Metropolis Now
In 2008, cities became the dominant human habitat. We don’t know exactly where that man, woman or child was that tipped the balance — whose pursuit of a better life in the metropolis changed the status quo for our race — but half of humanity now lives in cities.
Words James Cartwright
Illustration Eve Lloyd Knight
The wholesale migration of people from rural to urban environments shows no signs of slowing, and with rapid urbanisation comes complex new problems, many with potentially devastating consequences.
Megacities now appear over decades, not centuries, and by 2050 it’s expected that 66% of us will live in urban areas. Short of a cataclysmic event — a global pandemic, nuclear war or some extraordinary reversal in our social, economic or political processes — it is inevitable that this will happen. It’s a global trend that’s been noticed and monitored not just by academics but by military defence experts around the world, by development specialists and demographers and by humanitarian organisations, all of whom are witnessing this convergence of population on urban areas.
As millions flock to megacities, who will shelter them, feed them and ensure their survival? Many governments in developing nations turn a blind eye to the needs of their poor, leaving them susceptible to violent crime, water shortage and disease. Others simply don’t have the resources to cope with their numbers.
“As millions flock to megacities, who will shelter them, feed them and ensure their survival?”
In North America and Europe, megacities have appeared over centuries, with government and infrastructure evolving and growing in tandem with the population, but the speed at which many new megacities arise is overwhelming the limited systems currently in place.
In Karachi the population has exploded by almost 80 per cent in the past decade, left reeling by an influx of migrants seeking refuge from conflicts in neighbouring countries, exacerbated further by flooding in nearby provinces. Dhaka has seen its numbers swell from a boom in industry, drawing unskilled workers from the countryside to seek work in its numerous factories. Lagos has become bloated from financial gains in the export of fossil fuels and an injection of private investment from Asian economies. In all cases inequality is rife, and those living in poverty most keenly feel the effects of overpopulation.
Within many of these new sprawling metropolises the state has ceded governmental or territorial authority, creating a whole series of challenges including violent crime, kidnapping and extortion. In Mexico City the diversification of criminal activity by its numerous cartels is crippling businesses and having adverse effects on the population. As people struggle to pay protection money to gangs, their only solution is to up sticks and leave town. Meanwhile in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro a new wave of cyber criminals are taking hold, making the most of a painfully fallible digital infrastructure that leaves finances exposed. In these instances the power of criminal gangs erodes the ability of the state to govern.
“Megacities will inevitably be our global future, but if these destructive patterns persist, that future looks worryingly bleak.”
Elsewhere people struggle to find shelter, or those that have found it are forcibly removed by cash-hungry developers in tactical land-grabs overlooked by authorities. City slums are a perpetual embarrassment to the governments presiding over Manila and Lagos. The former chooses to ignore the issue, while the latter is actively seeking to eradicate temporary housing, bulldozing hand-built homes to erect monolithic tower blocks for its jet-setting elites.
Standing apart from their fledgling peers are Tokyo, Paris and Moscow. These older, more developed megacities benefit from resilient economies and stable, experienced government. Yet they too suffer problems. Isolation and depression weigh heavy on the inhabitants of these ancient seats of power, and many more megacities in the northern hemisphere demonstrate alarmingly high rates of mental health issues.
In Tokyo, a whole subculture of twentysomethings is emerging — isolated, reclusive and preoccupied with suicide. Theorists suggest that this is the result of an increasingly solitary populous, estranged from family, friends and coworkers. They find solace online, seeking out others with suicidal tendencies and planning their deaths together. Far from being a solely Japanese phenomenon, there is now overwhelming evidence of similar incidences in mainland Europe.
As the megacities of the southern hemisphere struggle with violence and disease — problems requiring immediate solutions — the northern languish in existential torpor, while their inhabitants slowly crack under psychological stress. Megacities will inevitably be our global future, but if these destructive patterns persist, that future looks worryingly bleak
This is article is from Weapons of Reason’s second issue: Megacities.
Weapons of Reason is a publishing project to understand and articulate the global challenges shaping our world by Human After All design agency.
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