There has been a considerable amount of press over the last few years regarding "Eco Towns". These are complete new residential developments that are build to be super-green.
Examples exist in the UK (See BBC News, or the Wikipedia page on UK Eco Towns), the UAE (Masdar City) and of course the US (Sonoma Village).
I agree that these Eco Towns are a positive thing - they mean that new greenfield developments have the lowest possible environmental impact. Their incredible media profile however has a dark side in that they create a false sense of positivity when the bigger tasks are being ignored. These new Eco Towns confuse and distract from the urgent need to transform our existing cities and towns into sustainable places to live. Climate change will not be averted by a few small toy towns. We can only meet the challenges of this impending environmental disaster by transforming our current cities, towns and villages into environmentally sustainable habitats.
I think that more attention, energy (no pun intended) and government money needs to flow into projects that green our existing cities. These include greater use of sustainable base-load power, more energy efficient appliances in all homes and better access to public transport for all. Unfortunately these things arnt as sexy or newsworthy as Eco Towns...but the real solutions very rarely are.
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