Phoenix, AZ: The Least Sustainable City In The World
Population Explosion
The city of Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States and one of the fastest growing- at a rate of about 200 people a day. Phoenix was established as a small farming community in 1881 and by 1950 had a population of about 150,000 people. Today, the population of the Phoenix metropolis is about 5 million. Factors contributing to this population explosion include:
- technological advancements allowing for the diversion of water to the region
- World War II and the transition to an industrial economy
- various military bases in the area
- growing availability of affordable in-home air conditioning
- favorable weather for retirees
- the emergence of Phoenix as a sunbelt city- the sunbelt arose in America in conjunction with the decline of the rustbelt, a time when southern cities saw major development, investment, and population growth thanks to favorable climate and previously mentioned factors.
- The dawn of the computer age helped Phoenix to benefit from the process of creative destruction, whereby disinvestment occurs from areas built on older economic systems like production, allowing for new innovations in industries like aerospace and technology and information systems.
The Least Sustainable City
In 2011, Phoenix earned the title of 'the least sustainable city in the world,' thanks to author and sociologist Andrew Ross's book, Bird on Fire; since that time, many have agreed with this take. Sustainability is the concept and practice of utilizing resources and treating the environment in such a way that future generations of human and nonhuman species will be able to live safely and securely, with ample resources for their own use.
For this analysis, I have identified three major reasons for the city's unsustainable nature.
- Automobile use
- Resource use/population density
- Water use
Automobile Use
When Phoenix started to see serious population growth after WWII, the city, along with many other cities built around that time, was built for car travel; non-automobile transit was largely an afterthought.
Beyond this, the concept of urban sprawl can be used to understand why the city is laid out in such an expansive and inefficient way. When populations and development explode in the way that the Phoenix area did, there isn't enough planning and time that goes into making a coherent and easily travelled physical landscape. Additionally, many people in the area want to live away from the densely populated inner city, causing more and more sprawl.
Only about one percent of the city's population uses the light rail system, which was established in 2005. Many oppose expansion of the light rail for reasons varying from the feeling that it is a waste of tax dollars, to not wanting construction to disrupt traffic flow for small businesses. Recently, many have felt that street repairs are a better use of tax dollars, while officials are still trying to push for a more widespread rail transit system.
Today, between 70 and 100 percent of people in Phoenix and the surrounding cities drive to work, depending on zip code. In the city of Phoenix itself, the figure is 88%. The city ranks among one of the worst places in the country for ozone pollution.
Walkscore.com has labelled Phoenix a "car dependent city."
- Walk score: 41
- Transit score: 36
- Bike score: 56
Resource Use & Population Density
Phoenix and the surrounding area supports a very large population, over five million people within an area of 517 square miles. Supporting a population of this size in the middle of the desert requires an excess of energy and resources.
Air conditioning comprises one of the city's largest energy demands. Temperatures in Phoenix exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit more than 100 days out of the year. Being in a desert, the location is already a hot one, but the heat island effect created by the built environment of the city absorbs heat and causes higher temperatures than an open space environment in the same space would experience.
Transformers and generating stations are much less efficient at such high temperatures, creating even more energy demand.
In a place that receives more than 300 days of sunshine per year, only 2 to 5 percent of energy is derived from solar power.
With more and more people wanting to "get away from the city," expanses of subdivisions are never ending, and these environments require vast amounts of resources and energy to build and maintain. Strip malls, shopping malls, grocery stores, gas stations, and more must be built to accommodate the spreading population as well.
Water
Human use and a fairly expansive agricultural industry comprise most of the water consumption in the region.
Phoenix does not have its own substantial water supply and the area receives less than 8 inches of rainfall per year. Humans have engineered around this hindrance in several major ways.
The Phoenix area gets its water mostly from Lake Mead, which is fed by the Colorado River. This water must be pumped uphill to Phoenix, a highly energy intensive practice powered by the coal-fired, heavily pollutant Navajo Generating Station north of the city.
