ABSTRACT
Modern cities are inherently ecologically unsustainable because they need to import food, energy and raw materials; they produce more waste than they can cope with within their boundaries; and they radically change the ecology of their sites. The larger the concentration of population the less sustainable it is. Even if we extend the boundary of the city to include its hinterland we cannot usefully describe it as potentially ecologically sustainable. The more the city becomes part of the international economic order the less it can be seen as ‘ecologically sustainable’ in any operational sense.
