Population Needs + Issues
A growing population will extract increased quantities of natural resources.
Extracted resources will be used to establish communities and generate energy. They will be extracted to create open-space for settlement and to provide employment opportunities (to lumbers, builders ...)
We are running out of resources! With further extraction, we risk depleting our natural resources.
Our resources are depleting because we're running a linear system on a finite planet! This is to say that we're only taking resources from our environment. We're not giving back to the environment.
Solution # 1: Invest in renewable energy/products
If everyone started investing in renewable resources, then the need to use nature's non-renewable resources would diminish. Furthermore, this would help in conserving these non-renewable resources. To illustrate, if we use solar-energy in our homes, there wouldn't be a need to risk using/depleting our limited natural gas supply.
We're not allowing for sustainable yield management - we're not giving our resources sufficient time to regenerate themselves.
Solution # 2: Avoid 'planned obsolescence'
By buying material which offers good longevity, we can reduce product-waste and the need to buy replacement products. This will lead to slackened extraction of resources, because the demand for short-lived products will be lower. This slackened extraction process will give time for resources to regenerate!
Did you know? In the last three decades, 1/3 of our planet's natural resources have been consumed.
A growing population will bring about the need for employment opportunities.
These opportunities must be provided to ensure that a steady economy and income is provided to city-dwellers.
With increased rural folk moving into cities, it's becoming competitive to earn a well-paying job/position.
There’s too large of a population competing for a limited number of employment opportunities.
Solution # 1: Create employment opp. within the 'sustainability-sector'
It's not possible to reduce the number of people competing for employment. But it is possible to increase the employment opportunities available! Furthermore, the best way to create these opp. (while benefitting the environment), is by creating job postings for gardeners, eco-friendly home designers, sustainability policy-makers...etc.
A handful of the people in our population are jobless because of their limitation(s).
Mechanization is putting people out of work.
Solution # 2: Encourage earning passive-income!
Seniors are retiring, and are spending reduced hours contributing to revenue.
Encourage people (especially seniors) to grow their own food in their convenient eco-friendly homes! They can sell this food to others, and can earn passive income which can support them financially!
Globally, 200,000 people/day are migrating to cities to look for work - because their original homes and surrounding environment has been depleted.
A growing population will promote urbanization and urban-sprawl.
This urbanization will be used to fulfill the population's demand for building workplaces, homes, parks (etc.). This urbanization will also attract migration.
Urbanization is destroying our environment.
Increasing population density is causing a crisis in which we are trying to accommodate living facilities for an excessive amount of people - and this is driving urbanization and urban-sprawl.
Solution # 1: Create taller structures for living
Instead of building homes which extend along a line... build houses which are taller and can hold a large # of people (without using up too much space).
People need space for agriculture. Moreover, cities are having to clear natural landscapes to create this space (forests, open-space...).
Solution # 2: Set "Growth-boundaries" in cities
Set "Growth-boundaries" in cities. These boundaries stay in place for approx. 20 years, and is used to mark an area which cannot be urbanized during that time. This preserves the area/landscape (and saves it from the risk of being urbanized).
Solution # 3: Promote indoor-farming
By using indoor-farming practices, you can save 'outdoor-farming' space for other types of development. To elaborate, indoor-farming is a concept which focuses on growing optimal large-scale harvest, indoors. It's been widely accepted in the Netherlands, and can be applied in our community too (within tall eco-friendly structures).
Construction/transportation in cities (caused by urbanization) is causing pollution.
Solution # 4: Promote "Eco-villages" and "Transit-villages"
"Eco-villages" are eco-friendly cities. They reduce pollution by promoting car-pooling, shared transportation, and the use of multiple-occupant vehicles. Similarly, "Transit-villages" promote the use of mass-transportation/transit (e.g. use of buses) within a city.
"By 2050, about 70% of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas."
If natural resources are conserved, it will benefit our economy. This is because conserving resources will ensure a continual flow of resources is maintained. This supply will provide material for the very goods/products which support our economy!
To incorporate this into our communities, it's possible to create eco-friendly homes. These eco-friendly homes are managed by renewable-energy and furniture, and allow for planting all around them!
