Abstract
Dusty canals, the remnants of an ancient society that disappeared due to ecological crises, sociopolitical inequity and strife, gave credence to postbellum developers’ belief that the Arizona desert could, once again, be transformed into a thriving agricultural oasis. These relics also offer, as Andrew Ross’ Bird on Fire explains, a whispering parable of environmental hubris and the inextricable union of ecological and social processes. Ross compellingly illustrates that one of the country’s largest and fastest-growing metropolises, Phoenix, Arizona—a city of flaring racism, neoliberal governance, and those who fight back—can teach us much about the broad structural and political challenges facing environmental justice and social sustainability.
Over the course of two years, Ross interviewed an impressively diverse group of residents and officials involved with sustainability. Secondary research accompanied the author’s crisscrossing fieldwork throughout metropolitan Phoenix. The book’s contents reflect such diversity, offering an expansive yet detailed examination of this often-overlooked city.
Ross begins where conversations on sustainability in Phoenix invariably lead: water, arguing that lax regulation amidst recurrent drought risks overstepping carrying capacity. Yet Phoenix, a city dominated by powerful real estate lobbyists and longstanding dependence upon construction industries, faces serious impediments to sustainable growth policies. In the wake of the 2008 crisis, political skirmishes emerged concerning how to go about redeveloping Phoenix, both its urban form and its overall economy. Eager to attract capital and federal dollars, Ross explains, the city pushed “green initiatives.” Although some progress was made, unenthused politicians stymied hopes for a green rebirth. Meanwhile, the rampant environmental injustice faced by poor communities of color went largely ignored, poignantly illustrating how true sustainability must be measured against the conditions of society’s most disadvantaged. Nativist rhetoric accompanied this endemic eco-apartheid, posing Latino immigrants as an unchecked glutton depleting scarce resources. Even so, Ross documents, community organizations are fighting back, winning some reforms and battling the undemocratic institutions that myopically reproduce Phoenix as an urban growth machine.
Whether or not these characteristics mark Phoenix as “the world’s least sustainable city,” as the book’s subtitle reads, is of little consequence, Ross argues, because its challenges are in fact national—even global—in scope and import; the challenges of Phoenix are everywhere. By tackling the struggles of Phoenix in all their diversity, the book becomes wonderfully multifaceted and rich. Yet it should be especially engaging for those interested in urbanism, sustainability, and movements of social and environmental justice.