【沪江慢速VOA】1月17日：城市化带来的是什么？(1)
Move Away From Rural Life Puts Pressure on Cities, Environment (1/2)
50 years ago, most people lived in rural areas. But the world has changed. By some point next year, more than half of all people will live in cities, for the first time in history. So says the most recent estimate from the United Nations.
City life is not always a bad thing, but many experts worry about this process of urbanization. A new report from the World watch Institute says it is having a huge effect on human health and the quality of the environment. The environmental research group in Washington released its 2007 "State of the World" report last week.
Of the 3 billion people who live in cities now, the report says, about 1 billion live in unplanned settlements. These are areas of poverty, slums, that generally lack basic services like clean water, or even permanent housing. The report says more than sixty million people are added to cities and surrounding areas each year, mostly in slums in developing countries.
Molly O'Meara Sheehan led the Worldwatch report. She says the international community has been too slow to recognize the growth of urban poverty. Policymakers, she says, need to increase investments in education, health care and other areas.
