ecopolis
a hundre years ago, the largest city in the world was london with a population of 6.5 million. today it is dwarfed by tokyo. with barely a quarter the population of london a century ago the tokyo metropolitan area has since musroomed to 35 million propelling it to first place in the growth is largely due to a single factor migration from the countryside to the city it is just one of many to have overtaken london which with a population of 7.5 million today doesn't evn make the top 20
This rural-to-urban migration can now be seen in scores of cities around the globe and it has brought us to a pivatal moment in human history in 1900 most people lived in the countryside with a littel over 10 million the meteoric growth of megacities-there are now more than 25 in total-has brought with it huge environmental and social problems cities occupy just two percent of the land surface of the earth but consume three-quarters of the resources that are used up each year expelling the half digsted remains