City lights-and shadows
The intensity of the skyglow is highly correlated with global standards of living, and researchers use it to triangulate and verify information from official statistics collected through conventional means. The UK House of Commons Library has made the depressing forecast that by 2030 two-thirds of the world’s wealth will be owned by the richest 1 percent, most of them living in cities. Poverty-like wealth is disproportionately concentrated in cities. The point is that cities amplify the highs and lows of life as we know it, and they polarize us into extremes of opportunity and disadvantage.
Couch potatoes and social media
And as cities grow, the phenomenon of the “urban couch potato” proliferates. By 2030, the estimated obese population of 1.1 billion will far exceed the number of people going hungry, conservatively projected to be under 200 million as the middle class expands in Asia and Africa. The escalation of obesity has been driven by the population explosion in cities, with their characteristically sedentary lifestyles.
And urban lifestyles have become synonymous with the use of all sorts of smartphone apps, which further contribute to a bifurcation in behavior between urban and rural residents. Social media apps are the most frequently used.
2030 by Mauro.F.Guillen: 129–133
