arthistoricum.net

Latest dire warnings from the UN indicate that there is a rapidly narrowing window to raise ambitions and reach defined targets in combating climate change. City policy makers recognise their responsibility for reducing the heavy toll of cities, worldwide, in generating CO2 and GHG emissions but face intractable problems in leading the way towards a solution. In this paper, I’m suggesting that the answer lies in adopting a policy of ‘Building Less is More’ to enable our familiar constructed world to be replaced, in part, by a parallel virtual world. The making of this virtual world (or metaverse) as a tool for interaction heralds a ‘new dawn’, a different place, perhaps fantastical, perhaps where we assume bodies that are far from human. Everybody stands to gain from an early entry to the metaverse; in a world that is not on track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, it’s the impetus for change provided by cities’ embrace of the metaverse that can save the planet.