Britain's misguided approach to sustainability, developers chasing Dubai's "pot of gold" only have themselves to blame and Sydney described as "dysfunctional and directionless".
"Equally, while preaching 'sustainability', the British government presided over the spread of poor housing across the country, nearly all of it designed with little or no thought for local jobs, schools, nurseries, youth clubs or public transport - and all of it heavily reliant on the car. This might have been the decade of environmental awareness, yet Britain kept building airport terminals, supermarkets, and mega-malls such as Bluewater and Westfield - as if sustainability just meant sticking a wind turbine on the roof."
The Guardian
Full Article
"Are there lessons to be learnt from Dubai? Only that anyone who believes in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has themselves to blame when the pot disappears along with the luxury hotels, shopping malls, ex-pat villas and their fee."
BD Online
Full Article
"Few in Australia look to Sydney as the place where they'd want - if they could afford - to put down roots; as the city template they'd like to bring home; as the beauty most likely to succeed. It is congested, unforgiving, lacking civility, complacent, chaotic, expensive, cynical, dysfunctional and directionless."
The Australian
Full Article
"The task for Samara is to stop the haemorrhaging of its heritage. If the present rate of loss continues Samara will cease to be a European city and join those unplanned Asian cities which have become an urban jungle with no coherent sense of townscape or identify."
The Guardian
Full Article
"Ultimately, though, the international agreement has fallen victim to domestic politics. Voters do not want to bear the cost of their elected leaders' aspirations, and those leaders have not been brave enough to push them."
The Economist
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