NYC: Smart Growth Ideas

New York City is a very big city, home to millions of people. NYC is also home to many minorities, but they are usually in slums or are not given any basic living standards. Smart growth can easily help with this issue. Environmental cleanup can help African Americans and other minorities deal with leaking underground storage tanks. The New Brownfield Act can also deal with cleanup of environmentally dangerous places, most of which are near slums or disadvantaged communities. Making laws to prevent white New Yorkers from moving from black communities will prevent sprawl in the city. These laws will make city life much easier for everyone.




This chart from National Equity Atlas shows how the minority group in NYC has grown over the years. It is at a point where the minorities outnumber the white Americans. This is all the more reason to try to help these groups to live better lives.

Environmental Justice Chapter Reflections #2

This selections of chapters got a lot of different reactions from me. The chapter on development of cities surprised me the most. I had always assumed development of cities was the same for all sections. Then again, if that were true, slums probably would not exist. As for the rest of the chapters, the info didn't really surprise me that much. Learning about the MPOs was fun and enlightening. All the info on renewable energy, and damage form Hurricane Katrina was still things I had some knowledge of. All of that only proves that cities need to be developed to deal with the issues of the time. They need to protect everyone from dangerous storms, combat using fossil fuels, and better city planing will make life better for everyone.

Environmental Justice Chapter Reflections #1

A common thread I found in all of the chapters was the mistreatment of minorities. Whether they were latino or black, it was the same story; they were either living in terrible industrial areas, had poor food options, or suffered from general race issues. Admittedly I knew about this stuff for a while, and it will only get better if we work together. The people and the government need to step up and do something about this. I'm sure plenty of people want to live in a world where everyone is treated fairly.

NYC Master Plan: Transportation

In New York City, one of the main issues the city plans to tackle is transportation. NYC is a huge city with millions of people so improvements must be made to make it better. Among the many initiatives the city has, they plan to improve existing transit services, expand the city's bike network and transit network, improve roads, highways and bridges, make transportation safer for people of disabilities, etc. As NYC is a huge city, transportation and traffic is a huge problem. If these improvements are made, perhaps things will get better for the people living there.







#One NYC: The Plan for a Strong and Just City, 2015. http://www1.nyc.gov/html/onenyc/visions/growth/goal-6-growth.html#initiatives

NYC Environmental Justice Alliance

In NYC, there is a nonprofit organization called NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. Their job is to work with other organizations in NYC to improve environmental conditions and attack environmental  burdens. These goals are to help minorities in equal living conditions. A number of projects that try to   do in NYC is the Waterfront Justice Program, Solid Waste Management Plan, developing brownfield areas, and making the city more environmental friendly with various promotion (Climate March) and brining green jobs to the city. All of these things are very important to NYC. Since the city is one of the largest of the world, there are a lot of minorities in the city. Giving equality to those people will follow the city to move forward and be a better place.

Environmental Justice: What is it?

Environmental justice is giving people fair rights of living. These people in need of help are minorities that often get the short end of the stick when it comes to the standard of living. They deal with issues such as poverty, poor air quality, segregation, living in poor neighborhood, no access to a vehicle, and many more. For these reasons, countless people are trying to give minorities the rights they deserved since day one.

Reacting to An Inconvenient Truth

In all honesty, this film doesn't really surprise me. The information was nothing new; I had previously learned about everything discussed in the film from previous classes and experiences. However, the film did hammer the point of climate change and the need to do something to fix the situation. As a future environment scientist, I plan to convince others to change the world and protect the environment. This is certainly something we need to address and tackle in order to preserve the way of life. Things are changing way too quickly; we need do something about climate change now to make the world a better place.

Sources:

David, L., Bender, L., & Burns, S. Z. (Producers), & Guggenheim, D. (Director). (2006). An Inconvenient Truth [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Classics.

