Author: alicejisoochoi

Pouring Contaminated Water into Coney Island Creek

The main thing that I learned in this Macaulay Seminar was that creating a sustainable world means everyone must take part in caring for the environment. My group is specifically looking at the solutions for Coney Island Creek, and researching the reasons why it got to be one of the dirty dozens and violate the Clean Water Act in the first place. We have learned that a combination of uncaring actions from residents and lack of care from government officials has led Coney Island Creek to suffer from events like CSO and flooding.

According to an article from Brooklyn Daily New York approved a permit “for the city to pour up to 7.2 million gallons of filtered, contaminated groundwater into Coney Island Creek every day for up to two years while the city upgrades sewer and water mains in Coney’s west end.” The problem is these waters have heavy metal that can pollute bodies of water and harm wildlife living in parks and beaches near the area. Officials claim that these metals will not reach dangerous concentrations since it will be diluted once poured into the large bodies of water. I believe this is the exact reasoning that has lead Coney Island Creek to deteriorate in quality like it has. Every little action we take can either improve or worsen the quality of Coney Island Creek. It is even worse that government officials do not seem to be transparent about their actions and are not always experts in the affects of water. I hope that our project can convince some people to use water conservatively and realize that we must work together to protect the safety of out water for future generations.

Battery Park Teaches Sustainability

My trip to Battery Park City was a wonderful experience, and gave me more hope that a sustainable future is possible. Although I have lived in the city since I was 5 years old, I never truly had a chance to take in the beauty of Battery Park City. In addition, I had no idea that the area was known for using water in a way that models sustainability. I met up with Maryia and we embarked on a journey of discovering water it meant to use water wisely.

My first stop was the 9/11 Memorial. Going at night and looking at the street lights bringing the infrastructure to life made it look all the more beautiful. Not only was I touched at what the memorial stood for, but I was impressed with how the water used in the fountains is not wasted. I read that 16 pumps circulate 480,000 thousand gallons of recycled water. The Memorial pools are the largest man-made waterfalls in the country, pumping 52,000 gallons of recycled water per minute. The way the fountains use water conservatively made me believe that it would be possible to use recycled water in our everyday water systems as well.

Next, we visited the Jeff Koons Balloon flower. Not only did this fountain have an appealing, artistic look, but is a homage to 9/11 survivors. Fountains and other structures like these can collect runoff and use grey water and rainwater to create art. Art in general can definitely help educate people on the fate of city stormwater, as it grabs people’s attention and allows them to see there are solutions to the problems.

Last, we visited the Solaire Building and Tear Drop Park. It was so interesting to see the building in-person after watching the detailed video on it during class. All the water used in the building is irrigated with reclaimed black and gray water. This is true even for the public bathrooms in the park. The building reduced water consumption by 50% compared to other building similar to it. The membrane bioreactor-based wastewater treatment and recycling system installed in the building’s basement is what makes all of this possible. Having a building and park that is sustainable on its own made me realize that every building can and should implement changes that reduce water consumption.

These structures in our own city can be a model for how sewer systems operate. Residents have been shown that it is possible to use water conservatively and make a sustainable world. This knowledge can also be implemented into our sewer sheds and fix the problem with flooding and CSOs too. My sewer shed, Coney Island, is one of the dirty dozens and is in great need of change. Having systems that filter our water and collect runoff will greatly reduce the negative impacts of CSOs. We can only hope that the increase in green infrastructure will occur sooner than later. Overall, this trip to Battery Park City was a wonderful learning experience that I am thankful I got to have.

Floating Cities a Reality

With the rise in water levels rising slowly due to climate change, a great concern has been having cities under water. Scientists have been working hard to prevent the rise in sea levels, but some are wondering if there is an alternate way to swerve the problem. Cities that lay floating in the middle of the sea has been something seen only science fiction movies. However, with the concern of rising water levels greater than ever, floating cities seem to be something that is not so far from our reach.

