Reflection on Lecture Nine- Sustainable Cities

I will like to start off with a quote from Ms Goodall. According to her, “it’s our population growth that underlines just about every single one of the problems that we’ve inflicted on the planet.” I feel that it takes courage to make such a judgmental statement. Is it the majority of the growing population that is 
contributing the most to the environmental problems which we are facing today, or is just a minority of people from the rich cities? 

According to the figures that are flashed during the current lecture as well as in the previous lectures, China has the largest population in the world, follow by India.  Right now, India is now faced with a higher population growth rate than the world’s most populous country. On top of that, Mumbai city, the capital of the India state tops the list of cities with the highest population density. Other than that, the other populous countries include the United States (U.S.), Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, and Japan, of which only three out of the ten most populous countries are developed countries. Surprisingly, the many populous developing countries are not those that are contributing the most to the ever worsening pollution and environmental problems across the world. The U.S. is said to be the biggest culprit of emitting harmful gases into the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide. Even though China is fast catching up to become the large contributor to the problem of global warming, it is unfair to make such an accusation as it has a higher population density than the U.S. and many of the developed countries.  This would mean that each person in China still contribute much lesser than one in the U.S. even if the amount of carbon dioxide omitted by China is the same as that of the US. Actually we can say that the U.S. produces more greenhouse gas emissions per person than any other country.

Another example will be the sub Saharan Africa region. Africa has a large population of a billion of people. It is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. Most of the people in Africa still live with less than $2.50 per day. The economic activities in the region are largely agricultural based with minimum development and industrialization. As a result, the total ecological carbon footprint of Africa is rather low and the entire region contributes insignificantly to the harmful gases as compared to the rest of the world, even with such a big population. Therefore I will like to raise the question is population really the main cause and concern to the many environmental problems that are existing today?  This is also what I’ve mentioned in the reflection for lecture two.

Looking at the major global cities in the world which include Tokyo New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Paris, these are all cities from the developed world. These are the richest per capital cities accompanied by a high degree of globalization, industrialization, political involvement, and consumerization. It is nevertheless places with high pollution too.

 Air pollution in city

The term consumerization may be an unfamiliar term in this module, but it is never one for many people in the developed places, including Singapore. Consumerization is the process in which products and services are embraced by society in general. This is very common in the people of the modern developed world. You can see from the ever-changing fashion trends and items. Technological devices are always being updated, improved, made faster and smaller to meet the changing taste and preferences of different groups of consumer. From here, it is quite obvious that much production has to take place to meet such an alternating and sophisticated demand.

 New devices

 Harmful gases from production

According to research, industry and transportation are the two main areas of development that are contributing to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. 

There are approximately 600 million cars, passenger vans, SUVs and light trucks in the world today. Of those about 240 million are found in the United States. Looking at the large number of cars and commuting movement, high degree of production activities (be it within the developed regions or outsourced to other developing places) to meet the demand for goods and services in the developed world, as well as other aspects like constructing fine quality housings and facilities in the developed regions, it is quite obvious that these places are the main contributor to the harmful gases. The developed regions also include cities in the developing countries such as Bangkok and shanghai.

Hence, it is essential to look into the urban landscapes of the developed regions and examine what can be done to minimize the negative impacts from its activities. Sustainability is not about the denial of comfort and pleasure. Rather it is a challenge to think deeply about achieving a high quality of life over the long term. The important thing is to use the lands and resources efficiently such that its benefits and usefulness are maximized. It is not about exploiting the resources to cater to the impractical and overrated demand of a small group of people. Sustainability is also about striking a balance between the efficient usage of our Earth’s resources and achieving a high quality of life in the long run.