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By 2050 it's estimated that over 50% of the world's population will live in "chabolas" - i.e. in semi-urban shanty towns with no formal infrastructure, yet still very close to major city centers. So distribution is increasingly less of a problem than you would assume, simply because population centers are concentrating at a very quick rate.

That seems highly dubious. Citation?




Yes, I was only stating facts, and I really want to point out that if we want to understand what the world will be like in the near future, we have to understand what rapid urbanization and "mega cities" will entail - massive urban populations living in slums (chabolas or favelas, there are several terms).

Usually in these areas I just cite United Nations estimates - here are the facts from the UN:

http://www.unfpa.org/pds/urbanization.htm

If you want more info regarding "mega cities" and "mega slums", look here: http://www.itt.com/waterbook/page80.pdf

For people who want to know the other "downside" of this massive urbanization, then here's a GREAT link to an article. This website also a ton of forward-thinking articles about economic trends with larger implications:

http://www.newgeography.com/content/002170-the-problem-with-...


Not dubious. Just replace "chabolas" with "cities". The move to cities worldwide is well documented and not showing any signs of slowing down. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization and lots more in Google.




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