:48:34.920]So I suggest you guys get it.
[00:48:39.000]So Hawken explains that our existing idea of solutions
[00:48:41.550]have been too narrowly focused on a few obvious solutions,
[00:48:45.810]like wind energy, solar energy, electric cars.
[00:48:48.930]We need a whole suite of solutions
[00:48:51.360]to draw down greenhouse gases.
[00:48:53.460]And this image shows the sectors he dives into
[00:48:55.920]and comes up with ideas for how we can decarbonize.
[00:49:00.330]As a teacher at the GSD, my classes, as I said,
[00:49:03.510]were all required to buy this book.
[00:49:07.435]One of the most important aspects of the book
[00:49:10.350]is that the scientists produce detailed analytics.
[00:49:13.650]And I can say that that is something
[00:49:15.804]that we as landscape architects need to do
[00:49:19.410]in order to make our case.
[00:49:20.940]And I swear to God, I've told the GSD,
[00:49:23.490]we should go to the business school,
[00:49:25.170]except I was told that that was irrelevant.
[00:49:28.830]So Harvard isn't that smart, so let me tell you,
[00:49:32.430]but I'm telling you guys, that's very important.
[00:49:36.139]Both architects and landscape architects,
[00:49:39.720]we have to be able to make our cases based on money,
[00:49:43.770]'cause everybody has the same language.
[00:49:52.568]All of this, as I said, resulted in measuring
[00:49:55.320]how many gigatons of carbon dioxide
[00:49:57.870]were sequestered for all these solutions,
[00:50:00.900]as well as the costs and financial benefits
[00:50:02.910]of solution that it produces.
[00:50:05.550]So he also created a ranking of effectiveness.
[00:50:09.480]What kinds of things are most effective?
[00:50:13.626]And he had us see that nine of the top 20 solutions,
[00:50:19.734]if you can see this, the green, I actually put the green on,
[00:50:24.246]nine of those solutions up there, of the 20 solutions,
[00:50:29.250]it's almost half, are land based,
[00:50:32.250]for taking down carbon dioxide.
[00:50:34.590]So at least you kind of get a picture
[00:50:36.420]of how important the land is
[00:50:38.220]in actually absorbing carbon dioxide.
[00:50:40.020]The more we take away from it,
[00:50:41.940]the more carbon dioxide we're making.
[00:50:43.830]And it makes clearly the importance of the land
[00:50:45.840]and what it provides for us in taking down emissions,
[00:50:48.630]as well as other critical elements.
[00:50:51.540]So yes, there are significant roles
[00:50:53.520]for landscape architects, architects and planners,
[00:50:55.710]to perform in striving towards mitigation.
[00:50:58.740]And decarbonizing solutions are directly relevant
[00:51:01.410]to the profession of landscape architecture,
[00:51:03.420]which designs with plants and soils,
[00:51:06.180]two major global sinks for drawing down carbon dioxide,
[00:51:09.570]and is uniquely situated to play a significant role
[00:51:12.608]in the climate change mitigation and adaptation,
[00:51:15.990]which is climate repair.
[00:51:18.750]And these are groups of methods taken from "Drawdown"
[00:51:22.050]that we as designers of the built environment
[00:51:23.760]can apply to cities.
[00:51:25.440]The greens are natural carbon dioxide removal methods.
[00:51:28.576]The greys are materials that are typically used
[00:51:31.290]for buildings, streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure.
[00:51:34.200]And the blue are urban design methods
[00:51:36.480]of creating sustainable cities.
[00:51:38.280]So I'm gonna very quickly go through
[00:51:39.690]some of the information out of this book.
[00:51:43.467]So the next most effective strategy
[00:51:46.590]for us to consider implementing is the use of bamboo.
[00:51:49.110]And I'm sure the architects are knowledgeable about bamboo
[00:51:51.960]and what's going on with it.
[00:51:53.707]It rapidly sequesters carbon dioxide and biomass in soil.
[00:51:57.860]In other words, bamboos actually sequester carbon dioxide,
[00:52:02.220]whereas most plants they take it down,
[00:52:05.370]but when they die it's put back up.
[00:52:08.576]But bamboo actually sequesters it.
[00:52:12.150]And it takes it out of the air faster
[00:52:14.790]than almost any other plant.
[00:52:16.440]And bamboo is a grass, and it contains silica salts
[00:52:20.820]that resists degradation and allow the carbon
[00:52:23.580]that they sore in the soil to remain in the soil
[00:52:25.890]for thousands of years.
[00:52:27.420]It's now being used as structural timber.
[00:52:32.730]And due to the fact that it has
[00:52:33.930]a comprehensive strength of concrete
[00:52:35.700]and tensile strength of steel,
[00:52:37.290]it makes structures like this.
[00:52:39.952]And it's now being used as a structural timber
[00:52:41.753]while taking down carbon dioxide and sequestering it.
[00:52:45.300]So we should just start,
[00:52:47.142]maybe you should start growing bamboo out here
[00:52:50.910]and start it to actually create a new economy.
[00:52:53.509]No joke, maybe it should.
[00:52:55.680]So we believe that one of the largest disruptions
[00:52:58.350]in construction material in the coming decades
[00:53:00.660]will be the widespread adoption of structural bamboo.
[00:53:05.005]As this shift occurs, every new building will support
[00:53:07.890]a climate positive carbon dioxide draw down
[00:53:10.350]and create a regenerative local bamboo economy,
[00:53:15.300]in regions that need it the most.
[00:53:18.150]And green roofs, if done properly,
[00:53:20.100]can take down carbon dioxide and cool your building,
[00:53:22.710]so you can use less energy for air conditioning.
[00:53:25.290]And by the way,
[00:53:26.220]planting trees on the roof is definitely overkill.
[00:53:30.480]And don't believe in Bjarke. That's all bullshit.
[00:53:35.725](audience laughs)
[00:53:36.810]Sorry.
[00:53:39.390]Don't tell him I said he was, you know.
[00:53:42.420]I know him. It's okay.
[00:53:43.920]This is a form of albedo enhancement,
[00:53:45.960]and albedo is a measurement of reflectivity of a surface,
[00:53:50.010]as I've said, and painting roofs white
[00:53:53.670]reflects solar radiation
[00:53:56.040]that's coming to the earth back into space,
[00:53:58.680]and it reduces the need for air conditioning,
[00:54:00.870]which is a CO2 emitter and uses more energy.
[00:54:04.260]So whatever materials that are lighter are better.
[00:54:07.830]And half the world's waste is generated
[00:54:09.660]out of households and construction sites,
[00:54:11.922]and they are significant contributors.
[00:54:15.116]And the more we can reuse onsite
[00:54:17.580]and specify using recycled materials content,
[00:54:21.330]the closer we can get to keeping
[00:54:23.580]to 2.77 gigatons of carbon out of the atmosphere
[00:54:27.390]from emissions of recycling facilities.
[00:54:30.480]We'll talk a bit about walkable cities.
[00:54:33.150]That will be important.
[00:54:35.490]And as a landscape architect,
[00:54:37.890]we can learn a lot from regenerative agricultural practices
[00:54:41.394]such as no-till practices and cover crops,
[00:54:44.640]not just on farms, but while designing our cities.
[00:54:47.400]Cover crops, like the white clover shown here,
[00:54:49.440]restored degraded soils by restoring carbon content,
[00:54:53.220]which improves plant health, nutrition, and productivity.
[00:54:56.460]So there's a lot for us to learn from agriculture.
[00:54:59.940]And by minimizing disruption of the soil
[00:55:03.030]and keeping the soil covered,
[00:55:04.620]we can really restore the soil's microbial life.
[00:55:08.580]Now we're talking of biodiversity.
[00:55:10.440]Soil texture, root growth, water retention is increased,
[00:55:13.920]and fertility compounds, so no fertilizers are needed.
[00:55:17.640]We have to stop using fertilizer as we know it today.
[00:55:23.490]You can compare how well this new way of growing crops are
[00:55:27.780]versus the traditional farming on the right.
[00:55:30.750]So you can see that they're growing crops to the right.
[00:55:34.080]There's a lot of water going out.
[00:55:36.120]The crops to the left is actually using this method
[00:55:41.545]of fertilizing the soil naturally,
[00:55:45.420]and they create these little rills
[00:55:47.730]where the water goes through,
[00:55:49.320]and they're growing a lot more vegetables
[00:55:51.870]than the traditional way of growing these vegetables
[00:55:56.160]and the amount of water that's being spent.
[00:55:59.220]So biochar is a soil amendment
[00:56:01.620]you can use in your projects also,
[00:56:03.870]that's made from wood that goes through pyrolysis,
[00:56:06.060]a high heat process that turns the wood into biomass,
[00:56:09.674]and biomass into something that looks like coal.
[00:56:12.540]It turns into coal.
[00:56:13.590]And this incorporated into soils,
[00:56:15.750]can really regenerate depleted soils.
[00:56:19.500]And the US is beginning to use this
[00:56:21.360]to repair the soils in the Midwest actually,
[00:56:24.420]due to industrialized agriculture
[00:56:26.550]and the use of pesticides and fertilizers.
[00:56:29.580]These tend to kill living soils,
[00:56:32.610]but this actually regenerates it.
[00:56:35.190]Now we're gonna look into ideas
[00:56:36.510]for how we need to replan our cities for the future.
