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AP file
Building denser cities like Manhattan -- as shown in this aerial view Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007, in New York - could be part of the answer.
Cities worldwide are on track to expand by nearly 580,000 square miles – more than twice the size of Texas – in less than 20 years, according to experts at a major international science conference.
Yale University professor Karen Seto said the North American suburb had “gone global, and car-dependent urban developments are more and more the norm.”
The world’s population is expected to grow from the current 7 billion to about 9 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations.
Experts meeting at the Planet Under Pressure 2012 conference in London said in a statement released by the organizers Tuesday that unless changes were made, “humanity’s urban footprint” would increase in size by 1.5 million square kilometers (nearly 580,000 square miles) by 2030.
This is significantly more than twice the size of Texas or, according to a "back-of-the-envelope calculation" by Seto, more than 43,000 football fields every day for the next 18 years.
”The way cities have grown since World War II is neither socially or environmentally sustainable and the environmental cost of ongoing urban sprawl is too great to continue,” Seto said in the statement.
“People everywhere, however, have increasingly embraced Western styles of architecture and urbanization, which are resource-intense and often not adapted to local climates,” she added. “The North American suburb has gone global, and car-dependent urban developments are more and more the norm.”
Eco-friendly skyscrapers?
Seto was one of the authors of a report in the journal PLoS One about global urban sprawl, along with Michail Fragkias of Arizona State University, who is one of some 2,800 participants at the London conference.
The Planet Under Pressure conference is designed to give an idea of the health of the globe ahead of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June.
Fragkias told msnbc.com that "the answer [to urban sprawl] is denser cities."
"The main message is we are not going to get away with cities like Phoenix or cities like Los Angeles," he said. "These are the typical cities of the single-family house, with a huge lot and huge highways that connect various areas of the cities because there is no way you can have an efficient or cheap enough mass transit system to support them."
Instead, densely populated areas such as Singapore or Manhattan -- but not New York City's surrounding urban sprawl -- provided possible models for the future. "If cities can develop in height rather than in width that would be much more preferable and environmentally not as harmful," Fragkias said.
Census: 8 out of 10 Americans are now urbanites
But Seto told msnbc.com that density was only part of the answer, saying someone who lives close to where they work in Phoenix could have a low environmental impact, compared to someone living in a densely packed city who commutes through congested streets in a car.
Cities are not 'bad'
And she said that increasing the urban population was "absolutely" the way to deal with the rising number of people in the world.
"For a long time, environmental activists said 'cities are bad.' The rationale was cities take up space and that could be better used for gorillas and butterflies," and other wildlife, Seto told msnbc.com.
But she said the global population was increasing and "we certainly don't want them strolling about the entire countryside. We want them to save land for nature by living closely [together]."
The conference statement said that creating more environmentally friendly cities included better infrastructure planning; “reversing the trend to ever larger homes;" and ending subsidies that favor cars over public transport.
Beijing's 'hubs' haven't curbed population pressures
Inner city schools should also be improved and other urban issues such as income inequality and crime rates addressed, the statement said.
"Cities are being built so quickly, we have to rethink how we do things ... Rome wasn't built in a day, but Chinese cities are," Seto quipped, saying most urban growth was taking place in Asia.
UNICEF: Millions of kids live in urban squalor
On Tuesday, organizers of the conference also highlighted a website called Welcome to the Anthropocene, referring to a term adopted by scientists and environmentalists to describe what they say is a new epoch, one uniquely influenced by human actions.
The idea the world had entered the Anthropocene was first put forward in 2000 by Dutch Nobel laureate Professor Paul Crutzen and U.S. academic Professor Eugene F. Stoermer.
"This century is special in the Earth's history. It is the first when one species -- ours -- has the planet's future in its hands," Martin Rees of the Royal Society, Britain's academy of sciences, said at the conference Monday according to the AFP news agency. "We've invented a new geological era: the Anthropocene.”
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- Man cuts off foot, throws it in furnace to avoid job assignment
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- French rail company to pay out after delays cost commuter job
- World's cities to expand by twice the size of Texas by 2030
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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Free birth control isnt enough. We are dealing with ignorant Malignant Breeders. We need to have manditory visit to the spay and neuter clinic upon entry for ALL imigrannts.
What will work is a $5000 cash offer to get fixed. The stupid and ignorant will be the first to take it and it will be the best thing we can do for the planet.
You would probably be amazed at how many people would volunteer for sterilization if the state paid for it...
