Tag Archives : urbanization

Phnom Penh has been developing at breakneck speed. Infrastructure dots the capital. The result of this property boom is the sad and sorry reality that the city’s poor are being displaced at an alarming rate. ‘Activists are calling it the largest epidemic of evictions since the Khmer Rouge emptied all of Phnom Penh in 1975.’ The government [...]

New growth is saving the Amazon rainforest through renewed vegetation that addresses the problem of deforestation. These ‘secondary forests’ have been undervalued, even overlooked or ignored, by scientists, especially those who want to stick to the buzzwords of irreversible deforestation and unabated forest denudation. A UN study says ‘the ecological [...]

Cities in developing countries absorb 70 million new people every year. The urban population in these countries is expected to double by 2050. Approximately one billion people live in unsanitary slums. They could be 2 billion by 2030, according to the UN. The urban population living in slums accounts for 99 percent in Ethiopia and Chad, and 92 percent [...]

Since the adoption in October 2008 of its strategic plan on climate change and development, the World Bank has worked exceptionally hard to become a major player in climate issues. After being convinced that the climate change battle will be won in the cities, the World Bank is amending its preparedness strategy and position. The new World Bank strategy [...]

Small red-roofed temples and golden Buddhas perched on steep mountain slopes are proof of the Taiwanese attachment to veneration of the gods. In cities and towns, people come to pray and seek the hope of a better life, whether Buddhist or Taoist, or even Christian or Aborigines. Ceremonies and processions punctuate the calendar. Giant costumes and [...]

With 132 floors, this planned 600-meter high futuristic curved building in the sky over Manhattan shall be a monolith of environmental design. At first glance, it looks like a gigantic sailboat that landed on the East River. It will also usher in the return of the hanging gardens. Agricultural fields will be designed to occupy 28 floors. Its façade [...]

It will eventually be a world of cities. The planet is expected to have 5.3 billion urban residents by 2050, according to forecasts by the UN. That’s 2 billion more than what the planet has today. In developing countries, 5 million new people migrate to cities every month, swelling urban populations. Many are fleeing the poverty of the countryside, [...]

In a report from the Food for Cities Program of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it says, “The riots of hunger in the cities of Haiti, in particular, have served to draw attention to the importance of urban poverty in the world food crisis.” Urban food chains should be studied differently from their counterparts in rural areas. The [...]

Poverty in the countryside makes people flock to urban areas. The glitz, glamour, and bright lights of the city attract poor people to urban destinations as if they were the guiding star. Millions of people flock to cities every week. In developing nations, populations are expected to triple over the next 30 years. Most of these will naturally want [...]