The Smart Growth & Untimely Death of Civilizations
by Tony Chavira
The Environmental Protection Agency fired off a report that The New York Times reports on called "Residential Construction Trends in America's Metropolitan Regions." All formalities aside, it essentially says that development in cities and dense urban spaces is starting to outpace development of suburbs and rural areas, which is a great sign for people who are fans of walkability, affordability and smart, urban city livin'! Here's a little excerpt so you don't feel so "in the dark" about this stuff:
"This acceleration of residential construction in urban neighborhoods reflects a fundamental shift in the real estate market," the report concludes. "The market fundamentals are shifting toward redevelopment even in the absence of formal policies and programs at the regional level."
Environmentalists have long embraced the idea of urban redevelopment, which conserves untouched land while reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. So, too, have they supported the dense, transit-oriented housing typically built in urban centers.
Those ideas have found support from the Obama administration's Partnership for Sustainable Communities, run jointly by EPA, the Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This year's budget includes $100 million for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program, which offers funding for the development of state, regional and municipal policies on sustainable development.
In some ways it's kinda sad how long we've known that developing smart density would help to increase affordability and improve the living quality of city spaces and nothing had been done about it. I guess sometimes you need an economic collapse to re-prioritize your development agenda. Given the opportunity, most people would choose to live in a dense, thriving city versus the middle of no where or someplace way too far away from their jobs, and it's nice to see an actual track record for development in cities that heed this advice and information before it's too late.
Speaking of "too late," LiveScience has an amazing article that discusses the downfall of the ancient Khmer civilization in Angkor, Cambodia, roughly 600 years ago. The findings are shocking in a lot of ways because many of the problems they had to deal with at the advent of their civilization's collapse we're dealing with now (and in a lot of ways ignoring). They may have managed their dire situations differently and had much less in terms of resources to tap into, but their biggest problem is something we're about to start dealing with ourselves on a frightening scale:
[...] the new study offers strong evidence that two severe droughts, punctuated by bouts of heavy monsoon rain, could have weakened the empire by shrinking water supplies for drinking and agriculture, and damaging Angkor's vast irrigation system, which was central to its economy. [...]
"Angkor at that time faced a number of problems — social, political and cultural. Environmental change pushed the ancient Khmers to the limit and they weren't able to adapt," said study author Brendan Buckley, a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. "I wouldn't say climate caused the collapse, but a 30-year drought had to have had an impact."
All the smart growth in the world can't save us from a radical shift in the environment, but at the same time the Obama Administration developed the Partnership for Sustainable Communities to deliberately link the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Transportation Department. Smart urban density is a great way to negate CO2 emissions as well as curb our overall energy demand, and I'm glad sustainable growth finally made it onto the federal agenda.
But imagine for a second: a 30-year drought in California could leave us in total shambles, struggling desperately to find way to manage whatever reserves we'd have left. Worse, a 30-year drought in America would kill off our agricultural heritage and force us to barter for water from anywhere we could. Desalination technology would be more valuable than gold and the agenda to conserve would be at the top of everyone's lists. But that fate hasn't fallen upon us. Yet. Let's keep our heads down and push forward against the odds. We'll make it back into the land of plenty soon enough... we just need to be smart about it, that's all.
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