As our world becomes more urbanized, Earth itself might actually be better off. That’s according to George Martine, lead author of the 2007 State of World Population report published by the UN Population Fund’s (UNFPA). Martine told EarthSky it’s natural to think of urban areas as bad for the environment. But would anything be better if Earth’s huge population were spread out across the countryside?
George Martine: And we have a world population that is almost 6.7 billion people. If you put say 3.3 billion people out of urban areas and into rural areas, what would happen to natural ecosystems? It would be disastrous. There’s no question about it.
Martine said that right now, about half of the world’s population lives on less than three percent of Earth’s land area.
George Martine: The fact that cities concentrate most environmental problems is not because of concentration, per se. It is simply due to the fact that cities concentrate the lifestyles and the production and the consumption patterns of modern civilization such as we know it. So the problem is not concentration. The problem is the kind of civilization that we are promoting and the kind of concentration of wealthy and affluent consumers in cities.
Martine added that better city planning is needed to prevent sprawl and lessen the impact cities make on the environment. He also said that, within a generation, the population of cities in developing countries is expected to double.
George Martine: Together, Asia and Africa have an increase of about one million new urbanites per week. That’s a huge amount of people to shelter, provide infrastructure, provide services for.
Martine said that cities in the developing world can begin to transcend their environmental and social problems. With planning, a city can provide the economic growth and environmental sustainability needed to lift people out of poverty.
George Martine: Having a residence, a secure place in which to put your stuff, an address that people can relate to, a place where you might set up your own little cottage industry, a place where your kids might feel safe, this is absolutely the starting point for people to profit from anything that the city has to offer.
Dear George Martine,
Thanks for your great work.
At least to me, the forbidding situation presented to humanity by the giant, ever-expanding business conglomerations underpinning the civilization now overspreading the Earth may not be as difficult to address as it appears on first sighting.
For example, the creeping degradation of the environment resulting from the infinite, pernicious activities of these corporate entities could soon cause people to enjoin their leaders to radically redefine what it means to be a good “corporate citizen” in a small, finite, frangible world. Once that redefinition becomes law, then the corporations will be held to different standards and better business practices associated with whatsoever is found to be sustainable.
At the current scale and growth rate of the global economy, the spectacularly sucessful increase of human enterprise on Earth runs the clearly unacceptable risk of becoming patently unsustainable soon.
Corporations are created, designed, organized, managed and grown by human hands. Those leaders who are responsible for catering to the unsustainable behavior of these business entities can change them.
The time is coming, I believe, when people will do just as we have to do. Parents as well as children. And by so doing, we will help our brothers and sisters who are the business tycoons and their bought-and-paid-for politicians to reform the institutions of big business enterprise. People everywhere are beginning to see and understand that there can be no such thing as a successful man-made economy without viable conditions for life as we know it on the surface of this planetary home God has blessed us to inhabit.
Always,
Steve
PS: Thanks for your capable comments to those who have been engaged by the Population and Environment Research Network (PERN) in discussions intended to protect the future of life and the integrity of Earth.
To George Martine:
George, I believe that you had a brother, Alphonse Martine who graduated from the College of Engineering, University of Saskatchewan in 1961. The College is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2012 and we are trying to contact as many former graduates as possible. Could you possibly tell me where Alphonse can be located?
I apologize if my searching has put me on a wrong trail and you do not know of any Alphonse Marine.
Don Norum