The environment of the city and the impact of cities on the environment span the development of urban areas in the nineteenth century to their likely future in the twenty-first. Aspects of this topic include air and water pollution, patterns of urban development and migration, population concerns, and social justice, especially with regard to women, the poor, minorities, and the Third World.

Full introduction to chapter Go

Selections in this chapter:

• William Wordsworth, “London” from The Prelude, Book VII (1805), [313] Go
• World Commission on Environment and Development, from “The Urban Challenge” in Our Common Future (1987), [315]Go
• Anup Shah, from Ecology and the Crisis of Overpopulation: Future Prospects for Global Sustainability (1998), [320] Go
• Michael Carley and Philippe Spapens, from Sharing the World: Sustainable Living and Global Equity in the Twenty-first Century (1998), [323] Go
• Richard T. T. Forman, from Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions (1995), [324] Go
• Dominique Lapierre, from The City of Joy (1985), translated by Kathryn Spink, [326] Go
• Manimanjari Mitra, from Calcutta in the Twentieth Century: An Urban Disaster (1990), [329] Go
• Mike Davis, from Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster (1998), [333] Go
• Marc Reisner, from Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (1993 [1986]), [342] Go
• Gary Snyder, “Night Song of the Los Angeles Basin” (1986), [348] Go