Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
wall in terms of finding alternative fuels to power their automobiles and airplanes.
The United States must also diversify their energy sources for production of electric
power, another area that has recently shown its vulnerability and decay of its
infrastructure (i.e. Northeast Blackout on August 15, 2003).
Overuse of natural resources by US cities is also related to urban sprawl (see
Chapters 7 and 8) which increases energy consumption (lighting, heating and air
conditioning), boosts infrastructure and transportation requirements and reduces
environmentally productive lands. Urbanization has often overwhelmed fragile
ecosystems, especially in coastal areas (see Chapter 9). Experts have warned the
authorities of the risks incurred by rampant urbanization. Generally, these warnings
have been ignored, officially to protect individual rights and freedoms, and in
practice, for the mutual enrichment of developers and landowners. Public awareness
has not been raised regarding environmental problems except when the relationship
between the city and the city's natural habitat reached crisis proportions, either
through worsening floods, depletion of water resources and aggravated air, water
and soil pollution. Environmental issues first entered the public consciousness as
local issues, but it was only in the 1970s that the environmental debate became a
national concern. Natural resource conservation and planning have been undertaken
haphazardly and were very quickly opposed by industrial and real-estate lobbyists,
and by voters more concerned with low taxes and access to affordable housing than
the protection of biodiversity and fragile ecosystems. For now, it is clear that
progress in preserving the environment has been limited and all too frequently swept
away for the sake of economic growth, not out of necessity, but out of a long
entrenched habit of picking free meals from the environment, and the culturally
inherited preference for regulating social relations by distancing oneself from
unwanted neighbors.
Environmental concern in the American public opinion is now evident. It is
fuelled in particular by road congestion and air pollution in the nation's cities, to the
point where urban and environmental issues have become issues in the presidential
campaign. The Democratic candidate elected in November 2008, Barack Obama has
committed his administration to the environment more clearly than all other
candidates in both major parties. We are undoubtedly on the edge of a major shift in
United States environmental policy, a change which may yet see an end to the neo-
liberal environmental policies of Ronald Reagan and his successors (1980-2008) and
the Federal Government's refusal to intervene in local environmental issues.
The transition to policy framework conducive to building more compact cities
and promoting public transportation networks will nonetheless be very difficult
despite the wide publicity and critical acclaim for the recommendations of New
