Artknit Thornhill Articles: Subtopics on the Influence Of Settlements.

Air pollution:

• Makes things dirty.
• Pollutant-something things dirty.
• In Europe, 90% of city dwellers breathe in polluted air.
• As urban pollution increase, they produce more pollution.
• When the place has more people, there will be more pollution.
• Large cities produce more pollutants, overall than rural areas or neighbourhoods.
• Sometimes, you will get less pollution in a city, province, or a country.

Water and soil pollution:

• Wastewater needs to be treated, so pollutants are removed before it is returned to any waterways.
• Solid waste or garbage also needs to be destroyed in a way that does not harm waterways or the land.
• About 80% of sewage around the world is untreated, and flushed into waterways.
• As more people migrate into cities with poor wastewater treatment, the problem gets worse.

• Many waste materials, especially electronic waste such as computers and televisions, it contains poison pollution. 
• As the waste breaks down, pollutants can be released into the soil, and pass into waterways.

Light pollution:

• Cities have too much light, and it is affecting animals.
• Light pollution is the brightening of the night sky, with artificial light.
• Light pollution can change the behaviour of living things.
• Light pollution can cause disorientation.
• Light pollution can kill a million birds.

Deforestation: 

• Forests near cities are often cut down, to make new factories and housing.
• People may begin to protect their forests, instead of cutting down firewood.
• Forests can cut down, and provide this land.
• In South America, 70% of amazon forests have been cut down to provide land for grazing.

Loss Of Arable Land:

• As the population increases, there is a greater stress on the soil.
• As the soil becomes over farmed, it loses nutrients.
• The soil dries out, and blows away.
• Increasing desertification means that people must migrate to find new land for farming.
• If they can’t find arable land, farmers may move to urban areas to find other work.
• Nouakchott, Mauritania, is slowly being covered by desert sand.
• As the land outside the city are being desertified, fewer people can survive there.
• To fight against arable land, some cities and communities are trying to increase local food production by turning open spaces, including: backyards, parks, and evan rooftops.

Loss Of Habitat:

• As cities grow, they can create gaps and barriers between one area of wildlife habitat and another.
• When the habitat was destroyed, animals are forced to move.
• The result is an increased number of species, becoming extinct (Animals have died).
• Animals and plants that cannot adapt, are reduced in number or die
• It is one of the threats.
• Loss of biodiversity reduces the ability of all living things to survive.
• Urban planners in many cities have created parks to provide habitat for wildlife and a place where people can connect with the natural world.

Less Land For Growing Food:

• Growing populations have increased the need of food worldwide.
• At the same time, more and more farmland is being taken over by urban growth.
• There is less land for growing food.
• The amount of farmland per person worldwide has fallen 50% since 1960.

Increased Food Production:

• Farmers are adding more nutrients to the soil.
• They use water to supply land so, crops and plants will grow.
• The increase in food production means the “lack of food” may not be a global problem.
• Already in some areas, such as sub-Saharan Africa, food production is not keeping up with population growth.
• People are going hungry because they cannot grow enough money to buy food.

Changing Land Use: 

• People with higher incomes are changing their buying and eating habits.
• They are buying more animal products, that they did in the past.
• The increase of animal products help to raise their incomes.
• It can increase greenhouse gases.

Overcrowding:

• When people are close together, they could have many benefits.
• People can share resources to solutions and problems.
• It can create pollution and costs money.
• It wastes people's time.
• Some cities did not have much of good housing that means, they are becoming overcrowded.
• The solution is to build running tracks, veggie gardens, and school playgrounds on city roofs.
• And also, they have spread diseases to each other.

Lack of services:

• Some cities also struggle to meet their growing population needs to clean water, medical care, and also schools.
•  They can afford to provide these services to all of their residents.
• Some areas have better services than others, depending on the ability.
• Some people don't get any medical care when they are sick.
• As urban populations grow, poverty in cities is growing faster than in rural areas.

Change in rural areas: 

• In 2013, rural populations have decreased  for the first time in the USA.
• When people move away, businesses closed, and they have fewer jobs.
• Most of the people who leave are young males, so the countryside or rural areas are made up mostly young females.
• Fewer people work on farms.
• Using modern technology helps rural farms.
• 60% of cell phones are used in farms in developing countries.

Land use conflict:

• Different groups how the land should be used.
• First Nations groups may hold land claims for treaty rights
• The land should have new housing projects.

Increase Global Migration: 

• In modern days, we have migration.
• It means moving from place to place.
• Migration can be pull factors and push factors.
• Other kinds of migrants may be escaping from poverty, and other bad things.
• There are 85% of post secondary citizens in the population.

Sprawling cities: 

• Cities are increasing in size to make growing population.
• For example, Houston, Texas is one of the cities that has the urban sprawl.
• Houston, Texas covers 5 times the area, what they did in 1984.
• Building new suburbs, increases urban sprawl. 

Compact Cities:

• Some cities grow in population,but do not have enough land to expand.
• They have higher population density.

More Settlements Along Costs:

• Many people settle in coastlines and islands worldwide.
• The coastal settlement trend is increasing.
• Cities can reclaim land from the water, by creating new islands.
• New island are for purposes like housing and other buildings and roads.
• They will provide land for hotels and other places.

Environmental damage:

• Environmentalists are concerned about the damage that expansion into the sea.
• It is causing to shoreline features like sand dunes and mangrove forests.