In 2018, snowfall in the Rocky Mountains, the source of the Colorado's flow, was 70% below average. The Colorado does not even reach the ocean anymore, and Lake Mead is drying up, but water demand in the West is not slowing. Lake Mead is a major water source for California, Arizona, and Nevada, and experiences severe pressure due to this; the reservoir is currently hovering just above official shortage levels, and is expected to reach official shortage status by the end of this year.
Another major source of water for the Phoenix area is groundwater reserves, which have been severely exploited over the years- the water table has lowered by four hundred feet and this is physically changing the landscape. There are many areas where the land has literally sunken in due to such over-extraction.
Phoenix reuses much of its waste water, but the majority of this is used to cool the Palo Verde Generating Station outside the city, the largest nuclear power plant in the country and the only one not located near a large body of water.
The Future
Phoenix is the fastest warming city in the country. Researchers suggest that the area will experience 5+ year droughts every decade at least until the year 2050, and the reality of climate change suggests that things are only going to worsen from that point on. Yet, developers do not slow down or change course, hundreds of people still move to the region daily, and city officials do not even have an official drought contingency plan established or water use restrictions in place.
This problem can only be engineered so much, and wealth disparities play the largest role in who will be able to insulate themselves from this crisis and those who will not.
The future of the Phoenix and other cities in the West which also thrive on excessive resource use and support unsustainably large populations depends on their ability to slow down, think small, think local, and seriously revise and restrict resource use practices.
Resources
Apgar, Blake. "Shrinking Lake Mead inches closer to water shortage level." Las Vegas Review Journal, 31 January 2021. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/shrinking-lake-mead-inches-closer-to-water-shortage-declaration-2270168/ .
Briney, Amanda. "The Sunbelt of the Southern and Western United States." Thought Co., 7 August 2019. https://www.thoughtco.com/sun-belt-in-united-states-1435569#:~:text=Major%20U.S.%20cities%20placed%20within,Lake%20City%2C%20and%20San%20Francisco. Date accessed: 15 February 2021.
"City of Phoenix History." City of Phoenix, n.d. https://www.phoenix.gov/pio/city-publications/city-history .
Davis-Young, Katherine. "Will America's 'Least Sustainable City' vote to kill rail transit?" The Washington Post, 24, August 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/will-americas-least-sustainable-city-vote-to-kill-rail-transit/2019/08/24/6a66a912-c455-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html .
deBuys, William. "The least sustainable city: Phoenix as a harbinger for our hot future." Grist, 17 March 2013. https://grist.org/climate-energy/the-least-sustainable-city-phoenix-as-a-harbinger-for-our-hot-future/ .
Feld, Kiley. Phoenix population density [map]. Scale not given. "Phoenix, AZ: The Least Sustainable City in the World ." February 2021. https://arcg.is/1bmqq8 . (February 18, 2021). Using: ArcGIS [GIS software].
"Living in Phoenix." Walk Score, n.d. https://www.walkscore.com/AZ/Phoenix . Date accessed: 16 February 2021.
McNamee, Gregory Lewis. "Phoenix, Arizona, United States." Britannica, n.d. https://www.britannica.com/place/Phoenix-Arizona . Date accessed: 16 February 2021.
Rush, Katey. "ASU study: Parts of Phoenix are sinking." 12 News, 6 September 2015. https://amp.tennessean.com/amp/71790132 .
Stone, Lyman. "A Population History of Phoenix." In a State of Migration, 9 August 2016. https://medium.com/migration-issues/a-population-history-of-phoenix-76bd04467866 .
Walters, Joanna. "Plight of Phoenix: how long can the world's 'least sustainable' city survive?" The Guardian, 20 March 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/20/phoenix-least-sustainable-city-survive-water .
"Zip Codes with the Highest Population Driving to Work in Arizona." Zip Atlas, n.d. http://zipatlas.com/us/az/zip-code-comparison/percentage-population-drive-to-work.htm .