ABSTRACT
Poor urban design and architecture kills more people each year than terrorism. In just two weeks in Europe, for example, up to 35,000 deaths resulted from the ‘urban heat island effect’ (which means cities are several degrees hotter than their surroundings). 1 More people reportedly died in one day from heat-related causes than died in the ‘9/11’ attack on the World Trade Center. The design of urban development both externalizes and conceals negative impacts. The rich tapestry of urban life, however stimulating, masks a resource transfer process that:
Harms human and environmental health
Destroys our means of survival (the life support system)
Reduces secure access to food and water
Reduces public space and natural amenity
Chains us to the fossil fuel economy
Transfers wealth from the many to the few
Generates conflict over land and resources
Cuts off basic life choices for future generations
