With the increasing number of cities being developed, there comes a price. Trees, farmland, and forests are destroyed and removed in order to help create more space for city development. The population will then spread throughout, lowering the population density. As a result, Suburban Sprawl, also known as urban sprawl, creates a hazard to our environment that is often overlooked.
The vast impacts of urban sprawl effect much more than just farmers. Environmental pollution and animal habitat destruction also results from the removal of our “green space”. With the increased city area size, the use of automobiles increase dramatically in order to reach destinations. As many of us know, car use emits toxic gasses that damage our atmosphere and our ecosystem. Surprisingly, with the increase of automobile use, the option of walking/biking diminishes. Many health concerns then follow, as people get minimal exercise by relying on technology, however, this is a completely separate issue.
Urban sprawl is not always necessary. Much destruction done to our forests and farmland are done only for the convenience of a specific group of people. We ignore the people or animals that depend on the use of green space. Farmlands prove extremely beneficial to our community by producing timber, grown foods, and other resources that require specific conditions. These are replaced by highways, homes, and other structures that damage our environment.
Not only are living conditions impacted, but the wealth of governments is damaged by urban sprawl. Taxes result from the urbanization as local governments and its residents are forced to pay for the wide spread of services. I strongly feel as though we need to begin thinking of solutions, before urban sprawl begins to get out of hand. With the popular topic of global warming covering all environmental issue sites, we often forget that there are SEVERAL issues that are effecting our environment. If more people were educated in the smaller topics such as urban sprawl, we could create a bigger change than ever imagined.
The urban sprawl issue may not be able to be solved completely, but progress can be made to help it. Moderation of urban sprawl in order to preserve much of our forests and farmlands is possible. We must not get carried away with spreading our cities, resulting in a problematic environment for animals and people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_sprawlhttp://www.cwac.net/landuse/index.html
March 7, 2008 at 5:47 am
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
March 8, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Hello! I came across this post on your blog as the result of a Google Blog Alert for the key-word “population density.” This is obviously something you care very deeply about.
I am the author of a self-published book titled Five Short Blasts: A New Economic Theory Exposes The Fatal Flaw in Globalization and Its Consequences for America. I think you may find my book to be very interesting because population density lies at the heart of this new economic theory. To make a long story short, as population density rises beyond some optimum level, per capita consumption of products begins to decline out of the need to conserve space. People who live in crowded conditions simply don’t have enough space to use and store many products. This declining per capita consumption, in the face of rising productivity, inevitably yields rising unemployment and poverty.
For most people who see never-ending population growth as a problem, their concerns are rooted in a concern for the environment. Economists, on the other hand, shrug off such concerns and assert that man is ingenious enough to overcome any obstacles to population growth. Resources can be used more efficiently and recycled, pollution can be abated, and so on. Making matters worse, they can’t envision how an economy can remain healthy without further population growth. So our government and business leaders hold fast to their “pro growth” approach.
This book, however, finally offers the “ultimate weapon” for environmentalists and anyone concerned about population growth – a solid economic argument for a reduced population. It explains how everyone’s wallet is directly impacted by growth which has become cancerous, driving up unemployment and eroding their finances and quality of life. It’s written in plain language, not economic gibberish, and is aimed at average Americans.
As a self-published author, I am waging an on-line guerilla marketing campaign to anyone who seems inclined to be receptive to this new theory. If you’re interested in learning more you can visit my web site at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com. There you can read the preface for free. The book is also available at Amazon.com.
Thanks for attention and forgive me for the “spammish” nature of this reply to your post. Keep up your efforts to raise concern about our growing population problem.
Pete Murphy
Author, Five Short Blasts
March 14, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Urban sprawl is definitely becoming a big issue. Of course, so is population. As more and more people come into the world, we have to create more space for them. It is really too bad that we destroy the environment when we create this space though. It isn’t realistic to hope for this to stop anytime soon, but I hope we can find some kind of housing alternative. As a bumper sticker that I recently saw so wisely says: “Urban Sprawl: Cut down trees and name streets after them.”
March 24, 2008 at 3:02 am
well done, dude