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which cities are involved in the transformation of
the environment at a range of different scales. In
the
second section
we consider the debates that
surround the nature of urban-environment
relations, and, in particular, the extent to which
cities are positive or harmful influences on the
ecological systems upon which humans depend.
of Cronon's argument is that while conventional
accounts of the western frontier tend to portray
American history as the story of the taming
of nature along a gradually progressing line of
civilization, this history is actually better des-
cribed as a process of urbanization. For Cronon,
the city that lay at the centre of this process was
Chicago. Chicago's location meant that it was
ideally placed to exploit the environmental re-
sources that were to be found in the heartland
of the North American continent. The American
Midwest is home to highly productive woodlands,
fertile prairies and lush rangeland pasture.
Furthermore, Chicago is located on Lake Michigan
(part of the interconnected Great Lakes water
system), which meant that it was in an advan-
tageous position when it came to the logistics of
transporting and trading goods.
For Cronon, the history of urbanization in
Chicago is inextricably linked to the ways that
6.4.1 Cities and environmental
transformations
In his account of the environmental history of
Chicago,
Nature's Metropolis
, Cronon (1991)
provides a detailed analysis of the ways in which
urban development (at least within older industrial
cities) is based upon the expanded exploitation
and transformation of nature. Chicago is located
in the American Midwest, a midway point between
the old colonies of the eastern seaboard and the
western frontier (see
Figure 6.2)
. A central part
