Alex Steffen: The shareable future of cities

Translator: Helena Bedalli Reviewer: Dita Bytyci

Climate change is already a heavy topic,

Ndryshimi i klimes eshte tashme nje problem i veshtire,

and it's getting heavier

e po behet gjithnje e me i veshtire

because we're understanding

sepse po kuptojme

that we need to do more than we are.

qe duhet te bejme me shume.

We're understanding, in fact,

Kuptojme, ne fakt,

that those of us who live in the developed world

qe ne qe jetojme ne boten e zhvilluar

need to be really pushing towards eliminating our emissions.

duhet te shtyjme me shume drejt eliminimit te tymrave.

That's, to put it mildly, not what's on the table now.

Nuk eshte ky subjekti i sotshem.

And it tends to feel a little overwhelming

Dhe, ndihemi pak te tronditur

when we look at what is there in reality today

kur shohim realitetin e sotshem

and the magnitude of the problem that we face.

dhe rendesine e problemit qe perballemi.

And when we have overwhelming problems in front of us,

Kur perballohemi me probleme te veshtira,

we tend to seek simple answers.

kemi tendencen te kerkojme pergjigje te thjeshta.

And I think this is what we've done with climate change.

Une mendoj qe kjo eshte ajo qe kemi bere me ndryshimin e klimes.

We look at where the emissions are coming from --

Shohim se nga vijne tymrat --

they're coming out of our tailpipes and smokestacks and so forth,

ato vijne nga tubat e djegies, oxhaqet e keshtu me radhe,

and we say, okay, well the problem is

dhe themi ok, problemi eshte

that they're coming out of fossil fuels that we're burning,

ato vijne nga karburantet e mbetura qe djegim,

so therefore, the answer must be

keshtu, pergjigjia duhet te jete

to replace those fossil fuels with clean sources of energy.

te zevendesojme karburantet e mbetura me burime te pastra energjie.

And while, of course, we do need clean energy,

Dhe ndersa, natyrisht, na duhet energji e paster,

I would put to you that it's possible

ta themi ne kete menyre: eshte e mundur

that by looking at climate change

qe duke pare ndryshimin e klimes

as a clean energy generation problem,

si nje problem te krijimit te energjise se paster,

we're in fact setting ourselves up

ne fakt, krijojme kushte

not to solve it.

per te mos e zgjidhur ate.

And the reason why

Dhe arsyeja

is that we live on a planet

eshte qe jetojme ne nje planet

that is rapidly urbanizing.

qe po urbanizohet shpejtesisht.

That shouldn't be news to any of us.

Kjo s'duhet te jete e re per ne.

However, it's hard sometimes

Megjithate, eshte e veshtire ndonjehere

to remember the extent of that urbanization.

te kujtosh shtrirjen e urbanizimit.

By mid-century,

Deri ne mes te shekullit,

we're going to have about eight billion -- perhaps more -- people

do te kemi rreth 8 miliard --ndoshta me shume-- njerez

living in cities or within a day's travel of one.

qe jetojne ne qytete ose me vajtje-ardhje ditore ne qytet.

We will be an overwhelmingly urban species.

Do te behemi qenie jashtëzakonisht urbane.

In order to provide

Per te furnizuar

the kind of energy that it would take

sasine e energjise qe do te duhej

for eight billion people living in cities

qe 8 miliard njerez te jetonin ne qytete

that are even somewhat like the cities

te ngjashme, pak a shume me qytetet

that those of us in the global North live in today,

qe jetojme sot ne pjesen veriore te botes,

we would have to generate

na duhet te gjenerojme

an absolutely astonishing amount of energy.

nje sasi tmerresisht te madhe energjie.

It may be possible

Ka mundesi

that we are not even able

qe ne s'mund

to build that much clean energy.

te prodhojme aq shume energji te paster.

So if we're seriously talking about tackling climate change

Pra, nese flasim seriozisht per te luftuar ndryshimin e klimes

on an urbanizing planet,

ne nje planet te urbanizuar,

we need to look somewhere else for the solution.

duhet te shohim diku tjeter per zgjidhje.

The solution, in fact, may be closer to hand than we think,

Zgjidhja, ne fakt, mund te jete me afer sesa mendojme,

because all of those cities we're building

sepse qytetet qe ndertojme

are opportunities.

jane oportunitete.

