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How Sprawl May Kill Us

by Michael Grove
Thursday Jul 16, 2020

The export of American culture is still one of the most influential forces in our interconnected world. Our pop music, movies, and artery-clogging cuisine is ubiquitous. From Dakar to Delhi, you can eat your Auntie Anne's pretzel while grooving along to Arianna Grande on your way to see the latest release of the Avengers. One of our most damaging exports, however, is our adoration of the American suburb. When our 20th century model for housing the swelling populations of Long Island and suburban Los Angeles translates to 21st century Kinshasa and Kuala Lumpur, our esteemed American way of life may very well be our own downfall. In our pre-pandemic ignorance, most urbanists pointed to climate change as the most dangerous impact of our cherished suburban lifestyle. To be sure, the higher carbon emissions and the rise in chronic health problems associated with living in subdivisions aren't going away, but COVID-19 has exposed another threat we've chosen to ignore. The next pandemic may very well result from our addiction to - and exportation of - sprawl.
The increasing traction of the anti-density movement in the wake of the current outbreak is alarming. Headlines proclaiming that residents of tall buildings are more likely to contract COVID-19, and that the initial risk of exposure in cities is greater is true, but density isn't the root of the problem. Cities aren't at fault. Global sprawl into sensitive habitats is the problem. Cities, in fact, are the answer. The more densely we build, the more land we can conserve for nature to thrive and the more space we leave untouched where viruses can naturally exist while remaining separated from humanity. Habitat destruction and biodiversity loss doesn't only occur only when we cut down tropical rainforests. Degraded habitats of any kind can create conditions for many different types of viruses to occur, whether in Accra or Austin. COVID-19 is not the first disease to crossover from animal to human populations, but it is likely a harbinger of more mass pandemics and further disruptions to the global economy.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that approximately 75% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, meaning that they are transmitted to us through contact with animals. The initial emergence of many of these zoonotic diseases have been tracked to the parts of the world with the greatest biodiversity, both in the traditional and man-made sense. Traditional locations include tropical rainforests where biodiversity naturally occurs. Human-influenced conditions include places like bushmeat markets in Africa or the wet markets of Asia, where we are unnaturally mixing trapped exotic animals with humans, often in astonishingly unsanitary conditions. When we assault the wild places that harbor so much biodiversity in the relentless pursuit of development, we are disregarding a significant aspect of this biodiversity—the unseen domain of undocumented viruses and pathogens. Natural ecosystems are not what pose the threat—the human activity that disrupts these systems, like suburban development, is the real culprit.
Moving out of dense cities into the open space and social distancing afforded by the suburbs is exactly the type of knee-jerk reaction that we must avoid. The disruption of pristine forests due to logging, mining, urbanization, and population growth is bringing us closer to species with which we have rarely had contact. By infringing on their habitats, we are reducing the natural barriers between humans and host species, creating ideal conditions for diseases to spread. This unsettling idea is already evident in the fragmented forests of many American suburbs, where development patterns have altered the natural cycle of the pathogen that causes Lyme disease. When humans live in close proximity to these disrupted ecosystems, they are more likely to get bitten by a tick carrying the Lyme bacteria. When biodiversity is reduced, these diluted systems allow for species like rodents and bats—some of the most likely to promote the transmission of pathogens—to thrive. This essentially means that the more habitats we disturb, the more danger we are in by tapping into various virus reservoirs.
When it comes to where the next virus might emerge, Wuhan isn't really that different from Washington DC. When the American model of over-indulgent suburban sprawl is the benchmark for success, we all will eventually lose. Now is the moment to put the health of the planet before our American values of heaven on a half-acre. Our land use policies in this country have just as profound an impact on the rest of the world as any movie out of Hollywood. If we shift American values toward embracing denser, cleaner, more efficient and well-planned cities that drive ecological conservation, instead of promoting sprawl as a panacea for our current predicament, that may very well be our greatest export to humanity.
Michael Grove is the Chair of Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Ecology at Sasaki, a global design firm with offices in Boston and Shanghai.