Isn’t it amazing that we live in a world where nature has to compete for its own space? We have been in battle with nature for centuries now, winning battle after battle but losing the war. We have tried fighting against the forces of nature, wild beasts, floods, pestilence, and diseases since the existence of the human race. ‘We must conquer Mother Nature’.
It is so very clear that humans can’t survive on the earth as the only living species. Before it is to late, we might win the war with nature, and then it’s to late to realise that we lost more than we could afford to do without in the first place. The land is a gift, it is borrowed to us to use, praise and respect. The human race is responsible to look after the natural habitat and the environment we live in.
“We’d see that the landscape itself wouldn’t change but what mankind builds would rise and fall. We’re only temporarily here. The land we think we own, we actually borrow.” (Dobrowner, M. 2011) The theorist John Fowles describes the rapid disappearing of our landscapes the era of the plastic garden, steel city and the chemical countryside. We are part of the nature and the cities we build. But it separates us, elevating ourselves above nature. We fall into a danger zone where we don’t realise how utterly dependant we are on nature and our ecosystems and how vulnerable we are to a system that corrects the population of any species that exceed the carrying capacity of it’s environment.
Our brief was to understand the way in humans both interact within and interpret broad concepts such as the environment and nature and critically challenge the perceptions of Humans as outsider of, or other than, Nature.
The most and common and crucial environmental issues I feel passionate about is the deconstruction of natural habitat and how the development of urban areas and urban sprawling continues to grow and the consequences that comes with it whether short term or long term. We face this issue worldwide and it seems to grow bigger and bigger as the human population seems to increase and the Urban sprawl takes place.
We all want a city that can offer quality public spaces, recreational opportunities and efficient public transport, but this is only possible in cities that are compact and dense. Cape Town has been growing at a fast and continuous low-density manner. They introduced a concept of the urban edge to Cape Town that has been applied internationally and taken on by other cities. An example is the green belt in London. The policy includes an Urban Edge Line that defines the outer limits of the cities development and protects the natural and agricultural resources. (Pollack, M. 2009)
But what is urban/suburban sprawling?
Suburban sprawling is the multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and it’s suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependant development in rural areas high segregation of uses (e.g. stores and residential), and various design features that encourage car dependency. (Wikipedia)
Urban sprawl results in:
- High car dependence
- Inadequate facilities, e.g.: cultural, emergency, health, and so forth
- Low public support for sprawl
- High per-person infrastructure costs
- Inefficient street layouts
- Inflated costs for public transportation
- Lost time and productivity for commuting
- High levels of racial and socioeconomic segregation
- Low diversity of housing and business types
- High rates of obesity
- Less space for conservation and parks
- High per-capita use of energy, land, and water
(Wikipedia)
All the above-mentioned have a great impact on the environment, negatively, and this leads to the deconstruction of the natural habitats.
As for some, wealthier suburbs invest in extensive security, one-entrance townhouses and cluster complexes, golfing- and country- estates and walled and gated blocks that contribute to development of further urban sprawling because it attracts attention and it looks beautiful with the look and feel of luxury and a lavishly lifestyle that most strive for.
In contrasts, attempts at densification in poorer suburbs are distressed by the expansion of the outer limit informal settlements. This land is often taken in by land invasions, long-standing residents living in backyard dwellings of the existing townships as well as the newcomers to the city and occupies the open lands and outskirts in hope of secure housing in the future.
But what is Habitat Deconstruction and why is it such a pivotal issue to look at?
Often the more common and big issues such as deforestation, pollution, Alternative Medicine Industry and agricultural practises can cause serious problems in our environment. But today urban sprawl is the biggest damaging in our time where the development for road construction, subdivisions and malls disrupts and divides the natural habitat. When these problems occur the natural habitat functionality is unable to support the present species and this leads to the destruction or displacement of that present species in their environment. This can all lead to the removal of key species and other species that take over that land that was normally not there in there in the first place. This leaves inaccessible fragments of ecosystems, changes in pollination and seed-dispersal patterns, wildlife migration routes and the reduction of breeding ground sizes. (Evergreen, 2007)
Coming from an Agricultural background one is used to seeing planes and tractors taking on the lands and spraying their thin white mist over the crop fields. We can kill pests, weeds, insects and pesticides easily with the new technology of chemicals. This has even made it possible for us to lower food prices. But still we loose a percentage of the crops to the pests as we did in earlier times. But now we face even more problems and concerns about health problems and pesticide residues that end up in our drinking water and food supplies. How can we win a war against nature if we are part of it? “Every time we think we have won a battle, nature fights back. Nature always seems ready for the counterattack. And, people are beginning to lose faith in "man’s" ability to ever conquer nature. They are concerned about whether we can win the battle with the next flood, the next disease, or the next pest that we create with our efforts to control the last one. They are concerned with their own safety, health, and well being. But, they are concerned also about the sustainability of a human civilization that continues to live in conflict with nature. They fear we cannot win our war against nature, because we are a part of nature – the very thing we are trying to destroy. They are searching for ways to find harmony with nature – to sustain the nature of which we are a part.”(Ikerd, J)
I will discuss a few common environmental man made issues that is a result of urban sprawling and has a huge impact on the environment as such and the ecosystems of other living things. It is an ongoing inert-struggle between mankind and nature.
