What I would do - a ramble

No matter what the benefits of aggregation, then, our new civilization is likely to need many cities of diverse sizes, each matched to the ability of the local environment to supply its needs. That means no megacities in the middle of the desert, like Phoenix, Arizona.

Another example of the 'easy targets' which i think everybody has at least come to accept. I always wonder about Phoenix, a city so incongruous, a city so misplaced and so ill-advised, how exactly did it get there and what does that tell you about us. I don't think recognizing that Phoenix is a problem (about 50 years too late) is something we should be all back-slappy about, the 20-20 hindsight of today's urban planner is no reason for optimism and no reason for urban planners to broadcast their new self-importance in today's long term development strategy.

"Hey, we know we made a huge blunder in the desert, but our recognition of an empty stable is why you should listen to us now."

We get it, it is bad, and anybody with half a brain should have known that long ago. Now you tell us you should trust us now?

While we're tinkering with the economy, we might want to move away from using GDP as a measure of success. When nations began focusing on GDP after the Second World War, it made sense to gauge an economy by its production of goods and services. "At that time, what most people needed was stuff. They needed more food, better building structures - stuff that was lacking - to make them happy," says Ida Kubiszewski of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University in Oregon. "Now times have changed. That's no longer the limiting factor to happiness."

On the other hand, increases in mobility, communication and technology - as well as the sheer size of the human population - mean that many of the world's problems are now truly global. "What if there were a newspaper that was published just once a decade? What is the macroheadline of our time?" asks Paul Raskin, president of the Tellus Institute, a think tank in Boston.