Posted on 04/08/2011 7:32:00 AM PDT by wheresmyusa
I've said it a lot recently, and it's only getting more true with time: when it comes to taking on climate change, Paris is kicking butt. With major plans to redesign its river banks, create a pedestrian paradise out of the Les Halles shopping mall, and improve the already great Vélib bike share system, the City of Lights isn't slowing down. And now a new exhibit is having fun imagining what the City will look like in the year 2100: 2º C warmer, due to climate change, but also a whole lot greener, where pedestrians rule and every building has a roof garden.
The exhibit, which is the work of Yannick Gourvil and Cécile Leroux of the architecture firm Collectif et alors, is called "+2º: Paris s'invente!" Part of the City's Week of Sustainable Development (April 1-7), it was born of a simple idea: having acknowledged that the planet is getting warmer, how does Paris react? By tackling the problem head on, both by adjusting to a warmer climate and by taking measures to make sure things don't get any worse.
Gourvil and Leroux readily admit that the Paris they've imagined is a utopian one. Rather than a scientific prediction or policy to follow, they call it an "exploratory playground." They write:
"In this reinvented Paris, the Seine becomes a place to live life, the roofs are made accessible, housing is adapted, Parisians reappropriate the streets once monopolized by cars, bikes are used in fast lanes, metro stations become places of open sky, farms are set up in the city...so many alternatives transform the City."
That means tons of public transportation and not a car in sight. Periodic flooding is accepted as a natural process, not something to fight with concrete. Canals are bordered by strips of marshland; when the Seine overtakes the streets, Parisians take to canoes.
The "+2º" exhibit, made up of 20 images (one for each of Paris' arrondissements), is wishful thinking, but in the best sense possible. It's utopianism based on optimism: if we start working now, this is the urban paradise we can pass down to our children. And while I don't think two more degrees or any public policy will change the City's pigeons into flamingos, it's not that unbelievable that if Paris stays on track, it will look something like this.
The reality will be mosques all over the place.
It's going to look like 19th century Marrakesh.
If they are lucky.
Don’t forget to pack your parka...
That means tons of public transportation and not a car in sight. Periodic flooding is accepted as a natural process, not something to fight with concrete. Canals are bordered by strips of marshland; when the Seine overtakes the streets, Parisians take to canoes.
IF this Bovine Ordure were to actually be put in place, which half of the current population will be forced to move out of the city? Will there be a lottery?
What a crock of ‘merde’.
Hahahahah - what a hoot. I like how they have parrots running around loose in the second pic, and not one sign of poop...Such a joke.
Reminds me of China!
pedestrian paradise = homeless heaven
The women should all be wearing Burqas.
Paris is a beautiful place to visit. The Metro is no more than a block from almost anywhere in Paris.
Now, these losers want to use it to enacts their alarmist agenda??
I wonder what the actual Parisians think about this? I guess it doesn’t matter as their ‘bettors’ have already passed judgment and now Paris and its inhabitants will pay.
Yeah, right.
They’re going to do all this with what money?
They can’t even get their unions to back down from very conservative austerity measures and they’re running deficits caused by decades of rampant socialism.
And since France is mostly nuclear, and they don’t mention energy generation in the artice, once can surmise that nuclear continues to be one of the best options for power, even in a greenie’s utopia
Where are the unicorns?
Just look at the strides we've made in Detroit!
Check out the last picture at the source - the bathing scene.
Either they aren’t going to get their obesity problem under control or it’s going to get so warm elephants will move into Paris.
LOL. I left that one out, out of consideration to my fellow FReepers.
ditto.
Ping!
Seeing as how Islam doesn’t allow music, artwork, sculptures, or statues, I sorta doubt the rosy outlook for the city.
Picture dullness, grayness, women in burqas, no signs of happiness, and a bunch of minarets jutting into the sky.
Thanks wheresmyusa.
First of course, the World Heritage Sites of Paris will be destroyed to make way for the Shariahtopia.
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