To incorporate this into our communities, it's important to promote this in our people! Furthermore, public demand has the potential to improve the sustainability of our extraction-processes. In other words, if the people begin demanding sustainable products, then producers will start to produce them!
The aforementioned changes also increase affordability! Furthermore, by buying products with good longevity, you're saving money on having to buy a 'replacement-product'. As for eco-friendly homes, they save you money by offering renewable-energy and self-sustained cooling/insulation (glazed-glass, thermal insulation…).
"U.S. landowners can save $126 billion in energy costs through 2040 by following green building codes. LEED-certified buildings have also averted 33 metric tons of carbon dioxide from 2000 to 2016 in six countries, including the U.S., India and China."
A recent study by Statistics Canada found that “34% of Canadians aged 65 or older (more than 4.1 million) were at nutritional risk." If seniors begin planting/gardening, they can save expenses on buying food and can feed themselves reliable and nutritious meals (from what they grow). Gardening also gives them an extra-income, and a reason to exercise and be physically active!
By offering local employment opp. in the 'sustainability-sector', we can reduce the transportation use of workers travelling to & from work. This is good for the environment because it reduces pollution!
To promote this in our communities, start new sustainable initiatives (e.g. 'eco-friendly home-development project'). By doing so, you're creating the local employment opp. discussed on the left, while engaging in an activity that promotes sustainable living (e.g. building eco-friendly homes).
To promote this in our community, start dedicating more space to planting! This will encourage people to plant, while providing them the space they need to do so. Another way to promote this, is by educating people on why it's important to plant, and how they can secure optimal plant-growth in their 'planting ventures'.
To promote this in our communities, start creating modern and diverse, eco-buildings that are taller. By making these homes an appealing trend, you can convince a greater population to live in them. Furthermore, to take this to the next step, use underground parking for these buildings, and save 'above-ground' parking space for other development!
Set "Growth-boundaries" in the city, and develop open-concept parks in them. By doing so, you're not just 'holding-back' open-space from the public. You're returning it to them, in a sustainable form. To continue, for the open-concept park, you can use recycled material for the park design, allow for planting and vegetation in the park, and provide safe disposal options within it too(recycling)!
To promote indoor-farming in your community, share the advantages of indoor-farming with your people! By doing so, you can convince the population to invest in this type of farming. Furthermore, this type of farming will promote a plant-based diet.
To start 'Eco/Transit-villages' in your community, start making it easier to access mass transportation vehicles (buses, the Subway) and offer routes for walking/bicycling. You can do this, by offerring wider walking spaces (for bicycling), and by making your roads smaller (to discourage people from driving because of traffic congestion, and to convince them to use efficient mass-transportation services instead).
Indoor-farming can employee seniors to farm! These seniors are typically contributing fewer hours to the economy after retiring. But if they choose to contribute to indoor-farming, then they can earn extra income (it helps our economy) while fulfilling our need for more food!
Indoor-farming promotes eating a plant-based diet in the neighbourhood. This has many advantages (e.g. it's cheaper than a meat-based diet, and it's renewable because you can continually harvest).
“For he price of one acre of land, we get a yield of 250 pounds of beef...the same amount of land can produce 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, up to 53,000 pounds of potatoes or 30,000 pounds of carrots” continually.
“An acre of land is capable of providing 36 pounds of usable protein from meat per acre while the same amount of space can put out 224 pounds of protein for rice, 94 pounds for legumes and 75 pounds for rice”.
A recent study showed that those who consume an average of 3.5 ounces of meat per day, resulted in 15.8 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions.
By promoting transportation which carries large numbers of people (e.g. buses, subways), we’re preventing excess pollution from entering our air, and we’re giving seniors (who can't drive) the opportunity to participate in healthy activities (e.g. bicycling, socializing). It also creates a well-connected community.
Issues such as: climate limitations (few GDD's, low precipitation...), soil erosion/degradation, hilly land, and excess water in soil, are all solved with indoor-farming practices. More control, better yield!
