By 2210, the global population is expected to grow from just more than 7 billion to 11.3 billion ?
with 87 percent of the population living in urban areas, according to a new working paper by researchers from NYU?s Marron Institute.
Most of these individuals will be in what?s now the developing world ? creating a host of environmental and health problems.
If projections are correct, these new urban dwellers will require the world?s existing cities to expand six-fold to accommodate triple the residents,
Richard Florida wrote in The Atlantic. Plus, the world will need 500 new ?megacities? of 10 million or more, he wrote.
(Above, the world?s most densely populated large cities, as ranked by CityMayors.com.)
One major issue with a growing population: shortages, of both food and water. Already, the
United Nations is watching for food shortages based on severe weather and climate change in food-exporting countries such as the U.S. For example, the United States? major drought in 2012 drastically, perhaps dangerously, reduced the world?s grain reserves, according to the UN.
Other urban health consequences include
air and water pollution, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
Crowded cities make wastewater management more
