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As part of their ongoing Climate Connections series, National Public Radio is this week examining the environmental impact of American suburbs on the earth — and the increasingly time-strapped lifestyle of those that participate. As we’ve mentioned before in our article, “Can We Stay In The Suburbs?“, there is increasing doubt that such a sprawling pattern of living can ever be made sustainable. Author James Kunstler describes suburbia as, “the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.” This latest series from NPR only seems to solidify that statement. From the article,

Outside metropolitan Atlanta, one of the nation’s most congested cities, Michelle Carvalho’s dreamhouse is 3,000 square feet. It has five bedrooms, a two-car garage and a big yard. The tank in her Nissan Altima holds 20 gallons, and she fills up once every five days or so. So does her husband, Galileu. When the Carvalhos lived in the city, they only had one car. But when they moved to the suburbs, they needed two. Both get a lot of use. The amount of gasoline they burn is the biggest reason the family’s greenhouse gas emissions have more than doubled since they moved. The average Atlanta resident with a job drives 66 miles every day. In fact, people here drive so much that if you added up every commute and every trip to a store or soccer practice on just one day, you’d get a number that’s larger than the distance between the Earth and the sun.

Really incredible. But even more depressing is the attitude that the American dream somehow makes it all “worth it.”

“There’s no way that we can use public transportation living in this area,” he said. “I mean, I wake up at 4:15 already.” So, while the Carvalhos feel the blows their lifestyle delivers to their budget, they’re not as aware of its impact on global climate change. “I never really thought about it,” Galileu said. “Because we get so caught up with day-to-day activities, that we do what we need to do to get through that day.” Still, when Michelle weighs all of her priorities, she’s happy with the decision to move to their big, beautiful house. “While somewhere on my priority list, being environmentally conscious is on there, but it’s not going to be as high as what can I afford, what does my family need,” Michelle said.

NPR’s look at American suburbs continues all this week. Jump on over to the site to follow along.