Chapter 1
Megacities as a Global Center
of Sustainability Issues: Overview
of the Book
Shin Muramatsu and Koichiro Mori
1.1 Light and Shadow of Cities
Cities are the symbol of civilization and the producer of environmental burdens.
They provide both advantages and disadvantages. A comparison of “The Blue
Marble” with “The Black Marble” illustrates the positive and negative sides of cities.
The Blue Marble is the beautiful blue Earth appearing in a famous picture taken
from Apollo 17 in 1972 (see Fig. 1.1). This picture of the Blue Marble circulated
worldwide as a symbol of environmental movements in the 1970s in tandem with
another famous picture called “Earth Rise,” taken from Apollo 8 in 1968. These
pictures sent the message that the beautiful blue earth was limited and fragile, and
they also implied that the earth did not have any boundaries and that life on the earth
seemed peaceful (Poole 2008).
On the other hand, the Black Marble is a satellite picture taken at night (see
Fig. 1.2). The picture was publicly shown by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). One can see lights shining on the scattered, uneven locations of the black surface of the Earth. They reflect real human activities conducted
on Earth. By observing the intensity and changes of the lights and by analyzing
satellite images with higher resolution, we can conjecture the magnitude of human
economic activities, population distribution, carbon dioxide emissions, and the
amount of fossil fuel consumption on a global scale. Christopher Elvidge, a specialist of remote sensing in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), commented that the technology of capturing lights on the surface of the
S. Muramatsu
Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
K. Mori (*)
Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, Hikone, Shiga, Japan
e-mail: ko-mori@biwako.shiga-u.ac.jp
© Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2021
S. Muramatsu et al. (eds.), Living in the Megacity: Towards Sustainable Urban
Environments, Global Environmental Studies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56901-5_1
1
Megacities as a Global Center
of Sustainability Issues: Overview
of the Book
Shin Muramatsu and Koichiro Mori
1.1 Light and Shadow of Cities
Cities are the symbol of civilization and the producer of environmental burdens.
They provide both advantages and disadvantages. A comparison of “The Blue
Marble” with “The Black Marble” illustrates the positive and negative sides of cities.
The Blue Marble is the beautiful blue Earth appearing in a famous picture taken
from Apollo 17 in 1972 (see Fig. 1.1). This picture of the Blue Marble circulated
worldwide as a symbol of environmental movements in the 1970s in tandem with
another famous picture called “Earth Rise,” taken from Apollo 8 in 1968. These
pictures sent the message that the beautiful blue earth was limited and fragile, and
they also implied that the earth did not have any boundaries and that life on the earth
seemed peaceful (Poole 2008).
On the other hand, the Black Marble is a satellite picture taken at night (see
Fig. 1.2). The picture was publicly shown by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). One can see lights shining on the scattered, uneven locations of the black surface of the Earth. They reflect real human activities conducted
on Earth. By observing the intensity and changes of the lights and by analyzing
satellite images with higher resolution, we can conjecture the magnitude of human
economic activities, population distribution, carbon dioxide emissions, and the
amount of fossil fuel consumption on a global scale. Christopher Elvidge, a specialist of remote sensing in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), commented that the technology of capturing lights on the surface of the
S. Muramatsu
Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
K. Mori (*)
Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, Hikone, Shiga, Japan
e-mail: ko-mori@biwako.shiga-u.ac.jp
© Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2021
S. Muramatsu et al. (eds.), Living in the Megacity: Towards Sustainable Urban
Environments, Global Environmental Studies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56901-5_1
1