Steppin' Out Of Babylon: Radio Interviews

There is no clearly accepted definition of a city. The U.N. goes by whatever individual nation-states use, which can vary widely. The pertinent fact to keep in mind is that 85-90% of people live in cities, towns and villages, in other words, the built infrastructure. The ecological health of our infrastructure is Register's focus in both his business and conference organizing efforts. The way we currently design, all the way down to the village scale, is unhealthy. One of the biggest problems is that we design for the automobile and gasoline. People ask is it possible to have cities without cars? "Sure," he says,"we've had cities for 4,500 years without cars and they were healthier than our current cities. Cities we design now are a major cause of climate change, collapse of species diversity and the end of cheap energy. We've burned it all up building the most short sighted, thrill seeking, ego gratifying structure we could think of to live in. It's an ongoing disaster."One of many ideas Register offers, whi