The Myth of Sustainable Cities

These foreboding times are producing an understandable sense of urgency and a desire to envision and enact alternative systems as soon as possible. This book is written for readers who wish not just to understand the roots of our current political and environmental dilemmas, but also for those seeking a new path toward reconciling humans and the planet.

High-energy cities have been normalized across the world and touted as the ultimate home of humans. We’ve all heard the claims that dense cities with their shared infrastructure and public transportation are one of the key solutions to the climate crisis. But what if cities are not just part of the problem, but are making things worse? What if these arguments for cities are obscuring real problems—and real solutions? Stephanie Pincetl presents a counterhegemonic argument about cities and development. Pincetl explains how the intrinsic energy needs of cities cannot be sustained in a post-hydrocarbon future without continuing the unequal extraction of resources and the continued de-development of non-Western, non-affluent countries. Instead, the book seeks to convince readers that relying on urbanization as a solution to climate change will only continue the extraction of enormous amounts of resources while impoverishing, polluting, and exterminating entire ways of life and obscuring the possibility that an alternative path is both necessary and possible.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on decades of the author’s scholarly and personal experience working on environmental policy and governance, this innovative volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of urban studies, sustainability, energy transitions, political ecology, and science studies.