Wow....read Brave New World too many times, did ya? Interestingly, the guy who wrote that psycho diatribe has a brother in the U.N. (Huxley) behind all this mess. People always wonder how Germans were able to go along with the holocaust. Well look in the mirror.... you are pre-WW2 Germany staring back at yourself. And not much has changed, as "Liberlaism" is leading the charge.... hence, the National Socialist Democratic Workers Party (Nazi).
World population could fit in Australia (do the math)..... its about culling the population to make them easier to control, & convince them to live like paupers (slaves) in the name of "saving the planet"...aka, beautifying "their" real estate by getting us off their lawn. By getting rid of most of us, its easier to keep track of their tax cattle.... just smart enough to do the paperwork & pull the switches, just dumb enough to believe stuff like global warming & over-population, & not complain about being a slave.
Aldous Huxley all but admitted (speech given at UC Berkeley in 1962) that "Brave New World" was the actual plans of the monied "elite" for society at large. He likewise implied the same in his critiquing og Orwell's "1984." Like all plans, theirs has it's inherent flaws. Chaos, itself, is a tricky bastard, and is rarely, if ever, truly accounted for in the laying of plans.
A good (late) friend of mine was known for saying, "Nobody can hold power over you that you didn't give them." Truly, complicity of the masses is required for success.
Exactly..... so why do you go along with the myth of over-population, if you know it to be a hoax?
I don't. I just enjoy rhetorical questions/conversations. Personally, I find the realities of coerced population control to be pretty barbaric and horrifying. My point above was simply that there need not be financial "incentive" for sterilization. There are plenty of unwanted children that are born to people who would rather have never had any, and who would have readily volunteered to undergo sterilization were it not so spendy.
You are correct, but what all these pro-choicers dont realize, is that Planned Parenthood is decended from the Nazis, and before that, the Ford Foundation.. who actually went to court to get custody of someones medical rights and sterilized them. They want that again, believe you me. Maybe well wind up like China....
Countries in Europe are already below the replacement line just after a couple decades of this anti-children mindset. But hey, thats what the elite want anyway. Im not religious, but find the level of abortion to just be ugly on humanistic terms. It de-humanizes us.... also what they want.
It is interesting to use the terms "pro-choice" vs. "pro-life" to frame the whole debate. No? As if "life" is the opposite of "choice." I consider myself to be pro-choice, but that simply means that it is not for me to choose the course of another's actions. I CHOOSE life, but it is not for me to tell anyone else what they should choose. I think that is one of the fundamental tenets of what make a free people, well... free.
I must, on the other hand, agree on the subject of dehumanization. It has been incremental and thus barely noticed. I wonder if that gradualist approach to conditioning is not the most insidious feature. I was reading statements regarding this article's subject from the author of the paper for the UN. Something along the lines of: Well, we wouldn't just want them wandering the countryside... I immediately flashed on the walled cities of "THX 1138." The same paper also argued that coerced reduction in the birthrate is not enough; that it was, additionally necessary to reduce the current population. That, bluntly stated, means mass murder. Who decides who lives or dies? Note the use of the term "them" or "they." These entities literally consider the masses to be of a different species, or at least a lesser caliber of humans, than they, themselves. Wouldn't want all those plebes crapping up their real estate, or whatever. Surprising considering that I've never seen any semblance of an attitude of stewardship coming out of the UN. Agenda 21 is nothing of the sort; more a recipe for "global" enslavement.
This is what the enviro-Nazi's have in store for us, packed into mega-cities like sardines so that nature can rule the planet. Except permits are required to tour the "wilderness" and it just so happens only they will get the permits.
Enslavement indeed, THX1138, Animal Farm, 1984, Blade Runner, even tongue in cheek Demolition Man shows us how wonderful our lives will be once we're all controlled and the beneficent elites rule the world.
How to curtail urban crime? Can you say fascist police state? 30,000 drones? Camera's on every city block? What the lemmings don't realize is they will be enslaved as well, as the Capt says in Blade Runner, "There's cop and there's little people". Isn't Marxism fun?
We will always treat others as we ourselves wish to be treated. It's not materialism is in our nature as human to love each other, live in peace and harmony, prosperity and co-operation instead of war and conflicts.Soul of people will balance the scale between real wealth and real human values.