Every city determines to a very large extent

Cdo qytet percakton ne mase te gjere

the amount of energy used by its inhabitants.

sasine e energjise se perdorur nga banoret e tij.

We tend to think of energy use as a behavioral thing --

Kemi prirjen te mendojme per perdorimin e energjise si aspekt te sjelljes --

I choose to turn this light switch on --

une zgjedh te ndez driten --

but really, enormous amounts of our energy use

por ne fakt, sasi shume te medha energjie qe perdorim

are predestined

jane te parapercaktuara

by the kinds of communities and cities that we live in.

nga tipi i komunitetit dhe qytetet ku jetojme.

I won't show you very many graphs today,

Nuk do tju tregoj shume grafike sot,

but if I can just focus on this one for a moment,

por, fokusohuni tek kjo per nje moment,

it really tells us a lot of what we need to know --

tregon shume per gjerat qe duhet te dime --

which is, quite simply,

qe eshte, shume thjesht,

that if you look, for example, at transportation,

qe, nese sheh, per shembull, transportimin,

a major category of climate emissions,

nje kategori kryesore per tymrat atmosferike,

there is a direct relationship

ka nje lidhje te drejtperdrejte

between how dense a city is

ndermjet dendesise se qytetit

and the amount of climate emissions

dhe sasise se tymrave atmosferike

that its residents spew out into the air.

qe shperndajne ne ajer banoret.

And the correlation, of course,

Dhe raporti, natyrisht,

is that denser places tend to have lower emissions --

eshte qe zonat me te dendura kane prirje te kene me pak tymra -

which isn't really all that difficult to figure out, if you think about it.

qe s'eshte aq e veshtire te kuptohet.

Basically,

Ne pergjithesi,

we substitute, in our lives,

ne zevendesojne gjate jetes,

access to the things we want.

qasjen e gjerave qe duam.

We go out there and we hop in our cars

Futemi ne makine

and we drive from place to place.

dhe udhetojme nga vendi ne vend.

And we're basically using mobility to get the access we need.

Perdorim mobilitetin qe te qasim nevojat.

But when we live in a denser community,

Por, kur jetojme ne komunitete me te dendura,

suddenly what we find, of course,

papritur zbulojme

is that the things we need are close by.

qe i kemi afer gjerat qe na duhen.

And since the most sustainable trip

Dhe, ndersa udhetimi me i qendrueshem

is the one that you never had to make in the first place,

eshte ai qe ne radhe te pare s'ke nevoje ta besh,

suddenly our lives become instantly more sustainable.

papritur, ne moment jeta jone behet me e qendrueshme.

And it is possible, of course,

natyrisht, eshte e mundur,

to increase the density of the communities around us.

te rritesh dendesine e komuniteteve rreth nesh.

Some places are doing this with new eco districts,

Disa vende po e bejne kete me rajonet eko te reja,

developing whole new sustainable neighborhoods,

duke zhvilluar komplet lagje te reja te qendrueshme,

which is nice work if you can get it,

qe eshte pune e bukur nese arrin ta besh,

but most of the time, what we're talking about is, in fact,

por me te shumten e rasteve, ne fakt,

reweaving the urban fabric that we already have.

ripunojme stofin urban qe kemi.

So we're talking about things like infill development:

Po flasim per gjera si zhvillimi mbushes:

really sharp little changes

ndryshime te vogla inteligjente

to where we have buildings, where we're developing.

atje ku jane ndertesat, atje ku ndertojme.

Urban retrofitting:

Pershtatja urbane:

creating different sorts of spaces and uses

krijimi i llojeve te ndryshme te hapesirave dhe perdorimve

out of places that are already there.

ne vend te atyre qe jane aty.

Increasingly, we're realizing

Po kuptojme gjithnje e me shume,

that we don't even need to densify an entire city.

qe s'na duhet bile te rrisim dendesine ne gjithe qytetin.

What we need instead is an average density

Ajo qe kemi nevoje ehste nje dendesi mesatare

that rises to a level

qe rritet ne nje nivel te tille

where we don't drive as much and so on.

ku ne nuk perdorim makinat aq shume.

