Human Interest

Major cities in the world should take a deeper look into controlling pollution problems in their cities.  At some point, these places will no longer attract people to live in these areas, thus lowering the impact that these industries may have.  But as long as people are still living here by the millions and there is tourism, and buisness is booming, nothing will be done about the issue.

Summer reading KQ4: pollution, smog, megacity, sustainability

Pollution is a huge issue facing both Hong Kong, and the rest of China in general. So far the government  has done little to actually combat the problem. The Chinese governments response has been to pretend that the problem does not really exist. A fake skyline can just erase the problem. In reality dealing with the pollution issue would actually help the Chinese economy. When people seek to go on a vacation, they are seeking a destination that is clean and safe. Who wants to visit a place were, you have to ware a mask to prevent the breathing in of armful chemicals. A cleaner less polluted china would lead to an expanded tourism industry.

Not surprisingly the DNA of cities is a follow-up of human DNA and understanding this will explain and predict how the body of a city will develop!

The idea that cities are just organisms that are satisfying the laws of biology is interesting. Especially because Physicist Geoffrey West brings the idea of Scalability which by definition is, the ability of a system, network, or process to handle a growing amount of work in a capable manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth. What’s mind blowing to me is that the system that is referred to here is human interaction.  We create these cities through our interaction and experience. With a growth rate of 1,000,000 people every year the math adds up to an agreeable 15% rise in income levels, patents, and super creative people every year which is undoubted a win for civilization and society. But with that we must keep in mind also this means a 15% increase in things like deadly disease, crime, poverty, and ecological issues leading to further degradation of our planet. This unbounded growth means the system is destined to collapse. The math behind cities doesn't lie if we don’t prepare cities have a fate to die like every other organism in Biology. So it is up to us to create and innovate to sustain this growth and avoid the collapse. But we must do so at a forever increasing pace. Which subsequently is also part of another system predetermined to collapse. What I mean is what happens when we cannot innovate fast enough to sustain this growth?

- Caleb Beckett

While corporations rise and fall, it is quite rare for a city to entirely fail as an economic system.  Huge cities have some negative consequences, but the networks that operate in the city function more efficiently on economies of scale in a way that offsets the negatives.  Increasing a city's population will continue to improve the economies of scale (larger cities have higher wages per capita, more creative employment per capita, etc.).  However, this growth requires major technological innovations to sustain long-term growth.  

Tags: urban, planning, megacities, industry, economic, scale, TED, video.

Contrasts found in large cities 

APHG- HW Option 7

Pearl river delta

Cities in this region have experienced spectacular growth; they are at the heart of China's manufacturing and exporting boom.  For example, Shenzen was a small city with about 10,000 residents in 1980 but is now a megacity with over 10 million people.  China's SEZs (Special Economic Zones).  Cities that were once separate entities have coalesced into a large conurbation and if they are counted as one, it's now the largest metropolitan area.  Cities like London and New York become global cities over hundreds of years--this happened in one generation.  Click here for 5 infographics showing East Asia's massive urban growth.      

Tags: APHG, urban, industry, manufacturing, economic, unit 7 cities, megacities, China, East Asia.

Its amazing how much traffic can affect air pollution, especially in such a small place. Dhaka is heavily populated, traffic in this small but heavily populated community is very stressful, even to look at in the photo provided above. I can't imagine living in such a heavily populated area. I guess you can compare it to downtown New York City. However the pollution is more intense in Dhaka than it is in NYC.

This is a prime example of a megacity and the population that it cohabits the city. The huge populaiton that is se densley populated in such a small area creates for a large traffic and pedestrian issues. After watching the video you would think that there would be more accidents but living in a city like this you would get use to the population ways and learn the ways of life.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, suffers from overpopulation. As funny and nerve-wrecking this video was, it shows an instability on how important technology is in order for safety. In the video we can see cars just passing by fast and furociuosly within centimeters of crashing in the car in front of it. There is no one guiding traffic and nonetheless, any stop and traffic lights on the streets. It is a free for all in the middle of the capital when it comes to driving and this is a lack of safety for the people in Bangladesh. It is almost impossible for people to cross the road without a high risk of getting driven over. We can also see how there are so many cars in the are was well. The region is very overpopulated and to think how worse it would be if everyone in the area owned a car.