As of 2007, over 50% of the world lives in cities. By 2050 this number will be over 70%. In India more than 40 cities have a population of over 1 million.
We associate urbanization with progress. For a country like India, economic and social progress has meant that more and more of us today live in cities.
But this also means that the cities are getting strained for resources. There is a strain on water, energy, transportation to name a few resources.
We need better ways to organize ourselves and distribute the available resources. We need to make the cities a livable environment for larger and larger number of people.
The current mode of development involves consumption of available resources without any means of replenishing them. This has led to rampant destruction of the environment.
How do you think we can allow the cities to grow and flourish without harming the environment?
Posts
17 comments:
Hi LVS,
It is also vital to understand why people migrate to urban areas - the answer lack of jobs in rural areas.
As people acquire an education, as land gets more and more fragmented owing to inheritance and other reasons, there is a shift towards urban areas to seek a livelihood.
Some NGOs/Banks are doing a good job by bring jobs to rural areas. BPOs are being set up in rural areas. To some extent this will alleviate the problem of migration.
PS: Have sent you an email with the list of books, thanks for the post stating that you are willing to participate in the story book collection drive.
Best,
Lubna
@Lubna
The issue is also of urbanization of rural areas. Many of the so called urban areas were rural once.
There are some rules in place even now- but they are not always followed.
In Mumbai, clubs/corporates are allowed to build structures (upto one third of the area) upon land reserved for playgrounds. In return for that, they are responsible for the maintenance of the remaining area of the grounds.
The rule is, that this part should be kept open for the general public to use all the time. In reality however, compound walls are built, security guards employed, and the public is allowed to use the grounds only a couple of hours a day.
Since not many people know of this rule, there is not much protest. In any case the Municipal authorities are usually hand-in-glove with these clubs.
Thanks for visiting my blog and for your lovely comment. Wish you a very Happy Dussehra.
I liked your blog very much.I appreciate for your beautiful post.
to have more cities instead of bigger cities..
or you can get in touch with ibm.. solutions for a smarter planet..
Self-contained satellite townships should be planned - and well planned ones at that - judicious use of solar energy, rain harvesting, social forestry etc. Then maybe there is some hope, otherwise our cities with any extra burden on the existing infrastructure will be doomed.
its very easy to condemn urbanization, till we are forced to live in the villages for the rest of our lives...
nice info thks for you comment :)
Hello VL,
I have lived in the rural areas since I was a kid and it's only now that I stayed in the City because of work.
I love the simplicity of rural life but I have the propensity for opting for comfort which the rural area could not offer. I love my gadgets and my aircon, etc, all that technology could offer.
When I get stressed out however, it's the rural areas that I run to where true peace and contentment could be found in the simplicity of life.
Good and thought provoking post.
You are right, this old world seems to be getting more popularized and that means looking for ways to make all resources stretch. Sooner or later I suspect we will have a water crisis, already here in the USA other cities want to tap our Great Lakes for their fresh drinking water. Thank you for coming by.
Maybe, there'll be some who will trickle back to villages.
In India more than 40 cities have a population of over 1 million.
Woh!! where did you got this info??!! Quite shocking..and we still declare ourselves as Agricultural country??!! HOW?
How do you think we can allow the cities to grow and flourish without harming the environment?
Needs lots of thinking and assessing...I think its not very easy..people come to city for various reasons, most of the destruction happens because of over population.Solution need critical analysis...like using solar energy, recycling, less cars, more walking, cycling, reducing traveling to school and office (better to stay near your office and use the facilities in that area like schools/market/shopping...etc) that all I can think of as of now...any Prize or award for these suggestions>??!!
Wonderful site with cool gadgets.. a new look of blogging...
also followed you...
www.KnowledgeCreators.blogspot.com
www.Technotips24x7.blogspot.com
I think living in the city is inevitable because they are more progressive than the rural areas. Saving the environment can start with the smallest ways like recycling, planting a tree or eliminating the use of plastic bags. If we all do this, we can avoid pollution and global warming.
Roughly, by economic theory, the scarcer resources get, the more expensive, the more expensive it becomes to destroy them and the better guarded they become. In the midterm there will be a lot of destruction of resources, however in the developed nations this trend was reversed. Countries like US (believe it or not), Canada, Germany, and others are now among the environmentally cleanest in the world. There is no guarantee that this always works out, however I found the argument very convincing in the book, the skeptical environmentalist. I summed up (rather awkwardly) the huge argument in a short post, here, if you want to see it.
Hi! I've been waiting for some updates on your blog. Please post more. Thanks
I think to save invironment and blatant urbanisation we must develop two tier cities and provide better facilities, encourage agricultureand mantain the ratio of forest versus concrete.
To me development means..providing better facilities, not increasing construction.
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts on this topic, they are valuable to me and to other visitors on this site.