Urbanization and Its Impact on Habitat Degradation

According to Center for International Earth Science Information Network 2004, urban areas cover the 2.7% of Earth's surface. In spite of that, a large number of the world's current population lives in cities or urban areas. The population growth in urban areas greatly increases every year, thus leads to urbanization which is one of the major causes of habitat degradation.

By the year 2050, it is anticipated that about 68% of the developing world and about 80% of the developed world will be urbanized (Wikipedia). It is also expected that the current population today will be doubled when that year comes. Urbanization is a phenomenon where the number of population in an urban area increase. Primarily, it is the process of forming and enlarging

The non-stop conversion of land for housing developments, roads and highways, malls, offices, industrial sites, and other large edifices immensely affects our environment as well as animal species, in different ways. Extreme urbanization may result in adverse effects. These effects include habitat degradation in which the natural habitat of the species is unable to support them. We do not expect the natural habitat to fully do its role if it is already ravaged and devastated. And if the natural habitat is unable to do its role, many species will be lost in this world. The urban development causes the greatest extinction rates that were recorded and eradicates most of the native species. Other species might be found in some man-made habitat, but there is always an exception. Species found in those natural habitats will be missing. The more spaces the world loses, the more organisms diminish from the

People do not realize that urban biodiversity includes small stuff like insects, small plants in narrow sidewalks, microbes, and everything. The main problem of the people is that they become blind when it comes to urban biodiversity. We may call it biodiversity blindness. The biodiversity goes undiscovered by the majority of people. Although biodiversity affects people a lot, they do not know about the other organisms with whom they share their cities. Since adults less spend time outdoors, probably because of their work, they cannot interact with their surroundings well. Children are spending more hours in schools, but they are not taught lessons about our natural surroundings. It is a sad fact that children these days can identify a lot of corporate logos and can use different gadgets, but only know a few kinds of plants and animals. They cannot even tell what kinds of plant and animal are present inside their school or