Around the world we are noticing the effects of climate change and rising carbon dioxide and pollution levels, and one of the places we are seeing this is in China. For the first time ever, our planet has more urbanites (city dwellers) than people living in rural areas: most of this attributable to China and its many enormous cities that just keep on growing. This may not seem like that much of a big deal but city dwellers in the developing world use three times the energy than those living in the country. This sets off a chain effect where the more energy they use, the richer they get and the richer they get the more energy they use and that raises carbon dioxide emissions. If we don’t find a solution for this problem soon our Earth will be in great danger. Luckily there is a group of 200 green architects that are trying to make this happen by working to create what will be the first eco-city: Dongtan.
It will be a big task but the hope is this city will run on 100% renewable energy. Where did they find how to do this; with the most polluted cities in China- Linfen. What started as the number one city in pollution has brought their air pollution down to a two on a scale of five. If there is a will, there is a way and that gives us and the architects creating Dongtan hope that one day, we’ll be able to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions enough to create a clean, healthy planet for generations to come.