Cities - Environmental Transformations - page 99

6

CHAPTER SIX

Cities

Sprawl and the urban planet

between 2001 and 2011 (BBC, 2012a). Jonathan
Watts's point was that while Darwin suggested that
the species that thrived most successfully were
those who were able to adapt to their environment,
the expansion of the human species had been
based on the creation (in the form of cities) of
environments that had been adapted to suit their
own needs (for more on Darwinian thinking see
Chapter 8).
The growing significance of urbanization
throughout the world has important implications
for human-environment relations. Urbanization
is one of the Anthropocene's defining spatial
characteristics. The significance of cities to the
Anthropocene is perhaps expressed most clearly in
two statistics. First, the United Nations Environ-
ment Programme estimates that 80 per cent
of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions
are a product of 'urban-based activities' (UNEP/
Habitat, 2009). Second, the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development claims
that around 50 per cent of total public spending
on environmental policies and services in more
economically developed countries is spent by
local, predominately metropolitan, governments
(OECD, 2010). These two statistics reveal that
urban areas are significant contributors to both
environmental degradation and protection. When
you also consider the important role that a series
a key global cities (such as London, New York and
Tokyo) plays in coordinating the spread and flow

6.1 INTRODUCTION:
URBANIZATION AND WHY
DARWIN WAS WRONG
AFTER ALL

In 2006 The Guardian newspaper's then Asia
environment correspondent, Jonathan Watts
(2006), made the bold assertion that the theories
of Charles Darwin were soon to be proven wrong.
The basis for his argument was the fact that by
2008 humanity would have collectively reached a
geographical tipping point. This tipping point
would occur when a new urban migrant, or the
birth of a new metropolitan baby, would result in
more people living in urban than rural areas.
Indeed, by 2008 not only were some 3.2 billion
people living in cities and urban areas, but the rate
of expansion associated with the global urban
population was accelerating. The United Nations
estimates that approximately 50 million people
(that is a similar number of people to those
who currently live in South Korea) are added to
the population of the planet's cities and suburbs
every year (Flavin, 2007: xxiii). This growth is being
increasingly concentrated in Asian cities. Following
its 2011 census, for example, China announced
that 51.3 per cent of its 1.3 billion population lived
in urban areas. Figures also revealed that 21 million
people moved to Chinese cities in 2011, and that
there had been a 14 per cent increase in the number
of people living in Chinese cities in the decade