Question

A proposal to your local city council in which you propose how to use the money to best improve the environment within your community. Address the following: Your proposal should be clear as to how you would expect the city council to spend this money to improve the status of the environment in your community. Be specific about the problems and how they should be addressed. Propose improvements that integrate the physical and life sciences with culture, ethics, political, and socio-economics. Defend your position based on scientific evidence and reasoning. Include in your proposal any ethical concerns with new technologies. Explain how environmental justice plays a part in your proposal. Give details as to how your proposal will benefit the community while maintaining sustainability.

Answer 1

My city has been experiencing several environmental problems. There have been a lot of accidents as well as theft on the walk ways due to poor lighting in the city. This has made the environment unsafe for the city occupants and visitors. There is therefore the need to improve lighting in the city as a measure of addressing this problem. Money should be allocated for street lighting as a measure of curbing this problem.

City hospitals have reported increased cases of respiratory as well as waterborne disease. This has been linked to the increased air pollution in the city and poor drainage. Poor drainage has polluted the city’s drinking water and hence the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. The city council should thus invest some money in maintaining the city drainage systems and enforcing air pollution rules and regulations. Medical facilities will also need improvement so as to help those who are already infected. The improvements will be in terms of availability of medicines, doctors as well as the physical facilities. Education programs on water treatment will also be needed as a way of helping the community to contraction of such diseases.

Waste management has been a problem in the city contributing to accidents from glass-cuts, bad odors and poor scenic city destroying the beauty of the city. This problem will require a lot of investment so as to help the city attract even more tourists. Money will be needed to establish garbage collection bins in every estate, hire/ purchase garbage collection trucks, establish landfills and incineration plants. However, this could be the best source of power for the city and hence the investment will be worthy the returns.

Increased housing in the city has seen to the surfacing of large areas of the city. This has contributed to increased temperatures in the city as well as frequent floods. However, this problem can be addresses if establish parks in the city, construct storm drainage as well as plant trees within the city. The trees will help regulate the city temperatures as well as reduce flooding as the tree roots will trap some water allowing infiltration to take place. Wetlands and firebreaks are also necessary in this community.

Improvements

In order to effect the improvements that the city requires, there is need to integrate these improvements with culture, ethics, political and socio-economics with the life science. Science has seen to the creating and development of glowing plants. It will therefore be advisable for the city council to purchase this kind of plants or even grow/culture them so as to help in solving several problems in the city. The plants will solve the problem of poor lighting and hence no need to use non renewable sources of power or even the renewable ones such as wind and water which could impact on our natural resources.

The glowing trees/plants will also help in curbing the increased city temperatures as they modify the city climate through acting as carbon sinks. Like any other trees they will help in curbing the problem of flooding as they trap water increasing infiltration into the soil. These kinds of trees will also help in making the city more beautiful especially during the night. However, economical and political factors will have a role to play in this kind of proposal. Economists and politicians will tend to view the project as expensive while the environmentalists will see it in the different problems solved as mentioned earlier. The economy of the city will also improve as more people will be attracted to the city bringing foreign exchange.

Improvements in science have contributed to the development of landfills and incineration plants. As mentioned earlier, the city can get rid of its waste through these methods. However, the methods are very economical although they could be expensive to establish. Landfills have become sources of methane gas which can be utilized for cooking purposes or generation of electricity. Incineration plants have been utilized for thermal electricity generation and cogeneration purposes. The electricity harnessed from these waste management methods could be helpful in providing lighting to the streets of the city or even the whole city. However the residents will need to be educated on waste separation and curb their culture of waste generation.

However, there are some ethical concerns associated with these new technologies. Methane gas produced from landfills has been linked to global warming as it is part of the greenhouse gases. There has been a lot of ash from landfills which also requires land to be buried or deposited. Ash particles in the atmosphere have also been linked to respiratory diseases as well as smoke.

In this proposal, environmental justice plays a great role in several areas especially in achieving sustainability. Methods of harnessing energy from waste are the great indicators of environmental justice as we do not need to keep on harvesting energy from the sources while we can get back the energy we used to produce materials which are now waste through energy recovery processes. This prevents depletion of resources as well as reduces pollution which also ensures environmental sustainability. Use of glowing plants also ensures that energy resources are not easily depleted as the plants play several roles.

Community benefits

A clean environment is very important to every individual. Removing waste from the environment will ensure the community is free from accidents such cuts and diseases such as malaria since waste heaps act as breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Respiratory diseases will also be gone as well as bad odors. The community will also enjoy a beautiful environment free from floods and high temperatures. Jobs will be created especially through waste collection services. Drivers will be required to drive the waster trucks and loaders. Construction of plants such as incinerators and landfills will create jobs for the engineers in the community among other people. Demand for construction materials will also be increased and thus the business persons will be enjoying their marginal profits. Infrastructure such as road will improves as they lead to the energy production sites. As use of recovered and renewable energy is put in place, the community will be enjoying sustainability both economically and environmentally since few resources will be required especially use of fossil fuels. The community will also be free from disasters such as floods.