Ben Pearson says the move to sustainable cities may be expensive in the short term but will reap benefits for the future.

We live in one of the most urbanised nations on Earth, with the bulk of our population in our major cities.

While high density cities make us more efficient, innovative and engaged, the growth of cities is putting pressure on the environment, our health and our well being. So how do we make them more liveable and sustainable?

Ben Pearson from Greenpeace heads a 3Q discussion on future cities like Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

He explains why we love city living and what needs to change to make it sustainable.

Q. When a person has a disease that cannot be cured and is living in severe pain, do you think doctors should or should not be allowed by law to assist the patient to commit suicide if the patient requests it?

69% of people think that that doctors should be allowed by law to assist a patient commit suicide.

86% of Green voters that doctors should be allowed by law to assist a patient commit suicide. 69% of both Labor and Lib/Nat voters that doctors should be allowed by law to assist a patient to commit suicide.

There was no significant difference between the genders.

79% of people aged 65+ think that doctors should be allowed by law to assist a patient to commit suicide. This is compared to 57% of those aged 25-34 who think doctors should be allowed by law to assist a patient to commit suicide.

58% of those in Queensland think doctors should be allowed by law to assist a patient to commit suicide, compared with 75% of people in South Australia.

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Q. Over the next 12 months do you think economic conditions in Australia will get better, get worse or stay much the same?

Just over half (53%) think that over the next 12 months, economic conditions in Australia will get better, 23% think they will get worse and 21% think they will stay much the same.

The number of people that think economic conditions in Australia will get better over the next 12 months has decreased thirteen percentage points since we last asked this question in October this year, and the number that think economic conditions will get worse has increased eight percentage points.  However, the current results are very similar to the August survey results and considerably more positive than results recorded up to June.

Labor voters were more likely to think economic conditions will get better (65%), Coalition voters were more likely to think they will get worse (30%) and Green voters were more likely to think conditions will stay much the same (34%).

People earning $1600 per week or more were more likely to think economic conditions will get better (60%), while people earning $600 – $1000 per week were more likely to think they will get worse (32%).

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