Urbanization

Footprint of the Netherlands appropriates between 100,000 sq. kilometers and 140,000 square kilometers of agricultural land, mostly in the third world, for food production alone, it is almost 3-4 times larger than the actual land.

Scientists have calculated that a typical North American city with a population of 650’000 people would require 30’000 km sq of land, an area roughly the size of Vancouver Island in Canada, to meet its domestic needs without including the environmental demand of industry and I believe that the ecological footprint would be enormous. A similar sized city in India would require only 2’900 sq km.

Despite small size, few natural resources, and relatively large populations, both Holland and Japan enjoy high material standards and positive current accounts and trade balances as measured in monetary terms. However, our analysis of physical flows shows that these and most other so-called "advanced" economies are running massive, unaccounted ecological deficits with the rest of the planet. The different data of different researchers emphasizes that most developed countries are over-populated in ecological terms - they could not maintain themselves at current material standards if forced by changing circumstances to live on their remaining endowments of domestic natural capital.

CONCLUSION

Researchers like to characterize humanity's impact on the environment through three factors: population, consumption and technology. Someone said:” The pollution problem is a consequence of over population”. The humanity almost doubled within the century and soon we are going to double again, no wonder that we are facing the pollution problems. There are not much can be done about population growth, because we all have the freedom of living and breading. Everyone would like to leave behind the posterity. So maybe we must concentrate on cutting back on consumption. I’m not saying that we must give up all the comfort that our modern world offers to us but at least we must try to use fewer, like saving the energy by turning off the unused electrical equipment or thinking twice before buying the co-called transportation “SUV” which travels only eleven miles on one gallon of gas, which is insane. And finally, we must try to develop our technology on high level and share with others. More efficient and safe technology is our last hope on better environment. Imagine, what will happen if all transportation will work on battery or by the wind. It is so exciting to think about all the benefits that humanity can derive from it.

Urbanization will continue to play a leading role in the economy, environment and people’s life. The challenge is just to learn how to live with urbanization while using its benefits and guiding undesirable and negative impacts in manageable direction.