We need mammoth human collaboration in order to surmount our global environmental problems. And let’s face it, we have a few of those: coral reefs potentially a thing of the past by 2050, oil set to peak just as the demand for it increases, and water- the source of all life – already a luxury commodity in places like Yemen. But it isn’t over till it’s over. In recognition of their numerous challenges, but determined to overcome them, two cities are planning to create mutual solutions. Chicago and Jerusalem will soon announce their new “green” friendship.The municipality of Jerusalem and the city of Chicago will forge a partnership similar to Sister Cities International, a non-profit organization that fosters cultural and economic cooperation between international communities at the municipal level. Jerusalem’s sister city is New York.

The difference between SCI and the Memorandum of Understanding that will be signed by representatives of the Holy and Windy cities is its explicit focus on green building and planning. It is an environmental partnership that will hopefully spread a wave of similar collaboration.

Ms. Naomi Tsur, the Municipality of Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor will join Ms. Suzanne Malec-McKenna, Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Environment, on Wednesday March 9, 2011 to sign the MOU and  discuss the ramifications thereof.

The event will be held at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, and will be hosted by Ms. Orli Gil, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest,  Mr. Yariv Becher, Israel Consul for Economic Affairs to the Midwest Region, and Mr. Uri Steinberg, Israel Tourism Consul to the Midwest Region.

The two municipalities will be able to share planning ideas, technology, and best practices, and will hopefully set the stage for similar agreements elsewhere.

More environmental partnerships in the Middle East:

BrightSource, Alstom Partner On Solar Thermal

Ormat And Sunday Partner Up In Sunny $195 Million Deal

How Terra Ventures Accelerate Clean Technology

The post The Holy City & The Windy City To Form Historic Environmental Partnership appeared first on Green Prophet.

Though we laud the farmers who rough it on the land, grow food that we can buy, and live an interconnected life, city life is more sustainable. But not just any city life. Urban density that enables citizens to use public transportation and walk is necessary to maximize land use and minimize carbon output. Any system that leaves open even the slightest window of driving opportunity will compel people to use the car, which is not so great for air quality.

For cities in the UAE, for example,where only 1 in 25 Emiratis choose to walk, city planners can provide a little more incentive. Through his research, David Owen concluded that Manhattan offers a winning model; Jonathan Hiskes relays why.

“Seventy-seven percent of Manhattan households and 54 percent of New York City households don’t own even one car,” according to Owen. Compare this to a 1993 statistic, which is sure to have escalated since, that attributes 230 cars to every 1,000 Israelis.

New Yorkers are not car-free because of any kind of moral compulsion, but because cars are inconvenient to have in a city designed for public transportation and walking. University campuses are also designed so that students can walk from their dorms or apartments to anywhere they need to go without having to own a personal vehicle.

Israel is one country in the Middle East that has a decent bus and rail system, but any driver who has been stuck on the coastal road knows it’s not everyone’s mode of transportation. Owen is critical of what he calls “light density”:

There’s this sort of decorative public transit, but it’s not the way most people actually move around. To get to where transit does work, and to where it’s more energy efficient than driving, you really have to achieve pretty significant density.  The threshold is something like seven households per acre, but that’s the absolute minimum.

To achieve this density, Owen recommends establishing a center, beefing it up so that it is as dense as possible, and then build radially from there.

“New York City is one of the very last places in the United States where walking is a primary mode of transportation for many people,” says Owen, who also suggests that urban density is favorable for the elderly.

When we lived in New York, there was an older lady in our building who lived independently until she died, because she could walk everywhere — the store, her doctor, the hospital, the movies. She could take cabs when she didn’t want to walk. Here in Connecticut, I play bridge with some old ladies, and all of them live in fear of the day when they lose their driver’s licenses, because if you live in the suburbs, without a car you can’t do anything by yourself.

Not only are dense urban centers better for air quality, but thanks to a mounting urban farming movement, we can still eat healthy, locally-grown food even if we are necessarily stuck in big hives of city people.

:: image courtesy of JacobEnos and story via Grist

More Urban News:

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Why 27 People A Day Die From Air Pollution in Tehran

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