And that can be done

Kjo mund te arrihet

by raising the density in very specific spots a whole lot.

duke rritur shume densitetin ne pika specifike.

So you can think of it as tent poles

Mund t'i imagjinoni si shtyllat e tendave

that actually raise the density of the entire city.

qe rrisin densitetin e tere qytetit.

And we find that when we do that,

Dhe, kuptojme qe, kur bejme kete,

we can, in fact, have a few places that are really hyper-dense

mund te kemi disa vende qe jane vertet shume te dendura

within a wider fabric of places

ndermjet nje teksture me te gjere vendesh

that are perhaps a little more comfortable

qe jane ndoshta pak me komode

and achieve the same results.

dhe arrijme te njejtat rezultate.

Now we may find that there are places that are really, really dense

Mund te zbulojme qe ka vende qe jane vertet shume shume te dendura

and still hold onto their cars,

dhe akoma perdorin makinat,

but the reality is that, by and large,

por realiteti eshte qe, gjeresisht shohim,

what we see when we get a lot of people together with the right conditions

se kur grupojme shume njerez ne kushtet e duhura

is a threshold effect,

ka nje efekt kapercyes,

where people simply stop driving as much,

ku njerezit thjesht nuk perdorin me aq shume makinat,

and increasingly, more and more people,

dhe gjithnje e me shume njerezit,

if they're surrounded by places that make them feel at home,

nese rrethohen nga vende qe i bejne te ndihen mire,

give up their cars altogether.

s'kerkojne ndihmen e makines.

And this is a huge, huge energy savings,

Kjo perfaqson nje kursim te madh energjie.

because what comes out of our tailpipe

sepse ajo qe del nga tubat e prapme

is really just the beginning of the story

eshte vetem fillimi

with climate emissions from cars.

me tymrat atmosferike te makinave.

We have the manufacture of the car, the disposal of the car,

Kemi prodhimin e makines, shkaterrimin e makines,

all of the parking and freeways and so on.

parkimin dhe autostradat, etj.

When you can get rid of all of those

Kur i eviton te gjitha keto

because somebody doesn't use any of them really,

sepse njerezit nuk i perdorin vertet,

you find that you can actually cut transportation emissions

mund te reduktosh tymrat e transportit

as much as 90 percent.

deri ne 90%.

And people are embracing this.

Dhe njerezit po e perqafojne kete.

All around the world, we're seeing more and more people embrace this walkshed life.

Ne gjithe boten, po shohim gjithnje e me shume njerez te pershtatin jeten e kembesorit.

People are saying that it's moving from the idea of the dream home

Njerezit po thone qe po kalojne nga idea e shtepise enderr

to the dream neighborhood.

te lagjia enderr.

And when you layer that over

Dhe kur i shton kesaj

with the kind of ubiquitous communications that we're starting to see,

llojet e komunikimit qe fillojme te shohim,

what you find is, in fact,

ajo qe zbulon eshte, ne fakt,

even more access suffused into spaces.

hapesira akoma me mundshme.

Some of it's transportation access.

Disa nga keto jane qasja e transportimit.

This is a Mapnificent map that shows me, in this case,

Kjo eshte harta e Mapnificent qe tregon, ne kete rast,

how far I can get from my home in 30 minutes

sa larg mund te shkoj nga shtepia ne 30 minuta

using public transportation.

duke perdorur transportin publik.

Some of it is about walking. It's not all perfect yet.

Nje pjese e saj perfshin ecjen ne kembe. Nuk eshte akoma perfekte.

This is Google Walking Maps.

Ja hartat Google Walking.

I asked how to do the greater Ridgeway,

Une kerkova se si te te shkoj te Greater Ridgeway,

and it told me to go via Guernsey.

dhe me sugjeroi te kaloja nga Guernesey.

It did tell me that this route

Me tha qe kesaj rruge

maybe missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths, though.

ndoshta i mungojne trotuaret

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

But the technologies are getting better,

Por teknologjia po perparon,

and we're starting to really kind of crowdsource this navigation.

dhe kemi filluar te kroudsors kete navigim.

And as we just heard earlier,

Dhe sic e degjuam pak me pare,

of course, we're also learning how to put information on dumb objects.

ne po mesojme si te fusim informacion ne objekte.

