Question

Based on NYC Sustainable Design Guidelines and your own research please answer the following questions:

1. What are the three top environmental challenges identified by New York City?
2. How will these challenges be exacerbated by climate change?
3. Are these considerations applicable to South Florida? Why or why not? Support your response with specific examples.

Answer 1

NYC Sustainable design guidelines--------

Top three environmental challenges identified by NYC

Now we are already speaking of issues that might have been of concerns for anyone who is living in NYC. We know that NYC is considered as the land of opportunity for everyone. People often migrate to this city with an aim to get better job, career and living conditions.

NYC is also one of the biggest cities within the US. It makes its very big contribution for our global climate. Being one of the biggest cities, it is also certain that population has always been one major concern. The city is simply heavy populated and the number seems to be increasing on daily basis.

With this number of population and opportunities for its inhabitants then city also faces deep environment concerns. Weather has always been one of the most concerned issues for NYC dwellers as the city faces regular climate shift. In some cases, the climate change may also be drastic and mostly depends on the human activities.

• Most of the climate change (around 67%) is on account of the city infrastructure (building and complexes). This is considered as the biggest share in climate change emission.
• Apart from this, you will also find that traffic in NYC is one of the concerning points for NYC. The city is always overcrowded by traffic.
• Neon lights, traffic emission, LED lights, industries and the list could simply get unlimited.

As far as global temperature changes are concerned, there are a number of factors that can be considered as environmental challenges that NYC faces today. Some such top three challenges are discussed here.

1             Sustainable energy

Energy, for NYC has always been the issue number 1. The authorities are already concerned to try and implement sustainable energy source within NYC, which is a challenging issues it is expected that by 2050, the city might have fully transformed towards sustainable and clean energy source.

This action is expected to have very positive impacts on the world climate change, as NYC holds it big share resent in environmental change. It certainly is a very big challenge for NYC to fulfill all of its everyday energy requirements from clean source of energy (including its hydro power plants).

This is an issues that is yet to be implemented as installing wind turbines, dams and solar power for the city of this size can never be easy.

2 Transportation

For NYC transport has always been one of the major concerns. Moving within the city limits from one point to another is considered as time consuming task. The city is already over populated with residential and commercial complexes. Presently the NYC transport system is also considered to offer with one third of carbon emission in the environment.

Even if the car ownership rate is not very high, still the city has a very big network of public transportation system. This includes all types of transportation system including cabs, buses, metro and others. The city also has a busy traffic pattern with slow moving traffic at most of the points inside the city limits.

As per reports, the private vehicles owned in the city, account for over 80 percent of the carbon emission presently. Shifting towards more green form of transportation system including electric cars may never be an easy process for NYC.

3 quality of water

Big cities always face water quality issues and so does NYC. The water quality has been effected to a much greater extent by high concentration of common pollutants like PFOS and PFOA. Steps are presently being observed by the authorities to help lower the concentration of these chemicals in drinking water, but the task is challenging.

Presently millions of NYC dwellers have to drink contaminated water that is rich in these harmful chemicals. But just like any other mega city, it is obvious that controlling water pollutants may never be an easy task.

You have to keep in mind the environmental challenges that any mega city faces is mostly on account of its big population.

How will these challenges be exacerbated by climate change?

Now making changes to help improve the climatic conditions for NYC may never be easy. We already know that NYC is a mega city. It has its wide network of transportation and buildings. These factors directly impact the climate change.

On an average, a city of this size, its population and every Carbon emission results in increasing temperature on this planet. With present rat, it is expected that these impacts could in fact affect the global temperature by over 1 deg.

In near future, if things do not change and sustainable energy sources are not implemented, then the temperature changes could exceed by 1.5 deg C. This will further result in more global warming issues. So it is important to take major steps in present time so the Carbon emission levels could be cut down in big number.

The global warming is always considered as one of the major concerns as it directly impacts the species living on this planet. It is responsible for extinction of a number of species in the coming years.NYC has been considered as one of the areas that will greatly be affected by the global climate change. So if nothing is done within short period of time, then NYC emissions can be of major concerns in the future

Environmental challenges that have been mentioned above results in increase in temperature and also affect the type of air we breathe it worsens the quality of drinkable water in major water bodies around the world. More population, more traffic and more buildings also mean more waste dumped in the environment on daily basis. it will only make the climate more worse.

Are these conditions applicable to South Florida?

As far as South Florida is concerned, size wise and population wise, it certainly cannot be compared to NYC. But still you need to keep in mind that in coming future, the fauna and flora of SF could be affected greatly.

There are many factors that are linked to climate change. One of the major issues may include polystyrene products that humans consume today. Like any other city, SF also faces climate issues that are on account of plastic consumption and carbon emission.

These factors have already started impacting the fauna and flora of SF. The receding water line and vegetation covers can easily be noticed in present time. The water quality is also one of the major concerns as the sources of water are already getting polluted due to human activities.

Even if both NYC and SF are not the same today, but if environmental issues are not regulated then these elements could pose serious threats in the coming years. You have to keep in mind that climate change is always considered as a global change.