Urban ecology (Sociology) -- Japan; Urban renewal -- Japan
The egotism of the city is more than apparent in its method of
obtaining electricity and water. We all remember when Tokyoites
insisted that, in order that they could live a convenient,
pleasant life, it was only natural that the village of Okawachi
sink beneath the waters of a dam reservoir. In this way the
farmers of the village were turned out of the place that had been
their home for generations, while the citizens of Tokyo, in their
pursuit of convenience, extravagance, and ease (not to mention
money-making), never even looked back. And the tragedy of such
obscure villages is just like that of the villages ruined by
nuclear power. Why don't the cities build their nuclear reactors
right in the middle of the cities? Why don't they build them in
one of their seaside industrial zones? If city residents do not
have enough water for their flush toilets or electricity for
their automatic doors (though I would expect they too have hands
with which to open doors), they should leave the cities.
The Evils of Urban Wastes
The preceding nine sections are an outline of the plundering,
destructive acts that the cities must perpetrate in order to
maintain themselves.
Now, having consumed all of these plundered resources, the
cities are left with wastes -- both industrial and human -- and
they then proceed to dump them on others, all the while thinking
it a perfectly natural thing to do. No matter that the cities
have been so devilishly clever in devising a civilization built
on all manner of amazing apparatuses -- the law of conservation
of matter guarantees that they cannot do away with their garbage
by sleight of hand.
Let us now list and examine the various evils of the cities as
represented by their wastes.
1. Carbon Dioxide
The first of the wastes is the excessive release of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere. The result of robbing great amounts
of oxygen and consuming it is the production of similarly great
amounts of carbon dioxide. Trees would be expected to consume
this carbon dioxide and deliver oxygen to us, but since the
cities are also destroying the trees, this conversion process
cannot keep up; if there were no cities in the world, we could
expect the consumption and production of oxygen to be in balance.
Thus the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere steadily
increases, and it is said that by the years 2025-2050, there will
by twice as much in the atmosphere as there was before
industrialization. Because of the greenhouse effect the
temperature at the surface of the Earth will rise two or three
degrees, the glaciers will melt, and the surface of the oceans
will rise five meters above their present levels. Most of the big
cities of the world will then be flooded. They shall reap as the
have sown.
2. Atmospheric Pollution by Exhaust
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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