"Sustainable development is the code word for the most important social debate of our time. Is our model of development undoing our very existence or, for that matter, the maintenance of our planetary ecosystem? Under which conditions are economic growth, our consumptive patterns, and our ways of living reproducible over time without damaging the conditions of their reproduction? Is generational solidarity - that is, forwarding a livable planet to the grandchildren of our grandchildren - an achievable goal in the current context of social organization?

This fundamental debate is increasingly urban. For all the talk about the natural environment, it is the living conditions in cities (in fact, in large metropolitan regions) that determine the future of our livelihood. It is in large cities where we generate most of the CO2 emissions that attack the ozone layer. It is our urban model of consumption and transportation that constitutes the main cause of the process of global warming and can irreversibly damage the conditions of livelihood.

The housing crisis, the collapse of transportation, the deterioration of public hygiene, and the contamination of air and water represent the dark side of the urbanization process.

In other words: in the midst of a most extraordinary technological revolution, we are experiencing the largest wave or urbanization in history, often in appalling conditions and, generally speaking, with a high cost in terms of the quality of life, both socially and environmentally.

However, these are structural trends, not historical fatality. What happens in history and in society ultimately depends on human agency...The future of our world will not ultimately depend on technological innovation or on the global economy. It will be the outcome of what we - the people - the urban people - do about it, through our projects and through our conflicts. The missing link between environmental sustainability and social organization, in theory as in practice, is the relationship of urban communities to their environment."
Livable Cities?

"Livable Cities?" as the question mark implies takes a deeper look into whether our current way of occupying the planet and in particular our cities is sustainable. The word "livable" is an interesting choice because it connects the social aspect to the environment, and it is a relationship that has grown increasingly alienated and distanced, perhaps in some part due to increasing urbanization trends which has resulted in the territorial sprawl of urban life onto formerly green spaces. Livable is itself a somewhat ambiguous term and open to interpretation and misinterpretation.

The authors of Livable Cities? argue for a definition of livability that takes into account and must in fact exercise a balance between society (the people) and environment. We are interdependent, and if anything we are more co-dependent on the environment than it is on us. "The coin of livability has two faces. Livelihood is one of them. Ecological sustainability is the other". Citizens should not be forced to choose between green space and breathable air or wages. To be livable a city must put both sides of the "coin" together in a way that provides livelihoods for people and preserves the quality of our environment.

What seems clear today more than ever, and is brought back into the light by books like Livable Cities? and the Al Gore film "An Inconvenient Truth", is that sustainability and livability are intertwined. Citizens cannot afford to imagine themselves living in an urban reality divorced from the hinterland. Urban life has become an expense that the environment cannot afford to carry in its present state and certainly not with the anticipated growth and urbanization of the developing world. We as social agents must become increasingly aware and participate in the creation of sustainable, livable cities. It is no longer just up to the government or turning the finger on the private sector. What becomes evident in Livable Cities? and An Inconvenient Truth is that all three sectors (private/public/civic) have an important role to play in building the framework for a sustainable world.