We need a radical rethink for the future of the city
Sad to see that the Guardian Cities series is coming to an end (24 January). It has performed a valuable function in investigating urban sustainability, of which the feature about radical ideas for urban living is a good example. Recycling construction materials and the reclamation of public assets such as water are viable projects for the cities of the future.
The major problem lies with megacities of 5 million-plus where these principles are much more difficult to apply. Having spent most of my working life in cities with a population of a million or more I can appreciate the advantages that urban density can bring, but I suspect that these diminish with increased size and congestion.
We need a study of the optimal size for a city. There must be a point at which any city outgrows its viability.
Noel Bird
Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• It was the worst of news, it was the best of endings. I was very disappointed to read that the Guardian Cities project was ending but what a splendid and challenging end. Never knock down another building, make smart cities dumb, put kids at the heart of cities and the future is public. This is the Guardian Weekly at its best. Now to make it happen in Adelaide.
Stewart Sweeney
Adelaide, South Australia
Carbon footprints are difficult to measure
The dissection of our individual carbon footprints is a task that requires subtlety (Lights, camera – inaction, 17 January). Your article on Hollywood environmentalism suggested that our use of personal video services such as Netflix uses more carbon than collectively going to the cinema. However, shouldn’t we also look at what else is involved? For example, how many of those in the cinema have driven there? If so, what is the carbon footprint of their going to the cinema? Is this higher than watching at home?
A similarly narrow view is taken when governments celebrate the virtuosity of reducing their carbon footprint without recognising that if the carbon that goes into our consumer goods were instead counted against where those goods are consumed, we would not look quite as good. Wouldn’t it be more virtuous also to give up the German cars, Chinese phones and weekend flights that everyone still appears to expect?
Stuart L Grassie
Cambridge, UK
Sustainable living relies on keeping a sense of hope
Surely many of your readers were struck by the extraordinary contrast between George Monbiot’s melancholic appraisal of our lack of progress on environmental issues and his need to regularly rest and recharge, and then, just a few pages later, Oliver Burkeman’s essay on the futility of worrying about the future because of its inherent unpredictability (10 January).
Both perspectives are equally valid. We must continue to strive to do the right thing in terms of more sustainable living, because it is the right thing to do – regardless of the anticipated outcomes. The energy to maintain this striving will require not just compassion for others, but also self-compassion. However, we must firmly acknowledge that factors outside our control will always have a profound impact on how our future plays out. Paraphrasing Camus’s conclusion on the most appropriate demeanour for Sisyphus, whose fate is to repeatedly push that big rock up the mountain, only to see it roll down the other side: “The struggle itself towards the heights” must be “enough to fill a man’s heart”.
Paul Grogan
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
How many items does an average home have?
Regarding your story Is less more? (10 January), Kyle Chayka notes that the average American household possesses more than 300,000 items; I would be curious to know the source of such a statement.
My wife and I have about 1,000 books, even counting every sock et al I doubt whether we have 1,000 pieces of clothing, maybe with every dish and piece of cutlery we have 1,000 items in our kitchen but I would be very surprised if we possess more than 10,000 items and we are definitely not minimalists.
Richard Holland
Grafton, Ontario, Canada
Gary Younge will be sorely missed by Weekly readers
Thanks to Gary Younge for some of the best reporting and insights in the western world (17 January). I hope you will continue to publish him, and, here’s to success with his university teaching; his students are fortunate. He never abandoned the idea that humanity is capable of creating a saner and more just world. What a voice!
Eugene Novogrodsky
Brownsville, Texas, US
