[Greenbuilding] The Masdar Initiative: carbon-free & zero waste

[Reuben Deumling]

I find it amusing how frequently one encounters such claims these
days. They  naturalize our present overdeveloped moment without
pausing to note that before about 1850 or thereabouts all cities were
for all intents and purposes zero carbon & waste free. Some were
surely better at this than others, and I say for all intents and
purposes because though they did obviously produce what we might agree
to call waste, I would suspect it was in forms and quantities that
were more readily assimilated into the "environment" than what I
suspect the folks (if there will some day be people there) in Masdar
will actually achieve.
Distance was of course also pertinent to the question of waste. The
bulk of materials employed in building and maintaining cities never
got very far by today's standards. I doubt that will be so for the Abu
Dhabi exercise. I've heard of) and would be grateful if someone could
confirm) that ancient cities in Japan quite consciously developed and
maintained a diurnal nutrient cycling regime between urban households
and periurban gardens for centuries.

Reuben Deumling

On 5/11/07, Chris Green <pojeros at telus.net> wrote:
> The walled city of Masdar,
> it will be the world's first zero carbon, waste free city.