This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
Soon, more of us will be living in cities than in rural areas. Population
experts at the United Nations had thought that would happen by this year. Lately
their estimate is that in 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of
the world population will be in urban areas.
United Nations Population Fund just released its yearly "State of World
Population" report. Researchers say three-and-a-third billion people will be
living in urban areas next year. By 2030, the estimate is almost five billion.
The fastest growth will be in Asia and Africa.
Poor people will make up most of the urban growth. And natural increase will
be the main cause of that growth, not migration from rural areas. The report
says mega-cities of more than ten million people have not grown to the sizes
once expected. Most growth is expected instead in smaller towns and cities.
The experts urge governments to improve social services and city planning
policies. For example, the report calls for better land use so poor people do
not have to live in slums. Today, an estimated one billion live in these often
polluted and dangerous environments. Ninety percent of the people are in
developing countries.
The report says the possible good of urbanization far outweighs the bad. The
task is to learn how to make the best use of the possibilities. For example,
cities can have a lot of poverty, yet they also represent the best hope for poor
people to escape poverty, it says. "Cities create environmental problems, but
they can also create solutions."
The United Nations report says climate change will affect poor countries,
cities and individuals more severely. Yet many fast-growing cities are more
concerned with economic growth than with protecting themselves against climate
change.
On a separate issue, China last week denied a newspaper story about a World
Bank report on the cost of pollution in that country. The Financial Times
reported that Chinese officials persuaded the bank to remove information they
thought could cause social unrest.
The information reportedly said air and water pollution caused about 750,000
early deaths in China each year.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said there was no issue involving a request
from China. She said the report has not been completed yet. The World Bank said
the final version will be released as a series of papers.
And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss.
I’m Shep O'Neal.
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