it goes on and concludes ...
- NEJM -- Urbanization -- An Emerging Humanitarian Disaster
Scary. I'm glad we are rural folks and not going to hold our breath waiting for the governments to act.
Urbanization — An Emerging Humanitarian Disaster
- Thread starter AnnaG
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Scary. I'm glad we are rural folks and not going to hold our breath waiting for the governments to act.
Humanity is already facing disaster from overpopulation. The urban concentration camps will provide an easy solution to the problem by focusing the majority in areas where population thinning can be best accomplished. Cold and calculated? Yes! A real possibility? You figure that out.
I disagree. In my opinion the world is or will be moving away from the industrial age-type thinking. Large mass production factories will be a thing of the past and there is no reason that more and more people can't be working in smaller rural communities or even at home. Try reading some of Alvin Toffler's books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(book)
Cities will expand, science will increase the agricultural output. The population will continue to grow, global warming and smog will be the norm.. We have already developed soylent brown, soon we will develop soylent yellow and red. Then we will have soylent green made from plankton or is it??
I dislike this trend toward urbanization too.
Here in the Vancouver area, officials seem to have fallen in love with this concept of densification: cramming as many people into as small a space as possible. The thinking goes that by high population densities, better use will be made of land, more people will support public transit, etc.
Personally, I think they are wrong. Like other posters have said, when people get crammed together too tightly, diseases tend to arise that wipe out the population. Plus, people get meaner toward each other. I recall a sociology study from some years ago in which rats were used to compare to human behaviour. They got along fine until a certain population density was reached and then they turned vicious toward each other. I am certain something similar is developing in the big cities.
In addition, there is the matter of disaster/emergency preparedness. Say we experience a relatively minor earthquake, but large enough to have the Port Mann Bridge declared unusable, but people are trying to get inland. What will happen to all the people that have been convinced to give up their cars? Will the government somehow get them out of the disaster zone and inland to safety? Not likely!! Better to never place our faith in government in the first place.
Give me a small town with a plot of land and a few amenities and I will be happy. I don't need fifty Tim Hortons stores around, or fifty Blockbusters, etc. Just a couple of each would do.
Here in the Vancouver area, officials seem to have fallen in love with this concept of densification: cramming as many people into as small a space as possible. The thinking goes that by high population densities, better use will be made of land, more people will support public transit, etc.
Personally, I think they are wrong. Like other posters have said, when people get crammed together too tightly, diseases tend to arise that wipe out the population. Plus, people get meaner toward each other. I recall a sociology study from some years ago in which rats were used to compare to human behaviour. They got along fine until a certain population density was reached and then they turned vicious toward each other. I am certain something similar is developing in the big cities.
In addition, there is the matter of disaster/emergency preparedness. Say we experience a relatively minor earthquake, but large enough to have the Port Mann Bridge declared unusable, but people are trying to get inland. What will happen to all the people that have been convinced to give up their cars? Will the government somehow get them out of the disaster zone and inland to safety? Not likely!! Better to never place our faith in government in the first place.
Give me a small town with a plot of land and a few amenities and I will be happy. I don't need fifty Tim Hortons stores around, or fifty Blockbusters, etc. Just a couple of each would do.
Well, that's cool. I already have an education, both my kids were home schooled (at least till they left home), I can work from home, enjoy fresh water that no-one's added chlorine, flourine, bromine, more -ines to, fresh air (except for the smoke from forest fires), peace and quiet (except when urbanites want to get away during tourist season and flock here), grow food, hunt for food, fish for food, wander around outside nekkid when I want without offending anyone or being offended by some busybody prude, hike around my 20 hectare bit of real estate, watch critters from any window in the house, etc. You are welcome to your gang shootings, exhausted filled air, chemical soup from your taps, food from plastic containers, crowds, neighbors 5 paces away from you, window views like traffic, side of building next door, etc. If that's what makes your bum hum, honey, go for it.
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Or if you don't like non-fiction, you can read a little story by Alan Dean Foster called "With Friends Like These".
What I think is a large part of the problem is that technology far exceeds human ability to keep up with it and capitalism as it is (marketing, business, speculation, etc.), manages to keep us off-balance using it in its quest for more and bigger and not many have bothered to sit back and take a look at the results any farther than their pocketbooks.
Thanks for the name of the author, I will do some seeking.
I don't believe you. I want to see pictures...and none of that tiny crap where you can't see anything.
and where do you get educated? in a rural area? or in a city most urbanites don't flock to rural areas during tourist seasons and if you drive a car to go everywhere since you live in a rural area you have no business complaining about exhaust filled air and if you are living a comfortable life you have no business complaining about chemical pollution everywhere when you like everybody else living a comfortable life which are results form technologies we all use and violent crime is going down in the last 10-20 years
and govts can help companies bring jobs and services to rural areas so many people don't have to move to cities or commute to and from cities creating more pollution
I had a hard time reading this because it seems to lack punctuation in places. But I will take a try at replying.
Two of the small towns near here have colleges.
I don't care what most urban tourists do other than too many show up here.
I didn't complain about exhaust-filled air. I simply mentioned that you are welcome to it.
Same goes for chemical pollution. You are welcome to it. But when it does effect my life you can bet it is my business.
I don't care that crime is going down in this context, we have extremely little of it here and cities are loaded with it. You can have that, too.
Gov't also can be like the Dippers in BC the last time they got in and cause businesses and people to move out of the province. So?
That depends on where you are and what type of work you do. There is book education and then there is usefull knowledge. Not necessarily the same.
Well, I tend to agree with you on this one.
The homo this and homo that pissing match on another thread notwithstanding.
And I admire the lifestyle you are sustaining that you describe on a subsequent post on this thread.
More us us need to do the same as you.
It's just that simple.
I disagree with the doomsayers that claim the planet cannot sustain the current population.
And I do tend to sympathize with business as I happen to believe that is where the jobs are.
But I think we need to just be slightly more considerate and accommodating in our dealings with the planet we live on.
Small towns, villages, community collages and volunteerism.
Butchers, bakers,brewers, cheesemongers and fishers.
We dont all HAVE to shop at Wallmart.
People on this forum know I consult in resource extraction.
I believe there is one heck of a lot of room left for moving towards local and community development in this particular field.
Trex
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Cool.
lol That was fun, I thought. My thing is actually cultural anthro, but it's been a while since I was in college taking anthro so I have forgotten lots. But I loved the banter with you. Thank you.
Me, too, but I don't think it will sustain this or any more population at the present rate of destruction.
Yup. We just need to be cautious about what business we support, I think.
Cool. I didn't know what you did for a living. You seem like a conscientious sort so I can easily imagine you aren't into strip-mining and suchlike for resource extraction.
Slainte!