19 Cities in the World With 20 Million People in the 21st Century

April 13, 2010 12:14 PM

19.20.21. is a planned five-year project to understand the effects of the rising global population of humanity becoming increasingly urbanized: 19 cities in the world with 20 million people in the 21st century. The Flash-based introduction includes historical trends and geographic factors.
posted by jjray (10 comments total)

Wow, this is even more irritating that than infographic post from yesterday.

Who needs an article when you can use 1/100 of the words and make them dance!
posted by leotrotsky at 12:26 PM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

*Makes room for many, many new neighbors.*
posted by zarq at 12:30 PM on April 13, 2010

Hey! that's my parking space! Find your own.
posted by Postroad at 1:08 PM on April 13, 2010

"While some say the world is flat, supercities are rising -- fast, intensely urban hubs will radically redefine..."

I don't think that's what Tom Friedman meant here. Not that he's not an idiot.
posted by delmoi at 1:19 PM on April 13, 2010

"Any company with a focus on globalization will find teh patterns and explanations in 19.20.21. indispensible. Whether you are a head of a state, a leader of a corporation, a meda or communications company, a consumer, a parent, or an armchair tourist, 19.20.21. will be a crucial tool for charting and understanding your destiny in the world order decades to come."

Okay...
posted by delmoi at 1:22 PM on April 13, 2010

It's like some kind of weird sales pitch for someone's student project.

Oddly enough, it appears to be a project by Richard Wurman, founder of TED.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 1:29 PM on April 13, 2010

It's like some kind of weird sales pitch for someone's student project.

Yeah. It's like some high school student's powerpoint slides.
posted by delmoi at 1:30 PM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

What does it do?
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 2:01 PM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Fully two thirds of the world's population is unprepared to act on the basis of scary sounding breathless pronouncements. By the middle of this century, the world will have had forty years to build more buildings. Urban residents cannot communicate with other urban residents efficiently enough to tell them how urgent things will have become. Cities and people will be the same thing on a global scale, yet those left behind will not have been told.
posted by longsleeves at 2:54 PM on April 13, 2010 [5 favorites]

I saw this a while back at a Federal Reserve sponsored conference on food and water security. This information is actually quite important to issues surrounding global climate change - unsurprisingly.

The demographic information was significantly less exciting than everything else that was talked about at that conference.
posted by greekphilosophy at 8:21 PM on April 13, 2010