Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City

Andrew Ross

Oct 2011 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

Phoenix, Arizona is at once one of America's fastest growing cities and its least sustainable one. A sprawling megalopolis of more than five million souls, it is parched-the result of minimal rainfall and scorching heat. Yet historically, its population has been hostile to both placing limits on growth and restricting property rights. In Bird on Fire, noted chronicler of contemporary social life Andrew Ross relies on Phoenix's to perform a paradoxical task: explain how we can establish sustainable urban living in this most unsustainable of cities. The vast majority of authors writing on sustainable cities focus on places like Portland, New York, and various west European cities that have excellent public transit systems and high density. Ross does the opposite, and contends that if we can't make fast-growing cities like Phoenix sustainable, then the whole movement is has a major problem. In the course of tracing how it grew and explaining why it is so unsustainable, he considers how it might become sustainable. He contends that if Phoenix is to achieve this goal, it will occur primarily through political and social change--greater civic engagement, democratic inclusion, and socially just policies--rather than through technological fixes. Technological fixes are not unimportant, but for them to work we first must rearrange our social and political arrangements. In sum, Bird on Fire provides a truly fascinating window into one of the pressing social issues of our time--finding pathways to sustainability in an era of increasing energy consumption and sprawl.

About the author

Andrew Ross is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. He is the author of Fast Boat to China, The Celebration Chronicles, Nice Work if You Can Get It, and No-Collar.