India and Cities: Mumbai

India is not a very urbanized nation, but India does contain a lot of huge cities. One such city is Mumbai. At 21 million immigrants, it is one of the most heavily populated cities in the world. In the future, the population will increase, according to the UN World Urbanization Prospect Report. Since Asia is one of the continents that will contribute to urbanization in the next few decades, Mumbai will certainly increase in density. This could pose terribly for their resources and sustainability in general; the more people are in the city, the more resources they use up. The more resources the city uses, the less sustainable the city is. The growing population will prove to be a big issue for sustainability.


United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Populations Division, 2014. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, Highlights (ST/ESA/SER.A/352).

Urbanized. Directed by Gary Hustwit. London: Swiss Dots.

India and Food

In India, the country suffers from food insecurity. One of the main reasons for this food insecurity is due to the climate and land use.  They consist of many different forces. Some of the major environmental issues India faces continue include erratic rainfall, low soil sustainability, severe land degradation and dry and cold areas with low production potential (FAO, map). These factors can limit the amount of land used for agriculture and, therefore, have less land to produce crops. In order to improve the amount of crops, farmers need to diversify the sources in rain-fed areas (FAO, Programmes and projects). Help is also needed to support farmers to better adjust to the changing weather.







FAO, 2016. "Programs and projects." Report.
http://www.fao.org/india/programmes-and-projects/en/ [Downloaded 31 October 2016]


FAO, 2016. "Major Environmental Constraints." Map. http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/maps/map/en/?iso3=IND&mapID=604 [Downloaded 31 October 2016]

India and Health: Leading cause of death is............

In terms of health concerns for India, India has plenty of health care options like many other urbanized nations. However, India still has plenty of causes of deaths. According to WHO country profile, the leading cause of death in India is Ischaemic heart disease (also known as coronary artery disease), killing 1215.4 people in 2012. Coronary artery disease is caused when plaques form in the arteries, causing the blood leading the heart to be blocked (Health Grades, 2016). Thankfully, the disease can easily be treated and reduced with some lifestyle changes, including exercise, not smoking, having a healthy diet, and having a healthy body weight (Health Grades, 2016). While obesity isn't a big issue in India, India is a sparsely urban nation, with 32% of people living in urban areas (WHO, 2015). Perhaps the people that live in the cities most likely run the risk of getting coronary artery disease. Perhaps, in order to combat coronary artery disease, those that live in the cities need to be careful with what they do to prevent their chances to get this disease.



"Ischaemic heart disease." Medical Review. 14 September 2016 URL: https://www.healthgrades.com/conditions/ischemic-heart-disease [downloaded October 27 2016.]

Social Integration: Cultural Acceptance Between Indians and Africans

One of the biggest issues plaguing the world in terms of social integration is racism. India is no exception. In this article by the Indian Express, several diplomats and intellectuals are brainstorming ideas to curb the racism Indians have with the Africans that live in India. They believe that this racism stems from hierarchy in the caste system (which is surprisingly a good argument if one remembers the history Africans had as slaves to the British, American, and of course, Indian population). This results in multiple acts of violence the Africans that wish to live peacefully in India. If there is all this fighting between races, then they can't work together to protect the environment. Issues such as this tends to shine in the spotlight.

Planetary Constraints on India: Emissions due to Agriculture

India is well known for agriculture. In fact, one of the main industries in India is agriculture. However, agriculture releases CO2 into the atmosphere, even more so than cars and factories. Since India relies heavily on agriculture, it is the second largest CO2 emitter due to agriculture, right behind China, see in chart below. In order for India to move toward sustainable development, farms need to use more sustainable farming methods.

India and South Korea

India and South Korea are very different in a lot of ways, but also very similar. India and South Korea are different sized countries. India is much bigger than South Korea. As such, India would logically have more resources than South Korea. Despite that, South Korea is more urbanized then India. This is due to the fact of less land as well as India having its resources in a few select areas.

Both countries are very industrialized, and they contain some of most successful companies on Fortune 500 list. However, when it comes to using renewable resources, South Korea is more willing to use sustainable energy than India. This is due to the fact that one of India's main resources is oil. This would definitely be hard for India to not break.

