Cities Are The Future

The only way to meet the challenges of the 21st Century is to address poverty, pollution and environmental sustainability in the world's cities, writes Worldwatch Institute president Christopher Flavin.

1 minute read

January 19, 2007, 1:00 PM PST

By Michael Dudley

"Urban centers are hubs simultaneously of breathtaking artistic innovation and some of the world's most abject and disgraceful poverty. They are the dynamos of the world economy but also the breeding grounds for alienation, religious extremism and other sources of local and global insecurity. Cities are now both pioneers of groundbreaking environmental policies and the direct or indirect source of most of the world's resource destruction and pollution.

This modern 'tale of two cities' is something that every policymaker and citizen needs to understand. The battles against our greatest global problems, from unemployment and HIV infections to water shortages, terrorism and climate change, will be largely won-or lost-in the world's cities. Yet from 1970 to 2000, urban aid worldwide was estimated at $60 billion-just 4 percent of the $1.5 trillion in development assistance."

FULL STORY: Our Urban Future

Thursday, January 18, 2007 in Tom Paine

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