Keith G. Tidball

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Keith G. Tidball Cornell University Green
Cities CRP 384/584 Nature in The City
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• The battle to save the worlds remaining healthy
  ecosystems will be won or lost not in the
  tropical forests or coral reefs that are
  threatened but on the streets of the most
  unnatural landscapes on the planet.
• Christopher Flavin, president of the
  Worldwatch Institute

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According to Webster-SAVE is a
VERB saved , saving , saves To rescue from
harm, danger, or loss. To set free from the
consequences of sin redeem. To keep in a safe
condition safeguard. To prevent the waste or
loss of conserve. To set aside for future use
store. To treat with care by avoiding fatigue,
wear, or damage spare save one's eyesight.
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Saving Mother Earth
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And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth. Genesis 126 KJV
http//bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical
.show/RTD/cgg/ID/2163/Dominion-over-Animals.htm
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Paradigm Problems

• Both the dominion paradigm and the save earth
  paradigm suffer from anthropocentric bias.
• Both fail to see systems and ecological process
  as operating before, during, and perhaps long
  after the appearance of humans.

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Cartesian Dualism

• These Paradigm Problems reflect the 17th
  Century philosophy of Cartesian dualism - the
  dichotomous separation of humans from nature.
• Urban NatureOXYMORON?

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Systems Thinking

• System Dynamics entails making three fundamental
  shifts of mind relative to traditional ways of
  thinking.  
• From linear, laundry list thinking to a circular,
  closed-loop view of causality.
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• From an external to an internal focus on
  performance how we, not others, are responsible
  for results.
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• A focus on an operational view of how things
  work in contrast to analysis methods based on
  statistical correlation of past trends.
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RJ Walkers adaptation of Barry Richmond. An
Introduction to Systems Thinking, iThink 4.0
documentation, High Performance Systems Inc.,
Page I-12.
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Systems Thinking

• Systems dynamics thinking gets a lot of its
  power from a 'feedback' perspective -- the
  realization that tough dynamic problems arise in
  situations with lots of pressures and perceptions
  that interact to form loops of circular
  causality, rather than simple one-way causal
  chains.

George Richardson. System Dynamics in an
Elevator.http//www.stewardshipmodeling.com/Syste
m20Dynamics20in20the20Elevator.htm
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Remember This?
In Western culture, the dichotomy of good and
evil is often taken as a paradigm for other
dichotomies. In Hegelian dialectics, dichotomies
are linked to progress. In Chinese philosophy
dichotomies are linked to cyclical processes
rather than progress1.

1. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang
2. For a full discussion of the taiji or Yin Yang
   symbol, see http//home.att.net/numericana/answer
   /symbol.htmtaiji

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Some paradigmatic dichotomies may be
self-defeating circular processes, or may not
lead to progress without an event to move the
flow of energy within the process.
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Paradigmatic Dichotomy Example 1 For
Environmental Security, Natural Resources are
the Source of Conflict vs. Natural Resources
are a Source of Solutions to Conflict
The paradox While in some cases conflict has
and does arise over competition for natural
resources, natural resources can be a path to
Environmental Peacemaking1.
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Paradigmatic Dichotomy Example 2 For
Sustainability, Cities are Good vs. Cities
are Bad
The paradox While cities are centers of
consumption, sources of pollution, and often
concentrate crime and conflict, they are also
centers of human and economic capital, sources of
innovation and organization, and repositories of
diversity.
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Can these two paradigmatic dichotomies be
organized conceptually to makes some sense of the
circular nature of these two important paradoxes?
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Resilience theory provides explanations for the
source and role of transforming change in
adaptive systems.  
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SES- Socio Ecological System
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Urban Facts

• In 2008 more than half the people on the planet
  will live in cities.
• As early as 2030, four out of five of the worlds
  urban residents will live in what we call the
  developing world
• Many experts predict that cities will be where
  future conflict will be most prevalent
• Cities are particularly vulnerable to natural
  disasters

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Cities and Mega Cities Today

• 19 mega-cities with 10 million or more
• 22 cities with 5-10 million
• 370 cities with 1-5 million
• 433 cities with 0.5-1 million

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Cities and Nature

• A large percentage of Earth's biodiversity exists
  in urban or urbanizing areas.
• Cities are embedded in the natural environment of
  whichever place on Earth where they develop.

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Connecting

• Connecting city dwellers with their local nature
  and watersheds is critical not only for building
  support for the conservation of faraway places,
  but also for the ecological restoration and
  stewardship of biodiversity at home.

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Conservation

• Conservation of local urban biodiversity is as
  essential to global ecosystem conservation,
  sustainability, and human survival on the planet
  as is conservation of the Amazon rainforest or
  the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.

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Environmental Justice

• Many urban people cannot afford to go out of town
  to experience nature and/or they have grown up
  without the benefit of experiencing wild nature. 

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Nature...

• Urban areas are the diverse, complex, intensely
  developed and decisive milieu in which we humans
  are confronted with the global challenge of how
  to interact more harmoniously, locally, with the
  rest of the natural world.