Paracities
A population can appear to grow steadily for a long period, before its rate increases dramatically due to this.
What is exponential growth?
Industrial civilization was fueled primarily by these cheap, abundant energy sources. (Heinberg)
What are fossil fuels?
Most Americans live here, despite common claims that America is an urban nation.
What are suburbs?
This term is defined as the maximum load that can be imposed on the environment by people. (Rees)
What is carrying capacity?
Cities are described as "parasites" because they import this and export this.
What are resources/waste?
This strategy often uses sustainability language while reinforcing competition, real estate, and economic growth.
What is sustainable development?
Small homes, low household income, and less driving are some contributing factors to this. (Day & Hall)
What is a lower household carbon footprint?
The relatively stable Earth-system state that supported the development of human civilization.
What is the Holocene?
The distant territories that supply a city growing in concentration and economic activity with materials and energy requirements is called this. (Rees)
What is the ecological hinterland?
This process occurs when environmental improvements increase property values and displace lower-income residents.
What is environmental gentrification?
Suburbs are labeled as unsustainable because of this feature.
What is low-density development or single-use zoning?
Two examples of "core" planetary boundaries. (Steffen et al.)
What are climate change and biosphere integrity?
This positive feedback loop supports greater production and consumption, creating additional demand and reinforcing the original increase. (Heinberg)
What is the energy use and economic growth feedback loop?
According to the ecological footprint argument, if everyone consumed like wealthy North Americans, humanity would require approximately this many Earths.
What are roughly three Earths?
These four tasks are required to sustain a future for human life. (Heinberg)
What are rapidly reduce fossil fuel dependence, adapt to ending economic growth, design a sustainable way of life for 7 billion people, address environmental consequences of 100 years of fossil fuel-driven growth?
Professor Biles argues sustainability without this principle is impossible.
What is justice?
Cities are described as this because they take in well-organized resources and export materials that cannot be reused.
What are entropic/open systems?
This accounting approach assigns responsibility for emissions to consumers rather than producers.
What is consumption-based accounting?
These two forces helped drive large-scale postwar suburbanization and demographic change in U.S. metropolitan areas.
What are white flight and federal subsidies?
These examples are features that inhibit sustainable cities.
What is the global hinterland, external ecosystems, outsourcing resources, high consumption rates, excess waste, myth of self-sufficiency?