People In Mexico City Losing Their Sense of Smell. Produced by theEMBARQ Network on Vimeo.

Rhys Thom and I recently visited Mexico City where we met with two researchers at UNAM - Mexico’s National University - who are doing some fascinating research. Robyn Hudson, a charismatic professor, originally from Australia who has been living in Mexico City for quite some time, and her colleague Marco Guarneros, a fellow biomedical researcher, conducted a study comparing the ability of Mexico City’s residents to detect certain smells, with the ability of people living in a Tlaxcala, a neighboring town. Mexico City and Tlaxcala are similar in many respects - they share a similar culture and climate, situated high in the mountains of Mexico. But there is one crucial difference: Mexico City has much higher levels of air pollution.

When compared to their neighbors, people living in Mexico City need higher concentrations of a smell in order to identify it, a clear indication that their sense of smell is deteriorating.
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Crystal Davis looks at urbanization and its impact on environment and development in Part I of a three-part series. Check out other analysis by Crystal at http://earthtrends.wri.org.

Now home to half of the world’s people, cities are increasingly at the forefront of our most pressing environmental challenges. While the current pace of urbanization is not unique in human history, the sheer magnitude of urban growth–driven by massive demographic shifts in the developing world–is unprecedented, with vast implications for human well-being and the environment. However, where cities pose environmental problems, they also offer solutions. As hotspots of consumption, production, and waste generation, cities possess unparalleled potential to increase the energy efficiency and sustainability of society as a whole.

Figure 1. Economic and Social Welfare in Urban vs Rural Areas

Cities generate a disproportionate share of gross domestic product (GDP) and provide, on average, greater social and economic benefits to their inhabitants than do rural areas. As a result, increased urbanization often correlates to higher national incomes (see Figure 1 above).

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