The largest city in the United States of America is New York City. The problems faced by this city have a significant impact on our country and other countries as well. Climate change has become an issue globally due to either organic or inorganic wastes emitted to the environment. For instance, emissions from buildings account for about 67% of the total emissions (Moore, R. A., 1997). This trend could leave us wondering if not checked, and these emissions could damage our environment. In this essay, we will go in detail and describe those related environmental issues that face this mammoth city. These issues are maintaining production and consumption of sustainable energy foods, transportation; poor water quality; and low production of organic food and disposal of food waste. Addressing these problems once and for goodwill marks the beginning of eliminating environmental issues since this will lay the foundation for other cities like Washington DC to follow suit.
Sustainable Energy
There is an ambitious plan from New York to eliminate greenhouse gasses by 2050 (Jung, & Villaran, 2017). Though the process is taking place at a slow pace, there is still some work to be done in eliminating the emissions of nitrogen from nitrogenous fertilizers use, reduction in the use of petroleum products, use of solar panels, and electricity from hydroelectric dams and geysers. All these efforts are in place, but they have not yielded the sustainable levels recognized by the United Nations Environmental Program based in Nairobi, Kenya. The 350NYC Sustainable Solutions, in collaboration with other stakeholders, got sponsorship from different sources to campaign and lobby for 100% renewable energy by 2030 (Thellufsen, Lund, Sorknæs, Østergaard, Chang, Drysdale, ... & Sperling, 2020). According to a 350NYC Sustainable Solutions study in 2017, 98% of New York residents use electricity produced from either one or a mixture of: oil, gas, coal, hydroelectric, and nuclear power. The working group advocated for New York residents to use wind energy as part of the collective responsibility to reduce this problem.
Transport Problem
When we consider total omissions, the transport sector produces about 30% of New York's overall deletions (Civerolo, Rattigan, Felton, & Schwab, 2016). Though New York City has low locomotive ownership, 83% of the omissions are produced by private vehicles. As part of the solution to this problem of congestion and emissions, train services have been introduced. Still, it has not been able to reduce a significant amount of vehicles from piling up in and around the city. New York City has endeavored to reduce vehicles’ emission by 55% by 2035 (Kheirbek, Haney, Douglas, Ito, & Matte, 2016). The reduction can be achieved by increasing telecommunication use, encouraging public transport to reduce reliance on driving vehicles.
Poor Water Quality
Fast foods such as wrappers, cosmetics, nonstick cookware items, and others usually contain PFOA and PFOS compounds, which are very harmful to human beings. These compounds do also exist in water, which is being supplied to New York City. According to an article released on 30th July 2020, public water will be required to slash and remove the level of these two harmful compounds (Post, 2020). The New York state has become the first state to reduce maximum contaminants limits for these compounds to 10 parts per trillion and reduce the maximum contaminants limit for 1, 4 dioxane to 1part per billion.
Food Waste
Rotting food waste emits methane gas that is intense and harmful to human beings and causes the universe's greenhouse effect. According to Pei (2018) of the New York Times, the city disposes of about 14 million tons of waste. Disposal usually costs up to 400 million dollars annually. Of these wastes, 30% emanates from food wastes and pose a severe social issue, especially at this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, where many residents are going hungry.
Conclusion
To sum up this entire problem, we need to suggest the solutions that should be done to reduce the effects. First of all, to maintain a high level of renewable energy, which is sustainable, we should do thorough campaign and form lobby groups that urge the city dwellers to embrace wind power energy and use public means of transport. On the part of the state, it should be willing to increase the rail transport network that utilizes electric energy. New York City requires to be congratulated for its move to change the contaminant's limits, but that will not make us jubilate unless action is followed to the later the water will remain contaminated. It is the responsibility if New York dwellers and civil society to wake up and try to push for the reforms to be followed to reduce the environmental pollution in New York. On the contrary, organic waste can be a blessing in disguise because it can be changed into a compost. People in homes can make composts useful in composting domestic scraps; restaurants should form sites to dispose of their food wastes only to compost the organic manure. This process is termed as recycling. Lastly, the state should expand the composting field to give rise to the older compost to be utilized while another part receives the waste.
References
Moore, R. A. (1997). Controlling Agriculture Nonpoint Source Pollution: The New York Experience. Drake L. Rev., 45, 103.
Jung, J., & Villaran, M. (2017). Optimal Planning and Design of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for Microgrids. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 75, 180-191.
Civerolo, K. L., Rattigan, O. V., Felton, H. D., & Schwab, J. J. (2016). Changes in Gas-Phase aAr Pollutants Across New York State, USA. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 17(1), 147-166.
Thellufsen, J. Z., Lund, H., Sorknæs, P., Østergaard, P. A., Chang, M., Drysdale, D., ... & Sperling, K. (2020). Smart Energy Cities in a 100% Renewable Energy Context. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 129, 109922.
Kheirbek, I., Haney, J., Douglas, S., Ito, K., & Matte, T. (2016). The Contribution of Motor Vehicle Emissions to Ambient Nuanced Particulate Matter Public Health Impacts in New York City: A Health Burden Assessment. Environmental Health, 15(1), 89.
Pei, Y. (2018). Wastescape: Stitching the Process of Natural Decomposition Back into the Public Realm.
Post, G. B. (2020). Recent US State and Federal Drinking Water Guidelines for Per‐And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.