Excessive land use and urban development are a problem, because it causes pollution and it robs animals of their homes.  When man extends his boundaries into nature, nature has no choice but to go somewhere else.  Expansion and population are the cause of this environmental problem.  I propose to set a standard for land development for every city.  In that I also propose that each city should impose a set number of persons to live in that city.  Each city must impose stricter guidelines for waste management.  Finally I propose that the city set limits for development, and expansion.

Land development causes danger to the environment by polluting the air and disrupting geological and animal status.  Air pollution is a big problem with urban life.  Large cities have the characteristic of having polluted skies.  The Environmental Protection Agency passed an act, through legislation, called the Clean Air Act.  The CAA set standards for all cities (Environmental Politics and Policies, 195).  Some of these cities that do not meet such standards include Los Angels, New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Houston.  These limits are called National Ambient Air Quality Standards (189).  The NAAQS sets a limit on the amount of Carbon Dioxide, Hydrocarbons, Air born Particulates, nitrogenoxides, lead, and sulfur oxides, and Ozone in the cities air.  Such standards apply for 7 (192).  The definition for Ozone: A strong oxidizing agent with disinfecting properties similar to chlorine; also used in odor control and sludge processing (Environmental Engineering, 219).  Ozone is present in the high atmosphere, but at lower levels can be one of the most harmful gases on Earth (Our Poisoned Sky, 27).  Side effects include respiratory tract problems, such as difficult breathing and reduced lung function; asthma; eye irritation; nasal congestion; reduced resistance to infection; premature aging of lung tissue (Environmental Engineering, 190).

 Other household gases contribute to the toxic air stirring about in that fog hovering over your city such as Chlorofluorocarbons.  CFC’s are basically made of Chlorine, Fluoride and Carbon (Our Poisoned Sky, 27-28). This gas floats up toward the sun into the stratosphere, and breaks apart (due to the sun's radiation).  The Carbon and the Fluoride don't do much but the Chlorine literally eats away at the Ozone layer like an acid.  "Why is that bad?"  Might you ask, well it is harmful because the Ozone Layer protects everything on Earth from Ultra Violet Radiation.  This in turn makes the Earth hotter.  To make the Earth even hotter add to this Carbon Dioxide (CO2), a pollutant produced by combustion engines and fire, not to be confused with Carbon Monoxide, also a deadly gas (11).  This gases blankets the inner atmosphere, holding most heat in, the term "Green house" is synanomis with CO2, because it gives reference to a plant greenhouse; which lets light in to heat up the room, but does not let it escape (9).  Carbon Dioxide is that brown cloud hanging over downtown Phoenix.  It is usually found in highly populated area (11).

  I know what you're thinking, "What the hell is he getting at, well with all of this heating of the atmosphere and eating of Ozone layers, a multitude of things happen.  For one the temperatures rise, causing the polar ice caps to melt, in turn rising the water levels.  Remember California, well it's not California anymore, its series of grouped islands.  If the temperature average was to rise 9 degrees, the coastal line would raise 200 feet (Endangered Landscapes, 47).  The depletion of the Ozone Layer lets Ultra Violet Radiation in the atmosphere, which hits the Earth and kills not only plants but people as well.  Skin cancer can be caused by an overdose of UV rays (Our Poisoned Sky, 25).

Land pollution is also a big issue that is tagged with the subject of excessive land use.  When more and more people are flocking to an area, it spurs air pollution and land pollution.  From the beginning of the Industrial Age pollutants have been an issue.   More people means more drivers.  More people also means more trash.  Driving means air pollution, and trash means land pollution, and we all what that means.  Stores shoot up every where, each one wants you, the consumer, to consume more and intern gives them more money.  You buy, you take home, you cook, family loves it and goes to bed happy, you throw away.  And come trash day, the whole weeks worth of trash is shipped off to the dump, miles away.  The truck to move all of this trash also creates pollution.  There is an ever-present, never-ending, constantly repeating cycle that plagues man's system of the use of resources and materials.  In the United States 55% of all trash is in the ground (www.awma.org/awma/educate/outreach/landfill.html, 1).  Land fills lead to water and soil contamination, which is definitely not good (3).

A cycle of human development.  This cycle really didn’t exist until the turn of the twentieth century.  Arizona was used for it’s mining, agricultural, and forest resources.  Silver, iron, and copper came from all over the state, wood from the North, and cotton from the valleys.  Which brought small towns and sparse groups of population.  This sparked a population, but a growth did not happen until the 1950’s.  During the Cold War the military built Williams Airforce base and Luke Airforce base.  Then the city grew, but in a slow steady manner.  Companies later moved in.  Companies like Boeing, McDonald Douglas, Motorola, and Intel.  These major companies gave jobs to local residents, as well as brought people from all around the country.  “More recently the interest rates for land and houses is also cheaper in Arizona”(Plunkett, American Realities).  This brings people from places like California, and New York.  This brings more money and a better economy, sure.  But where does it end?

People are starting to wake up to these problems.  The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987 by 140 countries, to eliminate he use of CFC products all over he world by the year 1996, but in less developed countries the limit was set for 2006 (Environmental Politics and Policy, 2).  The EPA is doing a pretty good job of controlling pollutants in our cities.  There is one thing that is missing.
These agencies are hitting the symptoms of the problem and completely forgetting the root of it all; land development.  The consumption of Earth’s resources is where this all starts.  The EPA, and the Federal government has to look at the country’s cities and do something about them.  One step that has been taken toward conservation of land is the newly passed Proposition 303.  This Proposition takes 22 million dollars over the next eleven years to buy state land that would be set aside for wildlife.  This is a huge step toward conservation.  If only we as a nation could build upon this and create higher restrictions.  Instead of creating little spots of land to be conserved, I would create a set boundary for the city’s development, and the rest would be set aside for wildlife.  With this, each city would implement these boundaries by giving an amount of space per person, and different Companies and organizations.  A slight tax would be implemented to section off and buy this land from the government.

Population would also have to be controlled to meet these standards.  China has set limit on the population; they are currently the most populated nation in the world.  Since they set a population standard, their increase of people is going down.  In fact, in the year 2024, India will pass them in population.  Just to let you know the United States is third on the list for the most populated country (www.census.Gov/)

That is presicely why we have to implement these standards.  We have to do it before our cities look like Honk Kong, and our country is as populated as India.
 We need to set limits on the immigration and migration of people coming into our cities.  I propose that the Government implements such standards, no I DEMAND IT!

 Pollution is such a broad subject; there are many key players in this twisted game.  The main contributors to the pollution problem are the producers and the builders.  The people are large contributors but they aren't at the root of the problem.  People are like sheep; they follow the crowds, and the constantly influenced by their social ruling.  We don’t have except this way of living, there needs to be a change.  We need to prepare for the future, and save what we still have.  We have to, before it’s all gone.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Works sited

1.) Beyond the numbers; Edited by Laurie Ann Mazur
Published by Island Press, Washington DC; 1994
2.) Environmental Politics and Policy; Written by Walter A. Rosenbaum
Published by Congressional Quarterly; 1998
3.) Our poisoned Sky; Written by Edward F. Dolan
Published by Cobblehill books; 1991
4.) Endangered Environments; Written by James Colgney
Published by Apple Tree Inc.; 1994
5.) Dennis Plunkett (American Reality, Phoenix Az)
Interviewed: 11-14-98
 6.)U.S. Census Bureau (WWW.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html)
 7.)Q and A’s About Land Fills (WWW.awma.org/awma/educate/outreach/landfill.html)