Author: Jordan Williams

Reconsidering the Role of Water in Our Daily Lives

As we move forward in an ever-industrializing and ever-globalizing world, we must take into account the importance of water in contributing to a more sustainable future. Due to the implications of climate change, water security has been a growing issue, especially in developing countries. Drought, flooding, and pollution has increased the threat of water-related risks. Water is a central aspect of carrying out the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and crafting a more peaceful and just international community.

 

26th Ward: Using Grey & Green Infrastructure as Way to Tackle CSO

One of New York City’s wastewater sewer sheds, the 26th Ward is responsible for servicing the neighborhoods of the south Brooklyn and Queens area. A major issue challenging the 26th Ward is combined sewer overflow (CSO). CSO occurs when stormwater on roofs, streets, and sidewalks, in addition to wastewater from residential and commercial businesses, is carried through to treatment plants, causing an excess of water in the treatment system. This excess then spills into and pollutes the nearby Jamaica Bay. The implications of CSO are severe. With continually rising sea levels as a result of thermal expansion from the emission of greenhouse gases, CSO exacerbates the issue of pollution and the damage caused by weather-related disasters like Hurricane Sandy. However, a key way to tackle CSO is through the implementation of grey and green infrastructure. In particular, the development of a storage tunnel-interception system would allow CSO to be contained through the construction of interceptor tunnels. These tunnels will release the excess water into the system once the system has the capacity to effectively process it. In addition, public green spaces in surrounding neighborhoods can be made impervious so as to slow down the rate at which water flows into the system. These practices would ultimately lead to a reduction in the magnitude of the devastation caused by extreme weather events, as well as create a more safe environment for residents. Although these solutions cannot be implemented overnight, they signify an important step in the process of moving toward an environmentally friendly and sustainable future.

Battery Park City (Home of the Solaire)

Located in Battery Park City, the Solaire is a premier example of urban sustainability in practice. Built in 2003, the Solaire actively strives to limit the amount of water used (and potentially wasted) by the residents in the building. Through a highly efficient filtration system located in the basement, wastewater from bathrooms and kitchens is cleaned and recycled, then later used for various purposes like flushing toilets. But the sustainable framework of the Solaire extends beyond the water treatment process. The landscaped roof terrace at the top of the building has been the site of major green infrastructural practices. The specialized roof allows the building to not only collect rainwater (to be filtered through the system), but also harvest the sun’s energy through solar panels. Many of the sustainable features of the Solaire can be adopted by other buildings on a micro-level, and whole cities on a macro-level. Although the residential costs of living in the Solaire are still fairly high, this seemingly futuristic building proves that urban sustainability is quite achievable and beneficial.

 

It’s Time to Get Dirty

Trash as art — a concept. And Dirty Watercolor embraces that concept. The 22-piece art project uses the medium of water to raise awareness for environmental degradation. Riverbed soil samples collected from a variety of waterways in the Philippines served as the basis of the pigments used in the watercolor paintings. Falling on the darker end of the color spectrum, the pigments reflect the silt, crude oil, heavy metals, and biological waste that have increasingly contaminated the rivers. Some artists have described the painting process as “dirty” and “stinky,” indicating that the sterilization of the pigments was not quite enough to full mask their toxicity.

But for countless families in the Philippines, toxic water is a part of everyday reality. With limited access to running water or sewage facilities, the slums that emerge along these rivers have no way of acquiring safe water sources. So they rely on what they have in front of them. Dirty Watercolor took inspiration from the daily scenes along the Pasig river — children splashing around, people bathing, men boating with the hopes of catching a meal. In 2004, five of Manila’s rivers were declared biologically dead, including the Pasig.

The contamination of these waterways not only poses a public health threat to the people in these communities, but it also partially destroys the history and culture on which their lives (and their ancestors’ lives) were built. Dirty Watercolor aims to counteract the implications of this environmental catastrophe. The revenue from the art pieces has been allocated toward rehabilitation efforts in the communities that have been directly afflicted. But perhaps more importantly, this project has raised the bar of social consciousness. In order to effectively halt the disasters of climate change, society as whole must recognize the issue first. And then act ambitiously.

The Biggest Public Health Threat of the 21st Century

For some reason, the phrase “climate change” doesn’t incite quite as much fear or panic as the otherwise triggering terms “Zika” and “Ebola.” Perhaps this is because, for many people, climate change is a rather abstract and distant notion. And unfortunately, we don’t fully recognize the implications of climate change until it’s too late – until we are subjected to a wave of new mosquito borne diseases that thrive in warmer temperatures or until we are forced to abandon our homes because the land on which they were built has been overtaken by rising sea levels or until we are staring face to face at the remnants of a community destroyed by a natural disaster. Climate change exacts a toll on not only our physical environment, but also our personal well-being. A 1 to 2 °C rise in temperature may appear minuscule, but the effects are far-reaching, and unevenly felt. Weather disasters that strike communities struggling with poverty, inadequate housing, and water scarcity, for example, create dire and lethal conditions for the populations that live there. As some scientists believe, climate change has thus become a “threat multiplier.” It’s incredibly crucial for humanity to recognize the complex and dynamic issue of climate change, and respond with urgency and boldness.

