'Living on an Urban Planet' Summary

 

Living on an Urban Planet

     

 Number of people living in cities are exceeding every year and more than one-half of the people are living in cities now. It is seemed to increase rapidly as humans have become urban species.

 

 In 19th and early 20th century, urban areas had negative terms as grounds for disease and crime. However, urbanization is now considered as good news. Economist Edward Glaeser says cities are productive because people can exchange goods and ideas easily without taking long. Employees can share knowledge and this flow of ideas bring successful cities. Another environmentalist Stewart Brand says cities have less impact on the environment because dense cities produce less greenhouse gases per person. Urbanization is inevitable part of development and the problem is how to manage the growth properly.

 

 Seoul is a good example of urbanization. It began to invest the companies to make products to foreigners and this helped Samsung and Hyundai to develop. Lots of men and women worked in new factories and these allowed the city to absorb more people. Seoul's rapid urbanization brought successful growth in economy.

 

 Despite this success, how to manage urbanization, especially focusing on urban sprawl is the problem around the world. Urban planning professor Shlomo Angel sees two reasons for urban sprawl. Rising incomes and cheaper transportation. However she believes that good planning, such as reserving land and concentrations on human energy can make big difference in cities urbanization. These carefully planned cities would be a solution for poverty without harming the planet and will make successful cities.