The History of India

Though India had been around from thousands of years, it wasn't a colonizer. However, some nations did create trading posts in India in the end of the 15th century. These countries include Britain, France, and Denmark. India is considered a laggard in industrialization, due to the country being poor in land and resources. Today, it is considered a newly industrialized nation and has the seventh largest economy in the world. There are seven Fortune 500 located in India: Indian Oil, which is #161 on the list, Reliance Industries, which is at #215 on the list, Tata Motors at #226, State Bank of India at #232, Bharat Petroleum at #358, Hindustan Petroleum at #367, and Rajesh Exports at #423. India is known for many types of production, some include agriculture, oil, textiles, pharmaceuticals, jewelry, engineering, and mining. As for politics, India isn't truly a democratic nation. It has the characteristics of both democratic and republican traits.

After learning about India, sustainability could be an obstacle. Considering one of the major resources India has is oil, it'll be hard to use sustainable energy instead of oil. However, perhaps if India, one of the largest oil producers in the world, went with sustainable energy over oil, other countries will follow their lead and find more environmentally friendly energy methods.

The State of India

Below is data for the country of India:

Table 1.  Common Demographic and Economic Development Indicators: Recent Data for the India
	India	India
Indicator:	Value:	Year:	Source:
GDP	2.074 trillion	2015	WDI
GDPPC, PPP	1, 581.589	2015	WDI
HDI	0.609	2014	UNDP
Life Expectancy	68.014	2014	WDI
Educational Attainment (mean years of school for women, 25+)	4.4	2012	UNDP
Infant Mortality (infant deaths per 1,000)	37.9	2015	WDI
Crude Death Rate (deaths per 1,000)	7.339	2014	WDI
Fertility Rate (total fertility rate)	2.427	2014	WDI
Urbanization Rate (% urban)	31.295	2011	Gapminder
Urban Growth (urban population growth)	2.4 %	2014	Trading Economics

After looking over the data above, I was quite surprised by it. Despite how much money India makes, they are not a very urban country. It really does say a lot about India as a whole.

Below are some of the charts I found most interesting on India:


CO2 emissions 

Number of Births per Women

Substainability

Sustainability is something I never really thought over too much. I had always assumed that it was ways in order to preserve the environment. In a way, I was right, but there was more to the term than I initially thought. After reading the first chapter of The Age of Sustainable Development, I was impressed with how broad the term really is. It can mean dealing with the environment, economics, government, and society. With that said, sustainability is useful for discussion on the world at large and ways to improve the quality of life. We can look at this subject in multiple ways and find new solutions. We can also examine our entire life structure and learn from it. I find it quite amazing how sustainability is broad and open to debate.


For the upcoming project on examining a country, my first choice would be India. My second choice would probably be Italy.

Reaction to The Bet

After reading The Bet by Paul Sabin, I found myself enjoying the material. It was a good book with a great background on both Ehrlich and Simon and how conflicted they were on climate change. Not to mention, both sides were considered valid, which goes into the bulk of my opinion towards Simon oddly enough. Despite my background in Environmental Science, I found Simon more sensible than Paul Ehrlich. This book made me better appreciate the economic side of the climate change debate.

Hoff's review of The Bet  has an attitude to the book that the rest of my class share. While he praises the book for highlighting the bet between Ehrlich and Simon, he notes that Sabin is "fair-minded to a fault" (Hoff, 2015). Much like my class, Hoff believes Sabin's book is too balanced to the point where he refuses to show the extremes of the bet. As Hoff explains, " Sabin is too kind, and too eager to avoid coming across as biased environmentalist" (Hoff, 2015), which I also agree with.


Hoff, 2015

Climate Change Not Caused by Man

In a new article by Politico, French politician Nicolas Sarkozy stated that climate change is not caused by man, believing that climate change has existed for billions of years. The web news site this article came from seems to focus on more political stories rather than environmental ones. Even the author, Hortense Goulard, focuses on more political topics. As such, the authors of this story probably would see climate change in a different point of view than most others on the matter, like environmentalists.

