AGENDA
The Greens see the world primarily in terms of ecosystems, and thus concentrate on depletion, damage, pollution, and population growth. They focus on carrying capacity and want to bring about better under- standing of how large the economy can grow before it outstrips its host. Their policy focuses on how many and how much, the number of people, and the amount of impact each person can have upon the environment. Greens are not usually technophobes; most see technology as an important tool to reduce human impact. More recently, some have become interested in free-market mechanisms, and want externalities presently borne by society to be fully integrated into producer costs and consumer prices so that markets become, in David Korten’s phrase, “mindful.” The Greens, and to some extent the Reds, host bigger tents in that they hold a bolder and broader diversity of views. But this also keeps them splintered and self-canceling, as Greens tend to unite their enemies and divide their friends, a good formula for political failure. They are often portrayed as caring less for people than animals, more about halogenated compounds than waterborne diseases.
GREEN’S HOMEWORK
What are your core arguments to advocate for this project and why caring about the environment is the foundation of everything? In one-page advocate for the project and tell us why such green spaces are important to micro climate enhancement, the well-being of people, the air quality and even the aesthetics of the spaces that people use. In your 2ndpage in three paragraphs indicate (i) How the Blues are taking advantage of a pristine ecosystem and wanting to exploit the resources and not benefit the local people or even the natural environment. (ii) Why the Whites are too neutral and have no much stake in such a project and their neutrality doesn’t help much. (iii) Why the Reds are always ignoring the fact the low-income groups are people who also deserve good environment and that their well-being won’t be achieved without have a balanced ecosystem and an adequate use of the resources.
Urban & Environmental Studies 
This project can have positive effects for the people of Senegal if its not exploited by corrupt officials. Land use planning is an important factor that helps cities to grow and prosper. Local business, Housing and recreation facilities provide areas for the community to interact and live together contributing to a society in general. Green spaces need to be incorporated in any land use developments for the well being of any community.Communities need to have green spaces to relax and decompress from their everyday life. Green spaces provide families of any income the opportunity to have recreation and leisure time. Low income communities specially have the opportunity to enjoy this spaces because their living conditions does not provide them with the option of private gardens in their backyards. Green spaces allow communities to have not only enjoyment and leisure but it also provides us with the ecosystem cycles that gives us fresh air, clean water, and food that makes us healthy. This is the main reason the environment needs to be cared for in any new infrastructure development.
In order for communities to fully thrive in their space the environment needs to be cared for since it allows us to have a healthy lifestyle and makes us live longer.
The core argument and why I advocate for this project is to give the community the infrastructure that provides places for the community to live, work and prosper. Prosperity can only be achieve if there are great places for education and self improvement. The main notion that I got from the class debate is that the government of Senegal does not have the resources to give its citizens great education that can come for private investment. This investment will provide the local people opportunity to grow in knowledge that will lead to higher income positions in the future.
BLUE TEAM
The blue team only cares about profits. The exploitation of the pristine environment of Pink Lake is due to the drive of the blue team to create profits via tourism and other methods that will exploit the natural environment of Senegal. The primary issue is the deforestation and construction of buildings and roads that will bring air and land pollution to the area. The secondary issue is the issue of local community. The team’s interest in this development comes with a price to all the local people of Senecal. The local community will have access to low wage work in private hotels and tourists attractions that will have little or no option for job growth and prosperity.
WHITE TEAM
The main issue with the white team is that it doesn’t stand for anything. The team’s ideas and beliefs are too scattered to really matter for this particular development. The white team cannot give a true input in the project because it does not have a goal that believes in to make an impact in the decision making for this particular project.
THE RED TEAM
The reds are ignoring an important factor with the environment. The environment provides natural resources that benefits society at large it gives people the methods to survive and thrive.Factors like clean air, natural filtered water and resources to cultivate to eat give the people of any community the chance to continue living. The environment is the main reason large population can survive. the carrying capacity of our planet needs to be acknowledged and cared for. The way this beautiful planet cares for us we also need to care for it. This relationship between the environment and us (population) needs to be reciprocal. The environment needs support from us to be able to take care of us and we must do what Is necessary to provide for it. The Reds care too much about people but they are forgetting the fundamental fact that without a clean environment there will be no people left to take care for.
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The Green’s are not necessarily against the other groups in the city debate, but do believe the environment should be at the forefront of the argument. The Green’s think that both economic issues and concerns for the indigenous population of the area are valued, yet neither will be successful addressed if priority is not placed on the environment and ecosystem. Therefore, we advocate for this project to go forward on the grounds that properly addressing environmental concerns will best benefit all groups.
