Edx Cities and the Challenge of Sustainable development Part 2

Why cities? The importance of SDG 11

More than half of the world population live in cities. The population in cities around the world surpassed that in rural areas sometime around 2007 because urbanization is a very deep part of economic development.

Now 55 % of us live in urban areas and by the year 2050, 70 % of us will be in urban areas. Cities are important because they are where most of us live and preponderance of economic activities takes place. Economies develop from those based in rural areas to those based in urban areas and populations increase in urban areas. Productivity is higher in urban areas than in rural areas. About 75 to 80 % of annual income is generated in urban areas.

Because of high agricultural productivity, most of the labor force will become industrial. Now around 70% of a country is in cities all over the world except in Asia and Africa, where the situation will be the same in two or three decades. Another 2.5 million people will be in urban areas by 2050. There will be mega-cities with tens of millions of population. Moat of the high-income cities will not be in Africa and Asia. Making sure that new mega-cities in Asia sustainable is essential.

SDGs are to be used for it. Professor Saches refers to the wisdom of John F. Kenedy on goal setting, that is, gpal-setting is a way to inspire people, and make all of us work together towards the objective of our well-being: "By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly towards it." Professor Saches likes the idea by making the goal more manageable, then we help people to see that the goals are not just empty words but something that is within reach.

SDG 11 and other related goals need to be made more manageable and less remote, so that people can draw hope from them, and all parts of the world move irresistible move towards them.

Homework

• How does the rise in urbanization impact sustainable development? How does it impact specific areas of sustainable development such as land-use change, global emissions, social equity and more? - Cities are where more than half the world's population live and urban areas use most of the energy and produce most of the waste products. Urbanization change farms and ranches into industrial and commercial districts and emit a large amount of CO2. It makes income gaps wider and lower the quality of a large part of the population.
• How does globalization and the increasing interconnection of societies and trade across the world affect the growth of mega-cities? - Today's cities are intertwined through trading, and this help them grow together, avoiding conflicts and wars, although this interconnectivity can adversely affect in times of recession or serious disasters.