Fascinating Video on Sprawl

Image source: American Museum of Natural History

This brief video shows how the Phoenix area spread from 1912 to 2004. It uses a combination of map and satellite images to show vividly what most of us have trouble picturing from descriptions or even in-person observation.

The accompanying text makes the point that, due to water issues, Phoenix is one area where the population has actually grown faster than the physical spread of the city. Nevertheless, sprawl is sprawl, and Phoenix is a poster child for the term.

As the video starts, note that the pink areas are urban and the green are agricultural. It’s amazing to see how urban development has obliterated so much of the area’s agriculture.

Though it’s less clear on the video, having grown up there and been back for visits, the loss of desert land has been equally dramatic. A couple of years ago, when I took a drive north from Scottsdale, I was shocked that what used to be a huge expanse of desert wilderness for nearly 20 miles between Scottsdale and the village of Carefree, is now almost completely “developed” with Porsche dealerships, restaurants, and subdivisions.

I hope that, after seeing the video, anyone who’s resigned to Mount Vernon and Lisbon eventually being swallowed up by the sprawl of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City will think twice about what we might do to prevent that. Just a thought.

Residents Bring Key Points to the Public Dialogue

Just a quick tip of the hat to Stan Crocker and Kevin Woods for their letters to the editor in the current Sun. Stan addresses issues of growth and development in MV, making the point that we citizens do not have to be helpless victims of unchecked, purely market-driven growth which would turn the whole area from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City into one large tract of sprawl. Through our elected representatives we have the power to determine our towns’ futures. That point often goes underappreciated as people resign themselves to the supposed “inevitability” of growth. It’s not inevitable; it’s up to us.

Kevin, justifiably famous for his valued participation on the Small Town Project ;), writes about the connection between peak oil and our military action in the Middle East. Our lifestyle, our whole society, depends on oil, and the depletion of cheap oil heightens our efforts to preserve the flow from the Middle East. It’s hardly surprising, Kevin points out, that one result is war. Of particular interest for our purposes here is Kevin’s observation that we tend to fail to make the connection between oil and war as we continue our massively oil dependent pursuits, including our ongoing suburban expansion.

Hats off to to Stan and Kevin for bringing these key points to the public dialogue!

We Are Not Alone

Some of you who read this site may have wondered if its no-growth message is unique. Are there others calling for an end to or a severe limit on residential growth in their local area? Are they doing it for the same reasons we discuss here? The answer to both questions is “Yes!” Groups and individuals in other areas have come to recognize that growth is unsustainable as a long term goal, that it costs an area its character and quality of life while destroying the environment, and that the solution involves finding and maintaining an appropriate population size and pursuing sustainable forms of development rather than physical expansion.

There are a few who share all of our key positions. Many others are at least sympathetic to our chief concerns, though they have not taken the step of embracing a no-growth stance. Those in the latter group usually promote some form of “smart growth.” We’ll be addressing the differences between the no-growth and smart growth approaches very soon. For now I’ll just mention that while smart growth is a necessary short term tool, there is little question we need to take the next step to “no-growth.” Not only is it the the approach that best addresses environmental and community preservation concerns, but forces are converging to make it a necessity if we are to provide for future generations. No-growth is the future of community growth management.

Economic Growth and Population Growth: Unrelated

There has long been a tendency in the U.S. to link economic growth with population growth. Many in the growth industry even argue that you need population growth in order to have economic health. We’ve already looked at aspects of this in some of our previous articles showing various growth industry assertions to be myths. We’ve detailed the nature of some of the data, for example, which refute the claim that residential growth brings in needed tax revenues. Now we turn to the more general linkage between population growth and economic growth.

Quick Note on the Week Ahead

During this Thanksgiving week, the Small Town Project will slow down, but only a bit. Comments from new participants may take a little longer to appear as I won’t be monitoring the site quite as frequently as usual. But you can still expect new content. Watch for posts on another group/site which shares our philosopy, an essay centering on a notable study which pokes another hole in the myth that a community must grow to thrive economically, and an essay taking a look at how our local efforts fit into the national and global picture.

To those in the U.S., happy Thanksgiving! To everyone else, have a great week!

Ads Hint at Peak Oil

I was browsing through the New Yorker this evening and noticed two ads which I suspect would not be there if it weren’t for impending peak oil. The first is from Chevron (p. 9), urging us to conserve energy. It includes this note of concern:

Because of surging economies in the developing world and continued growth among the industrialized nations, global energy use is soaring. As a result, supplies are tight. Prices are rising. And energy users are calling for viable alternatives.

Methinks Chevron is worried. I wonder how long it will be before we see “peak oil” or a similar term show up in an oil company ad.

Three pages later is a Ford ad touting their planned production of 250,000 hybrids a year by 2010 – something one would think they and other companies wouldn’t bother with if they didn’t need to do something to save oil, and fast.

Don’t get me wrong. I support these steps toward energy conservation. But we need to look, as well, at some hard questions, not the least of which is why on earth we would build suburbs with peak oil looming. That is one mammoth misstep in any community’s planning in 2005, and is a step we need to rethink before we regret it.

Finally the Growth Industry Weighs In – Sort of

In this week’s issue of the Sun, Jerry Niederhauser, a local realtor, takes issue with my letter to the editor from last week as well as some comments he found here. I’ll address Jerry directly.

First Jerry, I can hardly blame you for being pro-residential-growth. You make your living selling real estate, so you probably assume you’ll profit most from as much growth as possible. You may even see me as trying to undermine your livelihood. I can understand how it might look that way. Yet I believe if you investigate the issues in depth you’ll see that my suggestions, if implemented, might actually serve to protect and enhance your livelihood. Consider, for instance, that population growth will mean more realtors moving here, so while the number of properties to sell goes up, so does the competition. It could become harder to do well.

Peak Oil – Part II: Our Social Responsibility

4/12/06 – Note: Since writing the following essay, I’ve read additional credible sources which dismiss “peak oil” as a flawed notion. Some experts believe we will not encounter serious problems with regard to oil supplies before the end of this century or even later. Ironically, that may make oil even more of a problem. As Jeffery Sachs’s pointed out in a recent address to the fourth biennial State of the Planet conference at Columbia University, continued ready availability of oil only gives us more opportunity to damage the earth’s ecological systems through fossil fuel consumption. As Sachs put it, “We’re going to be using lots of fossil fuels and putting an enormous amount of carbon in the atmosphere with all of the consequences of anthropogenic climate change, so we have to find a way to de-carbonize our energy.”

That said, I believe this two part essay still gives an adequately balanced overview of the peak oil discusssion. If I feel otherwise in the future I’ll post revisions or a new essay.

———–

She could see the valley barbecues
From her window sill
See the blue pools in the squinting sun
Hear the hissing of summer lawns — Joni Mitchell

It’s suicidal to build suburban subdivisions with peak oil looming. Image source: amazon.com/Richard Heinberg

In Part I of this essay, we reviewed the range of opinion on peak oil. In the long term, the end of easy and cheap oil, will be a huge issue. Fossil fuels are finite in supply, and peak oil, no matter its form or intensity, will necessitate worldwide fundamental changes in energy production and usage. That much is beyond debate.

We boiled the peak oil debate down to a couple of safe assumptions: Peak oil will have at least moderate economic consequences, and at least a moderate impact on our lifestyles. So while its historic impact will be tremendous, we can hope to luck out and see our lives as individual citizens affected only modestly. For our purposes on the Small Town Project, we needn’t go beyond this “moderate” assumption.

Random Notes on the Comprehensive Plan Panel Discussion

For those looking in from other areas, the local League of Women Voters hosted a panel discussion this evening on Mt. Vernon’s comprehensive plan. It was the first of two discussions, this one intended to be factual and informational, while one coming in February is planned as a debate. In both, audience members submit questions in writing. The context is that there has been much controversy in recent months concerning apparent violations of the comprehensive plan on the part of recent residential development.

WalMart Movie a Smashing Success!

Wow. I want to post this tonight to thank everyone who attended the The WalMart movie tonight. It brought in way more people than expected! That was great, but we found we’d printed up about 15 tickets too many, and ended up overselling the 100 seat theater! Fortunately those extra people sat or stood in the isles, making the best of our little mistake with no complaints. I sincerely apologize for the error, and will try do something to make up for it with the next film we bring to town.