Response: An Appraisal and Analysis of the Law of “Plastic-Bag Ban”

Once again, this article shows the gap between the public’s thoughts and actions. In theory, 57% of consumers are in favor of Plastic-bag ban,” but continue to use them out of sheer practicality. While I understand and support the law, I believe it is naive in underestimating consumers’ value of convenience. Especially in New York, time is money and people do not wish to be thrown off schedule or inconvenienced. Although plastic bags may seem petty, they play a functional role in everyday grocery shopping. In my family, groceries are bought in bulk and carrying the bags from the supermarket to the car to the house is already a tedious job. More so, people who stop by the grocery store on their way home from work or school are most probably not carrying spare bags on them. If the law ought to be effective, it must provide official and accessible alternatives. This study focuses more on ways to decrease usage and overlooks replacement options. At the end, it briefly mentions that government should subsidize and reduce or remit taxes on research for degradable shopping bag made out of suitable substitutes material; however, this will take time and is therefore not a concrete option at this point.

On another note, I agreed with the article that “Plastic-bag ban” success is dependent on effective publicity by policy-makers. Like everything these days, the law must be properly marketed. The public must not view it as a repressive policy meant to interfere with their every day lives, but a movement towards healthier lives for all. As of then, many were unaware of the ban’s purpose. Some mistakenly assume it is meant to cut merchant’s packaging costs. The first step is to educate consumers and assist them in gaining environmental literacy, so that they begin to see the large impact the overall policy and even their personal contributions would have on the environment.

“Missing the Dark: Health Effects of Light Pollution” Response

I think it’s amazing how light pollution is not as nearly as well-known as water or air pollution, yet it has had effects that are just as devastating or even more so than these other forms. We associate cities with awe-inspiring, bright lights and the countryside and suburbs with relative, monotonous darkness, but we neglect the fact that we are unable to see constellations, planets, or even stars in the night sky, which have their own inherent beauty. With increasing urbanization and an exponential increase in the human population, our descendants probably will not be able to see anything at all with their naked eyes; unfortunately, only those who have access to high-quality telescopes will.

Of course, the article specifically mentions that “artificial light has benefited society by, for instance, extending the length of the productive day, offering more time not just for working but also for recreational activities that require light” (A21). In fact, this may have also deterred crime to an extent since vandals will most likely commit acts where they cannot be easily seen. But I never knew that before industrialization, we had a sleep cycle that was divided in two roughly-equal parts instead of the standard eight hours during the night. Besides a disruption in the circadian rhythm and cyclical levels in hormones, light pollution has been positively correlated with several different forms of cancer, and even depression and mood disorders. Also, mating cycles and flight trajectories in animals and growth patterns in plants have been altered, so light pollution has far-reaching effects for all parts of the ecosystem.

The article mostly focused on the health effects of light pollution (hence, the title) and only briefly talked about solutions, which may actually be a bit more difficult to generate than other sources of pollution. Considering seasonal affective disorder, which causes many people to become more fatigued and groggy during the winter, which has less light, there must be a huge range in effects in people who live close to the equator, which has almost uniform sunlight year-round, and those by the poles, which have no sun at all in the winter and no darkness at all in the summer. Thus, new solutions will have to be adapted not just to demographics, but also latitude and geographical location. Also, shift workers are necessary; my uncle works for the MTA, and my aunt used to be a nurse, and both jobs experience emergencies at all hours of the day, so I’m not entirely sure if we can just change the hours that they work. However, I agree that we must eliminate all forms of unnecessary light, especially from streetlights that cause glare that radiates upward and outward instead of just downward on its intended targets, and even places that use lighting to show off instead of having any useful purposes. This issue still needs a lot of quantitative and qualitative research, but it is definitely a great thing that it is getting a lot of publicity in the present, so that its potential consequences can be eliminated for the future.

Bringing Light to Light Pollution…haha

This is an article I’m using for my paper as well, and I think it has a lot of really good references to other publications that have to do with the same topic. Light pollution is without a doubt often over looked, much like noise pollution. We’ve discussed on several occasions why this may be the case, and why people choose to prioritize which types of pollution they care most about addressing when studies show them all to have deleterious effects. Me personally, I think light pollution is something I would have no control over in the grand scheme of things. Like sure, I have control within my own home regarding which lightbulbs I use and when my lights are on, but not like I can tell Times Square to chill out with the constant billboard lighting 24/7. Light pollution is also something that’s never really talked about and definitely needs more research done to make a point. Lack of education is a big issue- we hear about air pollution all the time, especially in school at a young age when we start talking about global warming. Sure, light pollution may not correlate with global warming but there are a number of studies that prove the correlation between artificial light and other health problems.

