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The Extra Steps To a Better Environment

This week what really stood out to me was this documentary I watched called “What The Health” which while it does has an obvious vegan bias, does point out some very good points about the environmental and ethical effects of the meat industry. In order to make sure that the documentary wasn’t purely based on mis-information however I did a little googling of my own and came across plenty of articles that go back decades which encompass the negative effects that the meat industry has on the environment.

Not only does sustaining the livestock take up 30% of the land but affects even more because of the waste and garbage that the farms produce. Duplin County in North Carolina is a prime example of the real effects that the meat industry has on the environment and the people who live there. In this line of thought, in order to truly take steps to protect the environment, changing your diet is a good way to make personal changes that will not only benefit health but also the world around us.

 

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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.

“The True Cost,” cheap fashion is expensive

In his documentary, “The True Cost,” Andrew Morgan investigates the actions of the fashion industries that outsource their labour.  Morgan explores the fashion industry’s role in developing countries in three ways. Working conditions, environmental impacts and economical effects. Morgan observes the lives of low-wage earners in industrializing countries. Earning only $3 dollars an hour in horrible conditions. The factories spew toxic chemicals into soil, air and rivers, affecting countries beyond the factory grounds.

However,Morgan also exposes the consumer. How desire for cheap clothing and trendy pieces is disrupting the economy and ecosystem of foreign countries. The garment industry and consumers must be held accountable for their actions. And recent events (the sexual harassment allegations coming to light) shows the power of groups of people coming together to change Hollywood and the fashion industry.

Reinventing Waterways

Cities such as Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati are leading the way in improving their waterways. These public spaces are not only economically brilliant for increasing jobs, local businesses, and investments, but are also important for sustainability efforts and for increased standards of living. In such cities, waterways are being cleaned to allow city dwellers to engage in activities along the water, and in some places, even in the water.

IWA Water and Development Congress(Repost)

The Water and Development Congress is a global event that provides a platform for national, regional and international cooperation on water. It bridges the gap between the science and practice of water management, connecting it with industry, financial institutions, civil society and policy makers, to deliver practical solutions that help achieve the globally agreed 2030 Sustainable Development Goal vision for water. Over four days the Water and Development Congress & Exhibition has brought together over 3,000 professionals from 82 countries of the global water community. New ideas were discussed and shared, new collaborations fostered, and new solutions to some of the greatest water, wastewater and sanitation challenges were identified.

Guangzhe Chen, from the World Bank, argued that business as usual was not an option if we were to achieve universal access to water and sanitation and established the scale of what lies ahead – we need to find US$114 billion per year to reach those goals; Eleanor Allen from Water for All, asked us to explore innovative financing mechanisms to meet the huge investment needed to reach the SDGs, and to seek out non-traditional ways of funding water and sanitation for all; The renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs introduced 3Ts: Trade Resources; Transform Water for Safe Use; and Traits of crops resistant to drought; and 3Fs Finance, Fairness and Funding; And from South Africa, Dhesigen Naidoo highlighted that dealing with climate change and global water risks requires us to relate the SDGs to the global economy, and introduced us to the Climate Change Grief Cycle. We saw a shared vision of the future from three Young Water Leaders who proposed new ways of achieving business and governance resilience: we need forward looking solutions but should also get inspiration from traditional methods, from public-private partnership models to thinking a hundred years ahead our infrastructure finance models. Its always interestng to see what representatives from the United States say about our sustainability practices in global conferences.

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

The MTA is underwater(in more ways than one)

New York is a city on the water. For hundreds of years, its rivers and harbor have worked to its advantage, bringing it speedy transportation and pleasant temperatures.
New York City has experienced 7.5-foot floods several times in the past decade. Superstorm Sandy loosed 10- or 11-foot floods on much of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, killing 43 people and inundating more than 88,000 buildings.The next couple hundred years may not be as smooth sailing. Global warming, caused by the release of carbon-dioxide pollution into the atmosphere, will cause the seas to rise and the storms to intensify around the city. A new study from an all-star list of climate scientists attempts to estimate how a few of climate change’s symptoms—higher seas, large storm surge, and more intense hurricanes—will intersect in New York over the next 300 years.It isn’t pretty. Sea-level rise will make every tropical cyclone that hits New York more likely to release damaging floods. For instance, storm floods of nearly seven-and-a-half feet once occurred only a couple times per millennium. In today’s somewhat warmed climate, 7.5-foot floods are projected to happen every 25 years. By 2030, these floods will occur every five years.

How NYC Gets Its Water

With gravity and many other complex systems, water from the Catskill/Delaware watershed is brought down to NYC to supply 9.5 million people. Protecting the tributaries is just as important as protecting the water source itself. All along the pathway to NYC, the water needs to be protected from pollution and sometimes leaks. The content of the water needs to be evaluated constantly to ensure what is coming out of our taps. This is not an easy task with climate change drastically shifts the water’s availability as well as the quality as it passes through forests that have also been altered from climate change. The water passes through ultraviolet lights to cleanse it from micro-organisms.  So much energy and time is needed to bring NYC it famous water. The entire process encompasses so much from the Urban Water Systems class. From watersheds to the water cycle, the power of runoff and gravity in tributaries, and the major effects of climate change, this article brings up the background of the big issues in order to protect our water.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/24/nyregion/how-nyc-gets-its-water-new-york-101.html

BioBlitz 2017

Arriving at Alley Pond park I did not know what to expect. I had heard things about previous BioBlitz’, but was still very foggy on what was to come of it. I was assigned to the aquatic team and within the team i was broken off into a smaller group of three in which we went to different ponds scooping out bugs with nets. Our first couple of tries were unsuccessful, but we quickly learned to spot the tiny bugs crawling under wet leaves. Each time we found a bug we would suck them into a glass vial. At the end of our thirty minute collection period the vial was filled with different species ranging from firefly eggs to flies. We then dumped the contents of the vial into another vial that was filled with alcohol which was used to preserve the bugs for a while until they were stored for further studying. After collecting at the first pond we walked to the other side of the park to collect bugs from there. This time we were unsuccessful, the pond water was very thick and shallow  were we were trying to collect. With the muddiness and the excessive amounts of algae we were not able to collect any samples, but the attempt of dragging nets into thick algae was interesting.

Although the BioBlitz was not something i would do on my own; the experience was like no other. It was not only a fun learning experience, but the overall atmosphere of my group was enjoyable. We had three group leaders who continuously got lost trying to get from one pond to the next which made for cheerful banter. Once we ended the trip i was left with an experience ill never forget, knowledge and the satisfaction that i was helping the community learn more about biodiversity and its affects on the ponds at alley pond park. I would definitely encourage everyone to explore this park.

 

Bioblitz 2017

I went into Bioblitz not really knowing what to expect. I assumed that it would have something to do with science and ecology but I didn’t expect to go fishing, thats for sure. My group and I were assigned to go fishing at Alley Pond. I had been fishing plenty of times before but normally I was fishing on a boat in the middle of a body of water. Fishing in this algae-covered pond was different. The algae made it hard to see fish. Algae is formed from nitrogen and phosphorus in the water. Every time I would cast out my fishing pole to catch a fish, a pesky turtle (whose name is Franklin) would come and bite the worm. No fish were caught at Bioblitz and unfortunately, my group caught the least fish out of all the groups. We are convinced it is due to area that we chose. It was interesting to watch organisms interact with their environment. On a walk that I took around all of Alley Pond, I was pointed to a humming bird by a park ranger. It was feeding on nectar from flowers. Overall my trip to Bioblitz was successful and fun!