“Every great idea passes through 3 stages.   In the first stage, it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident.” ~Arthur Schopenhauer 

The first reaction of most people to the idea of Oasis Cities, is that its a CRAZY IDEA..!   People don’t like sudden big changes to their way of life and cannot see that the city model they have become accustomed to is as INEFFICIENT & ANTIQUATED, and as OBSOLETE AS A LAUNDRY MANGLE..!  

 

In this article I compare the main features of conventional cities, which I call OB-Cities (because they are obese and unhealthy), with clean, quiet and efficient OA-Cities (Oasis Cities) 

 

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Of these 2 city concepts which is the CRAZY one..?

 

CITY CONCEPT #1 – 

OB-City (Obese City) – what every city has now become..!

• BUILDINGS – a city with countless entry and exit points – a dystopian sprawl of poorly-insulated buildings, of many different shapes, sizes, ages, purposes, and build quality, all scattered haphazardly across a vast undefined and un-secured area.    

• PUBLIC TRANSPORT – an extremely complex, costly and vastly inefficient railway and bus network which cannot possibly service every area equally – and certainly not on a 24/7 basis. 

• PRIVATE TRANSPORT – countless over-sized, over-powered, and over-engineered private cars (typically one for ever 2 persons) which spend 95% of their lives immobile.    

• ELECTRICITY – generated by enormous thermally-inefficient power stations that emit more heat than power, sited far from where their power is needed, and transmitted to the city by an unwieldy network of unsightly high-tension pylons, sub-stations and transformers.

• WATER – collected in distant open reservoirs, where much is lost to evaporation, then has to be “purified” before use and requires an extensive network of pipelines (water mains) and pumping stations to bring it into the city.

• HOUSEHOLD WASTE – weekly collections by noisy, expensive, polluting trucks involving many council employees.  Most household waste, even food waste and so-called “re-cyclables”, is then dumped in enormous landfills

• HUMAN WASTE is entirely wasted, “flushed and forgotten”, and very conveniently (no pun) channelled “out of sight and out of mind”.

• PARKS and green spaces, etc., scattered haphazardly and unequally distributed across a wide area – convenient for the well-to-do minority who can afford to live close-by. 

This outmoded concept hasn’t fundamentally changed for over 2000 years.

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CITY CONCEPT #2 –

OA-City (Oasis City) – what cities should be..!

• BUILDINGS – a city with just a few well-secured entry and exit points, comprising a small number of enclosed habitats – each one a self-contained community with every facility its inhabitants require.  Like a cruise ship or a resort hotel, but with more spacious accommodation and better in every way..!

• PUBLIC TRANSPORT – monorails and/or individual travel-pods (available 24/7) connect the habitats to each other via underground shopping and leisure galleries.   

• PRIVATE TRANSPORT – community-owned cars will be available for outside trips. 

• ELECTRICITY generated onsite from building-integrated solar panels and wind turbines, negating the need for heat-wasting power-stations, transmission lines, sub-stations, and the rest.  

• WATER collected onsite from rainfall, with no need for dams, reservoirs, treatment plants, pumping stations, long-distance pipelines, and the rest.

• HOUSEHOLD WASTE daily collection using quiet electric hand-carts, to be later sorted and re-cycled or re-used.

• HUMAN WASTE can be “flushed with pride” – all will be processed into fertiliser and fuel.  

• PARKLAND totally surrounds each city module, thus easily and equally accessible for all to use.

Now tell me honestly, which of these 2 is the “crazy idea”..?

The above short list only scratches the surface – a complete listing of the potential benefits of Oasis Cities is HERE