Posted by mike on July 10, 2001 at 21:16:26:
In Reply to: Chapter 7 - Promoting Sustainable Human Settlement Development posted by kelphead on July 10, 2001 at 18:52:43:
well, this is wonderful, it makes me wanna go and sell my Rolex and give to the disenfranchised and take up Buddhism. Seriously though, this is simply advocating the construction of many of the same things we have here in the states: sewage systems, with treatment plants, municipal water supplies, with enforceable building codes and the taxpayer largess to support all these niceties. Such things reduce the human footprint on the planetary ecosystem somewhat, and enhance the quality of life in the world's teeming cities, but could Calcutta or Sao Paulo or Jakarta or Lagos pull off the same thing without massive give-aways from the developed nations? Would they have the brains to maintain it once they got it? What would happen when they kept on breeding and breeding and breeding anyway (population growth momentum due to the presence of large numbers of young people of reproductive age). Again, this is reminiscent of campaign promises. All glittery and noble sounding, but much more thorny in the practical world of demon haunted details.