by Megan Risley

Created on: February 14, 2009   Last Updated: March 05, 2009

As technology-dependent 1st-worlders, we have become alienated from the land. We do not know all we do to the earth in our pursuit of comfort and luxury. We have not learned the lessons of interconnectedness, and the benefits of caring for the things, people and creatures around us. The Institute for Sustainable Cities, headquartered in New York, New York, aims at a remedy for this. The CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities (http://www.cunysustainablecities.org), or CISC, organizes itself around reorienting city dwellers from "just" urban life to the interconnectedness of life and the natural world.

The Institute's main focus is research, bringing together students, scientists, researchers, and teachers to pool knowledge, create new knowledge and share knowledge. Its main focuses are climate change and energy usage, resource consumption and coastal cities, and being overarchingly concerned with social issues. The Institute's goal is, through workshops, seminars, online resources, and community (comprised of some of the most involved and prominent leaders in the environmental movement) to change the way people think about their world.

New York City is testing grounds for CISC research and theories. Highly urbanized, citizens often forget that New York is actually a coastal city. The city's history includes many man-made alterations to its home, destruction and attempts at recovery. CISC is hoping to facilitate eco-friendly change in the New York City area, such as more public access to waterfronts, educating locals about their wonderful city, and cleaning of the Flushing Meadow Creek system and Jamaica Bay; the goal being general restoration of the natural habitat surrounding one of the country's largest cities on the sea.

New York is not the only city in the CISC's focus, however. In less than fifty years, over 80% of the world's 6 billion people will live in urban centers, and the researchers, professors, students and scientists at The Institute for Sustainable Cities are coming together to build a plan for "Consumption Cities" to remain environmentally safe, efficient and non-wasteful. The team of researchers wrestles under the weight of questions such as "Is it really possible to have over 4 billion people living in cities?" and "How can we build sustainable, environmentally healthy urban environments for all?"

CISC has jobs and internships posted upon availability on their website, as well as a current blog about the latest up-and-coming in the environmental movement, updates on CISC's projects and progress, and educational information from all areas of ecology and environment concerns. The website also provides links to outside news stories and sources and other "green" blogs.

The Institute for Sustainable Cities is perhaps the most important conglomeration of people to date. Climate change is the world's most pressing challenge, and environmental degradation has enormous costs for us all. The CISC's research, projects and people are seeking to take on these global issues head-on, and protect the globe from what could be sure and widespread disaster.

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