Race to Build an Ecocity by Doctress Neutopia In the article, 'British to Help China Build Eco-cities,' the words by Frank Kane penetrated my mind with such a fire that my body was delighted with the possibility of such a noble creation. It stated that a British engineering firm, Arup, will sign a multi-billion dollar contract with the Chinese government to design a self-sustaining urban center the size of a large western capital. The ecocity model is being embraced by the Chinese government to overcome the problems of depletion of natural resources, the need to shelter larger populations, and environmental pollution. According to Kane, the Chinese government is committed to developing a new paradigm that combines economic development and ecological health. The ecocity is intended to be self-sufficient not only in energy, but in water and in most food production. Transportation systems will be designed for zero emissions of greenhouse gases. These ecocities are expected to draw investments into China's growing economy. American architect William McDonough is also working with the Chinese Housing Industry Association to build seven new environmentally sound cities. China is planning on rehousing 400 million people in the next 12 years. These cities will be designed with solar energy which may completely revolutionize the housing industry around the world by dropping the cost of solar energy an order of magnitude. McDonough says, 'For every job making solar panels, there are four jobs putting them in place and maintaining them. We could import these panels, and for every job the Chinese give themselves, we get four.' McDonough and his partner Michael Braungart intend to implement their 'cradle-to-cradle' model of industry into the new Chinese ecocities that 'upcycles' materials going through the production cycle. Upcycling means that materials get better when they are used. Since in their ecological model, everything is recycled, in the upcycle process, materials return to the soil as safe biological nutrients or return to industry as technical nutrients to be used in other industrial processes. China is well as on its way to becoming the biggest economy in the world. America feels this change. Adopting the ecocity concept and founding cities on renewable energy sources, the Chinese realize that if they carried out the American urban sprawl model, it would mean environmental death for the world. There are simply not enough resources on the planet for everyone to live the way Americans, 6% of the world's population, do now. How can it be fair or sustainable that Americans use 40% of the world's resources? The American empire was established on the illusion that land and resources are limitless. But on a small planet, these are not 21st Century principles. When asked by Newsweek if growth is good, McDonough replies, 'Yes, if you use nature as a model and mentor, if you use modern designs and chemicals that are safe. Growth is destructive if you use energy not from the sun and a system of chemicals that is toxic, so it's anti-life.' Sadly enough, with the drowning of New Orleans in toxic flood waters, it is clear to everyone that the American lifestyle is based on unsafe growth practices that continue to pollute the water and shortchange the poor. Evolution follows life, and with the Chinese developing nontoxic, safe ways to live that promote healthy urban growth, it is no wonder why Americans are feeling a shift in power. Visionaries have predicted the coming of the solar age and now the Chinese are inventing it. But will Americans seize the moment and begin building their own innovative ecocity? The perfect time to do so is now with the reconstruction of New Orleans and the restoration of the wetlands of the Mississippi delta. Billions of dollars have been allotted by Congress for reconstruction efforts, so why not create a noble civilization based on an ecocity design approach? We need to enter this new green paradigm with a new spirit of cooperation with the Chinese, moving from the 20th Century nuclear arms race to the race to be human; a human race to build the good ecocity where justice and freedom prevail in maintaining an ecologically healthy planet for generations to come. The drowning of New Orleans gives us the opportunity to enter this race with the Chinese. This is a wholesome competition between people to build the best ecocity, the new model of a sustaining global economy, and democracy grounded in human rights that will allow us all to live in peace with the ecology. A new partnership with China could give us a base for positive trade agreements that combine the best of socialism and capitalism moving us to a more automated 21st century industry. Liberated from being slaves to the machine and a decrepit corporate system, common people finally could have the time and resources they need to be literate and creative, time to develop relationships that are based on being responsible citizens and actualized human beings. Presently, the United States is stuck in a development model that is dependent on fossil fuel, nuclear power, and toxic chemicals. It is causing us to be sick and many of us die as a result of being exposed to dirty air and poisonous water. Millions of people in the United States don't even have health insurance when illness strikes. Each year an average of 40,000 people die and thousands more are injured from the car based transportation system. And worst of all, our anti-life lifestyle has caused us to act immorally from stealing Native America lands to starting foreign wars for oil. Unable to embrace life, we have trapped ourselves in a deadly paradigm, developing nuclear weapons in Outer Space, all the while telling other countries that they can't have them. America was caught totally off guard when the Soviets successfully launched Sputnik, the first satellite into Outer Space in 1957. It changed our priorities and began the space race. Seeing the importance of developing a space program in 1961 President Kennedy challenged the Soviets to a race to the moon. Kennedy said, 'Now is the time...for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth.' Will China's ecocity be another Sputnik? Now, decades after the space race began, we know that finding a way to live with our precious global ecology in a renewable way is our greatest challenge. Now is the time... for this nation to take a clearly leading role in ecocity achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future of Earth. Not only are ecocities that rely on closed-looped nutrient cycles, critical to finding the way to live successfully for extended periods in Outer Space, but is critical to finding a way to live in peace with nature here on Earth. The obligation is in front of us to rebuild New Orleans in a way that releases some of us from endemic urban poverty, revolutionizes industry, and restores the ecology. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has devised a plan that combines both socialism and capitalism in that country in order to enact his 'Bolivarian revolution' to eliminate poverty. With money collected from nationally owned oil companies in Venezuela, he has put 3.7 billion dollars into building new social programs. Now millions, who had never seen a doctor before, receive medical care; 1.3 million have learned to read. Even though the new constitution protects private property, the government operates supermarkets in which 35-40% of people shop. Recently, the Venezuelan government has begun what many are suggesting should take place in the US, by redeploying part of its military to do public works such as building new subways systems. Redeploying our military from its war footing and assigning them the task of building America's first ecocity would do more for national security than anything else we could do to win world peace. Such a city doesn't exist in the United States, but it's in the zeitgeist. Beginning to plan such a noble civilization would mean we are finally entering the race with China to build the world's first ecocity. In a New York Times article 'Are U.S. Innovators Losing Their Competitive Edge?' Timothy L. O'Brien reports that United States is losing it inventiveness to countries like China and India. The article quotes from a report sponsored by the Lemelson-M.I.T Program saying 'openness, tolerance is essential in an inventive modern society. Creative people, whether artists or inventive engineers, are often nonconformists and rebels. Indeed, invention itself can be perceived as an act of rebellion against the status quo.' The article cites inventor and Johns Hopkins professor, Ilene Busch-Vishniac, 'For an inventor to be successful they have to think outside of the box and propose things that are wildly different.' Creative thinkers look for solutions to problems outside the box, but in corporate America the confines of the box are becoming our coffin. To build an ecocity is a national quest to find a new creative identity for the 21st century. We need to have a project so splendid that it inspires innovation that has been stifled for decades in square boxes that have developed the ungodly urban sprawl and the flight to suburbia that has made us a car dependent economy. Constructing an ecocity is tantamount to thinking outside the coffin. Without an ecocity vision to strive towards, our nation could collapse as oil prices continue to rise. If China adopts the now-dominant intellectual property regime that enforces hoarding scientific knowledge rather than sharing scientific knowledge, they will own patents to ecocity designs if we don't develop our own. The best scenario would be for both governments--all governments-- to adopt a policy of sharing knowledge so that the world's best minds are free to join ideas from around the world in order to make sustainable cities work. In the Nuclear Age, the free market functions by idea-hoarding motivated by the desire to compete ruthlessly at any cost to maximize profit, but in the good internationally networked world to come, sharing ideas by building an anti-rival economy with the purpose of constructing an ecological city, could well lead to species survival. Some things are better left to the private sector and corporations for improvement, but bold leadership in restructuring cities and integrating them into healthy environments is not one of them. The vision of what we must do is clear. America, can we begin to think outside the coffin in order to save ourselves? With this vision the soul of America may be liberated as our creativity and ingenuity is used for the good, the true, and the beautiful. This nation was formed by revolutionaries. Now the time has come to remember our revolutionary spirit and build an ecocity for our global common wealth. Only then will we become wise leaders for the world to prototype. Doctress Neutopia aka Libby Hubbard has a doctorate in future studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is available for guiding public dialgue about this topic. Other writings about Arcology New Orleans can be read at: www.lovolutionvillage.org www.lovolution.net