[00:56:39.270]So this is more about planning.
[00:56:42.454]So now we are living on planet Anthropocene.
[00:56:47.070]We are no longer on planet Holocene.
[00:56:49.980]We are now at a very interesting time,
[00:56:52.410]where the 18th to 20th centuries'
[00:56:54.480]city structures and planning are breaking down,
[00:56:58.200]due to the growth in populations.
[00:57:00.330]As well, we have to redesign and build our cities
[00:57:02.640]as if we're going to be living on another planet
[00:57:05.070]that I call Spaceship Earth.
[00:57:07.830]We need to rebuild our new planet
[00:57:09.510]for an unknown future, a changing future.
[00:57:12.930]But we can't go back to business as usual.
[00:57:15.930]We can't go back and say, "Well this is how we do things."
[00:57:18.930]You have to think twice before you say that.
[00:57:21.660]We need to go forward, try new ways of living,
[00:57:24.210]and take risks, as looking backwards is even more risky.
[00:57:29.430]We need new and creative ideas.
[00:57:32.100]As technology is racing along, it turns out
[00:57:34.800]that future means of transport will allow
[00:57:37.770]this mega change in city structures.
[00:57:40.350]And this is happening now.
[00:57:43.361]In the 18th to 20th centuries,
[00:57:45.078]city structures and plannings are breaking down.
[00:57:48.480]And in order to design for efficiency
[00:57:50.340]and less resource and waste, we have to organize our cities
[00:57:54.840]so that we don't have to go very far away
[00:57:57.300]to get our life needs.
[00:57:59.850]It turns out that transport is the key
[00:58:02.970]for enabling cities to make big changes.
[00:58:06.120]And as technology is racing along,
[00:58:08.072]it turns out that future transport
[00:58:10.770]will allow mega changes in city structures.
[00:58:15.570]Now first I'm going to be speaking about
[00:58:17.190]why we need to re-spatialize a city.
[00:58:20.490]What does that mean?
[00:58:22.440]So the benefits of re-spatializing cities are these.
[00:58:27.330]We could actually make less dependency
[00:58:29.970]on centralized infrastructures.
[00:58:32.610]We could create walking distances to most life needs.
[00:58:35.880]We can establish neighborhoods that actually work together
[00:58:39.000]to address localized issues, like climate change impacts.
[00:58:43.920]We can have communities that generate and share resources.
[00:58:47.940]We can generate food and energy locally.
[00:58:50.670]Cities can become a lot more self-sufficient.
[00:58:53.880]We can diminish urban heat island effect.
[00:58:56.550]And management of stormwater and flooding.
[00:59:00.840]And we can support urban biodiversity.
[00:59:03.120]These are all things that we can do
[00:59:05.400]through reorganizing our cities.
[00:59:08.160]And there's a strong movement by cities around the world
[00:59:10.410]to rethink and reimagine a different way of life
[00:59:12.630]that can be sustainable, healthier, more fair,
[00:59:16.290]and can take humanity into the future.
[00:59:20.070]The basic idea of the 15 minute city,
[00:59:22.050]which I'm sure you've heard about,
[00:59:23.430]is to decentralize a city.
[00:59:25.560]Research shows that a 15 to 20 minute walk
[00:59:28.740]is the maximum time people are willing to walk
[00:59:30.930]to meet their daily needs locally.
[00:59:32.940]And based on human needs and scale,
[00:59:35.340]the 15 minute city is a fundamental pathway
[00:59:37.920]for the reorganization of large mega cities
[00:59:41.730]that have grown past their capacity to rejuvenate.
[00:59:44.430]And I'm not saying you do the 15 minute city,
[00:59:47.201]but there are very good ideas within it.
[00:59:51.240]The concept upends our typical way
[00:59:53.250]of planning and designing for cities,
[00:59:55.350]and to the left, shows a prioritization of cars,
[00:59:59.160]which this city definitely has,
[01:00:01.380]is prioritized cars, at the bottom,
[01:00:05.090]and the deprioritization of humans,
[01:00:08.430]which there's just one guy at the top.
[01:00:10.770]And to the right, the 15 minute city is just the opposite,
[01:00:13.560]where the pedestrians on top take priority,
[01:00:16.560]and the vehicles, the lowest priority,
[01:00:19.110]so to enhance the quality of life
[01:00:21.600]and also to enhance nature.
[01:00:24.940]The 15 minute city is built
[01:00:26.760]of what they're called complete neighborhoods,
[01:00:29.040]where residents can find most of what they need locally.
[01:00:32.190]And the decentralization of cities
[01:00:33.720]by creating smaller, mixed use neighborhoods
[01:00:36.420]will be able to better manage their immediate environment
[01:00:39.470]and take on more control and interaction
[01:00:41.850]with their surrounding,
[01:00:43.140]which will keep neighborhoods working,
[01:00:45.599]which ultimately makes the whole city
[01:00:47.820]more resilient, more flexible, and strong.
[01:00:50.790]And planning for flexibility will be
[01:00:52.830]a new way of planning and building our cities
[01:00:55.167]to be able to adapt to a changing climate.
[01:01:00.450]The 15 minute city has roots actually in Portland, Oregon,
[01:01:04.680]go figure, where the 20 minute neighborhood
[01:01:07.140]has been used as a planning concept since 2010.
[01:01:11.250]It was picked up in 2016 in Detroit,
[01:01:13.440]and then now in Barcelona,
[01:01:15.150]and now in Paris, where they're doing it,
[01:01:17.040]and they're beginning to take steps
[01:01:18.990]to achieve a carless city, and shape communities,
[01:01:22.251]and even New York is thinking about it.
[01:01:26.160]I view the 15 minute city
[01:01:28.290]much like building redundancy in a submarine,
[01:01:31.860]and they are built for safety.
[01:01:34.170]The submarines are divided into compartments
[01:01:36.270]with doors strong enough to keep out water
[01:01:38.730]if there's a leak in one compartment.
[01:01:41.190]That way it doesn't flow into the other compartments,
[01:01:44.970]keeping the submarine safe from sinking.
[01:01:48.660]Now we all know about the Titanic.
[01:01:51.690]That was not designed like that,
[01:01:53.940]and we know what happened to the Titanic.
[01:01:56.010]It's still down at the bottom of the ocean.
[01:01:58.380]So there's some logic to that thinking.
[01:02:02.430]Future transport is fundamental to change our cities,
[01:02:05.970]and changing the cities through getting
[01:02:07.860]single ownership cars out of the city,
[01:02:11.130]meaning like one person owns one car
[01:02:14.100]and everybody goes every place.
[01:02:16.695]And that would create more energy efficient public transit.
[01:02:21.687]That's what we need to do.
[01:02:23.670]This is the first step to creating
[01:02:25.363]a sustainable and healthy city,
[01:02:27.450]and to prepare our cities for climate change.
[01:02:31.440]This report on land use in a city in Illinois
[01:02:34.404]shows that parking takes up
[01:02:36.630]about one-third of the land areas in US cities.
[01:02:42.720]The report suggests that fewer cars
[01:02:44.760]will travel more miles by 2030,
[01:02:47.970]due to the use of ride sharing,
[01:02:50.910]which is like a public system of Ubers,
[01:02:53.460]where once they drop off a passenger,
[01:02:55.648]they keep on going to pick up a new passenger,
[01:02:58.800]which means they don't have to park.
[01:03:00.630]So can you imagine your city without any parking lots?
[01:03:03.990]That would be a dream.
[01:03:05.700]This would open up vast tracts of land for new uses.
[01:03:08.310]Some cities are already preparing for the future.
[01:03:12.330]Cars are losing popularity across the globe.
[01:03:14.970]And urban land will be too valuable to be parked on.
[01:03:18.360]The future Transportation as a Service is called TAAS,
[01:03:21.930]or TAAS, is already happening.
[01:03:25.080]And most importantly, changing the design
[01:03:26.790]of our city's rights-of-way,
[01:03:28.950]meaning where the land ends that you own
[01:03:33.480]and what the city actually owns,
[01:03:35.220]which are like the sidewalks, where the street trees are,
[01:03:38.511]and the streets, that's the right-of-way.
[01:03:41.940]So if we actually had the opportunity
[01:03:46.228]to actually work on our right-of-ways,
[01:03:49.225]we would be able to do quite a bit in our cities.
[01:03:53.460]So we're really talking about how we can
[01:03:58.560]harvest space from our city's own right-of-way.
[01:04:03.510]And start with the idea of actually afforestation
[01:04:08.400]for your city to deal with all sorts of things,
[01:04:11.550]such as greenhouse gas emissions, but also heat island,
[01:04:17.280]and also flooding, and also air pollution,
[01:04:22.410]and then being able to support biodiversity.
[01:04:25.680]The idea of actually putting in ecological systems
[01:04:29.040]into cities is an unknown idea so far.
[01:04:34.110]I have never heard anybody talk about it,
[01:04:35.940]but that's what we're going to need,
[01:04:37.980]because ecological systems produce
[01:04:40.560]most of the ecological benefits that you're going to need.
[01:04:44.970]So inserting working ecological systems
[01:04:47.670]will cool down a city,
[01:04:48.810]reduce the need for energy to cool buildings,
[01:04:51.540]be able to deal with floods and drought,
[01:04:53.490]take down air pollution, support biodiversity,
[01:04:57.300]support human psychology and physical health,
[01:05:02.280]create economic value,
[01:05:03.840]create social equity, and create beauty.
