Thoughts on Global Urbanization

Today, there are roughly 6.5 billion humans on our planet. Just within the past few years, we passed the point at which over half of us live in cities. By 2050, unless current trends change, there will be about 9 billion of us and two thirds of us will live in cities. The significant challenges this trend poses are limitless: infrastructure, power, water, food, education, health, crime, jobs—each issue merits a shelf of books all to itself.

People have been moving from the countryside to cities for 9,000 years. This migration has been central to the rise of civilization. We humans better ensure we fully understand how this trend will play out, and stay ahead of it so we can shape it so it works for us, not against us. Some researchers have written that, from a global warming and green environment standpoint, urbanization may be a good thing; perhaps that may be so. However, it’s hard not to imagine the model which gave rise to civilization may, once past a critical tipping point, lead to the demise of civilization (i.e., if we cannot effectively resolve, in a timely fashion, the myriad issues mentioned above). Hollywood has certainly provided us with numerous dark, apocalyptic visions of life in megacities of the future. I’m not necessarily arguing that is the natural outcome of the current trend; however, I offer that randomness is what will result if we do not infuse enough energy (that is, thought and money) into the system to create and preserve order.

People head for the cities to seek opportunities for a better life: better paying jobs, better education, better access to medicine and services, better odds for their children. With better understanding, coupled with effective public policy, technology, and wise investment, we can create opportunity in rural areas. We can, as Thomas Friedman says, “flatten” the world, level the playing field so that people will not feel compelled to migrate to cities to improve, or simply preserve, their lives.

We need to find ways to cost-effectively get power, water, food, education, medicine and other basic services to small cities, towns and villages in the rural areas of our planet. If we can create the right set of basic conditions for people in rural areas, there is no reason they cannot fully participate on a level playing field in the global marketplace, no reason they cannot achieve and enjoy a quality of life equal to, if not superior to, that of their peers living in megacities. There is no reason an educated and trained person living in a remote village cannot, with basic Internet access, handle accounting, inventory control, records management, etc, for a Fortune 500 company. If we create the right conditions, we can change the economic paradigm which is driving urbanization.