Need for a Growing Population:
Cause for Need:
Issue with this Need:
Cause of Issue:
Solution for Issue:
How to Incorporate Solution into Communities:
Advantages of Incorporating the Solution into Communities:
Hello there! To read this mind-map, simply start at the title: "Population Needs + Issues", then work your way through each strand individually. As you read each strand, the branches will give you new information, in this order (which can also be found at the top of the page):
Blue boxes: These state a need for the population
# 2 Layer: These boxes elaborate on the 'need' mentioned in the blue boxes.
# 3 Layer: Issue associated with the 'need' mentioned in the blue boxes. The 'blue-flag box' provides evidence for the issue.
# 4 Layer: Cause of the aforementioned issue(s).
# 5 Layer: Solution for the aforementioned issue(s).
# 6 Layer: How the aforementioned solution(s) can be implemented into communities.
# 7: Advantages of incorporating the aforementioned solution(s) + how they fulfill the initial need stated.
MLA Citations can be found at the bottom section of the mind-map.
20-Minute Neighbourhood
Why is Sustainability Important?
The Palaeozoic Era should be used as a model for an important lesson: what drastic changes in climate and an unpredictable environment can cause. To elaborate, 80% of living organisms became extinct in the Palaeozoic - largely because of changes in the Earth’s temperature. A similar future is awaiting us, if we don’t rectify the damage we’ve caused to the Earth’s natural systems.
As Kenneth Lacovara said in his Ted Talk: Hunting for Dinosaurs Showed Me Our Place in the Universe:'we are propagating an environmental disaster by ourselves'! Furthermore, this disaster must be averted. And the only way to do that, lies in stabilizing our environment through sustainability.
Start Here!
20-Minute Neighbourhood
Local Employment Opp.
Indoor-farming is an initiative which can offer local employment to all ages of people (seniors to youth).
Implementation of eco-friendly homes will also require workers/staff to take on constructing the homes - this creates further local employment opp.
Employment within the 'sustainability-sector' promotes local employment opportunities (working at local gardens, parks, construction-sites...).
Community Gardening
Open-concept parks/playgrounds, "Growth-boundaries", and eco-friendly homes all promote gardening within the community. Furthermore, by encouraging seniors to earn a passive-income through planting, you're further promoting this idea.
Affordable Housing
Eco-friendly homes use renewable material in their construction, renewable energy for their power, and renewable furniture for their interior. All of these factors, contribute to lowering a homeowner's energy, shopping, and maintenance expenses.
Life-Long Learning Opp./Local Shopping Facilities/ Local Medical Facilities
By using all of the ideas listed in this mind-map, you're saving open-space in your community. With this space, the construction of local shopping/medical facilities and schools is made possible.
By saving space through underground parking, you are creating opportunities for new schools/malls to built on the saved space!
Green Streets/Spaces
"Growth-boundaries" preserve 'green-spaces'.
Safe-streets and Spaces
Preserving land through "Growth-boundaries" and practicing community gardening reduces crime rates.
Safe-cycling Networks
Increased safety and accessibility to open-land ("Growth-boundaries") promotes bicycling over riding vehicles.
Ability to Age in a Place
Passive-income opp. offer seniors' physical/mental well-being through offering them an activity to do, and financial well-being through offering them regular income.
Housing Diveristy
Eco-friendly homes can be created in a variety of structural shapes. For this reason, they're considered ideal homes which offer the potential to be diversified.
Taller buildings (condominiums, apartments...) add to a monotonous neighbourhood's housing diversity.
Well-connected to Transport, Jobs, Public
By starting local initiatives (to create employment in the sustainability-sector), you're giving people the option to work within their communities. Furthermore, with "Eco/Transit-villages", you're ensuring these people are offerred well-connected transportation in addition to their local jobs.
Local Playgrounds/Parks
"Growth-boundaries" preserve the ideal physical features of any given area (good quality soil, flatland...), and allow for creating open-concept parks/playground facilities on the preserved area.
Sports/Recreational Facilities
"Growth-boundaries" also support the creation of sports/recreational areas.
Walkability
Increased safety (due to open-concept parks) and accessibility to open-land (due to "Growth-boundaries") promotes walking over riding vehicles.
Smaller roads, wider sidewalks encourage walking in the community.
Local-Public Transport
"Eco-villages" and "Transit-villages" encourage local-public transport.