 13 Mar 2007 @ 18:37, by Unknown
As for the future, our task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Look before, or you'll find yourself behind.
---Benjamin Franklin
The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.
---Paul Valery
The Dongtan development, on the island of Chongming, near Shanghai, in the mouth of the Yangtze river, aims to be the world's first fully sustainable eco-city (roughly the size of Manhattan) when completed by 2040. It is due to be opened by 2010 for the Shanghai Expo trade fair, a time by which it is supposed to house some 50,000 people in its first phase.
Four more eco-cities are to be built in China's interior in regions that have been polluted by heavy industry and depopulated by the movement of millions of Chinese people to the booming Pacific coast.
China is very committed to developing a new paradigm of economic development. It is part of a new awareness of the environment by the Chinese government. They realise that with their growing population and economy they have to overcome the problems of environmental pollution and resource depletion.
The eco-cities are intended to be self-sufficient in energy, water and most food products, with the aim of zero emissions of greenhouse gases in transport systems.
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