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Over consumption – the tale of two cities

Posted: 8 March, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Biodiversity, Culture/Education, Waste, Water • Comments(1)

History is littered with examples of urban settlements abandoned and forgotten. In the case of two notable examples, Machu Picchu and Angkor, it has often be speculated that the reason for the demise of these two great metropolis of their times was their success and then the eventual unsustainable growth in population and resultant demand for food and clean water. Fast forward a thousand years and we may be witnessing the start of the demise of two world capitals for the same reasons, cities in which the unregulated consumption of natural materials and resources is rapidly driving the destiny of these cities away from their populations and governments. The capital cities of Sanaa in Yemen and Jakarta in Indonesia are faced with the real prospect of  abandonment or at the very least a radical contraction in terms of national significance and size, and with no real solutions offered it seems the options on the table are to simply move on, start over and let the weeds take root, that is of course assuming there is enough water and clean soil to sustain them for the next one thousand years.

Further reading:

Water, Not al-Qaeda, is Yemen’s Main Domestic Concern, Experts Say

Indonesia mulls new capital as Jakarta sinks

Comments

Just goes to show technology and knowledge may change, but you can’t sustain consumption and population growth.