“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”
– Edward Abbey
When I came across this quote, it hit very close to home for me – literally.
Living in Las Vegas, the fastest-growing city in the country, we have a lot to be concerned about in regards to unmitigated development and urban sprawl.
Currently, there is a lands bill being negotiated here in Clark County – the Clark Count Lands Bill, as it is aptly named. Originally, it was going to propose DOUBLING the size of Las Vegas, but after backlash by residents, they’ve reduced the sprawl to roughly 1 1/2 – 2 times the size of San Franciso. Which is still a lot.
Especially when you consider how the bill doesn’t properly address our water security or energy dependence, and that the developers working on the negotiations don’t want to discuss inclusionary pricing.
This means one, we don’t have a plan to manage how we’ll conserve and disperse our water sources to an increased number of residents (and we just exceeded 3 million people); two, we don’t have a plan to deal with how we’ll manage the increased energy consumption nor our public transportation systems; and three, they are going to try and build housing that people living here won’t be able to afford in the first place, meaning many of those buildings will sit empty.
As an added concern, the land they want to develop is already rapidly encroaching upon the desert wilderness, our public lands, and even tribal land.
This means endangered plants and animals will be threatened.
Our water supply and other natural resources will be threatened.
The land and resources belonging to and used by the residents of Pauite reservation will be threatened.
And our longevity and ability to live in the desert will be threatened.
So when I read this quote, it resonated with me. I am literally watching the cancerous growth of my home town play out right before my eyes. And with this analogy, it really makes me upset and concerned about my future as a resident here in Las Vegas, as I am for my neighbors and my community.
But even more so, this is happening all over. The destruction of forests and other natural spaces for things like ranching, agriculture, development, and so on – “growth for the sake of growth” – is cancerous.
And we can either let cancerous development to continue to grow until it kills us, or we can keep it in check and be mindful of our growth.
Because growth and development are absolutely important, it just has to have limitations before it starts to cause a collapse of something – whether it’s the market, the environment, or both.
We can’t continue on with the expectation of endless growth. It isn’t sustainable, and it doesn’t provide the due diligence that our children and future generations are entitled to – which is us leaving behind a planet for them to be able to live on and a decent quality of life.
