Live in the Suburbs, Kill the Earth

Study finds city dwellers use far less CO₂ than suburbanites

By ZACH CHRISTMAN

Updated 1:44 PM CST, Thu, Jul 30, 2009

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You know it's not good. Why don't you do something about it?

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Listen up, all you suburbanites. If we're going to make it through the looming disaster that scientists tell us climate change will bring, you're going to have to step up your game.

While living in the burbs may look more green to you -- with manicured lawns and well-trimmed hedges as far as they eye can see -- as it turns out, it's about as carbon heavy a lifestyle as you can get.

A study by the Center for Neighborhood Technology found that people who live in cities produce far less greenhouse gases than suburbanites, the Sun-Times noted.

No surprise, the biggest difference comes in simply getting around. City dwellers can lead happy, full lives on 70 percent less carbon emissions than their suburban friends, the CNT study found. Plus, they have more dining options.

CNT doesn't want to just browbeat the suburban dwellers about how much gas they guzzle (even though transportation is responsible for almost 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions). The group put it in terms anyone can understand -- money. When you take transportation and housing expenses into account, it's cheaper for you to live in the city, or at least near a Metra line you can get to without driving.

The average Chicagoan can save more than $11,000 a year by ditching their car and taking public transportation, the American Public Transportation Association estimates. That would buy a heck of a lot of paella at Cafe Ba Ba Ree Ba.

CNT put together a handy map of the area that breaks down the most cost-efficient places to live when you take into account transportation expenses. They also broke down the best and worst areas in Chicago for carbon emissions per household.

In the city, the Pilsen and Irving Park neighborhoods had some of the lowest emissions, 3 or less metric tons per household per year. That's pretty good when you compare it to towns with some of the highest emissions -- Naperville (8.3 tons), Flossmoor, (9 tons) and Algonquin (10.2 tons) and, farther out, Yorkville, which topped out at 11.7 tons per household per year.

So come on, move to the city. There's plenty of room here for all of us.