Jacqueline Tosto- Week 5

This week in seminar we discussed the government actions to fix Brownfields. In 2009, the EPA office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization created an Action Plan. This empowered community revitalization and sustainable development of contaminated properties and provided technical assistance for clean- up and re-use of contaminated property. This would maximize economical, ecological, and social uses and protects human health and environment. It also creates green jobs and uses stake holder outreach. This I feel like may be somewhat difficult. This entire plan relies on everyday citizens to try and protect their land. Getting people interested and willing to help is a much harder job than it may seem. It is a good goal but whether or not it is plausible is a different story.
We also discussed the Ecological History of New Bedford. EPA thought that it was better to study problems in their natural environment. We discussed how New Bedford’s watershed went through many stages such as agricultural, whaling, textile, and post-textiles, over the course of a few hundred years. Each of these stages affected the environment and the watershed. This case study had a very important impact on future studies and understandings about pollution. It showed that pollution occurs over time and that decisions 400 years ago affect the environment today. People today often continue polluting saying that the earth will eventually fix itself. Obviously this is not true. New Bedford shows that even the littlest damage hundreds of years ago affects us and that we must be carful of our actions.
Later in the week we discussed the Greenhouse Effect, climate change, and the effect of global warming on New York City. The United States emits billions of tons of carbon dioxide every year causing more air pollution, slowly raising global temperatures. It seems insane to me that the carbon dioxide released in the air is thirty percent more today than it was during the Industrial Revolution. When I think of the Industrial Revolution I think of constant smoke being emitted from factories, terrible sewage, and a complete lack of awareness of the pollution being created. What could we possibly be doing today that is worse than such a contaminated time period?
We know that Global Warming is affecting our city. The Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Climate Change released some alarming facts in 2009 proving this concept. The annual temperature is suppose to increase by three degrees in just over five years and the sea levels will rise by over two inches. There will be more blackouts, rainstorms, and floods over the next decade as well.
I know the world will most likely not end in 2012, but the predictions of the future seem a bit grim. The icecaps are melting, the temperature is rising, and the air pollution is getting worse. If this is the world we live in now, I am scared about what it will be like 100 years from now. I am sure that the residents of New Bedford did not think that a bridge would hurt their watershed, but it did. What actions are we doing that could be causing harm and we are completely unaware? We have the facts now it is our time to change the predictions.