Things that don't have any wiring in them at all,

Gjera qe s'kane asnjke tel

we're learning how to include

po mesojme se si t'i perfshijme

in these systems of notation and navigation.

ne keto procese navigimi.

Part of what we're finding with this

Nje pjese e asaj qe po zbulojme

is that what we thought

eshte qe ajo qe mendonim

was the major point

ishte pika kryesore

of manufacturing and consumption,

e fabrikimit dhe konsumit,

which is to get a bunch of stuff,

qe te kesh ca gjera,

is not, in fact,

nuk eshte, ne fakt,

how we really live best in dense environments.

menyra me e mire per te jetuar ne zonat e populluara dendur.

What we're finding is that what we want

Ajo qe po zbulojme

is access to the capacities of things.

eshte qasja ndaj funksionimit te gjerave.

My favorite example is a drill. Who here owns a drill, a home power drill?

Shembulli im i preferuar eshte trapanoja. Kush ketu ka trapano elektrike?

Okay. I do too.

Ok. Edhe une kam nje.

The average home power drill is used somewhere between six and 20 minutes

Trapano elektrik ne shtepi perdoret mesatarisht nga 6 dhe 20 minuta.

in its entire lifetime,

ne gjithe jeten e vet.

depending on who you ask.

varet se ke pyet.

And so what we do is we buy these drills

Pse i blejme keto trapano

that have a potential capacity of thousands of hours of drill time,

qe kane kapacitet mijera ore pune,

use them once or twice to put a hole in the wall and let them sit.

i perdorim nje ose dy here te hapim nje vrime ne mur dhe i harrojme.

Our cities, I would put to you,

Qytetet tona, do t'ja le imagjinates suaj,

are stockpiles of these surplus capacities.

jane grumbuj i ketyre kapaciteteve te teperta.

And while we could try and figure out

Dhe ndersa ne perpiqemi te kuptojme

new ways to use those capacities --

menyra te reja per t'i perdorur keto kapacitete --

such as cooking or making ice sculptures

si gatimi ose skulpure ne akull

or even a mafia hit --

apo te luftosh mafjen,

what we probably will find

ajo qe zbulojme

is that, in fact, turning those products into services

eshte qe, ne realitet, t'i kthesh keto produkte ne sherbime¥

that we have access to when we want them,

me qasje atehere kur na duhen,

is a far smarter way to go.

eshte nje sistem me inteligjent.

And in fact, even space itself is turning into a service.

Dhe ne fakt, hapesira ne vetvete po kthehet ne sherbim.

We're finding that people can share the same spaces,

Po zbulojme qe njerezit mund te ndajne te njejtat hapesira,

do stuff with vacant space.

te beje gjera me hapesirat boshe.

Buildings are becoming bundles of services.

Ndertesat po behen grup sherbimesh.

So we have new designs

Kemi dizajne te reja

that are helping us take mechanical things that we used to spend energy on --

qe na ndihmojne te marrim gjera mekanike ne te cilat shpenzonim energji --

like heating, cooling etc. --

si ngrohja, ftohja etj,--

and turn them into things that we avoid spending energy on.

dhe t'i kthejme ato ne gjera qe evitojne shpenzimin e energjise.

So we light our buildings with daylight.

Pra, ndricojme ndertesat me driten e dites.

We cool them with breezes. We heat them with sunshine.

I ftohim me korrente ajri. I ngrohim me driten e diellit.

In fact, when we use all these things,

Kur perdorim gjithe keto, ne fakt,

what we've found is that, in some cases,

zbulojme qe ne disa raste,

energy use in a building can drop as much as 90 percent.

perdorimi i energjise ne ndertesa bie deri ne 90 perqind.

Which brings on another threshold effect

Kjo sjell nje efekt kapercyes

I like to call furnace dumping,

qe e quaj heqje e ngrohesit.

which is, quite simply,

Shume thjesht,

if you have a building that doesn't need to be heated with a furnace,

nese nje ndertese s'ka nevoje per ngrohes,

you save a whole bunch of money up front.

kursen ne investimin fillestar.

These things actually become cheaper to build

Keto gjera jane me te lira per tu ndertuar

than the alternatives.

sesa alternativat e tyre.

