Are Cities Good for the Environment?

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Are cities really good for the environment? B perhaps not as good as we like to say they are. There's less o, as i mention, sewer or concrete laid per capita. But on the other hand, there are these vast networks of sources that cities suck up in terms of energy, water and food. And then on the flip side, as much as people are moving to cities, any one who's been to a city knows that they're not optimized systems. So it is, it's, it's a complicated picture.

The concept of the city is a crucial one for human civilization: people living in proximity, bringing in resources from outside, separated from the labors of subsistence so they can engage in the trade of goods and ideas. But we are still learning how cities grow and adapt to new conditions, as well as how we can best guide them to be livable as well as functional. I talk with urban scientist Catherine Brinkley about the structure of cities, including the fractal nature of their shapes, as well as what we can do to make cities thrive as much as possible.

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Catherine Brinkley received a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning as well as a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently Associate Professor of Human Ecology and Faculty Director at the Center for Regional Change at the University of California, Davis. She has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and the Santa Fe Institute.