The global issue of disordered urbanization

The global issue of disordered urbanization

Information taken from the article: ”Urban Planet: How Growing Cities Will Wreck the Environment Unless We Build Them Right”, from: http://science.time.com/2012/09/18/urban-planet-how-growing-cities-will-wreck-the-environment-unless-we-build-them-right/

The issue of the fast and disordered growth of cities is one that affects all the world’s population, because it creates a vast impact in the generation of pollution and consumption of natural resources around the globe.

2008 was an important year in human history, because for the first time more than half of the world’s population was living in towns and cities. A Yale University professor said that today the urban zones occupy around 4% of the surface of earth, but between now and 2030 that percentage will increase to reach a little less than 10% of the surface of the earth. Most of the cities that will show the biggest growth are located in Asia, and they lack adequate urban plans to prevent the chaos and ecological impact that generates this accelerated urbanization process.

One key fact is that urbanization is not bad in itself, in fact, in the developed world their effects prove good for the environment. This is because they put in practice effective urbanization plans. The problems happen when the city growth occurs without order, and that’s the situation of the poorer places in the world.

In the end what the experts say is that we can’t stop the migration of people to the cities. What we need to do is to transform the phenomenon in something more ordered and positive.