"mile-high"

"who will build the ark" is an essay by mike davis built on the premise of a "self-debate" on the prospects of human surviving climate change...the first part presents a negative view of that possibility and in it he maintains that "meeting koyoto-type accords" necessitates that "wind-fall profits" (from fossil fuels) not being, among other things, "wasted on mile-high skyscrapers"...clearly he has no faith in "voluntary" cuts in carbon emisions or the willingnes of wealth to cooperate in anything that limits their preogatives...the second part is a presentation of the positive which is centered around urban living...cities as the most efficient way to distribute resources...however to achieve this cities need to overcome a number of things,"first among these is massive horizontal sprawl which combines the degradation of natural services, aquifiers, watersheds, truck farms, forests, coastal eco-systems, with the hugh costs of providing infrastructure to the sprawl." that "expansion" is favelas, shanty-towns, slums...to be efficient cities will need to shrink...greater mexico city covers 573 square miles with a population of 21,804,515 ( all total population figures are 2020 estimates ) using the united nation's figure of 31.6% of urban populations living in slums there are 6,890,226 slum dwellers there...greater lima peru covers 1088 square miles with a population of 10,882,572 meaning 3,438,949 living in slums...greater lagos nigeria covers 452 square miles and a population of 23,000,000 leaves 7,268,000 mired in shanty-towns...greater los angeles covers 501 square miles and has a population of 13,200,999 which should put 4,171,515 in slums, or rather homeless encampments...that may seem an over-estimate to some...you never know...who has counted recently?...if urban areas are going to shrink to habitable, efficient, walkable/public transport accomodating places vertical is the only way to go...you will need those "mile-high skyscrapers" to achieve that...the question then becomes how much of those "windfall profits" will be used to mitigate ( read bunker/walled comunity surrounded by private armies ) the impact of climate change on those of wealth rather than post-modern insulae for the "horizontal speawl".