Our Bandit Future Cities, Shantytowns, and Climate Change Governance - Essay Example

The researcher states that the effects of climate change on the world's cities and the people who live in them are not subjects that have received a great deal of attention, at least not in isolation from other climate change effects. Climate change effects tend to get considered in continental or regional terms: melting ice caps, agricultural crop losses across vast swaths of land, and shoreline loss that will inundate sub-continents. Alternately, the discussion tends to focus on behavioral change, again at the level of entire national populations, suggesting that countries must consider using cleaner energy sources, producing cleaner-burning vehicles, and providing incentives for citizens to insulate their homes better.

Many, if not most, commentators seem to endorse the view that resolution of climate change challenges should be addressed at the global level and enforced by state parties pursuant to global accords. More recently, there has been some discussion of the inequalities that climate change will exacerbate. Crudely put, the analysis posits that poorer nations, especially those in Asia and Africa, will become poorer, while the richer nations will--if they do not become richer--suffer fewer of the negative consequences of climate change.

In light of these differential climate change effects on poorer nations, some analysts have explored the probability of increased civil strife. However, even when the literature examines effects of climate change on civil strife, the analysis tends to address national roles and bilateral or multilateral national responses. (5) Furthermore, when land use changes are discussed, urban land use is typically excluded from consideration. The focus tends to be on deforestation and agricultural land. (6) This debate strikingly neglects what is arguably the dominant demographic shift of our era, namely the global trend towards urbanization--the move to mega-cities.

As the United Nations Population Fund reports, in 2008, a majority of the world's population will live in urban areas. That number is expected to increase by another 50% by 2030. (7) In historical terms, it is impossible to understate the significance of this phenomenon, especially inasmuch as the vast majority of these urban immigrants will arrive with few resources and live in slum conditions. (8) Moreover, perhaps the characteristic feature of many such slums is that they are dominated by the informal economy, characterized by oppressive systems of patronage, corruption, and violence. (9) As the world gets hotter, this seems likely to create a--perhaps literally--combustible situation. (10) A host of factors, including environmental degradation, inadequate provision of environmental and infrastructure services, and limited employment opportunities are combining to turn many of the world's mega-slums into dangerous, violent places. (11) Moreover, there is considerable literature that has examined the relationship between increased urban violence and temperature rise. (12) It does not seem unreasonable, therefore, to posit a connection between climate change and urban violence, one that calls