Yes, I was a but cynical also for the sake of conciseness, but there is indeed and interesting point in green cities, that’s one question on which ecologism and environmentalism differ. The question is whether you are trying to preserve the whole ecosystem or an environment in which humans feel good.

To be honest, I don’t want to live in a concrete jungle. I think inhumane to live in a super dense city totally disconnected to nature. But I also would like that we collectively accept that this is a preference that is harmful to the ecosystem and that it is sometimes okay to have such preferences, if we manage to make them sustainable.

20 years ago a urbanist I was working with, when we were doing city simulations to help offset CO2 footprint told me “you know, the ugly truth is that if we want to lower our CO2 emissions to the max, we should all live in skyscrapers on top of a school, supermarket and incinerator.”

Thing is, we need to recognize the tension between an enjoyable environment, wildlife preservation, human health, the ecosystem’s health… And we need to see further than the current, petty, political compartimentalization of these questions. I wish one day we start consider these questions a bit more seriously

This effect exists, as well amongst left wing leaders, yet we do observe more diminishing inequalities in countries ruled by left-wing coalitions.

I do think that power-seeking individuals will tend to be anti-equality, yet to some extent, democracy works as the left-wing variety of these individuals have to conquer power by increasing redistribution.

I’ll be honest, I thought the top one was an ‘eco village’ in construction.

Quite frankly, trees inside cities are decorative. If you truly care about ecology and the ecosystem, you look at the forestry on a national or regional level. Theoretically, having the densest and hence the smallest cities possibles would be the best for the overall ecosystem. When I see a park in a city I am thinking “they force the city to grow its radius by that much”.

I’d rather have a very dense urban seed surrounded by natural reserves than a chill cityscape with a few scattered parks that are not big enough to sustain a full ecosystem.

We elect conservatives, they are afraid of change. It is as simple as that.

Before the Arab Spring there was even a more ambitious plan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec#/media/File:DESERTEC-Map_large.jpg

And also a huge need for AC, when solar is typically at the peak.

I wondered when I visited Malaysia why there was not more solar panels around, and a local explained to me that it was mostly lobbying and corruption, with local electricity providers making it illegal.

I don’t wish on anyone what Syria went through, but I am also hopeful that when systems breaks, workarounds exist and may in the long term improve the overall situation.