1) Pollution that comes from inappropriate use of pesticides and herbicides that damage useful insects directly can leave, insects like bees at risk and this means that farmers crops won’t be pollinated by these incredible species.
2) Fresh waters can have the effect of industrial waste and the runoff from the farmlands can stretch of rivers and streams that pass by and infect all the living life, maybe not now but definitely in the near future.
3) The taking of other species land can lead to introduced species and this is invertebrate species that cause problems. We don’t always become aware of the damage these species for example the Killer Bees, Asian Hornets, The Harlequin Ladybird, Louisiana Crayfish and Earthworms can do to the habitat of other species.
4) We face a big problem in Migratory Species; this means that there is an essential and sometimes small piece of natural habitat essential to certain species that migrate. These creatures that travel far need places along the way to re-fuel and rest and since these migration routes and natural recourses are being destroyed they cannot continue with their journey and might face death in the long run. (Blatchfort, J. 2007)
Another example of this is the taking and destruction of the available space habitat and reworking it into attractive gardens by using indigenous or exotic species indiscriminately. This lead to the invasion of exotic species and now the indigenous vegetation must compete with the exotic and this results in the destroying of natural ecosystems.
As the theorist Clements suggested, the human interference in biotic communities not only had a particular effect, for example, forcing a new round of succession but was also defined as the wrong thing to do. (Succession- Ecology the process by which a plant or animal community successively gives way to another until a stable climax is reached.) (Pidwirny, M. 2006.)
The situation goes further and Habitat Deconstruction can now evolve into habitat fragmentation that is the secondary affect. The primary effect of this is the elimination of individuals or populations from the portion of the landscape that has been destroyed and then the secondary that is the fragmentation and this occurs when remaining populations are isolated from the result of isolation because the links between the habitat patches have been destroyed.
Over time the habitat fragmentation can resolve to the loss of genetic diversity which then affect a population’s ability to respond to environmental changes, climate changes contaminates and introduced species. Per say under the environmental changes we as humans are the cause of the extinction of species and the reason some are becoming pests.
For example the Chaco thorn forest in Argentina is being cut down at a rapid rate, considered the highest in the world, to give way to soybean cultivation and agricultural development. This forest was long walked by migrating animals and was an important route for the species that grazed the land. The Chaco is comprised of several habitats as the Savanna and thorn forest is the two predominant transitions. It is also a bearer of many avifauna (the birds of a particular region, habitat, or geological period) and there is very little protection and action against this issue. (WWF, 2001)
Another shocking example is the Burmese Elephants that are forced to clear-cut down their own forest habitat. The Burmese, Thailand, uses these elephants for valuable labour in the country’s timber industry where they drag heavy fallen trees to the rivers for shipping. (Eleaid)
In Canada habitats all over are being destroyed at an alarming rate. The wetlands being filled in, grasslands are ploughed under, forests are cut down and the rivers are being diverted and dammed. All this has caused the Canadian species to decline form over-harvesting. The loss of habitat is now one of Canada’s single greatest threats to their natural plants and animals. They produce up to half of all their new plant growth every year for human use. (Evergreen)
The so to say, unfavourable attitude towards “untamed nature” started during the settlement of the American frontier. Wild land was battled as a physical obstacle to confront and survive. They cleared the country of trees and the Indians had to be removed and wild animals exterminated. The concept of natural pride arose form the transformation of the wild into civilization and not preserving it for the enjoyment of the public. Are we regarding the urban nature just as important as the rural nature? There is no place for nature within the city and our remaining natural resources are being destroyed by development. People have not yet realised the importance of preserving the Urban biodiversity. As Van Koppen states that nature is external (Nature is something external to human society or at least removed from everyday life in the city). Nature can no longer be seen as distant, but rather as something integral in our daily city life as we seem to misuse everything it gives us.
