As the world exceeds 7 million inhabitants, global
warming nears its tipping point and a majority of the earth’s citizens live in
urban areas, visionary and action-oriented planning matters more than ever.
Planning is the process by which we create a vision
of the future, research existing challenges, communicate with stakeholders,
create and test solutions and (with politics and funding aligned) implement
those solutions, evaluate the results and repeat. Without plans, society lacks the
tools to make and enforce decisions that promote the collective good.
Planning matters greatly when the issue at hand will
impact the entire world’s inhabitants, but can’t necessarily be felt at the
present moment. The important buzzword here is environmental sustainability. A hospitable
environment is the most basic requirement for human survival—it impacts people
from all races, incomes, genders and nationalities (although members of minority
or lower-income groups, women and certain countries often experience environmental
degradation more acutely).
Planning can be incredibly effective in promoting sustainability. Sweden’s waste-to-energy and recycling plans were so successful that they have run out of garbage, and are now
paid by European countries to import trash. Lancaster, California planned to become
a renewable energy capital, requiring almost all new homes to be built with
solar panels. The city will now receive at least 126 megawatts from solar
energy.
Failing to develop and implement plans for
environmental sustainability will mean an unequal, diminished quality of life
for future generations. For example, global warming has caused a rise in sea
levels that threatens to swallow low-lying land. This reality is forcing the island
country of Kiribati to relocate entirely.
Preserving the future of life on earth is not an
easy task, and communities must come together to determine the ways in which they must contribute to this shared endeavor. Such planning involves making sacrifices and reaping rewards as
equitably as possible among the global citizenship. We must dedicate (or rededicate) ourselves to this work in 2014.