Organizations are now attempting to convince others that seasteading, or having self-sustaining cities floating in international waters,  is not such a crazy idea. According to The New York Times, “At the center of the effort is the Seasteading Institute, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco.” Of course, many are skeptical, and it will no doubt be expensive and time-consuming to research ways that seasteading will be possible. Despite this, firm believers are convinced seasteading is more than just a far-fetched dream, and companies are working hard to make it a reality.

Although I believe floating cities will look beautiful and that with enough work it can be done, I believe that it is important to make it that we never need floating cities in the first place. We must create a sustainable world with the resources we have now, instead of looking for alternative ways of living for when we destroy the Earth.

Alaska’s Permafrost is in Danger

We all know that a huge consequence of climate change is the fact that our water supply would be in danger and our sea waters would rise. This is especially true for The Arctic.

According to scientists from Woods Hole Research Center,”the most urgent is the fate of permafrost, the always-frozen ground that underlies much of the state.”

This permafrost contains twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere, from plants that took carbon dioxide from the environment centuries ago. Scarily, once this permafrost thaws, microbes can convert some of it into carbon dioxide and methane, causing even more warming to our already endangered planet. Not to mention, the wildlife and residents who live around the area would experience harmful, drastic changes. 

Out negligence to fix the issue of climate change with urgency is creating much more damage to our earth than raising its temperature. It is affecting our water supply, and directly melting structures of ice vital to keeping homeostasis to our environment. We must conserve not only the water that we drink, but the water that gives structure and protection to places such as the arctic. With a combination of green and grey infrastructure and governments coming together to set a clear path to a sustainable world, we can stop Alaska’s permafrost from thawing completely and preserve the Earth for many future generations to come.

Climate change and our health

For decades, climate change has been spoken about as if it is an issue that will be felt in generations. This seems to be a large reason why so many people are not taking action to combat it- they believe that climate change will not affect them in their lifetime. However, scientists have been warning us that changes have been slowly occurring for decades, and that finding sustainable ways of life is critical. A new study finds that not only is climate change an environmental issue, but it is a problem that is negatively affecting the health of millions of people right at this moment.

A prestigious scientific journal called The Lancet, published findings that reveal how climate change is currently impacting public health.  For example, the journal states that “Changing weather patterns are already altering the transmission patterns of infectious diseases, resulting in unexpected outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, cholera, tick-born encephalitis, and West Nile virus.” These diseases can affect children, elderly, and low-class citizens, and be felt by everyone emotionally and economically. In addition, climate change causes unpredictable weather shifts that make raising crops difficult and increases natural disasters such as hurricane and flooding. The great progress medical fields and global health communities have made to combat world hunger and infectious disease can be reversed just from the use of fossil fuels. It it clearer than ever that not only is climate change an environmental issue, but a health issue that can bring death and suffering to millions.

Although these new findings can be scary, they can be reversed. I believe that scientists and government officials must work together to create policy that can reduce the use of polluting substances, and eventually protect the health of citizens around the world. It is vital that we make changes not only for future generations or the environment, but for the sake of the health of everyone living today. This new study should inspire others to create a world where we are sustainable.

Water Sustainability With Fashion

It is no secret that Michigan has dealt with a horrifying water crisis, that forced citizens to find alternative ways of getting water. It is astonishing to think this problem has been going on since April of 2014. Because of this tragedy, many Flint residents have been forced to buy a large supply of water bottles for their everyday needs. Unfortunetly, water pollution in Flint has been causing another type of pollution as well- plastic pollution. Plastic contributes to most of the trash floating in our oceans today, killing sea creatures and creating a damaging cycle that can pollute our water even further. Although using plastic water bottles is not a choice that Flint residents have at the moment, it is clear that this is not a sustainable way of receiving water and that the problem needs to be fixed starting from its roots. This scenario is the perfect example of why sustainability is crucial to keeping our Earth green. This temporary solution is polluting our waters even further.

