Where is Werribee’s Super City? This was the question asked by The Age’s city reporter Rachel Dexter. But the more important question must be: do we need a super city at Werribee in the first place and if one was built what would be its future?
In our recent submission to the State Government, which was the subject of a recent blog, TfM outlined future scenarios for Melbourne for the medium to longer term.
The scenarios are grim, particularly for the western suburbs which will become increasingly unliveable heat islands. The western suburbs are the hottest and driest part of Melbourne. Extensive paving of this area compounds this problem and the challenge of establishing shade trees. As noted in our submission, even if it were possible to plant trees, roots would cause extensive and widespread damage to housing structures.
Scientists tell us the race to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, even 2 degrees has now been lost and the best we can hope for is 3 degrees – a global average which for Australia will be an unliveable 4 degrees. But a global rise of 3 degrees will be only temporary and will escalate once the planet becomes locked into an irreversible hothouse trajectory. These new suburbs face a bleak future and will end up becoming unliveable “dead” zones where no one lives – not a sound case for establishing a “super city”.