A Canadian vision for northern eco cities, wilderness education & sustainable technologies

The lack of Canadian action on the ecological front has been surprising. Behind the leadership of Stephen Harper, our government is charging headlong backwards into the coal age. Scattered initiatives are chipping away at our carbon footprint, with a project here and there but so far nothing has occurred to inspire Canadians with a hope that we will be leaders of a planet with a sustainable future. Meanwhile, the haunting shadow of the tar sands looms in the background, giving us all reason to worry just a little about the consequences of our lifestyles and our climate apathy.

Canada does have an admirable legacy of environmental action, notably nurturing such global forces as Greenpeace and Dr. David Suzuki. Most provinces are dabbling in alternative energy initiatives, but Canada is far from a leader in any of these areas. The one thing we do have is a certain level of awareness from coast to coast that is accentuated by the fact that one is always close to nature wherever you are in Canada. But the fact remains there are few, if any, landmark projects that would be capable of capturing the public's imagination.

Reflecting on this over the past few years, the one concept that keeps returning to mind is the idea of constructing a northern eco city. This is exactly the type of thing that could consolidate a Canadian vision of a sustainable future.

The project would consist of the construction of a complete city in the middle of an untracked wilderness, probably nearly untouched by humans at present. The idea from the outset would be to minimize any incremental effects of the human presence on the environment. The city would definitely include a university and technical schools. Power and heating would be by wind and geo-thermal. There would be accommodation for all sorts of experimental projects in agriculture, in urban development, design, communications, etc.

This project makes more sense the more one considers it. Firstly, at some point in time Canadians need to acknowledge that we are occupying 6.7% of the world's land mass, but only account for .5% of the population. As the population of the world expands, there will come a time when Canada's empty spaces will become coveted as living space for people living in impossibly crowded conditions elsewhere. Secondly, if we look at settlement patterns over previous centuries, it is obvious that most cities and populated areas have evolved near fertile agricultural zones. Already today, it can be assumed there is little or no particular need for a city to be located near fertile farmland. What has happened is that cities have just continued to spread out from their historical locations. So, with these two facts in mind, it makes a lot of sense to begin to explore the capacity of Canada's north to house population in a sustainable and successful way.

It so happens that the entire planet is just at the beginning of a transformation to green energy sources, so this whole idea can dovetail neatly with a northern eco city project. Overall, Canada could hope to realize a wealth of knowledge and expertise from this type of a project. On top of that, it could be expected to be a big tourist attraction and something that could inspire Canadians' passions and dreams from coast to coast.

As there is no such thing on the drawing boards at present, the assumption can be made that this is a project that needs to be kindled from the ground up. We are going to try to get it started with some art initiatives.