For some people the connection with nature can be very spiritual and positive, and therefore the lack of nature can down-force one’s spirituality amongst the city dwellers.
Not everyone feels the same way because we are in an era where money is highly important part of our lives for survival and doing anything in your way to support yourself and your family can lead to big extends like destroying parts of the ecosystem for your own benefit. As the theorist Brulle describes ecotheology as humans have an obligation to preserve and protect nature since it is divinely created. He states that there can no longer be any meaningful environmental action without real structural change. People harvest, mine and exploit nature including other people to create more goods and services for consumption. Quality of life is viewed as a consequence of consumption- something we can buy at Wallmart of Disney World. The more we produce, the more we earn, the more we can consume and the higher is the quality of life. “The more we can take from nature, and each other, the higher quality of life.” (Ikerd, J)
In the contemporary ecological outlook plants and animals in their natural settings form one link and interwoven communities in which change at one point will bring as a result of far-reaching changes at points. (Worster, 1977)
Two strands of ecology emerged from this period as stated by Bramwell. One of this was anti-mechanistic the holistic approach to biology and derived from Haeckel and the plant geographers. The other was a rather new approach to energy economics and focussed on scarce and non-renewable resources. The modern age of ecology was born when these two strands finally fused together in the 1970s. Europe and America became very Urbanised in the 19th century and views towards nature began to undergo a major transformation and the concept of wild nature. (Jakson,F)
Commoner ordered Carson’s observations with his four laws of ecology: ‘everything is connected to everything else’; ‘everything must go somewhere’; ‘nature knows best’; ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’. (Hannigan, J, 206)
Aldo Leopold introduced his ‘land ethics’ theory, where it extended the rights to the natural world, which he regarded as a community rather than a commodity. This only became well know when he’s book A Sand Country Almanac was reprinted and he now stated that the ecosystem is no longer a theoretical construct but rather instill with moral significance. An ecological ethic is the limitation on freedom action in the struggle for existence. (Leopold, A. 1948) He also introduced the concept of syrnbioses, that originated from policyis and economics, the original free-for-all competition and this has been re-placed by co-operative mechanisms with an ethical content.
The Cape Florist Region in SA is just an example of an area in desperate need of help and protection against their enormous loss in biodiversity. Data have shown that there is a drastic decrease in natural vegetation covering that area. It has close to 9000 species and approximately 60% of these species can be found nowhere else in the world. (Faul A K, 2005)
Hopefully it is a step in the direction towards marrying the urban and natural environment, and to create a sustainable urban environment where society no longer sees nature as something outside the city boundaries
The Urban Sprawling issues in Cape Town.
In Cape Town we face the issues of development. Although the first decade of democracy made significant improvement to the Capetonians quality of life there still remain a number of challenges associated with urbanisation. Although Cape Town’s biggest attractions are the environment and beautiful landscapes, the current urban form is unsustainable, economically unproductive and prohibits spatial, racial and economic integration. One of its key challenges is the urban sprawl through densification and unsuccessful regional planning. “We are one of the most dispersed and fragmented cities in the world in terms of our urban form.” (Boraine,A. 2010.)
I will talk about two different case studies, one where poverty can deconstruct the natural habitat and one where the richer can deconstruct the natural habitat, on Urban sprawling in the next few paragraphs.
Cape town faces immense social and economic challenges that manifested from highly skewed distribution of income and wealth. This resulted in growing levels of absolute poverty, deficient housing, bad health status (HIV/AIDS) and the exclusion of certain segments of population from full participation. We face the issue of transport challenges, the increased reliance on private cars and ineffective public transport. With poverty one can say that the lack of education and discipline can lead to great measures of deconstruction not just to the environment but also to one self and the people and things around you. The conservation challenges are multiplied over and over by the explosion of the economic migrants from the rural Eastern Cape in search of jobs. They arrive at a rate of 45,000 every three months. Africans were not allowed to live in the central part of Cape Town and were restricted to the townships and urban edge, in the Apartheid years. Since the late 1980’s almost a million, mostly Xhosa, have established themselves on the city’s outskirts, many in the townships of Khayelitsha. They have tiny houses and tin shacks that stretch as far as ones eye can see, across our lands fragile dunes and seasonal wetlands of the Cape flats. The cape flats are also part of the Cape Floristic Kingdome and to the new arrivals it looks like ‘scrubland’ an ideal place to pop up and make a home. Tanya Goldman, Project Manager of the Cape Flats Nature asks the question of how one can look after the biodiversity when in extreme poverty and where local communities have little history of Involvement in conservation. .” (Goldman, T.2007)
The (IMEP) City of Cape Town’s Integrated Metropolitan Environment Policy, made a comment on the fact that, “there doesn’t have to be a choice between environment and people. You can protect the environment in a way that supports peoples’ needs.” But at this state of time, no one is really thinking of the environment in such a way when you have to look after yourself and try to make a living. The City of Cape Town got the message that they won’t get any support from for the conservation in the Cape Flats by fencing people out said Tanya. “Sustainable conservation management has to win the hearts, involvement and understanding of the surrounding communities.” (Goldman, T.2007)
The two other conservation sites are the Wolfgat Nature Reserve and Macassar Dunes, both very sensitive areas, beautiful and covered with a blanket of arum lilies. It’s also the place where gangsters dump their victim’s bodies. In the Dunes of Macassar, between the shacks traditional healers grow their medicinal plants where there use to be a natural habitat of all sorts of living organisms and arum lilies.
