Background Briefing Sunday 11/10/98
The Infrastructure - Ten Years On
Summary:
Why are our cities becoming dysfunctional?
Transcript:
Robyn Williams: This week the gas began to flow once more in
Victoria. Factories managed to do some work at last. An accident
no-one foresaw (well nearly no-one) had cost the State $1-billion.
And there's water now to drink in Sydney. After three emergency
spells of boiling your supply, just like in those countries you used
to joke about, it's back to normal. For the time being.
Why is this happening? Why are our cities becoming dysfunctional?
And not only ours: not long ago New York was looking quite seriously
at the loss of its precious clean water supply.
When I said nearly no-one just now, one of the wise old exceptions
is Dr Lex Blakey. He did in fact foresee what was likely to happen.
He's former Chief of the CSIRO Division of Building Research. And
this is why.
<the rest snipped>
-- I believe I found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us. -- Konrad Lorenz.Regards brd
Bernard Robertson-Dunn Canberra Australia brd@dynamite.com.au