In previous years, cities have gone missing all over the world and it’s not due to magic. These are called lost cities which are defined as “a settlement that fell into terminal decline and became extensively or completely uninhabited, with the consequence that the site's former significance was no longer known to the wider world”. Climate changes in some cities are causing catastrophic natural disasters like the volcanoes in Hawaii or the Wildfires in California; while other places are starting to fall apart due to a failing economy. There’s no reversing the already existing damage but without changes, America faces losing some major cities and economic growth. America needs to pay more attention to the domino effect of pollution, natural disasters, and economy which results in cities becoming failing or lost cities.
Pollution
The first of the dominos to fall is pollution. There are seven types of pollution which are: air, water, soil, noise, radioactive, light, thermal, and visual. One of the main water pollutions is carbon emission. Carbon emission comes from fossil fuels, coal, oil and other natural gases. Due to the rising levels of carbon emissions in the oceans, the city Miami is being described as “Swiss cheese”, the bottom of the city is starting to come apart causing little holes making it look like Swiss. University of Miami even did a study that showed that the Miami Beach has increased.
Natural disasters
Another big cause of lost cities is natural disasters. Just this year there were multiple natural disasters such as: blizzards, wildfires, volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and whatever else can be named. Perhaps the most famous historic example would be the historic city of Italy, Pompeii, which was destroyed many centuries ago due to a volcano but, they were very advanced for their time. They were all there and causing many people to not only lose their jobs and homes but their cities as well, which as you can imagine, impact the economy as well.
Economy
With all the different types of natural disasters there are, imagine the amount of impact these disasters can have on the economy. In accordance with the Phillips Curve, when unemployment goes up, inflation goes down.
Another type of economic situation is cities that have actually disappeared due to their economy failing. More than half of America's metropolitan centers may have recovered from their recession growth dives, but that leaves much of the country still struggling to climb back from the abyss, according to a report from Brookings. The report shows that many cities across the U.S. are still in negative territory, in terms of their change in GDP growth, since the economy peaked prior to the recession. While this isn't the only ranking to judge these cities on, they also show continued weakness in terms of employment growth and home prices. America needs to pay more attention to the domino effect of pollution, natural disasters, and economy which results in cities becoming lost cities.
Conclusion
America needs to start taking steps to prevent losing major cities from pollution, natural disasters, and economy. Band-Aid fixes are not going to help in the long run, they only provide a temporary solution. Changes such as recycling, water conservation, are going to help America stay afloat and any type of it helps. If there is a plastic bottle on the floor, recycle it! Or spend less time showering, all these little things add up! America needs to take action because without it, there will be no land mass for America to stand on.
