In the space of a century, between 1950 and 2050, the world’s urban population looks set to increase from 1.5 billion people to almost 10 billion. Between the year 2000 and 2050, the cities of the world will become home to no fewer than 3 billion extra people. We are thus living through a wholesale change whereby, in under 100 years, a world comprising a population which used to be 70% rural is becoming one where 70% of us are city-dwellers. But we also know that urban spaces produce somewhere in the region of 70% of all greenhouse gases, as illustrated by the IPCC. For the first time, in 2013, human activity was thus responsible for a level of greenhouse gases which breached the fatal threshold of 400ppm, above which pollution places the future of humanity in serious jeopardy. Yet over 2/3 of automobile transportation and at least 80% of all housing and tertiary buildings are concentrated in urban areas – all of which are major contributors to CO2 emissions and air quality degradation.
Carlos Moreno
http://www.moreno-web.net/8207-2/
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