VOA慢速英語:World Not Prepared to Deal With the Fast Growth of Cities

[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:02.62]this is the Economics Report. [00:05.92]The United Nations is warning that the world [00:09.65]is not prepared to deal with [00:12.30]the fast growth of cities. [00:15.04]The World Economic and Social Survey 2013 calls for [00:21.57]new ways to meet the needs of city populations. [00:26.05]More than 6.5 billion people [00:29.84]are expected to be living in cities by 2050. [00:34.92]Most new city dwellers will be in developing countries. [00:41.19]The United Nations says the effect on limited resources [00:46.92]in many countries will be huge. [00:50.42]The World Economic and Social Survey [00:53.41]points to the increasing demand for energy, water, [00:58.59]sanitation, public services, education and health care. [01:06.21]The world population is expected to rise [01:09.75]to more than nine billion by 2050, [01:13.69]two-thirds of all people are expected to live in cities. [01:18.47]The United Nations says about 80 percent of [01:23.17]this growing urban population will be found in Africa and Asia. [01:30.60]The report says sustainable development of urban areas [01:34.99]requires coordination and investments [01:39.56]to deal with important issues, these include land-use, [01:45.50]food security, job creation and transportation. [01:52.08]Willem Van Der Geest is with the United Nations [01:56.07]Department of Economic and Social Affairs, [01:59.70]he says cities need to work closely with rural communities, [02:06.21]so that food supplies can be secured, [02:09.94]and the environment can be protected. [02:13.04]"We need sufficient integration with cities... [02:16.67]An integration between the rural [02:18.97]and urban economies is absolutely vital for issues of nutrition, [02:24.45]food security, and environmental sustainability." [02:27.99]The report says development in a sustainable way [02:31.88]is important to ending poverty. [02:36.42]The report also examines the problem of food insecurity, [02:40.90]which affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. [02:46.48]One in eight people are still chronically undernourished. [02:53.00]UN officials says somethings are clear. [02:56.84]The Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, [03:01.65]Shamshad Akhtar, [03:04.20]says world food production will have to increase by 70%, [03:09.93]that increase will be needed to feed the additional [03:14.87]2.3 billion people expected on the planet by the middle of the century. [03:22.79]She says an important part of meeting that need is to waste less food. [03:30.01]"There has to be efforts to reduce food wastage. [03:33.11]Changes will have to take place in the food chain-production, [03:39.18]storage, transportation and consumption." [03:42.28]Food and nutrition security [03:44.47]are core elements of the sustainable development agenda. [03:49.15]And that's the Economics Report from VOA Learning English, [03:55.29]I'm Mario Ritter.

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