Living on an Urban Planet

 Humans have become an urban species. Many people viewed cities largely in negative terms as crowded, dirty, unhealthy. However, recent decades have seen a widespread change in attitude toward urbanization. Many planners believe big cities offer a solution to dealing with the problem of Earth's growing population. The rapid growth itself is not the real problem. The larger issue is how to manage rapid urbanization. There are hopeful examples in Seoul, South Korea.

 Large numbers of people began arriving in Seoul in the 1950s. The government recognized that economic development was essential for supporting its growing. It began to invest capital in South Korean companies that made products that foreigners wanted to buy. This investment eventually helped larger and led to South Korea's economic success. The expanding city paid for the buildings, roads, subway  system and other infrastructure. Overall, life has gotten much better for South Koreans during the past few decades of rapid urbanization. It proves that a poor country can urbanize successfully.

 Despite success stories such as Seoul, urban planners around the world struggle with the problem of how to manage urbanization. While they used to worry mainly about city density, urban planners are fousing on urban sprawl. The urban sprawl has led to greater energy use because many people can buy more suburban areas and cars at a cheap price. Many planners want to bring people back to cities to be a lot better for the planet. A researcher says good planning requires looking decades ahead and reserving land. It also requires looking at growing cities in a positive way as concentrations of human energy.

 With the Earth's population headed toward nine or ten billion, dense and carefully planned cities are looking more like a solution, perhaps the best hope for lifting people out of poverty without wrecking the planet.