Now when we look at being able

Kur konsiderojme mundesine

to slash our product use, slash our transportation use,

e uljes se perdorimit te ketyre produkteve, uljen e nevojes se transportimit,

slash our building energy use,

uljen e shpenzimit te energjise,

all of that is great, but it still leaves something behind.

ka shume te mira, por prape kemi harruar dicka.

And if we're going to really, truly become sustainable cities,

Nese do te kemi vertet qytete te qendrueshme,

we need to think a little differently.

duhet te mendojme ne nje menyre pak me te ndryshme.

This is one way to do it.

Kjo eshte nje menyre.

This is Vancouver's propaganda about how green a city they are.

Kjo eshte fushata e Vankuver mbi se sa i gjelber eshte qyteti i tyre.

And certainly lots of people have taken to heart

Dhe shume njerez e kane perqafuar

this idea that a sustainable city is covered in greenery.

kete ide qe nje qytet i qendrueshem eshte i mbuluar me gjelberim.

So we have visions like this.

Pra kemi pamje te tilla.

We have visions like this. We have visions like this.

Kemi pamje te tilla. Ose te tilla.

Now all of these are fine projects,

Keto jane te gjitha projekte te bukura,

but they really have missed an essential point,

por mungon nje pike esenciale,

which is it's not about the leaves above,

qe s'behet fjale per gjethet mbi toke,

it's about the systems below.

por per sistemin nen te.

Do they, for instance, capture rainwater

Per shembull, a e mbledhin ujin e shiut

so that we can reduce water use?

ne menyre qe te kursejme perdorimin e ujit?

Water is energy intensive.

Uji konsumon shume energji.

Do they, perhaps, include green infrastructure,

A perfshijne ndoshta infrastruktuen e gjelbert,

so that we can take runoff

qe te lejon te mbledhesh ujin

and water that's going out of our houses

qe del nga shtepite tona

and clean it and filter it

dhe ta pastrojme e filtrojme ate

and grow urban street trees?

dhe ta perdorim per pemet ne rruge?

Do they connect us back to the ecosystems around us

A lidhen ekosistemet qe na rrethojne,

by, for example, connecting us to rivers

per shembull, ato qe na lidhen me lumenjt

and allowing for restoration?

dhe lejojne per restaurim?

Do they allow for pollination,

A lejojne polenizimin,

pollinator pathways

rruget e polenizimit

that bees and butterflies and such can come back into our cities?

qe bletet dhe flutrat etj te kthehen neper qytetet tona?

Do they even take the very waste matter

A i marrin plehrat

that we have from food and fiber and so forth,

qe mblidhen nga ushqimet, rrobat e keshtu me radhe,

and turn it back into soil

e i kthejne prape ne toke

and sequester carbon --

per te mbyllur karbonin --

take carbon out of the air

e marrin karbonin nga ajri

in the process of using our cities?

ne procesin e perdorimit te qyteteve?

I would submit to you that all of these things are not only possible,

Do tju sugjeroja qe te gjitha keto jo vetem qe jane te mundura,

they're being done right now,

por ato po behen tashme,

and that it's a darn good thing.

dhe eshte nje gje shume e mire.

Because right now, our economy by and large

Sepse tani, ekonomia jone ne pergjithesi

operates as Paul Hawken said,

funksionon sic ka thene Paul Hawken,

"by stealing the future, selling it in the present

"duke vjedhur te ardhmen, e duke e shitur ne te tashmen

and calling it GDP."

dhe e quajme PBB".

And if we have another eight billion

Dhe nese kemi 8 miliard

or seven billion,

apo 7 miliard,

or six billion, even, people,

apo 6 miliard njerez,

living on a planet where their cities also steal the future,

qe jetojne ne nje planet ku qytetet po vjedhin te ardhmen,

we're going to run out of future really fast.

ne pak kohe s'do kete te ardhme.

But if we think differently,

Por, nese mendojme ndryshe,

I think that, in fact, we can have cities

besoj, qe, ne realitet, mund te kemi qytete

that are not only zero emissions,

jo vetem pa tymra atmosferike,

but have unlimited possibilities as well.

por qe kane mundesi te pafundme po ashtu.

Thank you very much.

Falemderit.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)