Tag Archive for 'eco-cities'

Amsterdam Reduces It’s Own Carbon Footprint

For the past few years everyone from every single direction has been shouting at us that we should reduce our carbon footprint. But what about the government? municipalities? cities?
The Dutch capital of Amsterdam took a step in the right direction.


flickr image by francescomontalbano

So what happened?

Recently the city council and a few other parties managed to agree upon a new concept. “City Cargo”. This is all about using the current tram-tracks (for people unfamiliar with trams: a tram is a sort of a train but then riding on the street) for cargo. Today there is a load of small companies situated in Amsterdam who all get their deliveries done by polluting Diesel vans. In the future this cargo shipment should be done by the trams. Which is great since trams use electricity and thus don’t contribute to a bad quality of air in the city center.
Furthermore the schedule of the new cargo-trams has been created in such a way that they don’t interfere with the passenger trams. Amsterdam is such a great place.

via:treehugger


-jdh

Eco-Cities

Okay, I have two very important names for you to remember:

Ready?

Dongtan and Masdar.

What are Dongtan and Masdar?
Our planets first two eco-cities. That’s right, carbon neutral, energy EXporting, green cities. Right here on planet Earth.

Dongtan is in China, while Masdar is near Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

This is such an exciting time to be alive! The end of the fossil fuel era! The dawn of the Solar-Electric era!
Living today is like living at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, but with better hair and less cholera.
No, I’m serious. With the rapidly evolving Global conciousness, and the incredibly exciting work being done with DNA and stem cells, plus the commercial exploration of space, the Earth is like San Fran at the start of the Gold Rush.

Alright, I’m mixing my metaphors here, but in ten years time you could move to and reside in a city that consumed no external power, had no waste, a city powered solely by the sun.

Life is sweet.


Masdar.
The Masdar Energy Co’s site


Dongtan.
The Dongtan Dev. site

Wiki: Dongtan
Wiki:Masdar
treehugger article on Dongtan.
treehugger article on Masdar.