To round it off, there might be a risk that Urban Sprawling can have a huge influence on the Winelands, where people aim to live in a more Cape Winelands lifestyle, this is a serious risk associated with this type of trend. (Venning, C,2009)A large amount of people aim to move away from the cities into the winelands lifestyle to break away from all that comes with the city in seek of natural beauty that has been destroyed. Urban sprawl might take over all the way from Franschhoek to Cape Town if the trend is not halted. This brings big issues to the local farmers, big or small. Farmers are now quite tempted to sell their farms or subdividing it. They face the challenges, The Department of Agriculture, that they cannot allow the farmers to have more than 40 ha. Even though they had farms or small properties for years now with more than 100 ha. As a result the Paarl to Franschhoek passage, the Banhoek valley and other similar farming areas are becoming more and more suburbanised and the areas are being overbuild and the attractiveness of the agricultural flavour are being lost in the process. People that are interested in buying these properties say that they want their offspring to grow up in a place save form drugs, pubs and clubs and restraining them from the norm. But Cape Town’s developers are looking into the situation and are well on their to adopt a densificatiion policy where the developers are forced to use space optimally and have no less than 25 dwelling units per ha. This aims to densify the residential areas. To see the progress of the city planning refer to picture .
Sites to look at for the consequences of Urban sprawling;
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sprawl/main.htm
http://www.newsrecord.com/content/2009/03/14/article/saving_the_county_s_green_patches_from_urban_sprawl
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002760245_sprawlfat24m.html
http://www.property24.com/articles/urban-sprawl-a-risk-to-winelands/9121
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/07/01/html/ft_20010701.3.html
Conclusion
This essay has addressed a few aspects relating to the deconstructing effect of urban sprawling on nature and even the future living space for humans. One could say that development was never to promote the urban sprawling amongst people but it definitely supports the idea in some to someday also be a ‘sprawler’ and live in ‘peace and harmony’. As long as the situation is not controlled or lead in the right way, we will face a total deconstruction of our natural habitat. We will face more restrictions on the things that we love to do like, a Sunday drive through the Stellenbosch country side and Winelands just because we might drive into someone’s garage or private property because the of the rapid growth in Urban Sprawling to the outskirts of Cape Town.
If we all can preserve Mother Earth’s beauty and nature she can offer us a comfortable and enjoyable place to life in. We can only have more of one if we sacrifice some of the other, and there has been said that the relationships between economic well being, the environment and social is a trade of-relationship. If anyone gets more of something the other must have less of it.
There might be a sign of light now we are aware of these problems and it means that we are closer to illuminating the damage and problems we face. Most people’s perceptions come from a materialistic viewpoint. But who is to blame and what is to do, everyone needs to feed and people need to make a living, but one has to realise what is more important, luxury and money, or the environment and saving this planet for the future. However, people ignore the fact and understanding that they can get gratification from looking after their planet, surroundings and the people around them.
Most of our perceptions around the earth are based on now and not the future and the satisfaction we can get out of it. There is fundamental value in working and living in harmony with our ‘mother’ and we need to find the balance between taking more than giving back and ending up in a imbalance. At the end we will all have to compete for a place on this earth.
Luckily our cities, Cape Town and Johannesburg are attempting to take on the issue in attempting to live by the urban edge. At the end, the aim is to develop a more compact city structure but surely that can also lead to some kind of discomfort or issues in the near future. If it comes to land conservation it is only self-interest that can make a change in the world.