This project should be approved, because it is going to be a green city. Emphasis will be placed on incorporating nature into the city in the form of green spaces and parks. This incorporation will serve to both maintain the natural ecosystem which is good for the environment and benefit the cities population through increased well being and health. Green spaces will help to protect natural resources, animals, and forest while also benefiting humans through better air quality, reduced temperatures, and positive societal impacts.
The focus this project will have on tourism will help to ensure continued environmental protection in the city, as it directly relates to the interest of the industry. One reason the city will be a tourist destination is it’s aesthetical and health benefits provided by the natural environment. As a result, the city will have a stake in protecting its green status as it is tied to the economic benefit of tourism.
Positive environmental impacts will also be achieved through the promotion of the Brain portion of the city. Making the city an important educational center for colleges and schools will allow for increased education, innovation, and new technologies that will help to prevent, reduce, and combat environmental issues.
Lastly, economic growth and taxes resulting from this development will provide funding that can be used for environmental programs and policies. Economic benefits from business and tourism will not only be beneficial for improving the lives of the cities population, but will also play an important role in preserving the cities natural environment and ecosystem. Therefore, this development should be approved due to the positive impacts it will have on the population and the environment.
The problem with the approach taken by the blues is placing their emphasis solely on the economic benefits of the development through exploiting the natural environment and its resources. Economic benefits from development can be a positive outcome, but not when they are at the expense of environmental issues. In the short term, easy money can be made through the exploitation of the environment and its resources. However, if the environment and ecosystem are properly accounted for up front, money can be made through the preservation of the environment in the long term. Through holding business and consumers accountable through regulation and taxes, economic benefits can be had, while also protecting the environment.
With the White’s neutrality, they also are not properly accounting for environmental issues and their importance. The White’s acknowledgement of the environment is positive, but by not placing it as the foundation to future development, they are comprising environmental issues to economic and social concerns. Only by placing environmental issues up front will economic and social concerns be adequately addressed, otherwise both will be disadvantaged as maintaining the environment is essential for both to benefit.
The Red’s push for a bottom up approach that argues against exploited peoples above all else. The Red’s seek to protect against poverty through development that places emphasis on what is good for the workers. However, like the other two groups, by not placing emphasis on the environment first, they are not doing justice for the group they are fighting for. Maintaining the environment is important for all groups and provides health and well being for everyone. Protecting against exploitation might lead to short term gains at first if it is the priority for development, but only by placing the priority on environmental issues will people in poverty receive long term benefits.
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Ecosystem Advocates
The importance of this project being environmentally conscious is that development is almost certain to happen in one way or another, so having a strong goal to preserve environmental integrity throughout development is important not only to the people, but to the revenue of the city. Having the city run on renewable energy and the integration of green spaces, public transit and public spaces not only adds to the attraction of the lake but helps protect it. This not only improves physically well being of the people who live there by reducing pollution, but insures the survival of the lakes wellbeing, which sustains the attraction for tourist to visit.
While the blues value in the market and innovation is important and a substantial driver in the economy, putting profit above everything else isn’t a sustainable way of growth. While the building of this city will surly draw in large investments and generate profit from tourism, we must ask where the profits are going. If profits generated stay within the city to spur prosperity this will help the locals with new opportunities in economic growth. But if investors of this project are looking for continued return of investment, we must ask what their plan is to have continued growth once the city is fully developed and humming along. With their intention to have continuous rise in profits over the years, this could lead to a more extravagant and flashy theme parked style city rather than a functional one in the best interest of the locals.
The whites believe that both environmental and social solutions to problems reside with the local people in control. They believe everything will naturally work in their best interest with informed people solving their own problems. While this might work for individuals in rural areas, in a city there must be a focus and cooperation between individuals. With urban growth bound to happen anyways, having a direction for the city instead of remaining neutrally optimistic about it all could optimize development.
While it is important for reds to protect humans from being exploited, being skeptical of capital growth and environmental health can in ways cause undue hardships on the people they wish to protect. Given the locals have the chance to participate in its development and fill the jobs it will create, this can add economic benefits such as education, health, and recreation to the town and provide revenue to meet the people’s basic needs. Protecting the environment and ensuring that the development coincides with it, ensures that inevitable development will not further endanger the people with poor health from pollution and exploitation of their resources.
