How Suburbs Can Help the Climate Fight

Paul J. Maginn and Roger Keil write on the subject of suburbs and their role in contributing to the causes of climate change, suggesting that planners and policy-makers need to focus attention and actions on the "brutalscape" of infrastructure that holds the whole suburban way of life together.

The article focuses on Australia and Canada, the home countries of the researchers, respectively, who wrote the article. The early brush fire season currently devastating Australia sets the context for the concern of the article.

"The growth of the suburban footprint of cities in Australia and Canada tests the limits of the sustainability of our present way of living in terms of energy use, transportation and provision of utilities," according to the article. The realities of sprawl requires a "suburban evolution" that requires an examination of "the ways in which life on the periphery is sustained"—i.e., not the suburban home.