BIGGER CITIES, BIGGER PROBLEMS?
Increasingly, we live on an urban planet, and the pace of urbanization is only accelerating. Cities are engines of creativity, productivity, opportunity, and economic growth. And, in theory, they can bring substantial environmental benefits, necessitating economies of scale in food and energy systems that significantly shrink the per capita impacts of human societies on the natural world. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Mega-cities are often poorly planned,
traffic-choked poverty traps. The agglomeration effects that make cities beacons of economic hope may not scale very well in the transition from city to mega-city. And the increase in absolute consumption that accompanies the transition from rural to urban living usually outpaces the relative decoupling that comes with the shift to large scale, efficient production systems. Is it, in fact, a good thing that humankind is packing itself into ever-more-crowded megalopolises? Do we need to apply the brakes? Or do we need entirely new ways of thinking about the challenge?
Paul Romer is an economist and policy entrepreneur.
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