Towns and Cities

By Richard Spilsbury

We are all aware of the importance of the environment - it's in the news, it affects our behavior and the decisions we make every day. But what actual impact has environmental thinking had on the world around us? This thought-provoking book looks at the way changing ideas about the environment and sustainability have changed the way our towns and cities are designed, and will do so in the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
• Release date: Jun 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781484658376

Richard Spilsbury

Richard Spilsbury is an experienced author of nonfiction books for young people. He has written about a wide range of topics including science, nature, and history.

Book preview

The Impact of Environmentalism : Towns and Cities by Richard Spilsbury

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Centers of Population

Planning and Land Use

Buildings and Construction

Urban Transportation

Water and Waste

The Urban Coast

Lessons Learned

Timeline

Glossary

Find Out More

Index

Copyright

Back Cover

CENTERS OF POPULATION

Do you live in a large town or a city? If so, then you are like around 3.5 billion others worldwide who live in urban areas. Because large towns and cities worldwide are centers of population, they have a huge impact on the environment. For example, all those people use many resources, create waste, and require buildings, roads, and other infrastructure to live, work, and get around. How have concerns about how we use and damage the environment made a difference to lessen this impact?

Town or city?

Many different kinds of towns are spread throughout the world. But how large does a town need to be to be considered an urban area? The United Nations (UN) defines urban areas as places having populations of over 20,000 people.

A brief history of settlements

Urban living is quite new in human history. For much of the past, people lived in rural settlements, the first of which date back around 10,000 years. These were places where farmers lived together, raising crops and livestock, because resources such as water and good soil were plentiful. Settlements grew into towns and cities—or became urbanized—as a result of many factors. For example, some became centers of trade, dealing in farmed goods from surrounding villages. Others urbanized because they were centers of government or religion for regions. Location is also an important part of urbanization. For instance, some cities urbanized because their coastal location allowed easy sea trade between nations.

The Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries saw fast urbanization. Some cities, such as Detroit, Michigan, were located near mines where coal or iron ore were found, They grew because these resources were used to power and supply machines and factories to make goods. However, the biggest factor in urbanization in the past and today is rural workers moving into cities to find work and opportunities.

Growing settlements

Back in 1900, there were only a few cities with populations of one million or more. These included New York City; London, England; Paris, France; and Berlin, Germany. By 1950, New York City had a population of more than 10 million people, making it the world’s first mega-city. Today, there are over 400 cities of more than one million people and 19 mega-cities. Most of the world’s mega-cities are in Asia, the region with the highest proportion of global population. In some parts of the world, such as the east coast of the United States, there are now also megalopolises. These are groups of cities that have grown and merged into combined populations of over 40 million.

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This shows the main shopping street in the Beyoglu district in the major city of Istanbul, Turkey.

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Urban benefits

There are many reasons why people choose to live in or move to cities, apart from work opportunities. One is good infrastructure. A city’s infrastructure ranges from hospitals and colleges to airports and public transportation systems. Another reason why people choose urban living is access to amenities. These range from libraries and colleges to stores, swimming pools, and nightclubs. Smaller settlements generally have less extensive infrastructure, amenities, and work opportunities.

Urban impacts

Living in a city has an effect on individuals, on the city itself, and on our planet. The high concentration of people in cities—tens of thousands per square mile—can put enormous strain on, for example, water and power supplies. The concentration of factories, plus the road traffic transporting workers and goods, causes atmospheric pollution in the form of poisonous gases and harmful particles. Urban air pollution kills over one million people a year.

Possibly the biggest impact is on global warming. You probably know the link by now—burning fossil fuels to release energy in vehicles and power stations also releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. These emissions remain in the atmosphere and store heat. This is making average global temperatures rise, which is causing climate change and increasing the frequency of extreme weather events such as heat waves or heavy storms. The 2002 UN-Habitat report says that the world’s cities are responsible for around 70 percent of emissions through high energy and transportation use, even though they cover just 2 percent of the total area of Earth.

Individual impact

Cities create big, negative impacts, yet these result from high concentrations of people. Therefore, the impact per person is lower than in many smaller settlements. For example, the greenhouse gas emissions of an average person in the city of Denver, Colorado, with a population of just over