It is not an open secret that the mega-cities of today already keep almost the majority of the world’s population. New is a number of the United Nations, revealed in t New York Times report recently: By 2030 5 billion people will live in cities and town around the world. This means that the migration into cities has not come to an end yet.

Gabarone, the Capital of Botswana, is expected to grow up to 500 000 inhabitants by 2030. In 1971 there were just 18 000As the UN point out it is not the already existing mega-city like Mexico-City, Sao Paolo or Calcutta that will extraordinary grow but the mid-sized ones like Gabarone or Botswana. Here the population will raise from 18 000 inhabitants in 1971 to 500 000 in 2030. In cities like Calcutta and others of that size more people move our then in.

The skyline of Sao Paolo
One thing that pricks up one’s ears is the fact that by 2030 developing nations will have 80 percent of the world’s urban population. While star architects in the Western world like Sir Norman Foster think about sustainable cities in the future with social areas, public transport infrastructure and roof gardens there is no way that these growing cities can adopt those ideas and set into practice until 2030. The opposite will be the case: The growing of urban slums will pollute watersheds. The struggle for clean water, for water in general, will be fought in these urban areas. The simple standards of living – like missing sanitation - there will threat the whole environmental structure of these cities.

Slum in Calcutta

After visiting London two weeks ago for a Conference on Climate Change organized by the Guardian I found it interesting that a lot is talked about sustainabile lifestyle in the London, especially about urban environmentalism.We already met Sir Norman Foster in February in Munich where he gave a splendid speech about his vision of living in the cities in the 21st century. When I read the article of our Pioneer Bart on mingledingle I found the link to a text about a zero emissions home which I would like to share with you:The UK has unveiled its first zero emission home that will set the environmental standard for all new homes in the future.The two-bedroom house is insulated to lose 60% less heat than a normal home.It also features solar panels, a biomass boiler and water efficiency devices such as rainwater harvesting.The design, unveiled at the Offsite 2007 exhibition in Watford, meets rules to be applied in 2016 that aim to make UK homes more energy-efficient.The Kingspan Off-Site's Lighthouse design is the first to achieve level six of the Code for Sustainable Homes - which means the house is carbon neutral.About a quarter of UK carbon emissions come from homes. You find the whole story here