By Dr. Tim Elkin and Duncan McLaren with Mayer Hillman Published by Friends of the Earth, €12.95 Reviewed by Eileen Gersh MOST OF us live in cities, and most of us find our environment far from ideal. What's your pet peeve? Housing? Getting to and from work? Finding a place to park? A place for he kids to play? The chances are that you can look it up in this book, find a disPage 14 Feb. 1. 1992 No. :5 cussion of the problem with some relevent statistics, and get some suggestions as to how it might be alleviated.
Although the book is not an easy read it is a fine reference book, packed with infor nation and documentation to support the arguments. What the authors are interested in is 'sustainable development. By this they mean meeting our present needs without diminishing the ability of futo satisfy their needs.
So, are the authors really talking about making the city more liveable for us now?
In an interesting discussion of 'sustainability and Wreability, they argue that sustainability requires the ob servance of two main principles - 'futurity and 'environmental assessment. By futurity they mean insuring that the needs of future generations are provided for.
This cannot be done without a knowledge of numerous environmenta. parameters - the available supplies of material resources; their rate of renewal; what limits must be put on their current use to prevent their depletion and deterioration of the environment: and so on. already inefficient, wasteful and polluting, following the authors' recommendations would make the economy of cities more efficient. It would also have a positive sociai effect, giving us an improved quality of life. principles of futurity and en Vironment. and invoke in addition the principles of 'equity' and 'participation'. They argue that the city must be treated as a whole and so planning is essential. Providins tor future generations -inter-generational equity - reShort-term planning only involves thinking about our own generation.
Applying current concepts or economic growin leads to increasing degradation of the the difference between rich and poor. But the authors insist that the pursuit of sustainable development, as opposea to uncontrolled economic growth, can not oniy be compatible with the goal of equity, but actually re those least advantaged: to achieve development we must redistribute resources'.
On participation: in addition to sharing in the benefits of regeneration, the people of the area should be involved in the planning and decision. making about that regeneration. is not mentioned once in this book. Elkin et ais' dismissal of current patterns of economic crowth, and their commit ment to the principles of equity and participation show that they are on our side.
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