Cover image for The environmental advantages of cities : countering commonsense antiurbanism
Title:
The environmental advantages of cities : countering commonsense antiurbanism
Personal Author:
Series:
Urban and industrial environments
Publication Information:
Cambridge, Mass. ; London : MIT Press, c2013
Physical Description:
ix, 234 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9780262518468

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30000010345045 HT241 M49 2013 Open Access Book Book
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Summary

Summary

An analysis that offers evidence to challenge the widely held assumption that urbanization and environmental quality are necessarily at odds.

Conventional wisdom about the environmental impact of cities holds that urbanization and environmental quality are necessarily at odds. Cities are seen to be sites of ecological disruption, consuming a disproportionate share of natural resources, producing high levels of pollution, and concentrating harmful emissions precisely where the population is most concentrated. Cities appear to be particularly vulnerable to natural disasters, to be inherently at risk from outbreaks of infectious diseases, and even to offer dysfunctional and unnatural settings for human life. In this book, William Meyer tests these widely held beliefs against the evidence.

Borrowing some useful terminology from the public health literature, Meyer weighs instances of "urban penalty" against those of "urban advantage." He finds that many supposed urban environmental penalties are illusory, based on commonsense preconceptions and not on solid evidence. In fact, greater degrees of "urbanness" often offer advantages rather than penalties. The characteristic compactness of cities, for example, lessens the pressure on ecological systems and enables resource consumption to be more efficient. On the whole, Meyer reports, cities offer greater safety from environmental hazards (geophysical, technological, and biological) than more dispersed settlement does. In fact, the city-defining characteristics widely supposed to result in environmental penalties do much to account for cities' environmental advantages.

As of 2008 (according to U.N. statistics), more people live in cities than in rural areas. Meyer's analysis clarifies the effects of such a profound shift, covering a full range of environmental issues in urban settings.


Author Notes

William B. Meyer is Associate Professor of Geography at Colgate University. He is the author of Americans and Their Weather: A History and Human Impact on the Earth.


Reviews 1

Choice Review

Many people see cities as being less environmentally friendly than rural locations. Geographer Meyer (Colgate Univ.) forcefully argues that urban areas produce fewer pollutants and use less energy per capita; are physically safer in terms of natural and manmade hazards; have a higher quality of life both economically and socially; and are healthier because of better sanitation, efficient control of disease vectors, and access to health care. He deals with the difficult question of defining the differences between urban and rural areas by applying relative comparisons of population densities. The author backs his premises by emphasizing--or, conversely, countering--studies from a variety of sources, making his point so well that at times it is a bit overdone. Sometimes, too, Meyer transitions abruptly between examples from the developed and developing worlds, which can be hard to follow. Several of his observations are excellent, such as the prevalence of indoor smoke pollution in rural areas of the developing world, and the higher per capita deaths caused by natural hazards in rural areas, notwithstanding the headline disasters that hit big cities. In the end, Meyer has a straightforward hypothesis that he supports with ample evidence. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. S. M. Otterstrom Brigham Young University


Table of Contents

Prefacep. vii
1 Introductionp. 1
2 Ecological Disruptionp. 23
3 Resource Consumptionp. 37
4 Pollutionp. 57
5 Natural Hazardsp. 75
6 Technological Hazardsp. 93
7 Infectious Diseasep. 107
8 Human Habitatp. 125
9 Conclusionp. 145
Appendix A (coauthored by Santiago Reyes Contreras)p. 149
Notesp. 151
Bibliographyp. 191
Indexp. 223