HIGH DENSTIY DEVELOPMENT IS THE MOST SUSTAINABLE
One need only look to times when material resources were less easily won
to see the affect of economic sustainability on town planning.
From classical times to the medieval and right up to the urbanisation of
the industrial revolution the massing of buildings on the smallest plot of
land at the highest density that building techniques could manage was the
order of the day.
Not only did this make good economic sense in the reduced amounts of land,
materials and labour required, but it made the interactions within society
so much more efficient .Incidentally it reduced the surface area of the
external envelope where the greatest expense (and the greatest heat loss)
lay.
Not until the availability of cheap and convenient personal transport was
the massing of buildings revolutionized and Howard's garden suburbs and Frank
Lloyd Wright's 'every man his acre' facilitated and towns exploded into myriads
of detached houses, isolated from industrial and commercial districts.
The New Urbanism, born in America and Europe in the 1980s has good claim
to being the model for sustainable future development – modern tight packed
transit towns, self sufficient in food and power, linked by cheap clean
rapid transit to one another and to the existing upgraded cities is the
way forward.
Where Australia's sharks go to stay looking sharp
A pampering session at the beauty salon always works wonders for morale - not just for humans, but also for sharks and manta ray fish. Australian scientists have discovered that these large marine creatures regularly congregate at certain spots on the Great Barrier Reef to be groomed by smaller fish.
Dolphin cull film 'lies', says Japan
Pro-whaling officials have reacted angrily to news that a documentary about a gruesome annual dolphin cull in a remote Japanese fishing town has bagged an Academy Award.
Gardeners urged to stop using peat-based compost
The star of the BBC's Gardeners' World has been drafted in by the Government as they try to persuade the public to stop using peat compost.
Michael McCarthy: A literary spell of warm weather
Spring came last week and so did its first notable event, though not in a flowering, an emerging or a singing, but in a publication: Richard Mabey published his essays. It might still be freezing outside, but getting hold of A Brush With Nature in early March was like being given an unseasonable spell of warm weather in which everything in the natural world suddenly bursts into life.
Green car incentives may be a victim of their own success
Government efforts to encourage motorists to buy greener cars are proving so successful they are raising concerns that tax breaks for cleaner vehicles may have to be re-jigged.
Indian leather hub targeted in Ganges clean-up
On the banks of the Ganges in northern India, tanneries that have poured effluent into the holy river for decades are closing.
World's rarest camellia in full bloom
Middlemist's Red - thought to be only one of two in the world ? is blooming in the 19th-century conservatory at Chiswick HousePlant-lovers will have to take it on trust, as its magnificent Georgian home still has the builders in, but one of the rarest flowers in the world is in full bloom.The Middle
How to avoid your own 'climategate' scandal
Leaked emails between climate scientists at the University of East Anglia have caused a furore. Phil Jones on how not to get caught out by freedom of information requestsThe "climategate" scandal involving the University of East Anglia has sent shockwaves through universities, but many academics sti
Alien v predator: moth out to kill Japanese knotweed
Chosen insect feeds on invasive species but not other closely related plants and cropsBiological warfare is to be declared on an alien invader, Japanese knotweed, that swamps gardens and rivers, with the release of an insect to eat the virulent weed.The decision by the Department for Environment, Fo
Support for Rejection of Government Guidance on Wind Turbine Noise
Bradford wind turbine rejected even though it meets government guidelines.