[01:05:07.655]And the beginning of the end
[01:05:08.550]of single ownership cars is growing.
[01:05:10.560]And if the majority of Americans switched
[01:05:12.300]to autonomous electric ride shares,
[01:05:14.430]which we're going towards,
[01:05:15.900]it could greatly affect how the US cities use their streets.
[01:05:20.220]And upgrading our public transport system
[01:05:22.110]so we don't need cars is the first step
[01:05:24.240]to being able to build a sustainable city.
[01:05:27.240]Getting rid of single ownership cars
[01:05:28.952]and implementing future transport will be
[01:05:31.200]the first large step towards building climate readiness,
[01:05:36.390]and by allowing the space to insert green infrastructures
[01:05:40.260]and ecological systems throughout your city.
[01:05:44.640]And I know Americans don't like to hear this,
[01:05:47.131]but you know what?
[01:05:48.040]We're really behind the world.
[01:05:49.980]We're like a third world country.
[01:05:51.750]We need to get our act together.
[01:05:54.810]Just saying.
[01:05:56.610]It's important now to recognize the importance
[01:05:58.950]of the land and natural ecosystem services,
[01:06:01.500]which provides cities with the ability
[01:06:03.120]to address most of the difficult and dangerous
[01:06:04.980]of all climate risks for cities.
[01:06:08.280]This image sandwiches a city
[01:06:09.990]with different types of land uses,
[01:06:12.600]such as agricultural lands, forests, unmanaged lands,
[01:06:16.770]landscapes that are usually not in cities,
[01:06:19.050]that we will need to be integrated
[01:06:21.660]into the cities in the future.
[01:06:23.610]However, we need to start planning how to do this now.
[01:06:28.536]Cities such as even New York
[01:06:31.320]are finding spaces to grow community gardens.
[01:06:35.580]And due to the breakdown of infrastructure
[01:06:37.560]and the unknown vicissitudes of climate change,
[01:06:39.840]we have to be more dependent on each other.
[01:06:42.150]The concept of community has been awakening
[01:06:45.780]as a renewed way of looking at our cities and ourselves.
[01:06:49.350]And it's simple, we will need each other in the future.
[01:06:53.100]It's not going to be a cakewalk.
[01:06:55.380]And cities have to establish neighborhoods
[01:06:57.420]to work together to address these localized issues,
[01:07:00.450]and will be needed for quicker reaction
[01:07:02.880]to unexpected problems
[01:07:04.290]that may come up due to climate change,
[01:07:05.880]as issues will get worked out more quickly
[01:07:07.770]and efficiently in smaller groups.
[01:07:10.232]This actually is what creates resiliency.
[01:07:14.550]And working with other people in groups
[01:07:16.440]is actually how we evolved as a species.
[01:07:19.680]And this is a picture of how people
[01:07:22.140]here in the United States worked together to raise barns.
[01:07:26.029]The whole community would work together.
[01:07:28.467]We need to be able to depend on others
[01:07:31.080]to help address serious issues that we'll face.
[01:07:33.750]Given the size and population of our growing cities,
[01:07:36.600]we will have to create smaller cities within cities.
[01:07:40.260]We need a more fleet and accessible foundation,
[01:07:42.600]such as neighborhoods,
[01:07:43.980]to address difficulties in the future.
[01:07:46.605]And at a neighborhood scale, we must work to generate food,
[01:07:50.040]collectively, build and support our neighborhoods,
[01:07:52.230]and create and share renewable energy.
[01:07:54.540]We'll need a grid and a backup plan in the future.
[01:07:58.200]And due to climate change and irregular climate,
[01:08:00.870]we need to become a lot more self-sufficient
[01:08:02.760]when the lights go out, communications are down,
[01:08:05.514]supply chains are broken, and you're hungry.
[01:08:08.430]Make sure you have what you need.
[01:08:10.140]And the more you can provide for yourself,
[01:08:11.910]the more secure you'll be.
[01:08:14.730]We will need to build more flexible,
[01:08:17.250]small-scaled, micro-infrastructure systems
[01:08:20.340]that can be more easily accessed, fixed, and replaced.
[01:08:25.230]Research is now investigating cutting edge
[01:08:27.720]urban infrastructural approaches
[01:08:29.670]evolving around micro-scale solutions
[01:08:32.460]to water, energy, and waste.
[01:08:34.560]And this idea is based on resolving issues
[01:08:37.170]of the global expansion of the urban population
[01:08:40.260]and the need to pivot heavily on resilience
[01:08:43.710]and sustainability of infrastructural systems
[01:08:46.590]in order to support these changes.
[01:08:49.410]Micro-infrastructure, that's an awesome idea.
[01:08:52.590]So as climate change impacts increase,
[01:08:54.870]climate related events will have larger consequences
[01:08:57.750]for significant numbers of peoples in cities.
[01:09:00.717]And the urban landscape is a necessary part
[01:09:03.150]of making cities livable in the future.
[01:09:06.600]So let's talk about the public realm.
[01:09:10.293]In the public realm landscape,
[01:09:12.390]if you think of it not as a piece of space
[01:09:15.870]to build a building on and get a lot of money,
[01:09:19.200]you could be thinking of it as the largest piece
[01:09:22.410]of urban infrastructure a city has,
[01:09:26.550]that can be re-envisioned, re-engineered, redesigned,
[01:09:30.990]and regenerated to make a city climate ready for the future.
[01:09:36.360]It's a piece of very valuable infrastructure.
[01:09:40.950]And beyond mitigation and food security,
[01:09:43.170]the urban landscape can provide water security,
[01:09:45.840]reduce urban heat island effects, support biodiversity,
[01:09:48.480]I'm gonna keep saying these things,
[01:09:50.430]protect coastal areas,
[01:09:52.174]mitigate flooding through stormwater management,
[01:09:54.960]reduce air pollution, support our health,
[01:09:57.748]and again, create beauty and value.
[01:10:01.050]And mitigation is important for our future,
[01:10:02.940]but reduction of vulnerability needs to be addressed now.
[01:10:06.990]Adaptation can be integrated into many aspects
[01:10:09.330]of fighting climate change, such as planning and design.
[01:10:12.345]The difference between climate change
[01:10:14.187]and mitigation strategies and climate change adaptation
[01:10:17.700]is that mitigation is aimed at tackling the causes
[01:10:21.248]and minimizing the possible impacts.
[01:10:24.690]That's capturing carbon dioxide.
[01:10:27.779]But it will take decades for climates to respond
[01:10:31.890]to the effects of the diminishing,
[01:10:34.470]taking down of carbon dioxide.
[01:10:36.870]Carbon emissions, it turns out, is for the future.
[01:10:39.990]Adaptation is for now.
[01:10:44.340]Adaptation can reduce the negative impacts of climate change
[01:10:47.075]that is and are affecting us now and in the future.
[01:10:53.340]Committed warming, by the way,
[01:10:55.800]is the warming that is absorbed by the earth,
[01:10:58.800]which remains and contained in the earth for a long time.
[01:11:04.590]What needs to be understand is that natural systems
[01:11:07.890]move slowly and therefore release the embedded warming
[01:11:11.103]for decades before it's released.
[01:11:13.680]So what we're feeling right now
[01:11:16.140]is the absorption of the heat that was done,
[01:11:21.750]could be 30 years ago, 40 years ago,
[01:11:24.720]and now it's slowly coming out now.
[01:11:27.630]And what is being absorbed today
[01:11:30.570]will be coming out in decades after today.
[01:11:35.912]So it just means that there are these natural systems
[01:11:39.360]that we don't really know are working,
[01:11:41.310]but they are working, and not necessarily for us.
[01:11:46.860]So sustainability means that by reducing
[01:11:49.530]the vulnerability of climate change,
[01:11:51.210]cities can maintain stability in the future.
[01:11:54.750]And many nations and communities are already taking steps
[01:11:58.020]to build resilient societies and economies,
[01:12:01.170]but considerably greater action and ambition will be needed
[01:12:06.030]to manage the risks, both now and in the future,
[01:12:09.690]that can be addressed through adaptation.
[01:12:12.690]So let's just go quickly about some green solutions.
[01:12:16.500]Nature-based solutions is actually
[01:12:18.390]a new type of infrastructure which provides
[01:12:20.940]sustainable solutions to the unfolding climate crisis.
[01:12:24.750]They are a multi-disciplinary, integrated approach
[01:12:28.230]to address societal challenges and some natural hazards,
[01:12:32.250]effectively and adaptively,
[01:12:34.860]and simultaneously providing humans wellbeing.
[01:12:38.010]And nature-based solutions can protect, regenerate, manage,
[01:12:40.770]and restore natural or modified ecosystems.
[01:12:45.900]The EU Commission has defined nature-based solutions,
[01:12:48.870]or NBS, that they're inspired by, supported by,
[01:12:53.340]or copied from nature to form a comprehensive agenda
[01:12:56.970]while looking at the city holistically.
[01:12:59.430]They have a vast potential
[01:13:01.050]for energy and resource efficiency.
[01:13:04.500]NBS will be a new and important method
[01:13:07.050]of integrating technologies with natural systems,
[01:13:11.730]which can be of tremendous help
[01:13:13.560]to the city's infrastructural problems.
