SUSTAINABILITY AS A GLOBAL PROBLEM IN THE CARBON ERA: EINDHOVEN AS AN EXAMPLE OF ANTHROPOCENE CITY

Abstract

During the last decades the issue of sustainability has emerged as a global problem due to the imminent end of our civilization and cities caused by the human interference on nature. The aim of this article is to make a review over the idea that today global problems such as climate change, the peak oil, and others, have originated the appearance of a new geological episode in our history –The Anthropocene. Focusing on the city of Eindhoven as an example of Anthropocene city, this article points out that industrial settlements are part and the main contributors of the Anthropocene period. The beginning of a new episode of the city marked mainly by the imminent the end of the fossil fuels and finites natural resources, proposes that it is necessary to renew the concepts of sustainability for preparing the city for a new period in the history.