One of the first individuals to arouse concern about the impact that modern society was having on the environment was Rachel Carson in her book "Silent Spring." In her book, she described how chemicals such as DDT could have a cumulative negative impact that was not immediately recognized, and how we could use various animal species such as birds to predict the impact that chemicals would eventually have on humans. Meanwhile, in the 1970's, a group called the Club of Rome published a book titled "The Limits on Growth" that predicted some of the long-range negative impacts of increasing human population growth. The creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of various pollution control laws in the 1970's reflected the public's increasing awareness of the quality of the environment at that time. It is only recently, however, that the problems of global warming and climate change have caused the general public to be aware that the design and planning of our built-environment can either lock us into a pattern of energy wastefulness and pollution -- or can be part of the solution to increased energy conservation and pollution control. As a consequence, urban design and planning has come to the forefront of public policy in helping to find a way to a more sustainable future.

RECYCLING AND RESOURCE RECOVERY - Recycling and resource recovery is the other sustainable method of dealing with waste. In the 1970's, the U.S. EPA took the lead in helping to promote recycling and resource recovery. This included funding demonstrations of curb-side recycling and the construction of resource recovery plants that separated waste and burned what remained as a form of waste-to-energy. The U.S. EPA even funded the construction of a pyrolysis system which converted municipal garbage to oil. This was after the first Earth Day and the Arab oil embargo under the Carter presidency. Unfortunately, despite what other positive accomplishments that President Reagan might have achieved in helping bring about the end of the Cold War, Reagan eliminated the federal government's involvement in municipal garbage, including recycling and resource recovery programs, and furthermore eliminated all alternative renewable energy programs. Reagan even removed the solar panels on the roof of the White House that had been installed by President Carter. The consequence is that all the advancements in recycling and resource recovery since then have been undertaken by the individual states and municipalities. In this regard, while most cities in Europe and Japan have since then built waste-to-energy resource recovery plants as an alternative source of energy, the United States with its up-to-now cheap sources of energy has not built any new municipal waste-to-energy plants since the early 1980's (though industry has built many such plants). Instead, the focus in the United States has been our source separation and recycling. This still leaves, however, the greater bulk of municipal waste that has to be landfilled. As such, to make our cities and urban areas more sustainable and to decrease our dependence upon foreign oil, perhaps it is now time to renew our research and other efforts to find clean ways to convert waste to energy. One promising technique would eliminate all carbon emissions is plasmas gasification. Pyrolysis has also been used not to simply burn garbage, but to convert it to charcoal. The charcoal is then used in agriculture to enrich the soil. This has an added benefit of serving as a carbon sink to capture carbon and put it back into the soil.

Samso, Denmark - A Carbon Neutral Community

The island community of Samso in Denmark has become the first carbon-neutral community in the world. To make itself a zero-energy model community, the citizens of Samso built 11 onshore and 10 offshore wind turbines. Also, 70 percent of the homes have been converted so that heating is provide by biofuels or solar. As a result, not only has Samso been able to make it self a carbon-neutral, zero-energy community, but it produces surplus electricity that it sells to the mainland of Denmarks. All of this was done by the community itself with all investment paid for by the local citizens without any help from outside sources.

Masdar City - Zero Energy Community

Under construction is Abu Dhabi, the capitol of the United Arab Emirates, is Masdar City. It is being planned as a totally energy self-sufficient, sustainable model community. The first phase is expected to be completed in 2009, while the energy development is estimated to cost $22 billion.

Dongtan Island, Shanghai

Dongtan is an undeveloped island just offshore of Shanghai at the mouth of the Yangtze River that is about the size of Manhattan in New York City. The government of Shanghai proposes to develop it as a model sustainable community. It will be developed along a public transit corridor once a subway and bridge and tunnel are constructed to link it with the main part of the city of Shanghai. More than half of the island, however, will be maintained as farms and parkland. Hollowed out hills will be constructed to provide for underground organic farming while a power plant will be built to burn waste rice hulls to provide heating to the buildings and homes on the island. Delivery trucks will be banned on the island, and be required to transfer their goods to non-emission vehicles to transport goods on the island. Finally, a wind farm will be constructed on the island to provide electricity.