I think melatonin is a really cool hormone that doesn’t get enough credit- it really does orchestrate everything from how we wake up to when we fall asleep. Melatonin not only regulates our biological clocks, but also aids in regulation of other body hormones. In females, melatonin regulates the release of reproductive hormones which helps set the pattern for menstruation and fertility. Another study linked patients with Alzheimer’s to low melatonin levels. The obvious problem with melatonin disturbances would be lack of sleep, which is probably the most concrete health effect of light pollution. We always make jokes and take talk of insomnia lightly but our bodies really aren’t equipped to be living off of 5 hours of sleep a night. When my parents see I’m spending an all-nighter they never fail to chastise me and tell me that my lack of sleep now will catch up to me when I look 50 in 15 years. In my opinion we need to educate people on the severity of light pollution because that’s the only way to teach them to care. In terms of solutions, I’ve read it’s best to use low wattage lightbulbs, use motion sensors to turn off lights that aren’t being any help to anyone, and try to aim and shield light fixtures that you’re implementing on your property outside your home.

Article for Wednesday 12/2

Hey Everybody,

In case my earlier post got buried in the blog, here is my article again.

The article I will be using is titled “Missing the Dark, Health Effects of Light Pollution.” The link to this article is here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2627884/

I suggest reading it in the PDF format available for download on the website, so the pictures and graphs are incorporated with the text.

Chris

Response to Bike Article

This article really surprised me with the data and studies that have been done on the biking issue. It is obvious the various health benefits that biking would have on the person and the surrounding environment. Growing up I have biked quite often since that was the best method of transport as a kid. However, as I got older and started driving, I have thought biking to places to be more time consuming and dangerous. Why bike to meet up with friends when you can get there with a push of a pedal?

This article though has showed me that biking is not really all that dangerous with a very low rate of crashes. Also, I now see that even if biking may take slightly longer than driving, the pros of the health benefits and breathing fresh air far outweighs the time period.

Estimating Stormwater Runoff for Community Gardens in NYC – Response

Starting a big project like the one that Gittleman proposes is tough in a city like New York City. Empty lots that have the capacity to turn into community gardens may be hard to come by, but is this project really feasible? Since our city is constantly expanding upwards, the best place to have community gardens would be on rooftops. For example, there are many apartment buildings in the Queens area which have flat roofs but they’re often not used. One option is to give an incentive to the building owners to have community gardens on the roof, which the tenants can use. There are a lot of community gardens in the Bronx, Brooklyn and upper Manhattan area but not that many throughout the rest of the boroughs (2% of the gardens are in Staten Island and 5% are in Queens). I looked up where the community garden near me was and there is one community garden in the Queens Botanical Garden in all of the Bayside, Fresh Meadows, College Point, Whitestone area. Even though the article mentions that community gardens aren’t seen to increase the vegetation in NYC, they actually do. Vegetation has a lot of positive effects on the environment as a general because of all of its benefits which have been previously discussed in class (i.e. reducing pollution, improving air quality, etc.).

Gittleman gives an idea to replace vacant lots with community gardens. This seems like a good idea except the main problem with such ideas is that after the community garden is in place, will the community be able to retain these gardens? A lot of funds will go into these gardens and it seems as though the city will end up saving a lot because community gardens retain a lot of stormwater. What are other places where community gardens or mini gardens can be placed? I live in an area where the sidewalks are quite wide and I’ve actually seen people plant vegetables on the outer edge of the sidewalk where there were originally weeds. If the edges of these sidewalks were turned into mini gardens, that could also help a lot with stormwater runoff and other environmental problems that NYC has.

Estimating Stormwater Runoff for Community Gardens in New York City

We have read a lot about green and sustainable infrastructure. In many of our conversations, we were faced with the concern of whether or not these ideas are applicable to our dense city. Gittleman’s article is very important in this sense because it provides us with the agency of doing it without having to replace the buildings we already have. Her study estimates the stormwater retention we would have if we flipped vacant lots into community gardens. Aside from the amazing estimate she provides, she also provides a good way of doing it. Vacant lots are lots that aren’t being used and are not yet claimed spaces. This is means that it wouldn’t be an inconvenience to anyone in the community to just put nature in the lot. Furthermore, she briefly discusses the benefits community gardens and nature can have on humans and a community ,which we have also discussed extensively.