[01:13:16.290]Critical advancement in innovations in technology,
[01:13:19.400]engineered ecology, finance, equity,
[01:13:22.140]leadership and governance, are required
[01:13:24.450]to address the social and environmental vulnerabilities
[01:13:27.060]coming in the next decades.
[01:13:29.790]The cross-pollination of innovations,
[01:13:33.916]and that's what this whole lecture is really about,
[01:13:42.450]these innovations are derived out of necessity
[01:13:45.150]in the global south.
[01:13:48.060]And when coupled,
[01:13:48.900]and we're talking about the Indigenous peoples,
[01:13:51.990]and I wanted to say I was so happy to hear
[01:13:56.490]the contribution that was given to the Indigenous people.
[01:14:00.983]It was the first time I've ever heard that
[01:14:02.671]in the United States.
[01:14:03.950]I was very happy to hear that today.
[01:14:05.430]But it is Indigenous peoples who have had the experience
[01:14:09.000]of actually working with nature when dealing with nature.
[01:14:12.600]And there are lots of positive benefits
[01:14:14.610]in urban infrastructure and design
[01:14:17.160]in learning about Indigenous methods.
[01:14:20.940]Green infrastructure is a hybrid structure,
[01:14:25.710]where living systems have been constructed,
[01:14:27.690]along with technical and material components.
[01:14:31.470]And these are introduced to make
[01:14:32.850]the systems work within cities now.
[01:14:35.070]And here you see a sort of hybrid
[01:14:37.620]green and grey infrastructure, which is a network,
[01:14:41.190]providing the ingredients for solving urban
[01:14:44.910]and climatic challenges by building with nature.
[01:14:47.640]So they are often combined, technology with nature.
[01:14:52.710]Grey refers to the technological
[01:14:54.420]and engineering solutions used,
[01:14:56.070]infrastructure such as dams, seawalls,
[01:14:59.280]roads, pipes, and water treatment.
[01:15:01.320]But the issue with grey infrastructure is twofold.
[01:15:04.440]It is reliant on the use of often unrecyclable
[01:15:08.252]and finite resources, and it uses a tremendous amount
[01:15:12.150]of unrenewable resources and energy,
[01:15:14.910]and it is often temporary.
[01:15:17.430]As climate risks increase and intensify,
[01:15:19.590]grey solutions will need to be repaired
[01:15:21.480]and eventually replaced.
[01:15:23.706]Nature-based solutions include green infrastructure,
[01:15:26.670]which gives back by providing our communities
[01:15:28.950]with essential environmental benefits, such as all of this.
[01:15:32.940]Climate adaptation, less heat stress, more biodiversity,
[01:15:35.850]food production, better air quality,
[01:15:37.664]climate equity, resiliency, sustainable energy production,
[01:15:41.160]clean water, healthy soils, access to water, and so forth.
[01:15:48.120]But green infrastructure and nature-based solutions
[01:15:50.910]are defined as an interconnected
[01:15:52.920]of networks of open green spaces
[01:15:57.420]that provide a range of ecosystem services, thus creating
[01:16:00.720]healthier environments through landscape projects.
[01:16:03.810]Green infrastructures in cities
[01:16:05.610]contributes significantly to carbon sequestration,
[01:16:08.604]retention of particulate matter,
[01:16:11.010]meaning aerosols and pollution,
[01:16:15.000]the mitigation of heat island effect,
[01:16:17.070]and the reduction of surface runoff,
[01:16:19.313]directly favoring the health
[01:16:21.450]and wellbeing of the population.
[01:16:25.110]So green infrastructures can range in scales,
[01:16:29.003]from residential scale to very, very large areas.
[01:16:34.710]And these are examples of coastal cities
[01:16:37.260]that are using green infrastructures
[01:16:38.790]to protect their cities from sea level rise.
[01:16:41.160]In Rotterdam, there's a flood barrier.
[01:16:44.370]The Chinese cities and sponge cities,
[01:16:46.410]that actually protect their cities
[01:16:48.150]and clean their water so they have water.
[01:16:50.790]New York has The Big U.
[01:16:52.020]I don't know what's happening with that.
[01:16:53.430]Shenzhn's mangrove barrier.
[01:16:55.920]And there are cities in other countries
[01:16:59.430]that are working on this,
[01:17:01.680]and I hope the United States starts to get going.
[01:17:05.370]China has fashioned the sponge city
[01:17:07.260]to solve China's water crisis,
[01:17:08.940]to deal with too much water at one time,
[01:17:10.740]while capturing fresh drinking water, which is scarce there.
[01:17:14.910]And the sponge city is a nature-based solution,
[01:17:17.670]which uses the landscape to retain the water
[01:17:19.740]at its source and slow down the water
[01:17:22.440]and it cleans it through natural processes.
[01:17:25.200]That's what nature does, it cleans water,
[01:17:27.150]and it slows down the water to avoid damages.
[01:17:31.350]Smaller implementations of green infrastructures
[01:17:33.720]can be very inventive.
[01:17:35.010]And this is somewhere in Europe,
[01:17:36.270]probably in Germany I think,
[01:17:40.050]which is always miles ahead of everyone, in Germany.
[01:17:43.800]And by removing impervious surfaces
[01:17:45.720]and planting it with ground covers, although it's simple,
[01:17:48.540]it provides so many benefits in such a simple way.
[01:17:52.350]Besides cooling the air and allowing the water
[01:17:54.390]to percolate back into the soil, it also beautifies the city
[01:17:58.440]and creates a very important benefit,
[01:18:00.648]which is actually increasing the quality of our life.
[01:18:05.100]Let's not forget about beauty.
[01:18:07.650]Streets around the world are being redesigned
[01:18:09.510]to mimic natural streams,
[01:18:10.950]with flooded storm water's inputs to avoid flooding houses.
[01:18:15.090]And we're slowly taking nature's way of working on board
[01:18:18.360]and working with nature and not against it.
[01:18:21.930]And this is us learning to live with nature.
[01:18:25.440]And even opening up really small underutilized areas
[01:18:29.660]in cities and planting them with something,
[01:18:31.980]will start to transform cities.
[01:18:33.630]We can all do this.
[01:18:35.730]First, it helps hugely in dealing
[01:18:37.410]with stormwater management.
[01:18:39.150]Soils and plants will cool the city naturally,
[01:18:42.163]and help with air pollution.
[01:18:44.400]And you don't have to be picky
[01:18:45.660]about where you plant your plants.
[01:18:47.010]Find little bits and pieces of open soil in the city,
[01:18:51.000]put some seeds into it, and if you water it,
[01:18:54.490]after a while, the city will become green.
[01:18:58.980]This is another thing you can do.
[01:19:00.690]It's called gorilla gardening.
[01:19:02.370]I lived in London for 15 years and they're crazy about this.
[01:19:05.880]So gorilla gardening is the act of gardening,
[01:19:08.550]raising food, plants, or flowers
[01:19:10.440]on land that the gardeners do not have any legal rights to.
[01:19:15.660]And they can work on abandoned sites
[01:19:18.518]and areas that are not being cared for or private property.
[01:19:21.510]And it encompasses a diverse range
[01:19:23.820]of people and motivations, ranging from gardeners
[01:19:26.820]who spill over their legal boundaries to garden,
[01:19:29.882]or if you have a political purpose or a form of protest
[01:19:34.560]or just direct action, you want to help the city.
[01:19:37.020]And this practice has implications
[01:19:38.760]for land rights and land reforms
[01:19:40.800]aiming to promote reconsideration of land ownership
[01:19:45.116]that is neglected or misused.
[01:19:47.280]And there's a lot in cities.
[01:19:49.350]Some gardeners work at night in relative secrecy,
[01:19:52.980]in an effort to make the area more useful or attractive,
[01:19:55.590]while other gardeners during the day for publicity.
[01:19:59.220]So help yourself.
[01:20:02.280]And by replacing underutilized spaces in cities
[01:20:04.890]and planting them with ground covers,
[01:20:06.690]can absorb storm water, can stop flooding,
[01:20:10.860]can protect the top soil from whooshing off.
[01:20:13.860]That's what's happened in California.
[01:20:15.630]There's so much rain and there's not enough planted
[01:20:18.240]in the soil on top to keep the soil in place,
[01:20:20.930]so they lose their valuable top soil.
[01:20:24.750]So you plant the top soil.
[01:20:26.705]It reduces risks of fire, it cools the city,
[01:20:29.640]stops subsidence of land, and it saves a lot of money.
[01:20:34.410]And the idea here, which I really like,
[01:20:37.530]is you green everything, anything you can is green.
[01:20:41.430]And more and more, city leaders are realizing
[01:20:44.310]the importance of greening their cities
[01:20:45.840]and the importance of maintaining existing green areas
[01:20:49.020]in urban centers to promote the balance of ecosystems.
[01:20:53.656]But I'm talking about more robust
[01:20:56.220]and actually more radical approaches, which is, as I said,
[01:20:59.601]just green every surface that you can.
[01:21:02.490]Now the one city to look at is Melbourne, Australia.
[01:21:05.820]They are the leaders in the world.
[01:21:07.800]And Melbourne, Australia regularly tops
[01:21:09.900]the world's most livable city, and has also steadily become
[01:21:14.220]one of the most eco-friendly cities.
