Cities are at the center of our environmental future

Abstract

The global environmental challenge becomes tangible and urgent in cities. Thus, it is critical that we unders- tand the capabilities of cities to transform what is to- day a negative environmental impact to a positive one. We must make cities part of the solution. One point of entry to this question is to view cities as a type of socio- ecological system that has an expanding range of arti- culations with nature’s ecologies. Today, most of these articulations produce environmental damage. How can we begin to use these articulations to produce positi- ve outcomes – outcomes that allow cities to contribute to environmental sustainability? The complex systemic and multi-scalar capacities of cities provide massive po- tential for a broad range of positive articulations with nature’s ecologies.