Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Walking through forests of palm tree apartments
Scoff at the monkeys who live in their dark tents
Down by the waterhole --- drunk every Friday
Eating their nuts, saving their raisins for Sunday
Lions and tigers who wait in the shadows
They're fast but they're lazy, and sleep in green meadows.
Increasingly people will and have to move to cities as the world population increases. This
is true for Southern Africa where there has been a huge migration to mega cities. But cities
must also be reasonably affordable for the “in” migrating people. In Johannesburg the average
apartment cost is $1,180, New York $8,330, London $3,450, Tokyo $7,200, and Shanghai
$1430 and price of a Big Mac for the same countries about $2.25, $3.90, $3.80, $3.80, and
$2.00. Cities are more economically and environmentally efficient in that people use less
energy, water, wood and fossil fuels, resources, space, septic systems, recycle more, and
spare more land for agriculture and wildlife. They will continue to grow at least until the
world population starts declining at the end of the 21 Century, unless some major disaster
happens earlier or a major war takes a toll. With education and better living conditions,
countries tend to slow their rate of population growth and also will slow the rate of growth of
cities. However, to be habitable and meet a city populations needs, there are several things
that seem essential: cleanliness, sanitation, safety, open green spaces—arguably with a good
zoo to show and teach kids about animals and preserve a genetic pool, or even in the case of
some zoos like the San Diego Zoo and Park, restore endangered species, art museums, places
of communal worship, and a nearby open vista of landscape or ocean. As social animals it
appears essential that there are opportunities to spontaneously to interact and communicate
with other people to allow for innovation and progression.
It also seems we need to have the opportunity to visit beautiful landscapes in nature that can
commune with the soul. Here are some nominations for sublime, extraordinary, remote,
peaceful landscapes, starting from the Far East: Kyoto Moss Gardens, India's Corbett Game
Reserve central plain and the Rama River, South Africa's Amphitheater over 3000 foot rock
face and Tugela Falls especially viewed from Sentinel Peak, outlook from Olifant's Camp,
Tsokwane Lebombo Plain lookout, Bubye Conservancy Mtikosi Koppie over the lake and
wildlife, Namibia's Namib Naukluft sand dunes, Alps peaks, Norwegian Fjords and Loften
Islands, Iceland's glaciers and waterfalls, Iguassu, Rocky Mountains particularly Grand Tetons
and Glacier Park, Yosemite views of Half-dome, and Maui including the extreme high waves
breaking at Jaws or Egypt, and the other Hawaiian cliff faced islands.
For several large cities in the north and eastern USA it was fortunate that the city planners
understood this and under the guidance and astute design of Frederick Olmsted, central green
areas were laid out, such as in Boston, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Chicago, New York, and
Cleveland, apart from many university and school campuses.
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