In this age of technology, we have changed our living habits. Urbanization has taken over previously rural areas and industries have been depleting natural vegetation and forest thereby increasing pollution and ultimately reducing air quality. Many environmentalists and scientists have been trying to come up with ways to reduce these detrimental effects.
One such method is to make green roofs which is a type of green infrastructure. A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. The number of layers may vary depending on the reason they are installed.
Green roofs serve several purposes for a building but the major ones include, the absorption of rainwater, providing insulation, providing an aesthetically pleasing landscape, lower urban air temperatures and mitigate the heat island effect.
The most important of all these functions is to reduce storm water overflow i.e. when there are heavy storms the city sewage treatment plant could not treat all of the waste so it overflows. This overflow cause water pollution when it is released into the ocean which is detrimental to oceanic ecosystems as well as the people who obtain their food from that surrounding areas.
Green roofs have the capability to hold large quantities of rain water depending on the area of the roof. This starts a chain reaction such as, reducing stress on the sewage system, lowering the temperature in the summer and increases it in the winter due to the evaporating effect of the water present in the roof layers thereby reducing the cost of central heating and cooling systems. Furthermore, these roofs help improve the air quality and the aesthetics of the building, which in turn reduces the stress level of the people working or living in it.
Initially green roofs are quite expensive to install, however, in the long run the cost is not so great compared to the benefits it yields. Therefore, the government and private owners should focus on green infrastructures such as green roofs to improve the quality of urban life.
After two months of learning about green technology, my knowledge about the topic has grown immensely. Today I want to talk about thermal depolymerization and hydrogen fuel cells which are two new emerging processes that can potentially change the field of energy. In 2015, 36% of energy was from petroleum oil, accounting for the highest percentage of energy usage and as a result, the resource has become more and more scarce. Using thermal depolymerization, any carbon based waste can be made into petroleum oil using high heat and pressure. This method is genius because it speeds up the natural process of creating petroleum that takes millions of years, creating hundreds of pounds of petroleum. This process can help solve the petroleum energy crisis, providing the necessary energy source for a world that is so dependent on oil. Hydrogen fuel cells are the second technology that can make a huge difference for the world. When oxygen and hydrogen are combined to make water, energy is produced because it is a exothermic reaction. As a result, this energy can be captured and used for electricity. However, both processes have flaws which cannot be ignored. Thermal depolymerization still presents the same current issue for the environment because of the burning of fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels creates gases that trap solar energy from the sun, contributing to the ongoing problem of global warming. Meanwhile, hydrogen fuel cells lack practicality because it requires energy to extract hydrogen to use for the reaction.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells: the main reaction involved.
Thermal Depolymerization: the difference in the time involved in the formation of petroleum (natural vs. thermal depolymerization).
Before Dr. Paul Mankiewicz had visited us in class, I had never thought I’d be introduced to an organization dedicated to bringing better harmony between human communities and the natural environment. Dr. Mankiewicz is the executive director of such an organization known as the Gaia Institute. As we all already know, most of our city’s soils have been continuously tired out and contaminated proving unfit for growing. This is usually man-made destruction on our environment. However, we have been discussing a lot about how storm water can become an issue. As a New York City resident, I am no stranger to seeing our sidewalks flooded so a storm water problem is evident. Even on Brooklyn College Campus, it is a dread to walk on rainy days when the ground is covered with yard long puddles that rather seem like small swimming pools. I have realized the Gaia Institute has a very important mission.
In pursuit of this new interest, I looked up more about he projects the Gaia Institute has been working on. One of the recent projects, beginning in 2002, involved the development of a storm water capture park called El Jardín del Paraíso in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They restored a local community garden which had high lead contamination and enhanced it by allowing it to capture stormwater. They would accomplish this with a special layering of the soil which has two very important components: lead-binding chemicals and porous soil. The chemicals include phosphorous, iron, and manganese which also help increase root growth and encourage burrowing worms and insects. This in turn allows for a porous soil layer which holds the storm water from nearby rooftops and gray water from nearby buildings which would be collected in a manner which transfers them to the soil. As a result of this design, the Gaia Institute is able to promote ecological diversity and health in the urban city of Manhattan.
Recently, protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) have garnered mass publicity via social media and the press. Newspapers and websites are covered in photographs of injured Native American protesters. The #NoDAPL movement has a running petition with over 350,000 signatures. Celebrity activists like Shailene Woodley, Mark Ruffalo, and even Bernie Sanders have expressed their opposition to the DAPL. In this blog post, I will attempt to elucidate the two sides of the dispute regarding the environmental debate on DAPL, which centers around the possibility of an oil spill.
First, what exactly is the Dakota Access Pipeline? This controversial $3.8 billion project aims to build a pipeline crossing 200 rivers that will connect oil production areas in North Dakota to pipelines in Illinois. It is about 60% constructed already. If completed, the network will transport nearly 470,000 barrels of sweet crude oil from Bakken and Three Forks in North Dakota to major US markets. However, the pipeline’s construction runs through the reservation lands of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The first Americans of this tribe claim that completion of the DAPL project will pollute the water supply, threaten public health, and violate the sanctity of the reservation.
Native Americans protest the DAPL.
Looking away from ethical arguments, the DAPL raises unclear environmental implications. Energy Transfer Partners, the company at the helm of the project, claims that the DAPL will significantly reduce truck and railroad transportation usage in the long term because the pipeline will serve as a more efficient mode of oil transfer. In turn, domestic oil production will go up and domestic energy independence will increase. Energy Transfer also says that the “new advanced pipeline technology” contains “tremendous safety factors” to protect against any risk of an oil spill.
On the other hand, the Standing Rock Sioux and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cast these illustrious claims into doubt. When the US Army Corps of Engineers originally presented the draft for DAPL to the EPA, the EPA warned them that the oil could leak into rivers – a warning that the Army Corps dismissed. Additionally, the recent shift of the pipeline path to under Lake Oahe concerns the Sioux because an oil spill there could contaminate the water supply for the rez inhabitants and ruin the aquatic ecosystem.
The Standing Rock Sioux have a strong environmental argument to avoid an oil spill in their waters. Oil spills are notorious forms of pollution because of the permanent damage they can wreak on a body of water and the organisms that rely on that water. They can block sunlight from passing through the water surface, which can be fatal to marine organisms. The oil can get stuck in the feathers and fur of nearby animals; many animals cannot float, choke to death, or become blind. Baby animals run the risk of starving to death if their parent cannot detect their scent under the coat of oil.
The level of environmental risk the DAPL poses to the reservation area differs depending on who you ask. Still, it’s clear that an oil spill would be catastrophic and the Standing Rock Sioux would have more to lose should one occur. I personally stand with the #NoDAPL movement in more ways than one, especially factoring in this nation’s history of Native American oppression and the shaky scientific basis that the pipeline technology rests on. For now, the Obama administration has asked Energy Transfer Partners to temporarily halt the progression of the pipeline, leaving the fate of the DAPL in limbo until all details are above ground.
Recent studies have shown that climate change is a problem that is very relevant and apparent in our world today. One of the steps that our city is taking towards conserving our resources and fighting climate change is the development of the NYC Green Infrastructure Program, which is led by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Green infrastructure is useful in that it is able to manage storm water runoff from streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and rooftops in order to conserve our water supply. Likewise, according to the article, “Importance of Water Conservation”, conserving water supply is great for our environment because fresh, clean water is a limited resource and converting salt water into “usable” water is an expensive process. With the Green Infrastructure Program, we will be able to reuse our water, thus, cutting down overall costs. The DEP also looks to use green infrastructure to reduce polluted runoff from running into our bodies of water. This is beneficial in several ways as it’s good for water animal lives as well as it helps to prevent global warming. Although I think this is a great program, one thing I’d like to see is the program being used more and for the DEP to spread the word about the program. In my opinion, I feel like not many people know about this program and how beneficial it is for our city. This could be because we’re not always seeing the program at work.
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