And more are needed, more than ever. We can and must do better to protect the natural places that remain. We must restore sites that have been polluted, and design systems that break an unhealthy relationship with growth. Everyone can comprehend this quickly and realize that uncontrolled growth can be threatening to our survival. Everyone also senses that some kinds of growth are natural.
All life grows.
But, it doesn't necessarily require growth, that is expanded community size. A community might be compared to a human being. Human growth after maturity becomes cancer. When a town continues to grow after maturity, its cancer is manifest in many ways - higher taxes, environmental degradation, spiteful controversy, and loss of a sense of community. But development is quite different from growth.