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The global economy & financial flows are centered around cities, since urban areas are where population growth occurs, economies develop, culture is created, & political control is established. But cities are also the greatest consumers of fossil fuels. The development & expansion of today's global cities has depended on ever increasing consumption of energy -- mostly in the form of fossil fuels. Now these huge petroleum-dependent cities are faced with the security risk of an energy crisis. Further, the global dependence on urban systems could result in an even greater energy crisis. In addition, poverty levels are tied to the fossil fuel regime; a nuclear crisis is threatening because of the opportunistic call for atomic fuel; global water depletion is exacerbated by primary thermal power generation systems; a global health crisis is being caused by air, water, & soil pollution from fossil fuel & petrochemical use; & global climate change is being exacerbated by fossil incineration. The need to change how we live in & develop our world is obvious. Making this change is both a cultural task -- in terms of motivation & mindset -- & a political one -- in terms of coordinating efforts, changing laws, & ensuring compliance. Adapted from the source document.

A vexing modern conundrum is to be solved. The use of oil, gas, and coal is extremely short-lived as a historical phenomenon: a mere blink of an eye at a little more than 1% of total urban history of 10,000 years to-date. Yet current urban civilization is almost entirely based on it. And the fossil-fuel economy poses not only a massive security risk, it also lies at the root of the vast majority of urban sustainability problems. Fresh water depletion, air pollution, widespread human fatalities can be directly traced to the excessive use of these dirty energy sources. Climate change, predominantly triggered by fossil-fuel combustion, only deepens the very questions the impending petroleum peak raises about the survivability of the global urban system. The fossil disease is a complex global pandemic. To many, conquering this pandemic is an extraordinary challenge of technology: of reengineering the manner in which urban civilization is powered, advancing a future envisioned in numerous studies since the 1970s. Yet foremost, this is a cultural, psychological, and political challenge. The global economy is systematically identified with its underlying fossil supply frameworks—it is a fossil economy. It is marked by an incendiary illusion: the celebration of abundance promised as achievable by all, driving virtually all aspects of contemporary culture. Yet it is also marred with enormous pockets of deprivation, and deep cracks of disbelief, criticism, and dissent. Reinforcing this challenge is the psychoeconomical transaction cost of change, the sheer inertia of an infernal development system, however short-lived it inevitably is. Despite all lip service paid to 'energy savings' and 'environmentally sustainable development' in urban policy documents and brochures across the globe, dominant political and financial interests demand that as much fossil fuel as possible is used, and as quickly as possible, to secure the highest possible profits for the most powerful, and in the shortest period of time. Hence many national governments and international bodies find it so difficult to place fossil-fuel replacement on the global agenda. It is easier to avoid this topic and talk about buffering, mitigating what are little else than subsidiary, flow-on effects and collateral outcomes of an unsolved energy conundrum: air, water and soil pollution, public health problems, deforestation or fresh water depletion. Rarely, if ever, is petroleum abuse clearly noted as a root cause. A historical revolution is in progress: the move from fossil fuels, nuclear power, and other forms of unsustainable energy use generation to a renewable and sustainable power base for urban communities, cities, towns, and villages. Many examples of positive initiatives encourage, and are testimony to the ability of cities and towns to perform as communities, and evolve into settings of greater independence from fossil and nuclear power sources. They carry the promise of greater energy autonomy based on renewable energy, of recapturing regional productivity, advancing local resources, and enabling new industries and employment opportunities.

The large-scale and inevitable shift away from the fossil- and nuclear-powered economic model will have dramatic consequences. The author discusses these by looking at the impacts on and of one of the greatest accomplishments of 20th-century culture: global urbanization, modern cities, and urban life. Technological implications, urban form impacts, policy dimensions, institutional ramifications, and cultural issues all form the very nexus of challenges confronting decision makers worldwide at local, regional, and global levels.

"In diesem Band setzen sich zwanzig junge Forscherinnen und Forscher mit ihren eigenen Perspektiven und den Chancen nachhaltiger Raumentwicklung auseinander. Sie stützen sich dabei auf die große Tradition einer demokratischen Stadt- und Regionalplanung sowie Raumentwicklung, die von den Idealen und Werten der Emanzipation, Regeneration, Resilienz und Suffizienz geleitet ist."--