Ben Wilson. Urban Jungle.

      

        Well-intentioned but self-contradictory book. In one place, the author praises XIX century Paris for its boulevards, and New York's Central Park in other places he critiques modern cities including London and New York city for the lack of greenery. In some places, he praises city-bound agriculture, in others -- the wild and unrestrained growth of weeds. 

Wilson's book cover shows a highrise adorned with story-wide vegetation but brackish water and mosquitoes are hardly conducive to a healthy habitation. In 90s and 2000s, the Chinese experimented with collection of rainwater in residential buildings. The houses and their rooftop gardens became damp hothouses for mosquitoes. Newer buildings disposed with this environmental friendliness. Mosquito is a veritable flying bioweapon dispersing a panoply of viruses and blood parasites. Density of urban populations amplifies their nefarious influence many orders of magnitude. 

Swamps, which Ben praises as reservoirs for biodiversity breed mosquitoes, gnats, snakes and other kind of vermin. Urban swamp areas are intrinsically unhealthy, especially for the dense populations. Fertilizers for urban agriculture pollute rivers and further increase populations of vermin, rats especially, and invasive species. 

While making modern cities better places to live is a commendable goal, the one size fits all approach is bad and utopian.