from the semi-detached-in-our-suburban-ness dept.
Study Links Urbanization to Poor Ecological Knowledge, Less Environmental Action:
A new study by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and collaborators highlights a sharp contrast between urban and suburban ways of thinking about coastal ecosystems.
The authors of the study used statistical and cognitive science techniques to analyze data from a survey of 1,400 residents across the U.S. East Coast. Their results, published in the journal npj Urban Sustainability, showed that surveyed residents of urban centers often held a more simplistic, and less realistic, understanding of coastal ecosystems than residents in suburban areas. The research also uncovered a lower propensity to take pro-environmental actions among urban populations. The study provides evidence for an issue the authors refer to as urbanized knowledge syndrome, which may be detrimental to natural ecosystems and hamper community resilience to natural disasters.
[...] The survey was targeted at coastal counties in metropolitan areas across eight states, each of which featured shorelines with varying densities of roads, sea walls, ditches and other "gray" infrastructure. On the National Center for Health Statistics' six-level urban-rural classification scheme, surveyed residents largely resided in the three most urban levels, ranging from city centers to suburbs.
[...] As the authors of the study searched for patterns among the crowd of maps, two distinct types emerged.
In the maps of some respondents, relationships tended to run in one direction, exhibiting a way of thinking, or mental model, called linear thinking. In a linear thought process, a person might view sea walls as shoreline fortifications that prevent erosion at no cost. [...]
The maps of other residents displayed more complex, two-way relationships, which indicated that these respondents thought about the environment as a system. With this line of thinking, known as systems thinking, someone might recognize that although sea walls provide structural integrity to a shoreline, they alter the way that water flows along the shore and could potentially accelerate erosion. [...]
[...] . "We explored the association of these two distinct clusters of mental models with many different aspects including education, age, political affiliation, homeownership," Aminpour said. "We found that, among those factors, urbanization and the percentage of shorelines armored with gray infrastructure had strong positive associations with the mental models of residents that showed more linear thinking."
[...] An important behavioral difference between the two was in the self-reporting of behaviors that favored the environment. Linear thinking, a trait largely manifested by urbanites, was linked closely to less pro-environmental action.
[...] "We can't yet say which comes first. Do you have systems thinking so you prefer to live in areas with more natural ecosystems, or does living in less urbanized areas make you develop systems thinking? We need more rigorous experiments to find out," Aminpour said.
Journal Reference:
Aminpour, P., Gray, S.A., Beck, M.W. et al. Urbanized knowledge syndrome—erosion of diversity and systems thinking in urbanites' mental models. [open] npj Urban Sustain 2, 11 (2022).
DOI: 10.1038/s42949-022-00054-0
(Score: 3, Troll) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 09 2022, @06:10PM (5 children)
What is surprising is that the editors find obvious study results interesting. Is there a lack of obvious studies where they live? Do they, therefore, not recognize obvious studies when they see them? Can we educate them, Clockwork Orange style, as to what constitutes a non-obvious study finding?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 09 2022, @06:58PM (1 child)
So says the suburbanite. I guess it would be obvious when you consider the natural environment of the 'burbs. You need that systems thinking approach to see the interactions of the traffic lights and how they'd affect your need to go either the Chick-fil-A over by the Hooters, or the one over by the Wendy's.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 09 2022, @08:43PM
Touche, except for the fact that the last time I patronized a Chick-fil-A it was in the Mall food court in 2014 - I think we got french fries and milkshakes...
Now, my father happens to work for Berry College which is funded in no small part by an endowment from Truett Cathy, but that doesn't mean we eat the food, or patronize any of that crap that congests the view on our commercial streets.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday May 10 2022, @08:13AM (2 children)
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @01:49PM
Perhaps, although after more than 24 hours the volume and nature of the comments on this story would suggest otherwise - at least relative to other posted submissions.
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @01:54PM
I do occasionally submit stories, though I rarely have time to do them justice in the summary editing department.
