In this episode of Urban Nature, Steward Pickett explores the dynamic relationship between cities and natural ecosystems, challenging the notion that urban environments are separate from nature. He argues that viewing cities as part of natural systems reveals the deep interconnections between human and ecological processes, urging for a more holistic approach to urban planning that integrates these complexities.
“The scientific data, the models and the images that we create about these complex systems are the foundations for an ethics. You bring an ethical viewpoint to this understanding of the world.” – Steward Pickett, Ecologist and Distinguished Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
“I think we are living in an era where we are increasing our understanding of the urban process, of the urban world. I think we are not well served by the traditional terminologies. Even the term urbanization, which implies and is often mapped as a spreading red blob across the landscape, doesn’t really help us understand the heterogeneities within the urban realm.” – Steward Pickett, Ecologist and Distinguished Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
“Cities and urban areas are co-produced. All those cover types have something to do with human decisions and human management, with economics and power, and all those things. They have something to do with biology: the fact that there are plants and animals that are doing their biological work, and soils that are reflecting that work as well as human decisions. So, it’s co-production all the way down.” – Steward Pickett, Ecologist and Distinguished Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies