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It has been argued that urban sprawl is the root of many environmental
problems. Today, I am offering my viewpoint on this issue and reasons to support
my position. What is urban sprawl? Urban sprawl is defined as "the increased use
of urbanized land by fewer people than in the past" (CWAC, n.d.). In the past,
cities were compact and efficient but recently the density of land utilized per
person has seen a major decline in the United States. From 1982-1997, the United
States population had grown by about 17 percent, while the urbanized land had
increased by about 47 percent during the same period in time (CWAC, n.d.).
Developed land per person has just about doubled in the last two decades and the
sizes of housing lots larger than ten acres can account for over half of the
land that was developed since 1994 (CWAC, n.d.). This drastic change in
urbanized areas has been met by both environmental impacts, as well as financial
and time burdens on the people.
Along with the loss of farmland, there is a loss of wildlife habitats that
are disappearing due to urban sprawl. These forests, meadows, and wetlands are
disappearing and being substituted with pavement, buildings, and sterile urban
landscaping. This loss of wildlife habitats make it hard for species to survive
and makes it difficult for them to find suitable breeding ponds, hibernation
sites, feeding locations, and to create practical nesting areas (CWAC, n.d.).
The urban sprawl has been so bad in some places that species of plants are
becoming nearly extinct. For example, the Oak Savannas and the Oak and Pine
Barrens both have been degraded to the point that there is less than 1 percent
of the original species still around (CWAC, n.d.).Urban sprawl has contributed
greatly to air and water pollution as well as increased water and energy
consumption. Since urban sprawl places people outside of walking distance to
shopping areas and work areas, they are forced to rely heavily on cars to get
from point A to point B. This over reliance on vehicles has contributed
significantly to air pollution and greenhouse gases (CWAC, n.d.). Pollution from
vehicles is usually the number one cause of pollution in many urbanized cities,
such as Los Angeles. Another thing to think about would be the recent heat waves
that have been experienced in the past month across the nation. People fail to
realize that urban sprawl and pollution, which is a by-product of urban sprawl,
have contributed significantly to the high temperatures this summer (Petix, M.,
2006). Urban sprawl increases the amount of concrete and asphalt, thus holding
in the heat and making it even warmer than it would have been had sprawl not
occurred. Another part of this would be that the pollution leads to higher
levels of humidity in the air and in turn exaggerates the effects of greenhouse
gases (Petix, M., 2006).
The effect that urban sprawl has had on people in general would be the fact
that taxes are increasingly higher. Urban sprawl can cause increased traffic
making work commutes longer and using more gas and creating more pollution (Tox
Town, n.d.). There are higher costs for services such as refuse pickup and water
supplies. The air quality can diminish and become toxic to people. For example,
in my state of Washington, we periodically experience times where the air
quality is poor and people who are on oxygen or have other health related
problems are advised to not be outside. This is a problem caused by urban
sprawl.
I believe urban sprawl has caused multitudes of environmental problems.
Since people are using more resources than they need, they are undermining the
efforts to create sustainability. Further, the pollution that comes with urban
sprawl is having effects which support the issue of global warming. I believe
something needs to be done to promote smart growth and sustainability. For
instance, using subways and buses or living close enough to work to walk will
help dramatically. If we take a proactive approach to this problem, over time we
may be able to live in an environmentally stable world.
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发表于 2016-7-10 15:25:07