A group called 19.20.21 has just launched a five-year study of “supercities” with populations over 20 million. They’ll look at how nineteen cities that have reached this “tipping point” population suddenly change: everything from waste management and water use, to art and crime patterns are affected. The group will document life in cities, producing multimedia studies and several museum exhibits. The idea is to track homo sapiens shift from being an agrarian species to an urban one. Right now, the group has a fascinating slide show on its Web site about the history of supercities and where they are headed over the next half-century. One point they emphasize is that by 2050, more than two-thirds of us will live in cities — and many of those cities will be so densely populated that we can barely imagine what life will be like in them. 19.20.21 [via Next Nature]
