It is not the car that is burning the fuel. It is the city. The car is just a component within the larger whole system. The analogy with a living organism is very good in this case, very productive and very important to think through. The animal eats the food, not the stomach. A different animal could have a vastly different diet and appetite for a particular quantity of any given energy source.
So it is with cities. They need to be redesigned — and there are plenty of examples of better components and total arrangements [other] than the sprawl/automobile/freeway/cheap energy infrastructure. The compact and high diversity/pedestrian/transit and bicycle/renewable energy (not cheap) infrastructure is a very different animal.

RICHARD REGISTER antwortet FRIJTOF CAPRA:
www.ecotecture.com

F. Capra über Nachhaltigkeit und wie wir “can learn valuable lessons from nature because the ecosystems in nature are sustainable communities”
www.ecotecture.com

Urbane Utopien
Ein Überblick der ZEIT