looking towards the future of world urban development, cities of the global south will quizlet

How much do we really need to live long and happy lives? In the US, life expectancy is 79 years and GDP per capita is $53,000. We should look at societies where people live long and happy lives at relatively low levels of income and consumption not as basket cases that need to be developed towards western models, but as exemplars of efficient living. What does this mean for our theory of development? Economist Peter Edward argues that instead of pushing poorer countries to “catch up” with rich ones, we should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to “catch down” to more appropriate levels of development. By contrast, people in the US and Canada consume about 8 hectares per person, while Europeans consume 4.7 hectares – many times their fair share. This figure is roughly what the average person in Ghana or Guatemala consumes. Right now, our planet only has enough resources for each of us to consume 1.8 “ global hectares” annually – a standardised unit that measures resource use and waste. Instead of pushing poor countries to 'catch up' with rich ones, we should be getting rich countries to 'catch down' And the hard truth is that this global crisis is due almost entirely to overconsumption in rich countries. Scientists are now telling us that we’re blowing past planetary boundaries at breakneck speed. In other words, growth isn’t an option any more – we’ve already grown too much. Why? Because even at current levels of average global consumption, we’re overshooting our planet’s bio-capacity by more than 50% each year. More progressive types tell us that we need to shift some of the yields of growth from the richer segments of the population to the poorer ones, evening things out a bit. Orthodox economists insist that all we need is yet more growth. That’s 17 times the population of Britain.

Since 1980, the global economy has grown by 380%, but the number of people living in poverty on less than $5 (£3.20) a day has increased by more than 1.1 billion. Growth has been the main object of development for the past 70 years, despite the fact that it’s not working.

Looking towards the future of world urban development, cities of the global south will quizlet