Wow man… how stupid can people be!!! Its called “U.N. Agenda 21”.. & it is a continuation of Nazi agenda…. Except, instead of blitzkrieg, they do things incrementally or “progressively” since blitzkrieg didn’t work out. So lean forward, as Maddow would say, right into the fan! As far as the elites are concerned, theres far too many of us, with entirely too many freedoms, & were mucking up their real estate… & as far as theyre concerned, they created “us” through their industrial revolution, & can do with “us” as they please.. even convince masses to go along voluntarily… because they know how stupid we are, as they invented the Dept. of Education (created by Rockefeller)…. So they have their international enforcement arm the U.N. (created by Rockefeller) implement the plan, right out of George Orwell’s “1984”, & hardly ANYbody notices. Why would they notice? They get their news from MSNBC (created by Rockefeller), & CNN & Fox (Rockefeller subsidiaries indirectly). They even convince the stupider of us that MSNBC is a peace loving liberal network, even though they are a subsidiary of GE, the biggest military contractor in human history (owned by Rockefeller…. Address of MSNBC is 30 Rockefeller Plaza).
Sooo….herd us all into cities (Nazi Ghettos), try to kill us off with “planned parenthood” (previously Nazi eugenics, previously Ford Foundation eugenics), & whats next? Concentration camps??...yup…. already built by FEMA in Ft. Lee NJ, Ft. Dix NY, & allll over the country.
So…..lean forward.
You could fit the world population in an area slightly larger than Australia (do the math using U.N. population estimates & acreage of Australia)..... its not about human population, its about control...... over you, your life, & how productive a head of cattle you are on the tax farm.
Wise up
This contradicts a report just released by the United Nations that says that world population will have no net increase by 2020 and that by 2050, population actually decreases.
There is more to this population control than meets the eye. There is speculation that it has to do with worldwide wealth distribution with its consequential elemenation of the middle class throughout the world. Leaving us with the rest of the world living at a survival level and of course, the elite.
The population fits in Australia, & anyone who believes in over-population is a straight up sucker. The plan is to more easily control us... their math (much like global warming) is TOTALLY off, and thats intentional. The new scam of the global elite is "save the planet"... through the UN, Green movement, bla, bla, bla. Green party is too yellow to call themselves red....... global community=global dictatorship.... suckers
If each man, woman and child on earth had a home with yard that took up 2500 square feet (50ft x 50ft) then the total space would be 618,824 square miles or 786 miles square. That is just a bit less than Australia's land area of 666,900 square miles.
Word. Most of the politically supported "science" is bunk.
Truth is static, by nature; it does not change. This is in direct conflict with reality, which is in a constant state of flux.
It certainly is bunk, especially when funded by political grant money. Over-population is nonsense. Global warming is nonsense.... but they both come from the same sources. The global warming scam was started by Prince Philip.... a guy who once proudly boasted about his big game hunting exploits, suddenly cares about polar bears, etc? Me thinks not. And, ice melting will raise sea levels 20 feet?? Really? If you have a glass of ice water, & the ice melts, does the glass overflow? LOLOL! And if Al Gore really believed sea levels could rise 20 feet, why did he build his new mansion (paid for with carbon credit exchange money), 10 feet from the ocean? When will people realize how badly they are being played by a system of elites, using people's "good intentions" to make them do things.
Ha ha. My brother's ex girlfriend told him once to hurry up and drink his soda before it overflowed... I told her that I really wanted to respect her, but she didn't make it easy.
People forget about things like ice being less dense than water, and they don't seem to notice when global warming "science" excludes things that are inconvenient... like the hydrological cycle.
I actually looked at their latest global warming study...they purposely left out the middle ages in their timeline, because there was a big warm period, all without the aid of industrialization. Hence proving it comes in cycles and always has. They also completely leave out the affects of the sun in global warming... the SUN! Theres been periods on earth long before people where there was 400 times the carbon as today, & it was the lushest period on earth (vegetation), because carbon is plant food (duh), and plants in turn create oxygen.
Just a way to gain control over the collective world... charging people for production, telling poor countries they cant industrialize (so theyre forever controlled), and even creating a traders market for the rights to produce carbon. WHAT a scam.
Theres one royal trying to expose all this, but he gets no press (what a surprize). Hes Lord Christopher Monckton of Brenchley. Look for him on Youtube. He he got them so angry, he wasnt invited to the recent royal wedding (lol).
