State of the World - 1999
Edited by Lester Brown, Norton, 1999, $9.95
Book Review by Charles Dixon
The new book, "State of the World 1999" has a good history review of the world's cities. Can you name the countries these cities are/were in?
Year 1000 Year 1800
Top 10 Pop mil Top 10 Pop mil
Cordova 0.45 Peking 1.10
Kaifeng 0.40 London 0.86
Constantinople 0.30 Canton 0.80
Angkor 0.20 Edo (Tokyo) 0.69
Kyoto 0.18 Constantinople 0.57
Cairo 0.14 Paris 0.55
Bagdad 0.13 Naples 0.43
Nishapur 0.13 Hangchow 0.39
Hasa 0.11 Osaka 0.38
Anhilvada 0.10 Kyoto 0.38Year 1900 Year 2000
Top 10 Pop mil Top 10 Pop mil
London 6.5 Tokyo 28.0
New York 4.2 Mexico City 18.1
Paris 3.3 Bombay 18.0
Berlin 2.7 Sao Paulo 17.7
Chicago 1.7 New York 16.6
Vienna 1.7 Shanghai 14.2
Tokyo 1.5 Lagos 13.5
St Petersburg 1.4 Los Angeles 13.1
Manchester 1.4 Seoul 12.9
Philadelphia 1.4 Beijing 12.4
Another aspect of growth, girth has been debated in the last couple
of years as the US raised weight brackets while the UN lowered them. According
to new UN WHO standards, 55% of US adults are overweight. So don't feel
so bad, we're in the majority now. We can even redefine negative terms
about weight to make them complimentary.
On the food front, grain exports leveled off at about 200 million tons back in 1980. Somebody forgot to tell most of the world about that, and the population rose 50%. (From 4 to 6 billion) China can afford to buy all 200 million tons to feed livestock, and increase their meat consumption. What will the rest of the world do then? How will we feed the next 50% increase, coming by 2050? (From 6 to 9 billion.) Get ready for soy burgers and rice and contaminated water! Some good news - auto pool cars, eco-tourism, more bikes.