Already, half the world’s population live in cities and, by 2050, two thirds of us (6 million people) will be urban dwellers. The environmental impact will be extensive. More people means more transport, more building, more waste, and more pollution. Earthrise looks at two approaches to creating sustainable cites. In Bogota, Columbia, one entrepreneur called Oscar Andres Mendes has devised a way of making building blocks from some of the 650 tonnes of plastic thrown away in the city every day. He uses these to build homes for the poor and vulnerable. Juliana Schatz follows him to the city of Cali, where slums make up 6% of the city.
She helps him and the locals to build the first of several new homes. Singapore has been dubbed Asia’s 'greenest city'. It also has one of the highest population densities in the world. Russell Beard travels there to meet some of the locals who are working on projects to keep the city green. He meets an architect whose vision for the future consists of designing buildings which are not just decorative but also green and fertile. One businessman has found another way of producing more food for the city by building the world’s first vertical farm. And there is also a growing grassroots movement which is greening the city through planting community gardens.
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