Are we greening our cities, or just greenwashing them?
Architecture and urban design is chasing a green fever dream. Everywhere you look, there are plans for “sustainable” buildings, futuristic eco-cities and aquaponic farms on the roof, each promising to add a green touch to the modern city.
All of these are surely good ideas at some level. They are trying to repair some of the damage our lifestyle has done to the planet. But, despite the rhetoric of reuniting the city with nature, today’s green urban dream is too often about bringing a technologically controlled version of nature into the city and declaring the problem solved, rather than looking at the deeper causes of our environmental and urban problems.
One of the most striking examples is Apple’s “spaceship” campus now under construction in Silicon Valley. Though it seems to be sustainable and energy efficient—80 percent of its 175-acre site is preserved for landscaping, it is by any measure a huge, expensive and massively resource-intensive project. As a suburban white-collar workplace, it must include vast garages for 13,000 Apple employees. Thus, it will leave no smaller environmental footprint than a traditional office park.
Designing a perfect green building or eco-city isn’t enough to save the world. Although our buildings, like our cars, have been inefficient environmentally, architecture isn’t directly responsible for humanity’s disastrous environmental impacts. An economic system based on the destruction of nature is the real problem. No green building can help us repair the ecological damage we have caused, nor can any number of aquaponic farms bring us back to the real nature.
Instead of adding “nature” to the urban lifestyle, architects may work to design better relationships between our cities and nature, and to promote just relationships between the people in them.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A. auto-complete B. determine C. essentially D. grammatical E. grouped F. indicating G. instructions H. likely I. resembles J. rigidly K. simple |
How do AI chatbots answer my questions
Chatbots might appear to be complex conversationalists that respond like real people. But if you take a closer look, they are
Let’s pretend you plugged this sentence into an AI chatbot: “The cat sat on the ______.” First, the language model would have to know that the missing word needs to be a noun to make
The way these programs process information and arrive at a decision sort of
The beauty of language models is that researchers don’t have to
Are you afraid of getting old?
A group scientists based out of the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that
The study, published in Nature Medicine,
Their ultimate goal was to understand how to identify the changes associated with cardiovascular issues and age-related discases like Alzheimer’s
Dr Tony Wyss-Coray, one of the leading members of the study, told Stanford Medicine News Center, “We’ve known for a long time that
This difference between the chronological (按时间计算的) and physiological (生理的) age, according to the scientists’ “plasma-protein clock”, showed that a lot of people in the study seemed younger than they actually are. What’s more, the study also confirmed that men and women, though equally
Does this mean medicafions and lifestyle methods, with further research, can also be devised to help
A.She expects the man to help Brian move to a new house. |
B.She expects the man to take mum to Brain’s new house. |
C.She expects the man to celebrate mum’s birthday together. |
D.She expects the man to make a phone call to Mum. |
A.By trading physical items. | B.By exchanging artistic creativity. |
C.By hosting art exhibitions. | D.By making artistic advertisements. |
A.Painting and writing. | B.Graphic design and photography. |
C.Music and album cover design. | D.Video editing and project management. |
A.Members can benefit without efforts. |
B.Members can make money by providing artistic services. |
C.Members can get copyrights of other artistic offerings. |
D.Members can have access to the creative exchange list. |
A.Competitive individualism. | B.Artistic cooperation and inspiration. |
C.Individual fame in the art field. | D.Material collaboration and exchange. |
1. What is one suggestion for reducing waste during Christmas gift-giving, according to the passage?
A.Canceling all the gifts. | B.Applying a “one-gift” rule. |
C.Giving children less time to play. | D.Encouraging buying second-hand gifts. |
A.Buying a rare and expensive souvenir. | B.Buying a hand-made craft product. |
C.Giving something that won’t cost money. | D.Giving an experience of something new. |
A.The waste caused by Christmas gifts. |
B.The importance of buying gifts for children. |
C.The creative ideas of giving gifts to avoid waste. |
D.The negative effects of receiving too many gifts. |
A.Its regular driving practices and poor vehicles. |
B.Its lack of green spaces and air cleaners. |
C.Its excessive water pollution and rubbish. |
D.Its high air pollution and crowded roads. |
A.Establishing a high interest loan scheme. |
B.Removing outdated black and white taxis. |
C.Encouraging customers to create new ideas. |
D.Making advertisements on old vehicles. |
A.Because customers are more friendly and richer. |
B.Because all new cabs provide air-conditioning. |
C.Because all new cabs are equipped with meters. |
D.Because car manufacturers can earn extra money. |
A.The fantastic and high-quality camera. |
B.The need for better internet connectivity. |
C.Their favorite photography techniques. |
D.The pros and cons of a new smartphone. Section |
A.She has already been to the café. |
B.She is not interested in going to the café. |
C.She knows about the café but hasn’t visited it. |
D.She wants to go to the café right away. |
A.They told a lot of stories during the meeting. |
B.There is no need for them to argue so fiercely in public. |
C.Both perspectives should be considered before judging. |
D.They should have resolved their issues in private. |