[01:21:16.710]Rob Adams, who I think is the world's best planner
[01:21:20.490]and the best city planner, has made a major effort
[01:21:24.420]to secure the health of Melbourne citizens
[01:21:26.610]by planting 70,000 trees into the city,
[01:21:30.171]which has contributed to its status
[01:21:32.400]as a world most livable city, as well as a massive sink.
[01:21:36.090]And I have to say that Melbourne
[01:21:37.530]is right on the edge of the desert.
[01:21:39.450]So he's figured out how to actually keep the city
[01:21:45.180]well watered by actually capturing the water when it falls
[01:21:51.840]into devices that will capture the water
[01:21:53.880]so he can actually irrigate those trees.
[01:21:57.270]And that's something I've learned about.
[01:21:59.880]But he really has actually completely changed the city.
[01:22:03.638]He's created a program that over time,
[01:22:06.210]every surface of the city will be green
[01:22:08.310]to the cool off the city, clean the air,
[01:22:10.680]sustain biodiversity, and provide food,
[01:22:12.540]and create beauty and health,
[01:22:14.670]and make a beautiful city that people want to live in.
[01:22:17.550]Melbourne created an initiative to green their lane ways
[01:22:19.980]by including planter boxes, vertical gardens,
[01:22:22.830]climbing plants, trees, and sustainability themed art.
[01:22:27.030]Another initiative was to green all the roofs.
[01:22:30.838]Vertical greening on walls and facades
[01:22:33.240]don't require ground level space
[01:22:35.040]and can provide the benefits where there is limited room,
[01:22:38.790]and they are actually critical green urban infrastructures.
[01:22:43.290]More than just being beautiful,
[01:22:44.760]green roofs, walls, and facades
[01:22:46.200]can reduce energy consumption needed for air conditioning,
[01:22:49.830]and they provide clean air and increase our resilience
[01:22:52.650]to the impacts of climate change
[01:22:53.940]by cooling our cities and reducing the risks of flooding.
[01:22:57.300]They also increase our city's biodiversity
[01:22:59.760]by attracting birds, insects,
[01:23:01.920]and bringing down carbon emissions.
[01:23:05.070]The afforestation of Melbourne
[01:23:06.630]was one of the very first initiatives.
[01:23:09.420]The scale of reforesting a city creates a major impact
[01:23:12.778]in a city's environment through cooling it,
[01:23:15.720]increasing humidity in arid places,
[01:23:18.570]and dealing with storm water,
[01:23:19.770]capture rain water for irrigation and drinking,
[01:23:22.320]and make the city much more livable.
[01:23:26.280]Planting urban forests is a new idea for cities.
[01:23:31.530]While we have pocket parks, town squares, large city parks,
[01:23:35.310]pleasure grounds or cultural parks and neighborhood parks,
[01:23:38.915]they are usually filled with programs
[01:23:41.346]and are not connected to each other.
[01:23:44.100]These are not parks that create
[01:23:45.990]the kind of benefits that cities will need.
[01:23:49.290]The idea is to insert ecological systems,
[01:23:52.680]I say systems, into the city at a scale that will offer
[01:23:57.390]enough ecological benefits that have positive impacts
[01:24:01.580]so that cities can adapt and be livable in the future.
[01:24:06.180]Urban afforestation is one of the most important
[01:24:08.730]of all the green infrastructures,
[01:24:10.410]because forests are connected to ecosystems.
[01:24:14.460]However, in order to allow forests to provide
[01:24:16.500]maximum ecological services,
[01:24:18.810]forests have to be connected through living soil.
[01:24:23.160]This is why street trees give almost no value to cities,
[01:24:27.540]except that they look good if you take care of them.
[01:24:30.690]Whereas a forest within a city can contribute
[01:24:32.880]ecological services that significantly support
[01:24:36.210]the quality of life in cities by regulating services,
[01:24:39.750]which will include pollination, decomposition,
[01:24:42.120]water purification, erosion and flood control,
[01:24:46.290]carbon storage, regulate the microclimate, and buffer noise,
[01:24:49.740]as well as absorbing a variety of air pollutants,
[01:24:53.070]all which supports nature and human health.
[01:24:58.830]So the benefits of urban afforestation.
[01:25:01.200]I've gone through all of these things.
[01:25:03.420]One of the things that we haven't talked about
[01:25:05.670]is the replenishment of our aquifers.
[01:25:08.190]If we don't allow our water to go down into the earth,
[01:25:13.563]we cannot count on pumping up water
[01:25:16.500]from our aquifers in the future.
[01:25:18.300]We're actually just pumping it up now,
[01:25:20.093]and then we'll really have a problem later.
[01:25:23.430]We have to allow the water to go through the soils
[01:25:27.750]to be able to replenish our aquifers.
[01:25:30.840]That's going to be very, very important.
[01:25:34.260]But in terms of what it takes to create an urban forest,
[01:25:37.650]is that the forest is connected.
[01:25:40.140]And the connectivity forest happens underground,
[01:25:42.480]where the soils contain mycorrhizal fungi,
[01:25:45.960]which form relationships, over 95% of the plant species.
[01:25:50.353]So what we're talking about isn't even with the plants.
[01:25:53.940]That's not where it begins with.
[01:25:55.500]It begins with soils.
[01:25:57.690]We have to understand soils.
[01:26:00.390]If we have no soil or it's bad soil,
[01:26:04.160]we have to actually regenerate our soil.
[01:26:07.350]Otherwise, no tickee, no washee, no food, no water.
[01:26:10.890]So we really have to understand the importance of soils.
[01:26:15.180]And that the mycorrhizal fungus
[01:26:19.019]actually goes throughout the soils.
[01:26:22.470]They surround and enter the roots of the trees
[01:26:24.570]and other plants providing nutrients,
[01:26:26.670]such as phosphorus, and even nitrogen,
[01:26:29.120]and water to the plants in exchange for its sugars.
[01:26:32.940]I don't know whether you know much
[01:26:34.830]about biology or anything, but we have one group,
[01:26:39.780]we have animals, we have plants, and there's one other
[01:26:44.310]kind of idea about life, which is fungus.
[01:26:48.810]But it turns out that fungus is a little bit more related to
[01:26:54.780]animals, go figure.
[01:26:57.150]And what they do is that they're in the ground
[01:27:01.657]with this mycorrhizal fungus that you can't really even see,
[01:27:04.530]but it's huge, it's everywhere,
[01:27:07.020]it actually puts up the minerals,
[01:27:10.800]up into the trees, into the leaves,
[01:27:12.750]to allow the trees to actually photosynthesize,
[01:27:16.297]and the trees put down sugars and feed the fungus.
[01:27:21.240]And without the fungus, it won't work.
[01:27:25.470]So it's extremely important.
[01:27:28.020]So let's just talk about what an ecosystem is.
[01:27:31.980]And I have to say that probably landscape architecture
[01:27:38.945]is the only profession that actually is based
[01:27:42.240]on the science of ecosystems.
[01:27:45.450]But now we all have to understand
[01:27:48.390]how the basis of how nature works.
[01:27:51.990]So we'll get it wrong, all of us, no matter what we do.
[01:27:55.620]So an ecosystem is defined as a large community
[01:27:58.650]of living organisms, plants, animals, and microbes,
[01:28:02.700]in a particular area.
[01:28:04.890]The living and physical components are linked together
[01:28:07.680]through nutrient cycles and energy flows.
[01:28:11.790]Ecosystems are of any size,
[01:28:13.800]but usually they are in particular places.
[01:28:16.890]And there are a huge variety of ecosystems.
[01:28:20.670]However, the health of an ecosystem
[01:28:23.370]on which we and all species depend
[01:28:26.490]is deteriorating more rapidly than ever.
[01:28:30.300]We are eroding the very foundations
[01:28:33.120]of our economies, livelihoods,
[01:28:35.400]food security, health and quality of life worldwide.
[01:28:39.450]We depend on ecosystem services.
[01:28:42.870]So lock it up.
[01:28:44.190]And look at the people at the economists
[01:28:46.500]who actually provide the metrics for these services.
[01:28:52.650]It's very important.
[01:28:54.836]And ecosystem services help
[01:29:01.890]to support products, such as food and water,
[01:29:03.450]regulation of floods, soil erosions,
[01:29:06.096]disease outbreaks, and non-material benefits,
[01:29:09.030]such as recreational and spiritual benefits
[01:29:11.220]in natural areas.
[01:29:12.090]So the ecosystem services also affect our societies.
[01:29:17.010]It's not just the science.
[01:29:18.960]Environmental benefits means that the assets and services
[01:29:22.200]that enhance the capability of communities and individuals
[01:29:25.050]to function and flourish in a society,
[01:29:27.450]such as access to healthy environments,
[01:29:30.287]clean natural resources,
[01:29:32.460]including air, water, land, green spaces,
[01:29:35.490]constructive playgrounds and outdoor recreations.
[01:29:39.480]So how do we make an urban forest?
[01:29:43.278]Entrepreneur Shubhendu Sharma's company is named Afforest.
[01:29:47.280]He's in India, and he creates forests on any patch of land.
[01:29:51.260]In an area the size of six parking spaces,
[01:29:54.240]he's built a 300 tree forest,
[01:29:57.360]that has come to life for the cost of an iPhone.
