Description
Phoenix, Arizona is at once one of America's fastest growing cities and its least sustainable one. A sprawling megalopolis of more than five million souls, it is parched-the result of minimal rainfall and scorching heat. Yet historically, its population has been hostile to both placing limits on growth and restricting property rights. In Bird on Fire, noted chronicler of contemporary social life Andrew Ross relies on Phoenix's to perform a paradoxical task: explain how we can establish sustainable urban living in this most unsustainable of cities. The vast majority of authors writing on sustainable cities focus on places like Portland, New York, and various west European cities that have excellent public transit systems and high density. Ross does the opposite, and contends that if we can't make fast-growing cities like Phoenix sustainable, then the whole movement is has a major problem. In the course of tracing how it grew and explaining why it is so unsustainable, he considers how it might become sustainable. He contends that if Phoenix is to achieve this goal, it will occur primarily through political and social change--greater civic engagement, democratic inclusion, and socially just policies--rather than through technological fixes. Technological fixes are not unimportant, but for them to work we first must rearrange our social and political arrangements. In sum, Bird on Fire provides a truly fascinating window into one of the pressing social issues of our time--finding pathways to sustainability in an era of increasing energy consumption and sprawl.
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Phoenix, Arizona is one of America's fastest growing metropolitan regions. It is also its least sustainable one, sprawling over a thousand square miles, with a population of four and a half million, minimal rainfall, scorching heat, and an insatiable appetite for unrestrained growth and unrestricted property rights. In Bird on Fire, eminent social and cultural analyst Andrew Ross focuses on the prospects for sustainability in Phoenix--a city in the bull's eye of global warming--and also the obstacles that stand in the way. Most authors writing on sustainable cities look at places like Portland, Seattle, and New York that have excellent public transit systems and relatively high density. But Ross contends that if we can't change the game in fast-growing, low-density cities like Phoenix, the whole movement has a major problem. Drawing on interviews with 200 influential residents--from state legislators, urban planners, developers, and green business advocates to civil rights champions, energy lobbyists, solar entrepreneurs, and community activists--Ross argues that if Phoenix is ever to become sustainable, it will occur more through political and social change than through technological fixes. Ross explains how Arizona's increasingly xenophobic immigration laws, science-denying legislature, and growth-at-all-costs business ethic have perpetuated social injustice and environmental degradation. But he also highlights the positive changes happening in Phoenix, in particular the Gila River Indian Community's successful struggle to win back its water rights, potentially shifting resources away from new housing developments to producing healthy local food for the people of the Phoenix Basin. Ross argues that this victory may serve as a new model for how green democracy can work, redressing the claims of those who have been aggrieved in a way that creates long-term benefits for all. Bird on Fire offers a compelling take on one of the pressing issues of our time--finding pathways to sustainability at a time when governments are dismally failing their responsibility to address climate change.
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