GallagherGreen
Sometime in 2008 an unprecedented global demographic transition occurred, the majority of us know live in
cities. This fundamental change in where we live will undoubtedly change who we are and how we come to
understand natural systems. There are now over 38 urban centers that house at least 10 million people; in 1950 there
were only two. While they are generally considered the home of the most creative and artistic talent, the pioneers of
ground breaking public policy and considerable economic drivers they are often simultaneously the sites of abject
poverty and extreme environmental degradation. If sustainability is truly a human goal then the development of a
functional land ethic must be possible within the paradoxical context of the urban environment. Increasingly then,
urban green-space, will provide the experiential framework required for the development of an ecological identity,
the prerequisite of a land ethic and the practice of sustainability.