Topic > Effects of Urbanization on the Planet of Slums - 1196

Mike Davis in his book Planet of Slums, talks about the Third World and the impact that globalization and industrialization have on urban and poverty-stricken cities. The growth of urbanization has not only increased the wealth of the middle class, but also created urban poor living side by side in the cities of the rich. Planet of Slums reveals surprising facts about the lives of people living in poverty, how globalization and increasing wealth for the urban class only harms those people, and how the increase in slums every year can ultimately lead to ruin of the earth. “Since 1970, the largest share of the world's urban population growth has been absorbed by slum communities on the outskirts of Third World cities” (Davis 37). Specifically, slums usually develop in the worst types of terrain and cause floods, landslides, and fires that destroy thousands of homes. However, population growth and the amount of waste created by urban civilizations also affect the faces and hidden places of those who live on the outskirts of cities. “If natural risks are amplified by urban poverty, new and entirely artificial risks are created by poverty's interactions with toxic industries, anarchic traffic, and collapsing infrastructure” (Davis 128). People living in slums usually receive waste from the rest of the world to live nearby, which could be harmful to their health if such waste consists of toxic or deadly materials. Mike Davis observes that “the world usually pays attention to such fatal mixtures of poverty and toxic industry only when they explode with mass casualties” (Davis 130). He further goes on to conclude that this century's surplus humanity can only survive as long as slums remain a franchise solution to the excess of materials and waste created by industrial society (Davis 201). The living conditions of the urban poor and those living in poverty-stricken slums receive dangerous consequences directly from the growth of the workforce. Through labor migration, ecological and industrial consequences in urbanization, and global inequalities, it is clear to see the implications that the growing wealth inequality gap has on people. The urban poor are often sidelined due to the need for an industrialized society, but the consequences of both an elite and a middle class directly affect people who cannot sustain that kind of lifestyle. The gaps created must be considered and addressed, as Mike Davis believes that this planet will become so dependent on slum life that urban life will disappear. Globalization directly influences migration through labor, as well as the industrial movement which only increases global inequalities and through this will create a “planet of