Gittleman’s estimate of stormwater retention surpassed 100 million gallons which I think is absolutely incredible. I thought it was even more incredible to think of when I knew the number isn’t far fetched for a project like this one. Also, she mentioned the amount stormwater runoff we currently have caps our around 15 million gallons, which would mean the green spaces would be more than enough to help our overflowing problem.

I think this is a wonderful way to help our water management systems and increase the amount of greenery in our city with little hassle. This was a brilliant way to approach this dilemma and should very much be funded. It can increase the value of communities as well as the social structure around it, which is something worthwhile.

Response to Bicycle Article

I truly believe that biking is very important and beneficial for all the reasons listed in this article. Biking is an easy and affordable way to get from place to place and can also be enjoyable. I am from the suburbs and I used to always love bike riding with my friends or family when the weather was nice. But aside from the convenience and fun, biking also comes with many significant health benefits. Biking can help with fitness, weight control, and improving one’s cardiovascular health. Because of all these benefits, it is shocking that so few people use bikes. This can contribute to the amount of obesity we have in this country. I was more shocked by the fact that only 24% of bikers are female. Males might enjoy sports more and be more athletic, but you don’t need to be that athletic to be able to bike, and today there are more and more women who seem to be concerned about their weight and fitness.

Although I love bike riding when I am home outside of the city, I do not think I would be willing to risk bike riding in the city. I was always under the impression that it was extremely unsafe in New York City and that you would have to be either reckless or a very talented bike rider to be willing to bike ride in the city. There is so much traffic and so many crazy drivers in the city, which makes it such a risk. Even though there are bike lanes, they are often too small, sometimes cars drive in the bike lanes, and there is always that issue with the parked car doors. I just never thought the benefits of bike riding outweighed the possible consequences of getting into one bad crash. Also, when I think of bike riding in the city, I always think about Citi bikes. It is one of the most accessible ways to get a bike, however, I think they are very unsafe because they encourage bikers to ride without helmets, which is something I am very against.

However, this article was very encouraging about the issue. The bike-vehicle crash rate was much lower than I expected at 2.3 per 1 million bicycle kilometers. Specifically on 8th Avenue in New York, only 20 crashes were reported over the past 2.3 years. I am skeptical about these numbers, because I think that there are probably a lot more crashes that occur that are just not reported to the police, but the ones with serious injuries probably are reported and the numbers are still very low. Also, NYC was just a portion of the study, and the number of crashes in New York is probably worse than in any other city. I like that there are studies being done of the different types of bicycle paths would be the safest feasible options. I am not sure exactly what it would take for me to feel safe riding a bicycle in the city, but I would definitely be more convinced if the bike lanes were designed in the optimal ways suggested in this article.

Estimating Stormwater Runoff for Community Gardens in NYC – Response

The article spends a lot of time talking about the extent at which community gardens can serve as an effective alternative to current green infrastructure that is already promoted by New York City. While the article does give an solid case for why the city should have more incentives, financial or not, for municipalities to start growing community gardens. The biggest issue however with community gardens is that fact that there are several existing environmental conditions that require fixing before community gardens can become an effective and widespread thing in the city. We have spent plenty of time in class talking about how to address the different that come up with dealing with storm water runoff and full sewage systems.

We have talked about green infrastructure that treats grey water before releasing onto green roofs. Furthermore, the idea of permeable concrete on both sidewalks and roads has been an issue of discussion. It is clear that there are several benefits to community gardens. However, for us to address that issues that prevent those gardens from coming into fruition in New York City, it would probably be more beneficial in the short term to give government designed incentives to programs that promote conditions that would allow for these gardens to succeed in the city.

Despite the problems with trying to promote community gardens as a form of green infrastructure in the city, that does not mean the public cannot continue to utilize gardens. It would probably be a useful learning experience for kids especially to learn how to deal with community gardens in schools. This would obviously allow for kids to have more contact with nature as well as give the abilities to perhaps participate community gardens in the future. After all, even if the city decides to promote these gardens as a form of infrastructure, it would pointless if potential financial incentives for gardens would go to people and municipalities that were already planning for community gardens.