NYC/Waste Follow-Up
Follow-up to blog entry: "Can You Believe It?" posted on Monday, December 18th, 2007 (no, I am not LOOKING for follow-ups!):Greenhouse Gas Study Says 1 Pct From NYC
Apr 11, 9:27 AM (ET)
By SARA KUGLER
NEW YORK (AP) - New York City produces nearly 1 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions - an amount that puts it on par with Ireland or Portugal - according to a city study. The study, released Tuesday, was ordered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to assess the city's progress in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. It was conducted by the mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability. "You have to have a real baseline or we're just talking past each other as to what works and what doesn't work - we won't ever know whether we really made a difference," Bloomberg said. The study found that the buildings, subways, buses, cars and decomposition of waste in America's most populous city produced a net emission of 58.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2005. The report said the city's emissions "are currently as much as those of Ireland or Portugal."
The U.S. total was 7.26 billion metric tons for that year. Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and other gases, essentially trap energy from the sun, which warms the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere. Many scientists believe human activity that increases those gases is contributing to global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of 2,000 scientists, warned last week of possible catastrophic risks such as floods, disease, food shortages, species extinction and human suffering throughout the world. The city has 2.7 percent of the country's population - 8.2 million of 300 million - and the average New York City resident contributes less than a third of the emissions generated by a typical American. This is largely due to the popularity of the city's mass transit system, which cuts down on car emissions, officials said. The operation of the city's hundreds of thousands of buildings - which consume electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and steam - contribute 79 percent of the city's emissions total. The study found that the city's focus on environmentally friendly initiatives - including alternative fuel vehicles, energy efficient traffic lights and green buildings - appears to have helped stabilize emissions rates in recent years. "Each one of these things really does make a difference, and they add up," Bloomberg said. Still, emissions were found to have increased by more than 8 percent between 1995 and 2005, the study found.
posted by nicole @ 4:23 PM
2 Comments:
I don't know much about the "global warming" issue but there are those who think it's just that: "a bunch of hot air". Is it man caused? Why promote it if it's not true? Who will benefit most from pushing the concept? Carbon dioxide in the air is not a pollutant, it is a nutrient and enhances vegetation growth and makes it more water efficient (less water stressed). The sun warms the earth not the atmosphere, there continues to be more buildings and concrete that radiate heat. The scare is driven by computer models, we can't predict the weather next week much less decades from now. We need to learn from the past climate history. The sun changes every 11 years, there are records going back 400 years. Everything in nature produces carbon dioxide, volcanoes, termites, wood decay and did you know humans produce 70 million ton DAILY? I believe the thought is that we don't need to fear carbon dioxide and methane, all nature changes. 1500 atmospheric scientists gathered, all but app. 8 did not support global warming, app. 3 were unsure, app. 5 wouldn't say (can't remember numbers exactly, but these are close). These are not my words but now I've heard this side and Al Gores "Inconvenient Truth". I do wonder why John Travolta has 2 personal jets in his "driveways" that he uses if he believes in global warming. SLSN
Who are you and what is your point? The sun DOES warm the atmosphere, directly or not. And what do you mean "The sun changes every 11 years?" Like, it has a new outlook on life or something? Do you live in NYC? This global warming "SCARE" is NOT produced by computer models, it is based on DATA, like how the temperature has risen over periods of time, how the ocean's temps are rising, and how sea levels are rising. Why are you so concerned with John Travolta anyway? He is not making documentary movies or crying about YOUR carbon footprint.
Post a Comment
<< Home