Artist Mel Chen brings some light into this situation by using the plastic bottles in Flint to make raincoats, swimwear, and other clothing. He states that this can create jobs and climate a large amount of plastic from polluting the earth. Chen gives us hope that there are many creative and unthought ways we can eliminate waste from our waters. However, we must work to find ways where we will be creating minimal waste to begin with, so solutions like these would not be necessary.

Algae in Lake Erie

Lake Erie Erie is a common water source for citizens living in surrounding towns. Unfortunately, an overuse of fertilizer on the region’s farmland has been creating an algae problem that has been growing since the 2000s. This is a huge issue, as algae blooms have been linked to being toxic in the past. These algae blooms are only increasing, threatening the health of over 3 million people, and hurting the economy by decreasing the ability to fish and attract tourists.

Although agriculture is necessary, it is clear that we need to rethink the way we grow our food if it is affecting water supply as negatively as these algae blooms. Lake Erie is not currently regulated through the Clean Water Act, despite the problem being very well known. It seems that when there is a health risk, government officials are very slow to address the issue. Flint, Michigan is the most popular example of this, but this lesser known issue has made me wonder whether citizens are using polluted water supply and are unaware of it. To many, it could have been unexpected that fertilizer can ruin such an important water supply. It is clear that we need to be careful of our everyday actions, since small,negative actions can add up to a detrimental situation in the future. We can only hope that Lake Erie can serve as a lessen for the future.

Natural Disasters and Sustainability

Recently, it seems as if horrific natural disasters are affecting the earth at quantities unseen before. Although we think of natural disasters like hurricanes as forces that are unpreventable and inevitable, some are starting to question whether these storms are actually the effect of the action humans. We know about climate change and the destruction of the ozone layer, but many do not associate sustainability with the prevention of natural disasters. The New York Magazine article “The Specter of Climate Change Hangs Over Hurricane Harvey” states that “…global warming has meant more moisture in the air, which intensifies rainfall and flooding, and significant sea-level rise, which leads to bigger and more invasive storm surges.” It is very scary to think that these record-breaking storms are at the scale that they are due to human actions. The earth is clearly sending us the message that our current actions are dangerous and unsustainable.

Being that we won’t be leaving the Earth anytime soon, finding ways to keep our planet in an ideal state is essential. The increase in fossil fuels and toxic pollution is causing the Earth to create disasters that are worse than ever. As humans, we most find resources that give us energy that will allow the Earth to remain healthy for future generations. Hurricanes like Harvey and Maria are causing devastation that will take years to fix. If we want to lessen the impacts of storms like these in the future, the switch to sustainable actions must begin now.

Bioblitz 2017

At Alley Pond Park, my group was in charge of collecting soil samples around the park so our leader could determine the difference in microbios in different areas. Two of the samples we took were aquatic, while one was not. After hiking for 20 minutes, we arrived at a small pond that encircled a large cage-like structure. I learned that this structure is called “the lion’s cage” and is used to catch  debris during natural disasters.

My main job was to take a small about of soil into a large tube, so it could be tested later on. Getting down and dirty for the experiment was definitely a fun and new experience.  The soil here was thick, dark, and compact. Our second location was not near water, but an area under a pair  of hanging pants on a tree we encountered on the way to our last location. I automatically realized that the texture and visual of the sol in this area was very different. The dirt was much looser and lighter in color, making it much easier to get into the sampling tube. It would make sense that different bacteria would live in this type of soil compared to one that has been affected by water.

Our third location was our second aquatic sample. We  arrived at a pond that was inhabited by fish (many dead) and birds. We climbed under the wooden bridge we were walking on to get the sample of dirt. The texture of this soil was similar to the first, but more freshly wet since the tide had just fallen. We continued to stay in that are to take in the scene, have a conversation about what we learned, and watch the tide continue to fall.

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Overall, BioBlitz a very unique experience that I would not have had otherwise. Getting out of the city atmosphere to learn about nature and ecology was truly thought-provoking and mind opening. It is crazy to think about the fact that there are million of microbios in even one gram of soil. I learned that although animals, water, and plants are important to the environment, so are the tiny bacteria we can not see.