metro-nation

[Benjamin Zimmer]

* metro-nation = 'metropolitanized nation'

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http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/16/300.million.main/index.html
Vicky Markham, director of the Center for Environment and Population,
said the United States has become a "supersize, metro-nation with a
fast-growing population, and supersize appetites for housing, land and
resource consumption."
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"Metro-nation" was apparently coined for CEP's recently released "U.S.
National Report on Population and the Environment":

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http://cepnet.org/documents/USNatlReptFinal.pdf
For the first time in its history, the U.S. is primarily a "metro
nation", with the average person more likely to be surrounded by other
people and the infrastructure necessary to support them, than by the
expanses of land and natural resources that surrounded earlier
generations of Americans. This "metro-centered" lifestyle differs from
urban-centered lifestyles in that it requires extensive use of motor
vehicles and rapid, extensive land development. Urban-centered
lifestyles depend more on public transportation and use of already
existing infrastructure to support a growing population.
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The report also elaborates on "super-size nation" (a blend of
"Super-Size Me" and "Fast Food Nation"?):

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The U.S. has become a "super-size" nation, with lifestyles reflected
in super-sized appetites for food, houses, land and resource
consumption. In fact, "more of more" seems to characterize modern day
America – more people than any generation before us experienced, more
natural resources being utilized to support everyday life, and now,
more major impacts on the natural systems that support life on Earth.
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--Ben Zimmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org