I've been asking AGW proponents for years about the medieval warming period, and they just laugh at me. I had for several years a (morbid, maybe) fascination with the bubonic plague epidemics, not only in Europe (Crimea-West) but also the earlier one roughly 500AD. During that time I read many books (note, I didn't just read parts of them to take notes for a paper to get a grade) and developed what I consider to be a relatively well-rounded view of the whole phenomena. Basically, the climate changes, and the dense population of Western Europe at the time, created a favorable environment for mass proliferation of brown rats (carrier species) and their associated fleas. Because the climate was so warm, even in the winter, the flea population literally exploded. The dense populations of the cities allowed for successive mutations of the bacteria (itself following the biological imperative), eventually taking on a pneumonic characteristic and, at the same time, the multitude of available hosts accelerated the virulence, overall. Eventually, and counterintuitively, despite no great improvements of living conditions, the epidemic died down and is now virtually unknown outside of warmer climes... This was because as the climate cooled, not only did the population of fleas become controlled with seasonal variation, but the particular carrier-species rodent populations were no longer abundant, as they preferred, adaptively, warmer areas.
A couple of months ago, some jacka$$ actually tried to tell me that vaccines were great because they had wiped out the plague... I was surprised that anyone who wasn't going into the chaparral/desert where carrier species of rodents live would ever even consider being vaccinated against the plague, which is treatable with antibiotics (granted they are the types of antibiotics you'd not WANT to be ever having to take, but the success rate is high in what are actually the very RARE cases of plague reported today)... But seriously, the guy thought I was stupid for not getting a flu shot, and that was the best argument he could come up with.
Incidentally, there is also this guy, in addition to Monckton (I love that guy, BTW. I'm a huge fan of irreverance)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/23/warm_period_little_ice_age_global/
And... Redressing the issue of population. Both of these plague epidemics reduced the population of the effected areas by as much as 80%. So much for linear extrapolation.
The only group of people NOT overpopulating that affects me is American taxpayers
Those calling for forced sterilization, forced contraception, etc.... keep your laws off my body. My womb is MY property!!! Stop trying to control my vagina. I will have as many kids as I want to have and frankly it is none of YOUR business. Respect my reproductive rights!
People calling for forced sterilization do not actually understand the implications of what they are demanding.
No, I don't believe they do. I don't want to hear them ever call themselves pro-choice. They are anti-choice.
Honestly, I don't think that forced population control is necessary anyway. Having a few kids is usually enough for most women anyway. I have twins who are 4 and a 3 year old and my children are all the birth control I need!
I do have a very few friends with large families but most of my friends, and in fact most women, they stop at a couple of kids because kids are A TON OF WORK!!!
All you population control advocates are morons. You're buying into an idea based on shotty science. Who is paying for that research? The United Nations. Who are the UN? A bunch of dictators from around the world who want full control of the planet and its resources. THEY are the ones who have something to gain by promoting these ideas. Global Warming? No. Natural Cycle. Over-population? No. Greedy Elitists dont want to share. Poisoned Earth? Yes, but is it your fault or the fault of elitists who suppress green technology and force you to take pollution causing transportation, toxic packaging and genetically modified food. These guys are worse than pirates. Pirates fly a skull and crossbones and you know you're going to be boarded, raped, pillaged and killed. These Lying elitist bastards, feeding you BS making you feel guilty for all the terror THEY CAUSED and PROFFITED on, then suggest you give up your backyard so they can expand their parking lot! AND YOU BUY IN TO IT!!!! Did you Spill millions of barrels of oil in the sea? Did you cause a nuclear meltdown? Did you decide to package all your products in plastic? Did you decide to make Gen-Mod food? Did you decide to Invade a soveriegn country? Did you pull the trigger on the innocent civilians? Did you turn on the incinerator at Aushwitz? Believe in this crap, AND YOU MAY AS WELL HAVE. So after reading that argument, should you still decide to make camp with the robber-barrons, why dont you take your beliefs to heart. If the world is dying becaue there are too many humans, why don't you genocide promoting idiots kill yourselves. If the world starts to recover and it looks like you have done the right thing, I'll join you, I promise.
Bravo.
Not to mention the inherent maladaptive qualities of a true negative birthrate, coupled with increased expression of recessive genetic traits...
Isn't the recessive end of the gene pool shallow enough already?
Ever heard of UN Agenda 21? Look it up... & then absorb the scores of articles & videos on the internet about its diabolical intent to corral & enslave the human population under a one world government (while protecting national parks & 'wildlife corridors') There's a recent batch of anti Agenda 21 videos that have come out of Australia, all on youtube. Basically, think "Hunger Games". Again that's UN Agenda 21, coming to a government near you.