Unstable Urbanization Between The Years 2017 And 2050

The world that we have grown up in is changing. By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban areas. This will

Consider that Earth’s population is projected to rise to 10 billion by the year 2050. The current

Urban sprawl has contributed greatly to air and water pollution as well as increased water and energy consumption. Since urban sprawl places people outside of walking distance to shopping areas and work areas, they are forced to rely heavily on cars for everyday transportation. This over reliance on vehicles has contributed significantly to air pollution and greenhouse gases becoming more abundant within the planet’s atmosphere. Pollution from vehicles is often the number one cause of pollution in many urbanized cities, such as Los Angeles. Another thing to take into consideration are the recent heat waves that have been experienced in the past few summers across the nation. People fail to realize that urban sprawl and pollution, which is a by-product of urban sprawl, have contributed significantly to the higher temperatures large cities have experience over the last few years.

Over 20 percent of the global population live in unsustainable impoverished conditions, surviving on less than a dollar a day, with approximately 50 percent living on less than two dollars. Over 2 ½ billion people have a 10% infant mortality rate versus the 0.006% of infant deaths in developed countries. As conditions worsen the poor-rich gap widens through progressive decades, reaching an average per capita income of 74:1 in 1997.1 A debate has emerged as the whether developed countries possess a duty to ameliorate the living condition of the global poor and on what grounds said duty is justified.

“Since the beginning of the 20th century, global life expectancy has increased by 118%, infant mortality has declined by 81%, per person income has improved by 403% (in real dollars), all while human population has increased by more than 4x from 1.7 billion to 7.1 billion” (Allis). From that quote, it is shown that the statistics revolving around life have all improved. Education has become a factor that the majority of the population has access to. “The rates of literacy have also risen, going from 42% in 1900, to 84% in 2012; doubling themselves in a little over a century” (Allis). “According to a Harvard study, higher levels of education result in economic growth” (Aghion, Boustan, Hoxby, Vandenbussche). Following with this idea, the gross domestic product (GDP), the main indicator of the standing of an economy, has steadily been on the rise. The GDP per capita started at about $15,000 in 1950 and has reached a staggering $53,000 today” (Roser). This basically means that the total value of all produced goods in the world divided by the population has risen by that much. “The average world income per person has also reached a pinnacle $10,070- five times that of a century ago. Reducing death and disease and incomes rising sufficiently to enable access to food, water, shelter, sanitation, healthcare, and electricity increases the quality of

If the population of the United States grows from 325 million to 400 million over the next 35 years, we will see a greater population in urban areas and the rural areas will turn into cities: “The urban population of developing regions will grow rapidly as people migrate from rural to existing urban areas and transform rural settlement into cities ”. More people and more and larger cities will increase the demand for natural resources.

When rain occurs in these large cities, the rain filters down the pollutants such as CO2 and other green house gases in the air onto the ground below. Then, those chemicals are washed directly into rivers, streams and oceans, causing a decline in water quality and damaging marine ecosystems.[11]

At the start of the 21st century, for the first time, the global population of cities outnumbered the rural population. In 1950, there were a mere fifty cities with a population of over one million; today there are over five hundred. By 2020, rural populations will cease to increase and virtually all population

More jobs are available, the development and increase of diversification creates opportunity, there is access to more technologies, consumption rates are at an all time high, and many gaps are being bridged between business people. There is also a much greater deal of innovation and many new opportunities that were not possible before. Although this may be the case here in America, it is not the ultimate reality globally. The relationship between economic development and urbanization is complex. As it is well noted, many studies would conclude that there is a strong positive correlation between the degree of urbanization and it’s result in per-capita income, but this case is only true in those countries that are already developed. In an effort to provide results on urbanization in developed and developing countries together, we must look at urbanization as a whole. Studies show that as a city increases in population by 10% it offers wages that are anywhere from 0.2 to 1% higher. “The conclusion of the agglomeration literature is that there is a causal static effect of cities and urbanization on wages in more advanced economies, but this effect represents only approximately half the measured association between city population or density and wages.” Overall there are many differences between developed and developing countries and some of these key differences may make it harder for cities in these developing countries to reach their full potential

It is well known that China is one of the biggest countries in the world in terms of area which covers an area around 9.4 million square kilometers, and also has the most heavily populated countries in the world with a population of 1.4 billion ( continue to increase ) between the years of 1950 - 2015 ( Population Research Institute, Morse.A , Feb 18, 2015 ). China's population is concentrated in the urban areas because of the availability of modern and civilized life, such as Beijing, capital city with 130 million of china’s population, which become the largest city most populous in the world in the year 2015 ( Population Research Institute, Morse.A , Feb 18, 2015 ). The number of 1.4 billion become a scary number in term of population in one country like China because to compare with other world’s population it’s equivalent to 19.22% of the total world population ( Population Research Institute, Morse.A , Feb 18, 2015 ) .

Population continued to grow rapidly from the years 2001–2010 with little to no sign of slowing down. The Great Acceleration also notes the changes in the fertility rates that foresees the exponential population growth, and states that it will soon be over. This case study shows various graphs and they show that the resource use has continued to grow through the most recent decade, fertilizer consumption, paper production and water use on a global scale, have all risen, but one of the most important trends of all is the rapid rate of urbanisation. over 50% of the global population now live in urban areas.

it seems obvious where to look. All over the world, urban populations are rapidly growing.

Urbanisation has led to degradation of environmental quality especially the quality of water, air and noise. The domestic waste, industrial effluents and other waste that were dumped directly to the river have affected the water quality (Zhang, 2015). The environmental impacts of urban expansion reach far beyond urban areas themselves. In rapidly urbanising areas, agriculture intensifies on remaining undeveloped land and is likely to expand to new areas, putting pressure on land resources. Furthermore, urban areas change precipitation patterns at scales of hundreds of square

Unfortunately, it was estimated that roughly 1.2 billion people in 1993 lived in extreme or absolute poverty, that which Robert McNamara regards “‘a condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable standard of human dignity’” (Singer 219, 220). These estimates can be projected at nearly 2 billion today. A large majority of the people living in absolute poverty resides in underdeveloped countries. Among the nearly 4.4 billion people in these countries, “3/5 lives in societies lacking basic sanitation; 1/3 go without safe drinking water; 1/4 lack adequate housing; 1/5 are undernourished, and 1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day” (Speth 1).

Not everyone admits that the world is getting overpopulated each day. The truth is that; there are real issues that are contributing to the expansion of population, one being food supplies. The World Resources Institute asserts that, by 2050, the population will have gone up by 34%. It means that, there will be an addition of 2.3 billion people on earth. The datum that the population world-wide was 2.5 billion in 1950, the assertion posts a great danger a head since the earth is only one. Therefore, this paper will discuss the growth pressures that exist on world resources as well as its significance and steps that ought to be taken to control it.