We Built This City On Rock And Roll

Urbanization is a prerequisite for industrialization. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that industrialization and development will occur, given an increase in urban population. The increase is dependent on available work for migrants in order to be beneficial.

Population growth

The problem is that in developing countries there is a general increase, not just in the urban population, but in the national population. While modern industry makes for more job opportunities in graphic design, service and communication, these are new lines of work that require a certain degree of education. Migrants from rural areas relocate to the cities in hopes of finding jobs they are not qualified for, abandoning work in the primary sector, thereby both impoverishing themselves and contributing to a deficiency in food and natural resources, also a major prerequisite for industrialization and development.

What would you do?

However, moving from poverty and famine to a habitat associated with wealth and opportunity is completely understandable. This is exactly what happened in the West during the Industrial Revolution. The view that citizens from, until recently, LEDCs like Brazil or India have no right to attempt to transcend traditional economic classes is pure hypocrisy. A migrant can’t be blamed for wishing to escape poverty; increases in CO2-pollution, food deficiency and increased consumption are as much the fault of prosperous Westerners as the Hispanic, Asian or African migrants’.

The unsustainable situation is nevertheless troubling. While estimates of 8% more of the world’s population living in urban areas from 2015 to 2030 may seem farfetched or even over-dramatic, the transfer to 45% more of the world becoming urban residents over the last 200 years should tell us something about our children’s future. If the trend continues, future generations may witness a completely metropolitan world – or rather, it is a mathematical possibility.

Economy vs. Environment

Luckily, civilization isn’t calculable. Leaving environment and climate aside for the moment, any economy is dependent on capital, management, labor and land. By land we mean natural resources – all raw materials needed to manufacture a product, be it an iPad, T-shirt or Hershey-bar. On this concern alone, the need for something to sell, rests the paradoxical hope for both the global economy and environment. The primary sector will be the point of emphasis and priority in every nation. Consumption, today most rampant among the well-educated middle –to – upper classes, won’t reach the extremity that it, mathematically, could, thus CO2-pollution won’t increase dramatically either. The increasing demand for environmentally-friendly technology and products will create a new industry and job-market – a boost both for the climate and economic development.

Depending on what deals and conventions are signed and ratified in the immediate future, as well as on the policies adapted by development and industrialized countries alike, both poverty and climate concerns could become marginalized problems. It all comes down to how we handle urbanization – and what kind of industry will feature in the next Industrial Revolution.