[01:30:01.440]Now, Afforest has worked in these countries,
[01:30:04.260]all throughout the world.
[01:30:05.640]And Shubhendu says Afforest is on a mission
[01:30:08.430]to bring back native forests, by creating them,
[01:30:11.801]and works passionately to create a natural,
[01:30:15.060]wild, maintenance free, healthy native forest.
[01:30:21.600]So inserting real forests into cities
[01:30:24.390]would be one of the most impactful solutions, as I've said.
[01:30:28.230]And the forest can take care of both
[01:30:33.990]taking down carbon dioxide and adaptation.
[01:30:36.930]And this is an area that cities
[01:30:38.640]could be considering and starting now,
[01:30:40.350]as nature moves slowly.
[01:30:42.240]This image shows a forest that had started from nothing,
[01:30:45.990]so you can see the land to the left,
[01:30:48.780]and the right image shows the forest just over three years.
[01:30:53.340]And the fact that it's indigenous,
[01:30:55.230]it's kind of what those those species are,
[01:30:59.580]they are indigenous to that place,
[01:31:02.760]is a very important part of what he does,
[01:31:05.700]because it makes the forest grow faster,
[01:31:08.340]stronger, healthier, and they fight away
[01:31:13.440]other trees and species that are trying to get in.
[01:31:16.500]These forests are up to 30 times more dense,
[01:31:19.920]compared to conventional plantations.
[01:31:22.260]30 times better at noise and dust reduction.
[01:31:25.320]Up to 30 times better in carbon dioxide absorption,
[01:31:28.673]as compared to a monoculture, which we know is bad.
[01:31:32.100]They are completely maintenance free,
[01:31:33.660]wild and native forests, after the first three years.
[01:31:36.540]And are completely chemical
[01:31:38.233]and chemical fertilizer free forests
[01:31:41.940]that sustain themselves and support local biodiversity.
[01:31:47.220]So in 2020 I put in a proposal
[01:31:50.850]for the Harvard Climate Change Solutions Grant,
[01:31:52.890]we're getting towards the end, thank God, but,
[01:31:54.704](audience chuckles)
[01:31:55.537]sorry, I know it was too long.
[01:31:58.258]But this was was based on urban afforestation.
[01:32:01.650]And this grant is given to only
[01:32:03.720]five people across Harvard each year.
[01:32:06.420]And I was lucky enough to get this grant.
[01:32:10.020]I think it was the only grant
[01:32:11.280]that the GSD ever actually got.
[01:32:14.160]But the grant that I and about 25 other people
[01:32:17.637]are working on now is based on a studio I gave in 2017.
[01:32:21.600]And guess what? Yujia was in that class.
[01:32:25.440]Yay, Yujia!
[01:32:27.510]So this is the studio I gave called "Sequestropolis:
[01:32:31.200]The City as a Machine for Combating Global Warming",
[01:32:35.220]inferring that the city itself was a device
[01:32:37.380]for sequestering carbon dioxide, which it can be.
[01:32:42.240]We had 11 students who worked in four townships in Boston
[01:32:45.240]and it covered 108 square miles,
[01:32:47.100]and it had a population of about 900,000 people.
[01:32:49.680]And the four townships were Brookline,
[01:32:52.170]Somerville, Boston, and Cambridge.
[01:32:55.950]And the 11 students were assigned to specific townships.
[01:33:00.090]The goal was to figure out how we could protect Boston
[01:33:02.970]from the impacts of climate change in the year 2050.
[01:33:06.360]So this was thinking in the future.
[01:33:09.150]And how do we put a forest in such a dense city?
[01:33:12.900]Anyway, how does that work?
[01:33:14.550]We worked together as a team,
[01:33:16.500]knowing that by the end of the class,
[01:33:18.510]each student will create metrics, I made them do metrics,
[01:33:23.707]which actually I was told is not actually, was relevant,
[01:33:28.650]which, I was like, okay, well that's fine, forget you.
[01:33:32.460]Anyway, so.
[01:33:34.506]They were able to create an urban forest
[01:33:37.110]for these four townships.
[01:33:38.310]And after researching different devices and methods
[01:33:41.201]that were going to happen in 2050, which we did,
[01:33:45.210]what about the future?
[01:33:47.594]We agreed to work with porous surfaces when possible.
[01:33:52.230]We used storm water devices
[01:33:53.970]that would catch and detain water
[01:33:55.980]in times of severe storm events,
[01:33:58.500]and retain the water free irrigation.
[01:34:00.060]That I got from Melbourne.
[01:34:01.470]And we agreed that all the housing
[01:34:03.540]would have their roofs painted white
[01:34:05.070]in order to cool the city and reduce the need for energy.
[01:34:08.610]And finally, to assume that by 2050,
[01:34:12.390]automobiles would be driverless.
[01:34:16.290]So the drawing shows how much space
[01:34:18.030]we were able to harvest from the street.
[01:34:20.010]And to the left, the image shows
[01:34:21.360]that the cars that we have today
[01:34:23.430]need 10, 12, or even 14 feet of space to drive safely,
[01:34:28.273]which is kind of shocking.
[01:34:29.837]And to the right, when the AVs come on board,
[01:34:32.700]it's an eight foot lane that's needed,
[01:34:35.160]which meant that at least 33 to 50%
[01:34:38.100]of the public right-of-way,
[01:34:42.990]I talked about the right-of-way,
[01:34:46.184]that a lot of that, 33 to 50% of the right-of-way
[01:34:48.390]would be open to be able to harvest space into this,
[01:34:53.130]from the streets, to be able to do something
[01:34:55.613]that would probably be be a lot more helpful than a car.
[01:35:02.010]So that was like, "Oh gosh, we figured out
[01:35:05.580]how we're gonna get some space."
[01:35:07.110]And the studio goals were to manage heat island effect,
[01:35:09.900]floods, droughts, reduce the use and cost of energy,
[01:35:13.514]reduce cost of energy, cool houses due to increased albedo,
[01:35:19.710]create ventilation corridors, create habitat,
[01:35:22.710]enhance quality of life, and support urban biodiversity.
[01:35:26.040]So we had, "This is what we're supposed to do."
[01:35:29.400]And this is an example of one student's work.
[01:35:34.260]Where are you, Yujia?
[01:35:36.193]Oh, he's right there, he's hiding.
[01:35:38.880]And the first students, they had to identify,
[01:35:44.250]the first thing they did is that,
[01:35:45.780]well, they worked in each one of these townships,
[01:35:47.910]they had to figure out the different kind
[01:35:50.610]of street typologies, and then they had to design
[01:35:53.910]each one of those street typologies.
[01:35:55.410]So this is one typology, in one of the areas here.
[01:35:58.950]And you might see the red,
[01:36:01.170]that's the street that Yujia is designing.
[01:36:04.560]This is the street that we're going to redesign
[01:36:08.010]and put in a linear forest.
[01:36:09.660]And here is the plan.
[01:36:11.850]The green lines on the top, the upper part of the image
[01:36:14.820]shows a version of the community space
[01:36:17.400]to collectively fight climate change,
[01:36:19.760]in this case through stormwater retention
[01:36:21.960]and food production.
[01:36:23.640]The lower part shows a future road,
[01:36:25.710]where autonomous vehicles bring enough efficiency
[01:36:28.920]so that travel lanes can be reduced,
[01:36:31.920]and what used to be grey infrastructure
[01:36:34.290]can now be linear forests.
[01:36:37.472]And the bottom is where the AVs drive, between the forest.
[01:36:41.460]So that was his vision.
[01:36:43.230]And that's how he could change that neighborhood.
[01:36:47.250]The sections were really the most important drawings,
[01:36:50.070]which showed where and what the stormwater
[01:36:52.500]storage managements were going to be placed.
[01:36:55.380]It showed the idea for how the forest
[01:36:57.030]would be designed and planted,
[01:36:58.260]along with the engineering for stormwater management.
[01:37:03.570]So I'm not sure who is aware of this program.
[01:37:07.036]It's called i-Tree,
[01:37:08.850]and it was developed by the American Forestry,
[01:37:18.824]the US Forest Service.
[01:37:20.910]It's online, anybody can use it.
[01:37:23.310]It was a tremendous help to our class
[01:37:25.680]and all the students use this tool.
[01:37:27.570]We actually had somebody
[01:37:28.710]from the Forest Service come in and teach us.
[01:37:31.950]So we didn't have a lot of time.
[01:37:33.390]So we looked at what we believed to be
[01:37:34.830]the most important issues to try to figure out
[01:37:38.670]how much money we were saving or costing.
[01:37:42.300]So we took down carbon dioxide that was sequestered,
[01:37:48.900]storm water management, how much, we didn't put,
[01:37:52.470]one of the things is we were not allowed
[01:37:54.360]to put any water into the sewers,
[01:37:56.790]'cause Boston is so old, it has combined sewers.
[01:37:59.580]And what happens is,
[01:38:00.413]when there's too much water going into the sewers,
[01:38:03.000]it belches up a lot of sewers with stuff in it
[01:38:05.760]you definitely don't want to talk about,
[01:38:07.920]so we said no water going into the sewers,
[01:38:10.800]energy use each year, avoided emissions.
[01:38:13.860]So those were the major things that we actually
[01:38:19.920]were able to actually take the economics for.
