Around the world, by 2000, more than half of people are expected to be urbanized. Cities of 30 and 40 million are projected for the third world. In the United States, the 1980s saw a key crossover point. Over half the people came to live in metropolitan areas of over one million. Another quarter live in smaller cities.
Cities are the centers of the economic-technological system that is rapidly devouring the earth.
Everywhere cities have become leeches off the biosphere, draining it of vitality and filling it with waste. The major works of humanity, they are meant to be places where humans reach their highest potential as beings born of community. Yet the sense of community in urban areas is deteriorating while their resource consumption continues to ascend. Otherwise, urban resource consumption will simply devour efforts to protect ecosystems everywhere. In many ways, the tide of social problems within cities is a facet of the overall ecological crisis.