Suburban Living vs. the Environment - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), April, 2000

Even though the political climate suggests it is a popular time to complain about suburban sprawl, the suburban lifestyle is what most Americans want--because it suits their values, maintains John Warfield Simpson, associate professor of landscape architecture and natural resources, Ohio State University, Columbus, and the author of Visions of Paradise: Glimpses of Our Landscape's Legacy. "It's culturally chic to slam suburbs right now, and people have been slamming suburbs since the 1950s. But it's still the preferred lifestyle. We want homeownership, private property, our own little corner of the world," he says.

Yet, despite the current popularity of suburban living, Simpson believes Americans eventually will find the lifestyle too isolating. "An interesting question to me is whether suburbs on the outer rings of cities now will have the same desirable characteristics as the ones built 50 years ago. I don't think so. I think they're too low-density, provide too few opportunities for social contact, and the economics of suburbanization will undermine their affordability. Gas isn't going to stay cheaper than water forever."

Simpson argues that Americans would take better care of the land if they sought a deeper understanding of the landscape and developed a stronger connection to the earth. He says Americans have developed a sense of separation from and superiority over what they perceive as a limitless land supply of abundant resources, and that such a perception has blinded people to the environmental consequences of their actions.

Simpson asserts that mans' connection to the landscape--or lack thereof--is a factor in contemporary environmental issues. "Many people in the environmental movement are misdirected, in the best-intentioned way. I think the long-term key or better focus would be on changing or affecting public understanding of the landscape and its environment in the broadest sense rather than getting hung up on law.

"In many ways, we are an environmentally and socially schizophrenic society. We pass laws to protect species at the same time we tolerate, if not promote, landscape behavior that puts more species in jeopardy. We're a whole society based on fixing rather than preventing."

Despite Americans' historic connection to low-density living and its consumptive nature, Simpson is optimistic that the nation's collective lifestyle can change over time. Ideally, he feels, Americans should behave as residents who enjoy a deep connection to the land, rather than as its temporary occupants.