[01:38:25.800]So I'm afraid I didn't,
[01:38:27.900]I wasn't able to really find Yujia's metrics,
[01:38:31.650]but this shows, each student had to do their own metrics.
[01:38:34.743]This guy had a pretty big area.
[01:38:38.280]And what came from this was that he saved
[01:38:43.597]$74 million each year of energy,
[01:38:49.020]just because it was cooler.
[01:38:52.410]So that was one area of $74 million of savings.
[01:39:01.470]Now when the class was put together,
[01:39:04.020]the class saved $207 million on energy.
[01:39:09.600]Now it translated the fact that we were able
[01:39:13.890]to create enough shade and coolness.
[01:39:16.350]And even though this is only one semester,
[01:39:22.350]the understanding of the metrics
[01:39:25.170]and how that would actually impact
[01:39:27.150]and what you'd be able to show to people,
[01:39:29.400]was shockingly interesting
[01:39:31.410]and definitely pointed towards a good idea.
[01:39:34.320]So it took only three years until it dawned on me
[01:39:37.140]to propose it for a grant.
[01:39:39.240]Now we have close to 25 people working with us.
[01:39:42.357]And we're working on the city of Springfield, Massachusetts,
[01:39:45.510]the whole city.
[01:39:46.860]So we're going into our third year on this.
[01:39:49.470]But at some point you'll see the book.
[01:39:52.350]I think that actually the linear forest
[01:39:55.680]is starting to come up as a real thing.
[01:39:58.500]So as of now the role of urban landscape
[01:40:00.570]and the field of landscape architecture
[01:40:02.160]is a crucial missing piece of city planning,
[01:40:06.840]but it's crucial in the fight against climate change.
[01:40:10.080]Our cry is not to bolster up
[01:40:11.670]the profession of landscape architecture.
[01:40:14.190]It's so we can share our knowledge and experience
[01:40:16.530]with planners and architects,
[01:40:18.390]so we can all succeed at protecting our cities,
[01:40:23.220]our countries, our children, and our grandchildren.
[01:40:27.150]We are the only profession
[01:40:29.040]within the built environment sector
[01:40:30.690]that works with living systems, so you need us.
[01:40:34.980]I and many others are concerned
[01:40:36.720]that without the acknowledgement
[01:40:38.160]and understanding of importance
[01:40:40.410]of integrating nature within cities,
[01:40:42.930]is we may miss this moment to act,
[01:40:45.690]as the climate crisis is actually happening
[01:40:47.826]much faster than ever predicted.
[01:40:50.490]Science now says that we will
[01:40:52.020]shoot beyond the Paris Agreement.
[01:40:54.750]And my hope is that the professionals
[01:40:56.520]within the built environment, all of us sitting here,
[01:41:00.200]come together in collaboration,
[01:41:02.910]so we can collectively go forward in concerted actions,
[01:41:07.860]doing things that we don't do, but you do.
[01:41:11.700]But we learn what you're doing and what you need to do,
[01:41:13.800]and you learn the same thing.
[01:41:15.570]We have to work together with clear goals.
[01:41:17.760]And given the complexities that we're facing,
[01:41:21.120]we can accomplish much more by working together.
[01:41:25.680]So finally,
[01:41:27.990]oh, you're a landscaper.
[01:41:30.563]I love that, with a landscaper.
[01:41:33.300]You must love making gardens.
[01:41:36.000]Well, actually I have a black thumb.
[01:41:38.580]Landscape architecture is not exterior decoration.
[01:41:42.789](audience chuckles)
[01:41:43.622]I just want to make that clear.
[01:41:46.530]Just let's get that off the plate.
[01:41:49.200]What should we be doing as landscape architects?
[01:41:52.050]One of the most interesting things is,
[01:41:57.060]the reason that I went into landscape architecture
[01:41:59.190]was the lack of boundaries
[01:42:00.570]for what defines landscape architecture,
[01:42:02.490]which is probably muddying the whole thing up.
[01:42:05.100]No pun intended.
[01:42:06.510]I see it as a broad researching, as is the landscape.
[01:42:11.760]So the landscape has so many different typologies
[01:42:14.850]and characteristics, but that's okay.
[01:42:19.530]Landscape architects work in a whole range
[01:42:21.540]of scales and complexities,
[01:42:23.130]from small kitchen gardens to the creation of guidelines
[01:42:26.400]for the development of an area the size of Belgium,
[01:42:29.010]which is a project that we've actually worked on.
[01:42:31.890]It can be small and little.
[01:42:33.840]It can be flowery.
[01:42:34.860]It can actually be master planning.
[01:42:37.410]And as professionals, we are a group of people
[01:42:39.960]with many agenda, talents, and knowledge
[01:42:42.690]that pertain to the land that are equally wide,
[01:42:45.864]as we can be scientists, designers, teachers,
[01:42:50.096]builders, urban designers, communicators,
[01:42:52.830]artists, that's me, politicians, mayors, advocates,
[01:42:55.920]foresters, agriculturalists and futurists, that's also me.
[01:42:59.280]as there are many issues and approaches to the land.
[01:43:02.010]However, as we are facing severe challenges
[01:43:04.260]due to the climate crisis, we are now focusing
[01:43:07.066]on the cause and effect of climate change as a profession
[01:43:10.770]and engage in this crisis in all ways we possibly can.
[01:43:15.750]So there is now a real importance
[01:43:18.930]of reaching out to our clients.
[01:43:20.850]I would say our manifesto, our manifesto,
[01:43:24.515]it is now our obligation to understand
[01:43:28.590]the causes and impacts of regional climate change,
[01:43:32.559]'cause I'm giving this to a client,
[01:43:36.079]regional, not global, what's happening now.
[01:43:40.200]And we have to be able to address these challenges.
[01:43:43.200]The urban landscape is the largest piece of infrastructure
[01:43:46.260]a city has to reshape, reimagine, and re-engineer,
[01:43:50.220]as I've said before.
[01:43:51.660]We work on small landscapes, extremely large areas.
[01:43:55.650]We work on many typologies of lands,
[01:43:57.990]such as natural, agricultural, wetlands,
[01:44:00.180]coastal, as well as industrial degraded landscapes,
[01:44:03.390]and, of course, urban landscapes, upon which our cities sit.
[01:44:07.770]It's our job to teach our clients on what their investment,
[01:44:11.670]let's say the project, will be facing in the future.
[01:44:14.880]And we do this in our company.
[01:44:17.160]We sit down and say, "Are you gonna flip it?
[01:44:19.200]Or is this gonna be an investment?"
[01:44:21.060]If it's an investment,
[01:44:22.230]then you tell them what they're looking at.
[01:44:24.030]And actually they're very, very,
[01:44:25.908]a lot of people are like shocked.
[01:44:28.860]But you gotta tell them what's going on.
[01:44:31.500]We start with the assessment
[01:44:32.790]of the impacts of climate change
[01:44:34.233]that our clients are gonna be facing.
[01:44:36.720]And next we bring an understanding
[01:44:38.670]of the causes of climate change and its effects,
[01:44:41.400]which enable us to devise our strategies first,
[01:44:44.430]and solutions to problems
[01:44:45.960]that clients may have never considered.
[01:44:48.690]And learning about climate change
[01:44:49.950]feeds our creativity and problem solving.
[01:44:55.560]So first is a detailed understanding, also,
[01:44:59.450]of the site and its surroundings.
[01:45:01.620]That's how we work.
[01:45:03.720]We have to really take the whole area
[01:45:06.552]as the problem or the issue,
[01:45:10.170]and how the site is connected to its neighbor,
[01:45:12.840]what shape the existing infrastructure is in.
[01:45:15.570]Remember, infrastructures were not designed
[01:45:17.400]for climate change.
[01:45:18.720]We work in collaboration with others
[01:45:20.460]regarding infrastructure, such as nature-based solutions,
[01:45:24.480]and are now becoming the solution
[01:45:25.920]to many infrastructure issues in cities.
[01:45:27.849]Just take a look at San Francisco
[01:45:29.820]and how they are working to avoid flooding.
[01:45:32.280]Landscape architects are now working
[01:45:33.900]using both green and grey infrastructures.
[01:45:38.400]We work with environmental engineers
[01:45:40.320]when we need to deal with soils or biology or botany,
[01:45:43.170]or even chemistry, to develop solutions to address
[01:45:45.750]the integration of construction and environmental problems.
[01:45:49.410]Grey green infrastructures work to improve issues
[01:45:51.540]within the built environment,
[01:45:52.980]such as recycling, waste disposal, public health,
[01:45:56.550]water, too much, not enough, and air pollution control.
[01:46:01.018]Land isn't just a platform for building.
[01:46:04.590]So I've said this.
[01:46:06.030]And many people do not know about
[01:46:08.100]the importance of a healthy land.
[01:46:10.410]And that's our responsibility.
[01:46:12.630]So we also have to look at the land.
[01:46:14.700]We actually have to look what's under the project
[01:46:17.876]before we even get to the surface of the land.
[01:46:21.306]And I would assume,
[01:46:22.500]since you are heavily attached to agriculture here,
[01:46:25.222]most of the people don't really understand
[01:46:28.440]the importance of the land.
[01:46:31.315]So for landscape architecture, it's fundamentally important.
[01:46:35.640]And we now must understand the land
[01:46:37.020]as a piece of infrastructure.
[01:46:38.250]We see issues in building a structure that may impact soils,
[01:46:43.260]where the soils may impact the building.
