We’ve all heard about ecological footprints.
We’ve all done the surveys. In college, I was over three planet Earths. Currently,
as a grad student, I’m 4.1 Earths. But
how can that be? I consider myself as a sustainable person. I would like to
believe I’m doing my part in conserving whatever natural resources the world holds, but I still need 4.1 Earths. But I live in New York
City! I don’t own a car and I take public transportation everywhere! I became a vegetarian (okay, pescetarian) a month ago! But 4.1 Earths? That is still 3.1 more Earths than the
world has, and I’m not the only human being living on it. And sadly, I am
actually conscious about my impact on Earth. How will this number differ if I
actually did not care, not one bit?
As Wackernagel and Rees explain in their
analysis of an ecological footprint, city developments are “among the most
spectacular achievements of human civilization”. But place a glass dome over an
urban region, and the population will disappear within a few days. So no,
simply by living in a city does not mean you are ‘off the hook’ on being
sustainable, as many would like to believe.
“I don’t own a car and ride the subway everywhere, therefore I don’t
need to do anything else. “ Wrong. New York City residents still have the
option to purchase cars (in fact- my family just bought their first car 2
months ago), we can still buy
our gala apples that were grown from New Zealand, and we certainly can fly to
anywhere in the world from any of our THREE airports. Simply by living in one
of the largest urban areas do not necessarily deem an individual to be very
sustainable, nor should New Yorkers stop striving to become someone even more
green.
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| Imagine NYC is this mini-terrarium... (terrarium made by twirlingbetty, a fellow blogger) |
On a broader level, how does New York City think
it is doing in sustainability? A quick search on the NYC’s sustainability indicators, show that NYC has sustainability targets for 2030, and it is
currently on the trajectory to reaching those targets. Some city goals
include ways to create more affordable and sustainable city housing and neighborhoods,
ensure New Yorker’s living within walking distance to a park, and clean up all
brownfields. While my personal project may be to eat no meat, and others to
purchase less or eat more locally, the city also has their own sustainability
goals. Although NYC is viewed as fairly sustainable, globally, everyone has to
do their part to encourage a more effective and efficient use of current resources.
That might mean New York City has to find methods to clean up their brownfields
and perhaps use it as residential land space. After all, Staten Island is one giant
landfill, and has a population of almost half a million people. Creative ways to use a past dump site? Yes, please. Tax deductions for greenroofing New York City buildings? Why not? Competitions to design micro-apartments to downsize lifestyles? Perhaps. There is no reason why New York City and its residents should not continue to strive to be more sustainable, because like me, while 4.1 is low, it certainly does not mean perfect.
I LOVE all the projects going on in NYC for local food, largely relying on roof space & reclaiming abandoned spaces (Brooklyn Grange, Bright Farms, etc). The country has a lot to learn from the scrappy start-ups, but I wonder how we expand these projects and get more than the nation's largest city to buy in? I'm constantly thinking of ways to make these ideas appealing to my rural, drive-everywhere hometown. We have a river, green spaces & loads of farms... but we're not UTILIZING any of it. I realize this isn't furthering the discussion; it's restating the quandary we're always in. How do we get people to DO it? I was shocked that I'm trying so hard to reduce my impact & still racked up 4 earths. How can we make this a conversation that doesn't leave us all feeling defeated?
ReplyDeleteI actually think that sustainability in a city might be a bit harder and that might be because of the sheer amount of people you have to convince to do something they dont want to do. Sustainability in a city might also be easier because there are all these people who collectively can make change happen. That might not be possible in a smaller town. Initially, I personally would not peg New York City has a sustainable city, but that is based off of my small knowledge of their sustainability efforts. When I think of sustainable cities, I think of Portland and Vancouver. But we need to change that! When we think of sustainable cities, we should be thinking of every major city! We just need to figure out a way to get us there. When I think of big cities, I think of garbage, alleys, and taxi cabs, but what we should be thinking of is tree-lined boulevards, green roofs, and wide open spaces!
ReplyDeleteI think finding places to put trash/ways to reduce trash is an important part of being environmentally friendly for big cities since so many people in a small area can create a lot of garbage. I didn't realize Staten Island was built on a landfill...I also found this video which describes how a landfill in Pennsylvania was turned into a park. This could help to attract wildlife and increase biodiversity, although I'm not sure about potential impacts of trash and chemicals on wildlife. Three-eyed fish? http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video?id=6819666
ReplyDeleteI've always assumed that it's pretty difficult for a city to have several sustainable options. However, I love the whole idea of green roofs. It is a great way to deal with lack of space and cope with the heat. Since green roofs provide more cooling than effective insulation, it is a great way to reduce electrical expenditures and is perfect during the summer months. It would also lead to more rainfall, aesthetic beauty and community awareness. If green roofs buildings could have affordable living arrangements, a lot more people would be open to the idea and willing to live in those apartments.. and maybe/hopefully get more environmentally conscious.
ReplyDeleteI was happy to see that New York is offering tax-credits for green roofing. For me, it is a nice reminder that some cities are being proactive about sustainability. I come from suburbia, where it would be unheard of (and against regulations) to install a green roof or native vegetation in place of a traditional lawn. Hopefully New York's actions, as well as the actions of other big cities, will have a positive effect on their suburbs.
ReplyDeleteI kind of laughed when you talked about all the things New York is doing and didn't mention anything about their three airports, I see enormous potential for making those more efficient (since by sheer population I can imagine they three). And I also hope that when you talked about "creat(ing) more affordable and sustainable city housing and neighborhoods, ensur(ing) New Yorker’s living within walking distance to a park, and clean(ing) up all brownfields" that by creating New York means to fix old housing areas or building on top of reclaimed brownfields and not just building outward more, and that a park doesn't just mean a lot of trees and grass. But bravo New York on cleaning up brownfields, most of the jobs I wanted before I came to grad school dealt with brownfield cleanup and design (part of my ideal job is taking brownfields and creating amazingly sustainable things with them).
ReplyDeleteThough I've always wondered how you take a city, doesn't need to be as populous as New York though it adds to the question, that was designed around open land and un-environmental laws and transform it into a sustainable city, potentially one you can drop a dome onto? Clearly you can't do it quickly, but if the overall layout of the city is so far out of sync with the whole One World living style we seek, how can you redesign old, large cities without telling everyone to leave for a decade while we renovate? This isn't some HGTV show where we can just move the people out of the city and make it all better over a few years.
You asked how your ecological footprint would differ if you did not care at all. I decided to go back and calculate mine as if I was a senior in high school again, a time when I was largely uneducated about (and frankly did not care about) sustainable practices. Doing this my score went from the current 4 up to 4.8. I was actually a little shocked that it didn't jump higher than that!
ReplyDeleteI remember when I first heard that the city was "going green"- now I feel like I see signs for "The Green Apple" every time I have a chance to visit.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to what you mentioned, New York has taken other initiatives to lower their ecological footprint (by investing hybrid buses, and even hybrid taxis). Originally Bloomberg was trying to get it mandated that all taxis in NYC be hybrid, but he was met with resistance by the taxi companies (of course). They took the city to court, and the initiative was shot down. I don't recall hearing any updates since last year.
I think it is absolutely asinine that members of a community, and their government are met with resistance when they want to implement a regulatory measure that has such great promise. When you have such widespread support from the individuals who are being affected, how you do you convince those who are resistant (in this case the taxi companies) to give their support? I guess that is something we are trying to figure in this class.