Item II (B) Proclamation: World Population Awareness Week - October 24 - 31, 1998 Agenda 10-06-98
Ocoee Item II B
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Proclamation
WHEREAS, state and local governments, including the City cf Ocoee, are confronted with environ-
mental and societal challenges such as diminishing farmland, water shortages, traffic congestion, inner
city decay, curtailment of basic services, climate change, and the spread of infectious diseases;and
WHEREAS, these challenges are inextricably linked to patterns of considerable demographic change,
such as areas west of the Mississippi River doubling in population size as rapidly as Africa,the world's
fastest growing region; and
'WHEREAS, urban areas have historically served as centers of trade, transportation, industry and
markets providing the economic and cultural diversity, and vitality that often define the very nation or
region in which they are located; and
WHEREAS, the detrimental aspects of urbanization are most severe in developing countries, where
grinding poverty and lack of resources compound their impact, but industrialized countries, with their
consumptive lifestyles,are also extremely vulnerable to their consequences; and
WHEREAS, urban areas of the industrialized world are expected to absorb over one billion additional
people in the final quarter of the 20th century and another two billion in the first quarter of the 21st
century; and
WHEREAS, since the mid-twentieth century,the world's urban population has grown from 750 million,
or 30 percent of the world total, to 2.28 billion,or 43 percent of the total; and
WHEREAS, over 50 percent of the world's more than six billion people are expected to live in urban
areas early in the next century,and by the year 2020 urban population is expected to exceed five billion,
or 61 percent of the world total; and
WHEREAS, urbanization worldwide may be the most distinctive and significant demographic
characteristic of this century and for the foreseeable future; and
WHEREAS, the challenges of rapid population growth and urbanization call for innovative leadership to
ensure resource conservation,protection of open space, waste prevention,sanitation management and a
higher quality of life; and
NOW, THEREFORE, I S. Scott Vandergrift, Mayor of Ocoee, proclaim the week of October 24
through October 31, as
World Population Awareness Week
in Ocoee, and call upon all citizens thereof to reflect upon these challenges and seek rational,
humanitarian, community-based solutions. •
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the City of Ocoee,
Florida to be affixed this 6''day of October, 1998.
S. Scott Vandergrift, Mayor