Environment Systems and Decisions

, Volume 34, Issue 3, pp 373–377 | Cite as

Does adding more lettuce make a hamburger truly green? A metaphor behind the green movement paradigm in designing cities

  • Abhijit Paul
  • Paul F. Downton
  • Enoch Okoli
  • Jit K. Gupta
  • Mark Tirpak
Perspectives
First Online:

Abstract

In designing cities, the label of the green movement these days is being applied to almost everything—starting from works of environmental non-governmental organizations and international as well as local conservation organizations to grass-roots resistance activism including radical environmentalism. This paper seeks to understand the motivation—the paradigm—behind the green movement initiatives and how the paradigm appears to shift from the ground reality. Conclusions suggest that, on one hand, environmental problems are far from being a matter of common sense and, on the other, the matter of intellectual and technological developments—the outcomes of rigorous academic research reflected in endless literature predominantly comprising the fields of environmental sociology, environmental anthropology, and conservation psychology—are in reality often found to be dealt with by shallow planning and policy practices without even realizing the big-picture that the paradigm is merely being used as an advertizing tool for making business profit. It is expected that, unless a shift from such negative practices towards a conscious and genuine commitment to proactive environmental stewardship is made, the situation will continue to be exacerbated.

Keywords

Eco-urbanism Urban revitalization Biodiversity Environmental politics Urban fractals 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

Ghosh & Downton are reported to have used the lettuce-with-burger comment, which has appeared in Polo (1999, p. 15). The quote goes: “Pseudo-environmental approaches are like adding twice the lettuce to a Big Mac and calling it an eco-burger.”Also, the views reported in this paper are part of a broader and ongoing research effort on greening initiatives in today’s world, that has come up in many urban conferences and professional networks including LinkedIn. Thanks to all, who have supported this discussion, in particular Santosh Ghosh, Center for Built-environment, Calcutta and Pedro Ortiz, Sr. World Bank Consultant, Washington DC for their motivational feedback. Also, the authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers of Environment, Systems and Decisions for their comments in developing this paper. 

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Abhijit Paul
    • 1
  • Paul F. Downton
    • 2
  • Enoch Okoli
    • 3
  • Jit K. Gupta
    • 4
  • Mark Tirpak
    • 5
  1. 1.Department of ArchitectureJadavpur UniversityCalcuttaIndia
  2. 2.Urban Ecology Australia Inc.AdelaideAustralia
  3. 3.Avalon Alliance Inc.KelownaCanada
  4. 4.Sahara Prime City Ltd. Chandigarh, India & College of Architecture, IET BhaddalPunjabIndia
  5. 5.Transforming Cultures Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney (UTS)SydneyAustralia

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