I think this article did a great job of providing context in regards to the correlation between urbanization and resource management. The direct trend is that the more advanced we get, the more wasteful we get, and it appears this is happening at an exponential growth because technology is breaking barriers on a daily basis. The rapid increase in population that we’re expected to face over these next few decades will obviously not help alleviate our struggle with managing our resources. As the article mentions, our exploitation of resources has been a trend for centuries. It’s easier to think that our seemingly innocent actions have no consequences, than face the reality of the future damage we’re provoking. I liked the provided definition of sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” When I read that I kind of thought it was a little funny because it seems like such an implausible idea to convince people to do something as selfless as putting aside their present needs for a future generation.
I kind of feel that with a topic like resource management and urban planning, there’s only so much that can be done before we just completely screw up so bad that it’s irreversible. It’s like we’re running on an hourglass and our last sand grains are slipping through the center as we only begin to take serious consideration about our actions. The article mentions that one of the issues is that people have difficulty seeing eye to eye in terms of what the issue is and how it should be approached, and these disagreements obviously only drag more time and limit us in terms of what we can start working towards. I think renewable energy is completely under researched and giving the proper grants to the right people, scientists can come up with some really great ideas. Sure it’s easy to blame our problems on our advancements in technologies, but who’s not to say that technology can help us out of it as well? Another issue is that perhaps if being environmentally friendly wasn’t so expensive, then maybe more people would be willing to implement greener practices in their lives. Like why should a solar power system have to be priced like it’s a luxury item?