Sustainable Water Management in Ethiopia as a Key to Socio-Economic (and Green) Expansion

Ethiopia is hovering on the cusp of socio-economic transformation. But despite the government’s ambitious targets for the country, the practicality and achievability of its agenda will revolve around the availability of freshwater sources. Water, and freshwater specifically, fuels nearly all aspects of life. Thus, figuring out a way to increase water efficiency and conservation has become of paramount importance to the country, and has surfaced as a recurring theme in the national dialogue. Sustainable water management will require the collective participation and cooperation of a variety of actors, including the government, the private sector, and civil society. Ethiopians will need to mobilize and act as a joint unit to provide widespread access to reliable data, to foster awareness on all levels, and to encourage sustainable financial investments. Another critical aspect in the transition to sustainable water practices is coherent policymaking that responds to evidence-based information and reflects a willingness to negotiate beyond partisan divides.

The Importance of Harvesting the Wind Energy Potential Over Oceans

As humanity aggressively steps forward into the 21st century, our demands for energy have continued to skyrocket. Thus, the need for sustainable energy sources have become more critical than ever before, especially due to the detrimental effects of fossil fuel usage. New research published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science indicates that the wind energy potential over oceans could theoretically power human civilization. However, this would require extensive portions of the world’s oceans to be covered with wind turbines. The installation and the maintenance of this project would be difficult and unlikely due to the volatility of ocean environments; the project could even alter climate conditions. Nonetheless, wind speeds over the ocean tend to be 70% higher than on land. Over some sections of the oceans, storms regularly transfer wind energy down to surface level from higher altitudes; this indicates that the amount of energy that can be captured with floating turbines is higher than that of land turbines. Although these ideas are merely theoretical, and are undermined by many practical and seemingly inevitable issues, they emphasize the importance of adopting alternative sources of energy in the future.

NYC is Looking Toward a Sustainable Future

Thanks to recent efforts by Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City is steadily progressing down the path of sustainability. His recent mandate calls for a drastic reduction in carbon emissions from existing buildings within the five boroughs. Building off of the city’s current sustainability plan (One City Built to Last), the mandate is intended to maximize energy efficiency by upgrading or retrofitting buildings with solar panels and improved heaters, boilers, and windows. The plan has the capacity to cut 7% of the city’s carbon emissions by 2035, and it is precisely this cultivation of urban technology that will help curb climate change in the long run.

Although de Blasio has generated support from a variety of environmentalist groups, he has his share of critics – primarily advocates of the lower-income population. As beneficial as his proposal may prove to be, it fails to guarantee protection for rent regulated tenants against possible rent increases; the Major Capital Investment rule would allow landlords to jack up their rents due to the high initial costs of retrofitting. De Blasio’s mandate just may be the next step toward a sustainable future for the city and the world as a whole, but its shortcomings must be addressed in order to effectively and justly bring about change.

Macaulay Honors BioBlitz 2017

When we arrived at Alley Pond Park for BioBlitz last Saturday, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’ve always been, for lack of a better term, a water-person, so I knew I wanted to partake in some sort of aquatic activity. But unfortunately I was placed in Group 9 – the designated insect-catching team. The lead professor demonstrated two main capturing techniques that we would be using: netting (which involved specialized nets for aerial and aquatic environments) and sifting. The first technique required you to gently sway a net across clusters of bushes, low-hanging branches, and flowers, on which insects would typically be resting. The second technique required you to collect and filter out ground soil in which insects live. We then used an aspirator to “suck up” and collect anything we caught.

After being allotted 30 minutes to catch and collect as many insects as possible, we began to analyze and compare what we found. When surveying the amounts and the types of insects in the different areas of the park, it was crucial to take into account the variable of time; whenever we relocated to a new area, we made sure to stay within a consistent time frame. The most common findings included ants, mosquitoes, spiders, and grasshoppers. But perhaps the most interesting creature was the wasp mimic, an insect that is genetically coded to display the physical characteristics of a wasp as a defense mechanism against predators. Insects play pivotal roles in our ecosystem. Chief among them are their ability to pollinate certain plants and flowers, as well as their ability to decompose organic waste. Although we certainly did not make any breakthroughs in the field of entomology that day, I walked away with a greater appreciation for the importance of insects in the natural world (along with a whole lot of bug bites).