316Big pictures
The third topic, the dreaded overnight catastrophe of particular importance to
urban regions, pinpoints disruptive forces that must be accounted for in societal
solutions.Garden to gaia
Most of us can relate to a tiny garden at home, digging, planting, weed-
ing, watching, harvesting, and eating with special pleasure. Satellite images of
progressively larger areas -- a house (p)lot, meadow or woodlot, neighborhood,
locality/town, broad landscape, region, continent, and globe -- almost always have
arelatively extensive green background. In effect these areas, widely differing
in spatial scale, are all productive gardens, with soil, plants, animals, water, and
usually people (Lovelock2000).
Which of these scales do we care most about? Typically loyalty to family is
central, and one’s commitment progressively decreases from neighborhood to
town/city, state, nation, and globe. Although worldwide newscasts, economic
globalization, and climate change force us to think globally, hardly anyone has
amajorallegiance to the planet.
Suppose one wished to improve the world in some way that is both visible and
perseveres (e.g., to avoid having lived unnoticed or unrecorded by history). What
scale would be optimal? Certainly one could have a visible effect on a tiny home
garden, but there isalmostnochance that the spot would remain in similar form
over, say, decades or human generations. (Alternatively, hardly anyone can affect
thewhole globe as did, for example, Genghis Khan and Christopher Columbus.)
Yet, considering the long history of predicted armageddons that never occurred,
theglobe is likely to muddle along in somewhat similar form for eons.
The ‘‘paradox of management” oft-faced by industry reflects this quandary
(Forman 1995 ). Small spaces are easily changed, but inherently unstable. Large
spaces are hard to change, yet have considerable stability.
The best solution seems to focus onmid-size spaces, such as landscapes and regions.
Atthese scales one’s improvement efforts may address both sides of the paradox,
achieving an effect that is clearly visible in the short term and perseveres for
the longterm.Forexample,anagriculturalor large-wetland landscape, or even
aregion of landscapes, such as New England (USA), Southern Sweden, or Central
America, is a promising target for such dual success. Landscapes and regions are
simply big gardens to be invested in and cared for.
This logic suggests that in urban regions the central business district is too
small for a sustainability focus. The city is a possibility because it has a single
government that can address multiple-sector issues (White2002). Yet today’s city
is normally buried in and inseparable from its metropolitan area. The metro
area is a distinctive visual unit (see Color Figures2--39), but as repeatedly seen