How megacities are changing the map of the world

I want you to reimagine
how life is organized on earth.

Think of the planet like
a human body that we inhabit.

The skeleton is the transportation system
of roads and railways,

bridges and tunnels,
air and seaports

that enable our mobility
across the contient.

The vascular system
that powers the body

with oil and gas pipelines
that distribute energy.

And the nervous system
of communications

is the internet cables,
satellites, cellular networks

and data centers that allow
us to share information.

This ever-expanding infrastructural matrix
of 64 million kilometers of roads,

4 million kilometers of railways,

2 million kilometers of pipelines,

and 1 million kilometers
of internet cables.

What about international borders?

We have less than
500,000 kilometers of borders.

Let's build a better map
of the world.

And we can start by overcoming
some ancient mythology.

There's a saying with which
all students of history are familiar:

"Geography is destiny."

Sounds so grave, doesn't it?

It's such a fatalistic adage.

It tells us that landlocked countries
are condemned to be poor,

that small countries cannot escape
their larger neighbors,

that vast distances are insurmountable.

But every journey I take
around the world,

I see an even greater force
sweeping the planet:

connectivity.

The global connectivity revolution,
in all of its forms --

transportation, energy
and communications--

has enabled such a quantum leap
in the mobility of people,

of goods, of resources,
of knowledge,

such that we can no longer think
of geography as distinct from it.

In fact, I view the two forces
as fusing together

into what I call connectography.

Connectography represents
a quantum leap

in the mobility of people, resources
and ideas,

but it is an evolution,

an evolution of the world from
political geography,

which is how we legally divide
the world,

to functional geography,

which is how we actually
use the world,

from nations and borders,
to infrastructure and supply chains.

Our global system is evolving

from the vertically integrated
empires of the 19th century,

through the horizontally,
interdependent nations

of the 20th century,

into a global network civilization
in the 21st century.

Connectivity, not sovereignty,
has become

the organizing principle
of the human species.

(Applause)

We are becoming this global network
civilization

because we are literally building it.

All of the world's defense budgets
and military spending

taken together total just under
2 trillion dollars per year.

Meanwhile, our global infrastructure
spending is projected to rise

to 9 trillion dollars per year
within the coming decade.

And, well, it should.

We have been living off
an infrastructure stock

meant for a world population
of 3 billion,

as our population has crossed
7 billion to 8 billion

and eventually 9 billion and more.

As a rule of thumb, we should spend
about 1 trillion dollars

on the basic infrastructure needs
of every billion people in the world.

Not surprisingly, Asia is in the lead.

In 2015, China announced the creation

of the Asia Infrastructure
and Investment Bank,

which together with a network
of other organizations,

aims to construct a network
of iron and silk roads,

stretching from Shanghai to Lisbon.

And as all of this topographical
engineering unfolds,

we will likely spend more
on infrastrucutre

in the nest 40 years,

we will build more infrastructure
in the next 40 years,

than we have in the last 4,000 years.

Now let's stop and think about it
for a little minute.

Spending so much more

on building the foundations
of global society

rather than on the tools
to destroy it

can have profound consequences.

Connectivity is how we optimize
the distribution

of people and resources
around the world.

It is how mankind comes to be more
than just the sum of its parts.

I believe that is what is happening.

Connectivity has a twin megatrend
in the the 21st century:

planetary urbanization.

Cities are the infrastructures
that most define us.

By 2030, more than two thirds
of the world's population

will live in cities.

And these are not mere dots
on the map,

but they are vast archepelagos
stretching hundreds of kilomters.

Here we are in Vancouver,

at the head of the Cascadia Corridor

that stretches south across the US border
to Seattle.

The technology powerhouse
of SIlicon Valley

begins north of San Francisco
down to San Jose

and across the bay to Oakland.

The sprawl of Los Angeles
now passes San Diego

across the Mexican border
to Tijuana.

San Diego and Tijuana
now share an airport terminal

where you can exit into either country.

Eventually, a high-speed rail network
may connect the entire Pacific spine.

America's northeastern megalopolis
begins in Boston through New York

and Philadelphia to Washingotn.

It contains more than 50 million people

and also has plans for a high-speed
rail network.

But Asia is where we really see
the magacities coming together.

This continous strip of light
from Tokyo through Negoya

to Osaka contains
more than 80 million people,

and most of Japan's economy.

It is the world's largest megacity.

For now.

But in China, megacity clusters
are coming together

with populations reaching
100 million people.

The Yangtze River Delta
around Shanghai

and the Pearl River Delta,

stretching from Hong Kong
to ?

And in the middle,

the ? mgacity,

whose geographic footprint
is almost the same size

as the country of Austria.

And any number of these
megacity clusters

has a GDP approaching
2 trillion dollars,

that's almost the same
of all of India today.

So imagine if our global diplomatic
institutions like the G20

were to base their membership
of economic size

rather than national representation.

Some Chinese megacities may be in
and have a seat at the table,

while entire countries,
like Argentina and Indonesia may be out.

Moving to India, whose population
will soon exceed that of China,

it too has a number of megacity clusters,

such as the Delhi capital region
and Mumbai.

In the Middle East, greater Tehran
is absorbing

one third of Iran's population.

Most of Egypt's 30 million people

live in the corridor between
Cairo and Alexandria.

And in the gulf, a necklace
of citystates if forming,

from Bahrain to Qatar,

through the United Arab Emirates
through Muscat in Oman.

And then there's Lagos,

Africa's largest city
and Nigeria's commerical hub.

It has plans for a rail network
that will make it the anchor

of a vast Atlantic coastal corridor,

stretching across Benin,
Togo and Ghana,

to Abidjan, the capital
of the Ivory Coast.

But these countries
are suburbs of Lagos.

In the megacity world,

countries can be suburbs of cities.

By 2030, we will have as many
as 50 such megacity clusters

in the world.

So which map tells you more?

Our traditional map of 200 discret nations
that hang on most of our wallls,

or this map of the 50 megacity clusters?

And yet, even this is incomplete

because you cannot understand
any individual megacity

without understanding its connections
to the others.

People move to cities to be connected,

and connectivity is
why these cities thrive.

Any number of them such as Sao Paolo
or Istanbul or Moscow

has a GDP approaching or exceeding
one third of one half

of their entire national GDP.

But equally importantly,

you cannot calculate any of their
individual value

without understanding the role
of the flows of people,

of finance, of technology

that enable them to thrive.

Take the Gauteng province
of South Africa,

which contains Johannesburg
and the capital Pretoria.

It too represents just over
a third of South Africa's GDP.

Equally importantly, it is home
to the offices

of almost every single multinational
corporation

that invests directly into South Africa

and indeed, into the entire
African continent.