Smuggy suburbs

By the year 2050, the world’s population is expected to top 9 billion.\n“So what’s another few billion folks?” you might ask. Well, that’s quite a lot of people to compete for the finite number of resources the earth has to offer - especially land. In the years to come, we will be living in closer quarters, and our vast rural expanses of land will have to be developed to accommodate the extra growth. We may find ourselves in a world of cities.\nNew York. Pittsburgh. Gary. All of these cities have bad raps for being crowded and polluted. However, in spite of their drawbacks, suburbanites and small-town dwellers have a lot to learn from the world’s large cities. Because of their highly concentrated populations, cities have felt the effects of pollution and climate change more acutely than other areas. But even though cities are responsible for three-quarters of the world’s energy consumption, they have also made the biggest advances in efficient and clean energy technology. \nTake New York City, for example. City leaders, taking into account the massive amount of fuel wasted and emissions generated by its infamous taxicabs idling in traffic, have decided that their fleet will “go green.” Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced that by 2012, the city’s entire fleet of 13,000 cabs will be converted to gas-electric hybrids, promising major long-term fiscal, environmental and health benefits for New York residents. \nNot only are cities taking individual action in addressing environmental concerns, they are also exercising their political influence in collectively pushing for global policy changes. In May, leaders from many of the world’s largest cities, from Dehli to Berlin to Indianapolis, convened in New York for the second annual C40 Large Cities Climate Summit. Despite the broad range of cultures represented among the delegations, all of them face the same problems: overcrowding, water shortages and transit difficulties. \nAfter a weekend of workshops and discussions, participants sent a joint communique to the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, urging G-8 leaders to “commit to a long-term goal for the stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.”\nNot bad for a bunch of smelly, overcrowded urban sinkholes, huh? \nAs smug as we get in suburbia and small-town America, dismissing cities as the armpits of our country, maybe we shouldn’t be writing them off quite so readily. As the developing world takes on a more urban character in the coming years and as suburbs fill up with city residents pushing outward, we may all find ourselves in much the same situation as cities. \nThe bottom line? Even the smuggest municipalities who think they have their local growth under control need to face reality and start taking action in the way cities have been doing. It is time to focus on improving public transportation rather than on building entirely new roads and to consider constructing mixed-use housing to prevent urban sprawl. Although areas like Bloomington may never quite match up with London or Chicago, change is coming at us fast, and we cannot afford to be complacent.