From things as small as central air conditioning to things as large as reservoirs, power plants, and sewage systems hundreds of miles in length, large systems consume vast amounts of energy. With long distances to cover, lack of flexibility, and difficulty in creating "cycling" (virtuous cycles of recovery, reuse or recycling), this is a very unsustainable development structure.
其實，小至空調、大至巨型水庫、發電廠、綿延數百公里的下水道，大的系統因為結構龐大，極耗地球資源，而其迴路長、缺乏彈性，難以循環，是十分不永續的發展架構，更是促成全球暖化的元兇。