Monsters from outer space,disguised as a cloud of carbon emissions, creep ever closer to the earth while we carry on as usual

摘要

Climate change is out there, breathing global doom, and, sure enough, it is urging nations to rally round and act as one. We gather, we talk, we convene world experts. We place our faith in the Kyoto Protocol, and now, as architects and urbanists, in Kyoto of the Cities - an idea launched at a conference of the same name held in Naples at the end of March.rnThe notion of a binding universal threat was inculcated in the opening address by Crispin Tickell, a leading environmentalist who outlined ecological armageddon before concluding that we are all microbes upon the surface of an apple. Well and good, but an awful blow was then dealt to Reagan's theory of monster-inspired unity. What emerged from the following presentations was less the sense of a coherent organised response, and much more that of miscellaneous acts of scrambling, dreaming and catalepsy.