Urban Challenges Of Developing Countries

Sixty percent of the global population gain has happened within an urban context, particularly inside the developing world (The Challenge of Slums 5). Even ignoring raw population growth slums continue to grow globally because of the effects of rural-to-urban migration. Rates of

Ever since then, energy demands have only increased. With increase in the ability to obtain resources from the earth came an increase in population. This only created a vicious circle where demand rises with increase in the number of people to be sustained (Crutzen, 2006). As a result, the geological structure of the earth has become strained over the decades, resulting in depletion of important resources. However, even with the way humans have dominated the earth, there has been need to recognize the damage resulting from this. In as much as the current state of the earth provides us with sufficient resources to thrive, an extensive array of studies suggests that the trajectory may in fact not be sustainable (Steffen et al,

After the industrial revolution the Earth left its sustainability (Holocene) era to enter an uncertain future. The Anthropocene period involves the Earth’s well-being since this period of sustainability ended and the Earth has become more susceptible to the destructive ways of its human inhabitants. A group of twenty-eight scientist have recently (2009) gathered to devise a way to ensure humans do not continue their trend towards irreversible damage. These scientist came up with the framework for defining a reasonable range for humans to work in. Passing these thresholds could mean effects to local and regional problems to global effects depending on which boundaries are pushed. These planetary boundaries, with each threshold threat stated,

Through the years, our planet has been negatively affected by anthropogenic activities. The Anthropocene has been thought of as a geological period where human activity has negatively impacted ecological systems on the planet. These harmful activities have led to, air pollution, soil degradation, and soil contamination in urban and suburban areas, by dangerous pollutants like heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Kumar & Hundal, 2016). Soil and air pollution and other environmental issues and pressures will continue to be a problem as the world’s population rises in an urbanizing society. Now, more than ever, we must collectively work towards a good Anthropocene, which is essentially building sustainable systems that will mitigate the environmental harm already done to the planet and its people. A good Anthropocene will have positive impacts on the natural, built, and social environments.

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.

This increase of the human population is staggering, and the effect it will have on Earth is devastating. Questions will start to come up more frequently regarding the global food supplies, pressures on the environment, and the energy resources.

The future of our planet has been a great concern for the global community for many years. In their article ‘Can a Collapse of Global Civilisation be Avoided?’ Paul and Anne Ehrlich explore the current ecological and socio-cultural trends that they believe, if left untreated, will lead to the inevitable collapse. Unlike past civilizations, the modern global community has the knowledge, skills and technologies to solve the several pressing issues Ehrlich presents in this article. So what are those issues?

This book is the story of an opportunistic approach to remedy and adapt to the drastic changes humanity has caused to the Earth while also embracing the role humans play in the Anthropogenic era. Humans will always continue to build environments, but the concern now is how are we going to build better environments. These issues will challenge humanity and question our values. How we build the environment around us in the future will be based on whether or not embracing the Anthropogenic era will indeed lead to a sustainable planet or just be a quick fix to the deeper issues of human behavior that have led us astray from maintaining a sustainable planet.

The expansion and development in all of the earth’s climate zones and habitats, as well as modern agriculture’s ability to grow more food for each unit of farmed land, play an important role in the population growth. Socioeconomic factors such as, healthcare, culture, family structure, marriage and social status also influences population growth, are contributors to population size increases through birth rate, as well as, decreases through the death rate. This imbalance of population equilibrium is a result of improved sanitation and health care, and the development of antibiotics and vaccines for the control of infectious diseases ultimately resulting in population death rates dropping.

In addition to the above mentioned contributors to poor health, environmental diseases can be traced back to a lack of water, vector-borne illnesses, appalling surroundings, poor air quality, contaminated elements and universal environmental ups and downs. Defensive practices exist which would decrease the problem of disease from these threats; however efficient integration of these movements into policy has remained an obstacle for the governments of these under-developed countries. Predictions claim that within the next 30 years, the greatest world populace progression will transpire in the rural areas of these poorer countries. This growth will continue to contribute to drastic environmental and health vulnerabilities (Environment and Health, 2015).

To commence with, Hayden (2010) points out that the overwhelming increase in population of human, global economy, and both industrial and agricultural productions has dealt severe blows to various aspects of the environment. Besides causing irreversible damages to the Earth, according

With an ever growing human population and an ever developing world of technology, humans have found new ways to change the dynamics of the natural world for their own benefit.

A great paradox is that there is more population in countries with less GDP while less population in the world with higher GDP. This needs to be addressed by empowering people to help each other and by making schemes for human development. Murdoch (1980) highlighted the relationship between world hunger, growing population, and increasing environmental degradation in the developing countries. It was seen that population explosion and lack of food supply are symptoms of poverty and it is hard to reduce due to internal political-economic structure of developing world and unequal ties with the rich

Throughout time the human species have relied upon and utilized the Earth’s natural resources in order to survive everyday life. As years pass by human population is growing at an alarming rate and resources, in time, can and will become limited if proper steps aren’t taken now. During the 1970’s three men, John Holdren, Bary Commoner, and Paul Ehrlich developed a formula which measures the human impact on the environment. This formula I=PxAxT, refers to human being’s impact equals the product of its population multiplied by affluence and technology. “The world population is at 6.8 billion. That figure will rise to 9.2 billion by 2050. Meanwhile, climate change is speeding up alarmingly. So, are there too many of us? And if so, how long before our planet becomes unfit for purpose?” (Lord 24-26). In this essay, I will attempt to explain my understanding of the IPAT model and evaluate its current data trends within the human population.

Fertile lands have been transformed into grazing fields, highways, houses and commercial centers. Diminishing vast agricultural areas that will naturally deplete the production of food. Researchers show that earth’s natural resources are limited, but today these resources are exploited to meet the nation’s needs. Darwin’s theory of natural selection is invoked to argue that humans are conditioned by nature to struggle for access to limited resources emphasizing on the fact that nature remains unpredictable. Although the quality of life has improved over the past decades, the negative effects on our planet are unquestionable.