History
Increasing development has become more prevalent over the past 70 years; since World War II, wealthy nations such as the United States and Britain have been rapidly industrializing and urbanizing. The first city truly plagued by the urban sprawl was London in the 20th century. Poorer citizens poured into the compact center of the study, and richer aristocrats expanded outwards, as they had no problem finding modes of transportation. The term urban sprawl was coined in 1955, used to describe London's expansion and separation of classes. Cities in the United States followed in London's foot steps, and soon, urbanization became a booming trend in the latter half of the 20th century. As a result, the real estate business was making a remarkable amount of money, causing them to encourage more development. The "American Dream" became to own a perfect suburban home with a green lawn and a picket fence, surrounded by a sprawling neighborhood of homes exactly like. Everyone wanted one, so everyone was buying one. We all know how supply and demand works; these suburban neighborhoods were being constructed constantly.
The world was becoming obsessed with development. They wanted more, bigger, faster. Between 1970 and 1990, nearly 9 million acres were developed to expand 100 heavily populated cities, including Los Angeles and New York. With this obsession with development came the destruction of natural land, and deforestation. Deforestation had been occurring steadily since the mid 1800s, but it took off around 1950. It is theorized that about 20% of worldwide rain forests were destroyed between 1960 and 1990. In the past two decades, it's become even worse.