How many people live in cities now?

W: Good morning, Doctor Jones.
M: Good morning.
W: Doctor Jones, for what you have clone in population study, what can you tell us about the situation in urban areas?
M: Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is that, now, half of the residents on this earth are living in cities. And that is why we feel many cities are in a messy condition.
W: But city life is not always a bad thing, is it?
M: No, of course not. But many experts worry about this process of urbanization. We can see that urbanization is having a huge effect on human health and the quality of the environment. Of the three billion people who live in cities now, one billion live in unplanned settlements. These are areas of poverty, slums that generally lack basic services like clean water, or even permanent housing.
W: How fast is this process of urbanization?
M: More than sixty million people are added to cities and surrounding areas each year, mostly in slums in developing countries. One of the problems that we face is the international community has been too slow to recognize the growth of urban poverty. Nearly everyone agrees that we need to increase investments in education, health care and other areas.
W: But surely, there are cases when proper measures have been taken.
M: Yes. Many local governments and community groups have made some successful efforts. For example, Freetown, Sierra Leone, has established farming within the city limits to meet much of its growing food demands.
W: You mean food is grown in the city?
M: Yes. Isn’t that wonderful? In Colombia, engineers have created a bus system in Bogota that has helped reduce air pollution and improve quality of life.
W: Yes, I have heard about that.
M: It is true that some efforts are fruitful. But the overall situation is very worrying. Researches of all kinds point to the same pattern, that is, the link between urban poverty and the environment is serious. Governments definitely need to consider why people are moving out of rural areas. Climate change, drought, floods—there are many reasons forcing people to leave. We need to find effective ways to improve the conditions in the countryside, and let farmers see that their life is also improving.
W: Thank you, Doctor Jones.