The City Solution At the time of Jack the Ripper, a hard time for London, there lived in that city a mild-mannered stenographer named Ebenezer Howard. He's worth mentioning because he had a large and lingering impact on how we think about cities. Howard was bald, with a bushy, mouth-cloaking mustache, wire-rim spectacles, and the distracted air of a seeker. His job transcribing speeches did not fulfill him. He dabbled in spiritualism; mastered Esperanto, the recently invented language; invented a shorthand typewriter himself. And dreamed about real estate. London in the 1880s, you see, was booming, but it was also bursting with people far more desperate than Howard. Urban planning in the 20th century sprang from that horrified perception of 19th-century cities. The tide of urbanization must be stopped, Howard argued, by drawing people away from the cancerous metropolises into new, self-contained "garden cities." And here's one more change since then: Urbanization is now good news.
Hamish Blake, Ultimate Wingman | Hamish & Andy Hamish is taking himself to the front line in Andy's love life; after months of Love Coaching he now turns to Wingmanning, showcasing some iconic moves to (questionably) support Andy's search for love. Hamish went on to dress Andy as a superhero thinking it would attract the ladies. However, the only person who was interested was a kid who believed Andy was an ACTUAL superhero, and he had some pretty challenging questions. Visualizing World Birth and Death Rates Initializing... Loading data... Loaded country birth rates... Loaded country lat/long... Loaded world geometry... Loaded country death rates... Loaded country populations... Loaded country names... All data loaded... Initializing structures... Syncing country data ... Setting up maps ... Initialization complete... Afghanistan Åland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Plurinational State of Bolivia Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic
Dwindling Resources Trigger Global Land Rush UXBRIDGE, Canada, Mar 1, 2012 (IPS) - A global scramble for land and mineral resources fuelled by billions of investment dollars is threatening the last remaining wilderness and critical ecosystems, destroying communities and contaminating huge volumes of fresh water, warned environmental groups in London Wednesday. No national park, delicate ecosystem or community is off limits in the voracious hunt for valuable metals, minerals and fossil fuels, said the Gaia Foundation’s report, " Opening Pandora's Box ". The intensity of the hunt and exploitation is building to a fever pitch despite the fact the Earth is already overheated and humanity is using more than can be sustained, the 56-page report warns. "We're calling for a global moratorium on large-scale new mining, extraction and prospecting," said Teresa Anderson of The Gaia Foundation, an international NGO headquartered in London, UK that works with local communities. The easy-to-get resources are gone.
How Did We Get to 7 Billion People So Fast? I love the cool infographic video from NPR. 7 Billion: How Did We Get So Big So Fast? is a video that uses colored liquids to visualize the population rates of the differen continents. High birth rates mean fast liquid pouring in, slower death rates slow down the liquid dripping out of the bottom. The U.N. estimates that the world’s population will pass the 7 billion mark on Monday. Found on FlowingData
Dwindling Resources and Why Population Growth Must Stop Earth’s population is approaching seven billion at the same time that resource limits and environmental degradation are becoming more apparent every day. Rich nations have long assured poor nations that they, too, would one day be rich and that their rates of population growth would decline, but it is no longer clear that this will occur for most of today’s poor nations. Resource scarcities, especially oil, are likely to limit future economic growth; the demographic transition that has accompanied economic growth in the past may not be possible for many nations today. Nearly 220,000 people are added to the planet every day, further compounding most resource and environmental problems. Select the reports you are interested in:NO-SPAM: Under no circumstances will we EVER rent, sell or give away your email Much has been written about population growth since the first edition of Malthus's famous essay was published in 1798. Writers sometimes confuse population issues. Discussion Questions 1.
The Environmental Literacy Council - Urbanization Cities are where human civilization began; where the world's great universities, libraries, cathedrals, and museums are found. They have been the center of scientific discovery and technological innovation, of commerce and literacy. However, even in ancient times, cities were also congested ? There has been a major shift of the population over the previous century. There are now 23 "megacities" which each have populations over 10 million. There is also a wide array of environmental benefits to growing cities. Urbanization of the World This brief page gives an overview of urbanization, from the origin of cities to the urbanization of developing countries. The Social and Sustainable Use of Space The United Nation Population Fund's State of the World Population report for 2007 focuses on 'unleashing the potential of urban growth.' U.S. Urban Ecosystems Series This is a series of five Science NetLinks lessons written by Dr.
Firms to Invest in Food Production for World’s Poor Barry Malone/Reuters New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition seeks provide aid to farmers like these in Ethiopia. President Obama and the leaders of four African countries will introduce the group of 45 companies, the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, on Friday at a symposium on food security and agriculture that will begin the summit meeting of the industrialized nations this weekend at Camp David in Maryland. “We are never going to end hunger in Africa without private investment,” said Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. The alliance includes well-known multinational giants like Monsanto, Diageo and Swiss Re as well as little-known businesses like Mullege, an Ethiopian coffee exporter. The initiative, first agreed upon by the Group of 8 leaders at their meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, in 2009, was a pledge to put $22 billion into food and agriculture projects. Mr. Mr.