With that said, there is a complete lack of scientific views or environmental evidence to Sarkozy's claim. (Admittedly he's not completely wrong. The Ice Age was a thing due to climate change, and the humans that existed back then were not advanced as they are today.) My problem with his train of thought is that he contradicts himself. The article stated that he once upon the time believed climate change was caused by man(and it links to a French article where he defends the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]).

This begs the question. How and when did his views on climate changed? Did he just change his views to appeal to majority to remain in the government or did something happened that changed his mind? Was he convinced by a close friend about the relationship between man and climate change or did a politician did that? I may never know the answer to that question, but I will never stop speculating.

Costa Rica Going Green

In one of the more recent articles from Vox, Costa Rica has been using nothing but renewable energy(such as hydropower dams and geothermal energy) to power their electricity for 76 days striaght. While the article does state Costa Rica is not completely green yet, it also states it'll be much harder for other countries, such as the US to follow in its footsteps. The author of this article, Brad Plumer, seems to focus on a lot of environmental stories (both good and bad) and takes an unbiased and educated look at the issue. The result is usually that the story has its positives and its negatives, as is the case with this story.

However, I can't help but feel the hopefulness of this success story in Costa Rica is very misleading. As mentioned Costa Rica is not completely free from fossil fuels. They still use cars that run on diesel and gasoline and the country has two cement plants that burn coal. I feel as though this part of the article was pushed to the side and not really given that much attention overall. If the author truly wanted this to be a positive, the author would try to mention how Costa Rica still has a lot of work to do to be 100% on renewable energy.

Another omission I noticed was how the author stated that other countries will never be able to follow  in Costa Rica's advancements 100% due to a number of factors. For example, he mentions the US damming up every river in the country can lead to people being displaced and geothermal energy is limited by location. Personally, I feel Plumer is giving the US too little credit. Sure, the country as a whole hasn't really made any huge strides in eco-friendly technology compared to other countries, but the people are extremely innovative and are clever enough to think of a reasonable solution.

Malthusian and Neo-Malthsian Thoughts

After learning about both Malthusian and Neo-Malthsian ideas in the book The Bet, I have very different reactions to each of them. Firstly, I agree with the Malthusian ideals about population and how we are growing faster than the planet can replenish them (similar to The Tragedy of the Commons). I have always believed the human population is growing faster than the resources restore themselves.

Neo-Malthsian ideas, on the other hand, sound a little too extreme to my liking. Neo-Malthsians follow the basic ideas of Malthusian but takes it even further. Such Neo-Malthsians, such as Paul Ehrlich, try to "tackle controversial issues such as birth control, abortion and women's rights" (Sabin p.37) and Ehrlich's organization Zero Population Growth try to "legalize abortion and the removal of restrictions on contraception in the interest of population control" (Sabin p.37). I don't agree with the idea of forced abortions for the need of a "smaller family". Women deserve to have a say in whether they wish to have children and how many they should have. It is their right to decide if they want an abortion, not on some random organization. They deserve a say in this.



Reference:
Sabin, Paul.  2014.  The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and OurGamble over Earth’s Future.  New Haven: Yale UP

Commenting on the Passaic River Cleanup

I have very mixed feelings about the article on the Passaic River cleanup. On one hand, I can appricate the EPA's efforts to restore the Passaic River of pollution for recreation and other notable reasons. On the other hand, I can't help but agree with the critiques of Jeff Tittel, the president of the NJ Sierra Club. In the article, he states the EPA was doing the bare minimum to clean the pollution and they doesn't even punish the companies responsible for polluting the river. I agree with his ideas. I feel in order to solve a problem you need to get to the root of the problem(i.e. the companies that caused the problem). The EPA should at least go off with a warning that they need to clean their mess if this happens again.

Another problem I find with this article is what they are cleaning. In the picture shown to the right, they are only cleaning part of the river. Rivers do have currents and the pollution can travel all throughout the river. I feel if the EPA truly want to clean the river, they need to they should clean the whole river (or at least where the pollution starts, which the article never states).

Besides this, I can still understand the EPA's need to clean this river for the good of the community. For more information on the subject, click here.