[01:46:47.010]Or if what needs to be built is on degraded land,
[01:46:50.148]we may need to collaborate with environmentalists
[01:46:52.830]or engineers or scientists to deal with the soils,
[01:46:55.670]or the biology of the site and the chemistry,
[01:46:57.630]to develop solutions that will actually impact
[01:47:01.517]the design of the building.
[01:47:04.249]We will always go forward,
[01:47:06.450]towards working with nature and not against it.
[01:47:08.610]And nature-based solutions help to fight climate change.
[01:47:11.910]Estimates suggests that nature-based solutions
[01:47:13.950]can provide 37% of the mitigation needed until 2030
[01:47:17.970]to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement.
[01:47:20.970]Several nature-based solutions are being used
[01:47:23.010]by the World Bank to help manage disaster risk
[01:47:26.280]and reduce the incidents and impacts of flooding,
[01:47:29.610]mudslides, and other disasters.
[01:47:33.120]Climate smart agriculture also is very interesting.
[01:47:36.202]Even to the people in New York City.
[01:47:38.736]We actively all have to think about this.
[01:47:41.880]It's another example that enables farmers
[01:47:44.070]to retain more carbon in their fields as they produce crops.
[01:47:47.572]And decreasing deforestation is another way
[01:47:50.444]to benefit from nature-based solutions, for example,
[01:47:53.940]by paying farmers not to cut down the forest preserves,
[01:47:58.020]ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration
[01:48:01.050]and provision of clean drinking water
[01:48:03.270]and the reduction of river sedimentation downstream.
[01:48:07.500]So lastly, landscape architects
[01:48:08.907]are the only profession within the built environment
[01:48:11.400]that is based on ecology and works for nature.
[01:48:15.990]Conclusion.
[01:48:18.360]Finally.
[01:48:20.040]So first of all,
[01:48:22.980]what are the core strengths of landscape architecture?
[01:48:27.240]We are the decarbonizing profession.
[01:48:30.150]We can be playing a much larger role as the globe heats up.
[01:48:33.720]And we're the only profession
[01:48:34.890]that can put together the science of climate change
[01:48:37.560]with land-based practice and technologies
[01:48:40.290]that can help to solve clients'
[01:48:42.150]and the environmental problem.
[01:48:44.536]It's a very broad profession,
[01:48:47.760]as expansive in its interests as the landscape itself.
[01:48:51.270]And as generalists, we are the conductors
[01:48:53.442]who orchestrate the specialists.
[01:48:56.610]We need to know a lot about a lot.
[01:48:59.190]It's our job to see the big picture.
[01:49:01.645]We need generalists who can piece together the chatter
[01:49:04.350]so that we can define strategies
[01:49:05.793]that will solve important problems.
[01:49:08.427]And we bring together specialists
[01:49:10.110]in order to learn specifics.
[01:49:12.180]But it's people like us
[01:49:13.686]who put the disparate pieces together
[01:49:16.050]in a coherent and executable reality.
[01:49:19.320]And by the way, we can design very beautiful landscapes,
[01:49:23.250]'cause you know what?
[01:49:24.570]Beauty is important to humans.
[01:49:27.540]We are creatives, which means we have agile minds
[01:49:30.330]that can put unlike ideas together
[01:49:33.060]to create something that hasn't been imagined before.
[01:49:35.520]That's called creativity.
[01:49:37.500]We can imagine things that do not exist,
[01:49:40.140]such as a future, and we can think outside the box.
[01:49:43.440]This is actually a very important skill,
[01:49:46.530]and the future depends on people's creativity.
[01:49:50.520]We're the only profession that are taught about ecology,
[01:49:53.040]society, culture, visual communications, creativity,
[01:49:57.300]and how to build, we do that too.
[01:49:59.700]We've been taught to integrate
[01:50:00.840]these disparate silos of knowledge and produce solutions.
[01:50:04.170]We are taught to think horizontally,
[01:50:06.240]and to bring together such disparate disciplines,
[01:50:09.780]such as science and art, in order to imagine the future.
[01:50:15.630]And we've been trained to be able
[01:50:16.800]to think at a global, regional scale,
[01:50:18.810]down to an intimate garden scale.
[01:50:20.910]And this is actually an invaluable skill set,
[01:50:24.270]as no matter how large a master plan may be,
[01:50:26.820]one must consider the experience of a single person
[01:50:29.501]as they are walking in the environments
[01:50:31.908]that have been planned.
[01:50:33.780]There's no other profession
[01:50:34.800]that has this range of scale or training,
[01:50:36.750]and this will be extremely valuable in the future.
[01:50:40.710]We are also storytellers.
[01:50:42.480]And through our ability to communicate verbally,
[01:50:45.780]and also through drawings, we can convince people
[01:50:51.450]that what we are proposing is worthwhile
[01:50:53.880]and will help them to solve their issues.
[01:50:56.520]If we're not able to verbally communicate,
[01:50:58.800]we would not have the profession,
[01:51:00.750]as we must convince others to support our ideas,
[01:51:04.380]since it's their football, they're the client,
[01:51:07.547]and we're spending other people's money,
[01:51:10.110]and we actually have no power,
[01:51:12.120]other than our power of persuasion.
[01:51:16.950]So through our ability to draw,
[01:51:19.050]we can convey spatial ideas, as I've said.
[01:51:21.750]We can create what the future will look like
[01:51:23.910]through design and visualization.
[01:51:26.430]And this in itself is an incredibly powerful tool
[01:51:30.240]to help people feel comfortable with new ideas
[01:51:32.910]and the possible solutions we are putting before them
[01:51:35.520]to address their issues.
[01:51:38.130]So we must be considered as partners,
[01:51:43.920]and we all have to go forward as partners.
[01:51:47.190]So thank you very much, University of Nebraska,
[01:51:49.680]and all of you who have sat through this.
[01:51:51.330]I really do apologize for its length.
[01:51:53.760]But I just had a lot to say.
[01:51:55.890]Thank you all very much. Thank you.
[01:51:58.038](audience applauding)
[01:52:06.767]Thank you.
[01:52:10.170]Well, Martha, thank you so much again,
[01:52:12.060]for sharing your insights with the climate issues
[01:52:15.540]and how landscape architecture can really be
[01:52:17.790]an important answer to solving this global challenge.
[01:52:21.797]And for the passion that you've shared with us.
[01:52:25.020]It is inspiring.
[01:52:26.730]My name is Yujia Wang.
[01:52:28.710]I'm a Landscape Architecture faculty here at UNL.
[01:52:31.830]and I chair the committee that curates
[01:52:35.100]the Hyde Lecture Series at the College of Architecture.
[01:52:38.250]I will pose one question, quick question for you,
[01:52:40.620]in the interest of time.
[01:52:42.210]And this is drawn from a list of questions
[01:52:44.280]from our audience.
[01:52:46.230]Okay. And here's the question.
[01:52:48.041]All right.
[01:52:48.874]What is the right first project to start locally
[01:52:52.560]that makes the global problem contextually relevant
[01:52:56.370]and compels in a way that gets
[01:52:58.800]subsequent actions off the ground?
[01:53:01.886]What is that?
[01:53:02.719]What is the first thing to do?
[01:53:07.380]Well, the first thing that pops into my head
[01:53:09.360]is to educate people,
[01:53:14.300]to what we need and how we can do things.
[01:53:18.240]Because most people are really not aware
[01:53:20.850]of really where we are in climate change,
[01:53:24.180]and certainly what our profession can do.
[01:53:26.340]But let's say as a landscape architect,
[01:53:28.500]what would be the first thing to do?
[01:53:31.770]Honestly, okay, I'll tell you what I thought,
[01:53:34.170]when I was driving through the city here,
[01:53:36.810]you gotta start planting some trees.
[01:53:39.051](audience chuckles)
[01:53:39.990]That's really important.
[01:53:41.670]You have way too much area in your streets.
[01:53:46.470]You don't need that so much.
[01:53:50.090]And I would think that if there were,
[01:53:54.930]I actually think that if you were to really think forward
[01:53:59.580]and start thinking about how to really
[01:54:02.040]take all those cars off the streets,
[01:54:05.370]that really is the beginning of,
[01:54:09.301]it's the beginning of the beginning,
[01:54:11.550]of what you can do within your city
[01:54:14.880]to really make it even better as it is.
[01:54:19.380]It's a beautiful city.
[01:54:21.090]But there's a lot of, lot of concrete, a lot of asphalt.
[01:54:25.652]And when you go out into the suburbs, it's beautiful.
[01:54:29.910]But you could do that into the city.
[01:54:31.903]It would be a much more beautiful city.
[01:54:33.630]It would really help on many levels
[01:54:36.450]to have trees starting there,
[01:54:38.880]because it takes a while for trees.
[01:54:40.890]That would be my suggestion,
[01:54:43.350]'cause you really do have the space,
[01:54:45.990]if you really wanted to make that work.
[01:54:49.680]And please, everyone, join us, and thank Martha again
[01:54:52.440]for this very insightful, informative evening.
[01:54:54.775]Thank you.
[01:54:55.608]Aw, thank you, all.
[01:54:56.544]Thank you.
[01:54:57.431](audience applauds)
[01:54:59.214](upbeat music)

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The Urban Landscape and The Future of Cities

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