City Summit 2017

Next week in Charlotte, North Carolina City Summit 2017 will be held to discuss the future of America’s cities.  Although water and sustainability won’t be the only topic of discussion, it will most definitely be an important and resonant topic.  A portion of the summit’s activities will be dedicated to cities that have started to use  One Water’s strategies to accomplish reforms in the way cities handle water.  Some of these cities include Tucson, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles.  Many American major cities are coming together and collaborating in planning for a more sustainable future.

One Water presents a comprehensive plan for water management in our future cities.  With a mind for sustainability, equitability, and affordability as well as health, safety, aesthetics, among other qualities, One Water is becoming increasingly attractive to more and more cities across the country.  However, what really makes One Water stand out from other options cities have in water management is its dedication to community involvement and collaboration and integration with local politics.  Considering One Water has partnered with the National League of Cities, the organizers of City Summit 2017, for this summit is evidentiary of their dedication to being involved on a deeply local scale. Understanding that water management is likely to be different for many cities, crafting specific plans following the general ideas and principles of One Water for different cities becomes easier.  Hopefully the 2017 City Summit produces some important pathways for future development of many cities’ water management plans.

Bottom Up and Top Down

New Maps Show How Greenland’s Ice Sheet Is Melting from the Bottom Up

When we think of global warming, we usually think of unbearably hot summers, freezing winter along with super storms in between. We think this because generally the “warming” that earth receives comes from the sun, above us. However, global warming has effects that can come from deep underneath. Rising ocean levels can come from two distinct factors. Over time, the oceans rise in temperature from the greenhouse gases locked into our atmosphere. This means that the water expands because of the increase in heat. The increase in temperature can also cause ice sheets and glaciers to melt adding to the oceans’ rising levels. This article discusses how Greenland’s ice sheets are melting from the increasingly warmer ocean water surrounding it. In addition,”more ice in Greenland’s glaciers may be exposed to warming ocean waters than previously thought.” With more incoming knowledge of the immense size of these glaciers and ice sheets, the effects of them melting can be more damaging than previously thought. Even the topographical area can affect the melting of these glaciers. “A downward slope, for instance, might cause the glacier to retreat more quickly, while ridges or other topographical features might help to slow or halt the backward motion.” From the bottom up or the top down, ocean levels are rising because of the increasing temperatures of global warming. Awareness of the problems we face because of climate change is the first step to remedying it.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-maps-show-how-greenland-rsquo-s-ice-sheet-is-melting-from-the-bottom-up/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sa-editorial-social&utm_content=&utm_term=sustainability_partner_text_free&sf148235139=1

One Water Approach

In class, we discussed the one water solution and how integration of the water systems would lead to an increase in water management. This approach helps the environmet and helps communities manage their water in a not so difficult way. While being aware that recycling water is a good thing nowadays, we must be aware of the cost and work that needs to be done in order to make it happen. For example, water that has been used must be decontaminated in order to reuse it. Water such as stormwater runoff impacts source water quality and therefore treatment is needed in order to reuse this water. While ways to access this treatment may be expensive and costly, its pretty much worth it because in the end, we are saving water which is something we all need. It is our responsibility to provide clean water for the public and this is a great way to begin with the possibility of reusing water already available to us.

Copenhagen: “Sustainability does not have to be boring”

CopenHill, Copenhagen's newest waste to energy plant.In 2018, the CopehnHill, a waste management and energy plant will open in Copenhagen. The facility will be the most efficient energy saving plant in the world. Sustainability does not have to be boring. The facility will include water sports, soccer fields, go-kart track, and a ski slope on its roof. The plant will be able to produce 25% more energy than the former plant with the same amount of waste. It will power 160,000 households across Copenhagen. The technology that powers the plant will also make it the most efficient waste burning plant in the world and allow for flexibility for future energy production.

https://quartzy.qz.com/1103633/copenhagens-newest-architectural-gem-is-a-waste-management-plant/

The National Flood Insurance Program

Many people have still not been able to reach an agreement with their insurers on flood claims… ever since Hurricane Sandy which happened about 5 years ago. In David Clutter’s case, the insurer happens to be the federal government. As the federal government resists Clutter’s claims, Mr. Clutter has been digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole, recently taking out a third mortgage so that him and his family have a home. For more than 5 million households, the National Flood Insurance Program is the only source of flood insurance and unfortunately, this program is broken and corrupt. “The program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been in the red since Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans in 2005. It still has more than a thousand disputed claims left over from Sandy. And in October, it exhausted its $30 billion borrowing capacity and had to get a bailout just to keep paying current claims (Mary Williams Walsh).” The decision to keep the program going has been put into question because it has done quite a lot more damage than good. The need for reform as it a high and if reform is not established, many families may go completely bankrupt. Not only does the program need a better financial advisement but it also needs to make permanent long term changes so that it doesn’t blow through billions of dollars without helping people. Additionally, the government is attempting to put high premiums on houses and replaces small house like Mr. Clutter’s with big ones. What happens to the forgotten?

green design

I love those pictures of what a construction site will look like when it’s finished. It always looks like it’s so far in the future. My high school had a bunch of those hanging up … I always doubted it would ever get done. So, when I googled green design, I was automatically drawn to those photos. There were all different kinds: some with houses with green roofs, others were futuristic parks. I loved them all. It made me wonder about the people who think sustainability cannot go together with aesthetics. If anything, I think it will improve how our earth looks. More like it should be, with more nature and grass than bricks and cement.

https://twitter.com/GabiCohen6/status/927290691138572289

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.

Genetically engineering invasive species on the Galapagos Islands.

Humans have introduced a multitude of species into the once pristine, untouched Galapagos Islands. Some of these species have thrived over the past centuries and assimilated into the equilibrium of the environment, but a select few have thrown off the natural predator- prey balance of the island. Eradicating the invasive species on the island is very expensive, time consuming, and dangerous to the animals and even people which are it targeted.  Researchers are beginning to look to a more long term goal to fix the problem. If scientists genetically engineer the sex cells of the invasive species they could make it so that the species targeted are no longer viable, or only producing males thereby eradicating their population off the islands in the future without ever employing and toxic chemicals to the island injuring its inhabitants. This form of genetic engineering is called gene drive. The basic strategy of using gene drive in the conservation setting is to work with the DNA using either the new gene-editing tool CRISPR or other tools of genetic manipulation, to change the odds of sex inheritance; one example would be to produce offspring that would be exclusively male. The elimination of females, would establish a reproductive dead end for the invasive species species.

Make Your Posts Easier to Read & Find

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 1: This screenshot shows the options to make your posts easier to read and organize via tags!

 

 

 

Screenshot 2: Media Gallery Options

Adding a featured image to your post allows site visitors to search by post. If you have the time, go back to your old posts and add a featured image!

Another great weekly posting option is to make an audio or video playlist!