As I have mentioned in the polls, I feel like I would be an unreliable resource if I were to take on greater responsibilities.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday May 09 2022, @06:12PM (2 children)
Take someone out of a natural environment and they lose awareness of what a natural ecosystem even is.
Kind of obvious but at least now its not just anecdotal.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday May 09 2022, @07:46PM
That loss of awareness can definitely be a double-edged sword [youtu.be]. Publicizing urban forestry [usda.gov] is one thing that could improve awareness in peoples' local metropolitan centers. In developing nations, towns and cities sometimes have a weak city planning department, and you can visually tell the difference when there's no urban forestry component. In contrast, each town in a developed nation usually has a website for their local urban forestry component and a bunch of them have maps where you can walk around and check the trees out.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:44PM
It's interesting that it makes them less supportive of environmental legislation given the common accusation that it's the "big city liberals" trying to address climate change and pollution.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 09 2022, @06:25PM (2 children)
i think the only insight a urbanite needs to have, is, that everything once was "nature" and that their habitat is the concrete-jungle-product of many hands towards the goal of extracting rent. thus it seems not surprising that if presented with a natural untouched environment, maximum profit is the main goal ... after all the city works and it's totally un-natural, so hey ...
it's similar to how wealthy people holiday-flee to paradise island and demand the same luxuries they're "holidaying" from .. that includes foods that need to be refrigerated to not spoil and a coconut-tree clearing to install the diesel-generators and fuel tanks to run the air-conditioner in the humid "paradise". no laughing required.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 09 2022, @07:11PM (1 child)
There is nothing wrong with any of that on a Caribbean island. Keep the place clean, leave some natural areas, so what?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:44PM
The more "economically developed" Caribbean islands are starting to resemble stationary cruise ships - far from environmentally friendly, much closer to giant floating toilets - usually lacking in wastewater treatment.
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(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 09 2022, @07:50PM (1 child)
Your typical ghetto-dweller doesn't even know that his KFC comes from birds. Far cry from the good old days when his great-grandpappy would have known exactly how many chickens you could steal from the master's coop before anyone noticed them missing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 09 2022, @08:09PM
Your typical basement-dwelling incel hasn't been outside and has never even seen a bird. Far cry from the good old days when that incel's hick great-grandpappy would have known exactly how many of his siblings he could screw before one of his neighbors yelled, "Incest!"
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 09 2022, @09:31PM (1 child)
And where do most of our big Urban community elected officials live? In those big Urban cities. Makes sense that they promote, vote for and fund that linear thinking type processes.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:15PM
Considering the votes of all those urbanites count significantly less in our electoral system, no. Most of those politicians are not from, nor do they represent, those big urban community centers (where most of the people in this country live).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:26AM (1 child)
We live in a semi-rural area. I grew up in the suburbs, but was always interested in cities and rural areas, taking an interest in the contrasts of both. I lived *briefly* in the city, and like I said, a semi-rural area now where I can walk to places with livestock.
I've kept my yard mostly as bare dirt. My new neighbor added on to an existing concrete area, a big deck. There's almost no exposed land on his property now. It's runoff city, which is going to have impacts on some ecosystems here that are sensitive to excess runoff. He claims to have been raised in a rural area though--but also lived in Mexico, which I think might have something to do with it. He's building a retaining wall that has a style like no other wall I've seen in the neighborhood. A totally un-necessary wall of mixed block and concrete. It's like anything he can build outside, he is. It's starting to look like Homer Simpson's dream car over there. I can't believe any of that is good for the immediate environment, not to mention the carbon footprint of all the materials and truck-runs to get new stuff every weekend.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:41PM
If he's home building stuff and making local truck runs to the supply store, he's not on jet planes touristing around the planet. Carbon footprints are relative. Also, for every plate of rice and beans eaten instead of another serving of dead cow, that is probably worth approximately one square foot of concrete poured in his patio in carbon exchange.
Post-pandemic, I have cut around 180 commutes to/from the office per year out of my carbon release contribution - that should easily offset the patio we put in the backyard, and every meal we eat on that picnic table instead of in a restaurant is another significant reduction in emissions.
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