Part of the Cities in Crisis: Ecological Transformations series of free lectures.
On the one hand, cities can be the epitome of sustainability, reaping the benefits of proximity, efficiency, and innovation. On the other hand, they can be graveyards of dreams and sources of contamination. In Cities In Crisis: Ecological Transformations, six lectures at The Cooper Union, Dr. Steward Pickett, past President of the Ecological Society of America and a plant ecologist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will present an integrated view of cities from an ecological perspective and explore the frontiers of promoting the transformation of a more sustainable urban trajectory.
The topic of this week's lecture is "Cities as Ecosystems." How do ecologists think about cities? What ecological processes occur in cities? What’s wrong with the idea of open space in cities?