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Environmentalism is a deep awareness that are a part of nature, leading us to pay attention to the problems of the environment and looking for practical solutions to solve them. The ecological variant, important to any urban planning project, is that humans are neither masters nor custodians of the planet but only a species, currently at the height of the evolutionary pyramid. The main theme of environmentalism is sustainability, which includes the use of renewable energy, the promotion of organic agriculture, waste management policies, water and food supply management, and the protection of the territory and biodiversity. Environmentalists are able to analyze projects such as the Pink Lake City project in Senegal. Environmentalists, also recognized as the greens, advocate for the project by stating that “working on protecting the environment and the ecosystem is the foundation of everything: for the environment first, for the well-being of the people, and finally also for the business and trade between people.
The Pink Lake in Senegal in West Africa, also known as the Lake Retba, it is known for its bright pink color. The pink lake is located between the white desert dunes and the beach in the north-east side of the capital Dakar. There is only a thin strip of sand that separates the lake from the Atlantic Ocean, creating a spectacular color contrast. The pink hue is caused by the pigment produced by a bacteria, the dunaliella salina, which as the name suggests, reproduces in waters with high salinity rate. President Macky Sall and architect Pierre Goudiaby Atepa saw an opportunity in this area to attract potential investors. The project would envision a new city by the name “Cyber-City” on the site of the Pink Lake, 30 km from Dakar. In a way, this city, placed around the pink lake area, will be the first new city in Senegal, attracting more development projects in the field of tourism (Toure, 2013). The project foresees an even more stable future of Senegal. This project not only would attract investment but also government and international support, through economic and diplomatic cooperation.
The proposal is designed to be developed in a total of 5 stages, dividing the Pink Lake area in 5 districts: the Wellness City, the Brain City, the Sports and Art city, the African Business City, and the African Cultural City. The whole plan is centered around the coast, taking into consideration the ecosystem of the area and the livelihood of the people and well-beings present in the community. According to the perspective of an environmentalist, this plan took into consideration that to attract future business and diplomatic cooperation, the best way is to work on protecting the environment and the ecosystem. Instead of causing damages to the area and then working hard to find solutions to it, the project anticipated the protection of it and the creation of a new city with the respect of the existing surroundings of local and indigenous plants. This is shown by the presence of the garden malls, african botanical farms, walkways between places, and new eco-friendly infrastructures in the project. At this point is therefore important to explain the triangle of sustainability: equity for people, economy for progress, and the environment for both our and the planet’s well-being. In every project, it is not possible to solely consider one element of the triangle, nor consider all three of the elements. Successful projects reflect on what is the least impact on the natural environment and how to create the best solution to satisfy men’s interaction in a built environment. If you want leisure and health care in a new city, you need to think about nature and the natural environment, which helps the health and well-being of the people and therefore of the businesses.
During the debate in class, the blues argued that the plan would boost economic growth and that most of the revenue would go to the government, creating a collective identity between Senegalese and surrounding countries. However, the goal of such theory is to maximize their own benefit and minimize the benefits for the local government. The role of multinational corporations that would go into Senegal is to exploit the natural resources and the labor of local people to benefit themselves. Their respect for the environment is imperceptible. Nevertheless, to a certain extent they have to take into consideration the environment since their profits flow around the terrific magnificence of the natural effect in the pink lake. If they would create a situation where the ecosystem of the lake would to be ruined, the attractiveness of the area would decrease, thus decreasing profits.
Another group, during the debate was the group formed by the whites. The whites basically situate themselves in the middle of the sustainability triangle. They do not take a position, centering themselves in a limbo of extremely confused ideas. Their goal is to solve, at the same time, environmental and social problems, empowering communities while keeping the integrity of the natural environment. However, by not taking any position, they do not assist into the development of any project. Their ideas fall into a mix of different elements of the three parts of the sustainability triangle without bringing new solutions or any kind of progress. The last group present in the debate is the reds: arguing that the new city project in Senegal would create a new and fair opportunity for people. However, as for everything, you cannot have a fair distribution of the resources if you do not consider the respect of the resources first. To achieve the equity that the reds want, city projects ought to examine the conditions of the natural environment, from where people extract resources for their well-being. Ultimately, the greens are in one of the best positions to argue for new city projects since they start from the respect and conservation of the natural environment, using technologies that could and would help the protection of the environment, benefiting the Earth, the mankind, its progress with businesses.
– Toure, A. Papa, Cyber-City: Une Ville Nouvelle Sur Le Site de Lac Rose. La Gazette, 14 June, 2013. http://www.seneplus.com/article/cyber-city-une-ville-nouvelle-sur-le-site-de-lac-rose
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