Nearing the end of my worries for now … I’ve put the next one at the bottom of my ‘worries’ list but that doesn’t mean I think it isn’t important – because it is!
Because urbanisation is necessary for
industrialisation, the mass movement of population away from the country into cities
which took place in Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th Centuries has been followed, during the 20th and early 21st Centuries, by a similar movement in the
developing countries of Africa, Asia and South America. Tokyo now has more than 27m with Seoul,
Mexico City and Mumbai each being home to more than 20m[1].
The
move away from the countryside into cities has largely meant losing touch with the natural world and with our place in the
order of things and many believe we have also lost touch with our spirituality.
Many, many
writers and artists have explored the importance of Man’s connection with the
natural environment. Wade Davis reviewing Jarad Diamond’s ‘The world Until Yesterday’ summed
up our loss of connection with the natural world beautifully: ‘A child raised in the Andes to believe that a mountain is a
protective deity will have a relationship with the natural world profoundly
different from that of a youth brought up in America to believe a mountain is
an inert mass of rock ready to be mined.’
We come
from the Earth, we return to it and we depend on it, but because the vast
majority of the world’s population now live in cities and because our way of
life depends on material consumption with its insatiable appetite for more and
more goods we abuse the land by using it as a commodity instead of seeing it as
our beautiful home to be respected and cherished.
Wow is me! I'm going to look at the good stuff next …’Always look on the bright side of life!’
[1] R.L. Forstall, R.P. Greene, and J.B.
Pick, "Which
are the largest? Why published populations for major world urban areas vary so
greatly",
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