Trends indicate that urbanization is on the rise. Each weak, the population of cities around the world grows by 1.5 million people, which means a new round of construction, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. By 2030, there will be forty-three of them, and fourteen will be home to more than 20 million. Cities tend to exacerbate inequality. As they become the norm worldwide, we will be inching closer to potentially catastrophic social and climate crises. What might be done about urban poverty and global warming? Do we need large-scale changes or small behavioral adaptions? Should cities attempt to grow their own food? Can declining cities in the rustbelts of Europe and the United States turn their fortunes around?
Cities are hot in more ways than one
The reality is that as large cities grow larger, our problem will continue to multiply. Cities are ground zero in the fight against global warming and the widening wealth gap. But we can’t afford to feel overwhelmed by those mounting problems. Carles Dickens once said that “the most important thing to be successful is to stop say ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will’. Consider nothing impossible, think laterally to confront the problems facing cities, then treat possibilities as probabilities.
2030 by Mauro.F.Guillen: 124–128
