• most buildings were designed for an earlier climate – here’s what will happen as global warming accelerates. climate change is drastically altering the environmental conditions in which our buildings were designed to function. but how exactly does climate change affect our building materials? 

• 5 ways to make buildings climate change resilient. building for resilience against heatwave, cyclones, coastal flooding, and extreme cold — what does the future of infrastructure look like?

• an architect with an eye on the environment. increasingly, architects, and builders are thinking about how their creations affect the health of the planet. meet kunlé adeyemi, a nigerian architect who has built his career around that question.

check back tomorrow for more info on what is being explored on the final day of cop26 — and more good reads to keep you informed!

• step by step guide to having a conversation about climate change. the foundation for environmental education held a panel at cop26 today about the power of communication networks. learn about communication networks, why they’re so important, and how to start a conversation about climate change yourself!

• five facts from nasa to help you understand sea ice. changes in sea ice play a key part in the global climate and have great effects on the ocean.

• five big ideas to address the climate crisis and inequality in cities. another panel held today covers urban inequality in the fight for global climate justice. we have a ways to go, but so much is already being done to combat the disproportionate effects of climate change. read about what’s happening in nairobi, kenya; london; rosario, argentina; monterrey, mexico; and ahmedabad, india.

check back tomorrow for more info on what is being explored at cop26 — and good reads to keep you informed!

open public spaces increase the quality of life for all people living in an area and are essential to the development of healthy cities that meet the needs of their people. my project is about the importance of public space to healthy community development, social resilience, and happier people.

different forms of public space play different roles in each of these, roles like education, accessibility, physical and mental health, activism, and exposure to nature. in his book “just sustainabilities,” julian agyeman asserts that these spaces are where we encounter other people and cultures, people watch, protest, and engage in acts of revolution (agyeman, 2013).

i want to showcase different ways people use public spaces, how that determines the needs of the people living in those communities, and how they contribute to a better quality of life. i believe that this is important in resistance against gentrification in many communities. developers and real estate companies claim new development projects will draw people into certain neighborhoods and stimulate their economies, but it may not really be what that community needs. 

public parks are undoubtedly valuable to all communities. they encourage physical activity and engagement with elements of nature. they provide spaces for people to exercise, socialize, and just have fun. a neighborhood park may be the closest thing to exposure to nature for people in some communities. it can provide interaction with nature that is not possible in cities. until coming to syracuse for college, the small wooded areas of prospect park and the beach were the closest i had ever gotten to nature.

plazas and squares, throughout history, have been important gathering places for community action and protest. they provide a known location with a large amount of space that helps get people involved, engaged, and centralized.

public libraries give people the resources to educate themselves, read for pleasure, and gain access to valuable community programs and events. more indirectly, they provide a heat-controlled, safe indoors for anyone regardless of their demographic. i spent entire summers at my local library trying to escape the summer city heat, where i cultivated a love for reading and made lasting friendships that were particularly valuable for me as an only child.

both of these spaces, as well as plazas, public museums, and public beaches, can provide invaluable access to nature, physical exercise, essential resources, and connections, places to inspire and host protest and art, all regardless of class, race, and gender. they also offer people exposure to other cultures and their values. some problems have been observed with certain public spaces increasing gentrification, and a solution for that demands thorough community outreach when designing and building a public space. additionally, how people use their current public spaces can dictate what people want from public spaces.

an example of this is in dyker beach park. people used to convene there to play bocce, a culturally significant italian game. a few years later, bocce courts were built in the park, and even as the population shifts in demographics, people can be seen every weekend on the courts. every class of people uses these spaces. also, people who may not have much space in their homes can have another place to feel at home, as well as feel like part of a community.

—

references:

agyeman, j. (2013). introducing just sustainabilities: policy, planning, and practice. london, uk: zed books.

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as two 20-somethings watching our food bills rise, we thought little of the food waste produced. it was just one of the growing sources of money sapping lifestyle inflation we had. we were adding convenience foods, eating out, and generally doing what two middle-class americans do once they’re out of school and starting careers: spend! as our budget ballooned, so too did our carbon footprint and waste.

but what if we could rethink our relationship with food in a way that would cut waste and save money?

food and individual empowerment

many ideas we think about on planet forward are nuanced, distant concepts. we don’t personally have much direct control over them. but, there is something we all individually do that has a real effect on the environment, society, and even our own wealth. we eat, and sometimes not with great efficiency.

it’s been close to a decade since we started looking — bleary-eyed with student loan debt — at our finances and the consumerism that blew holes in our budget. we’ve been fortunate to turn the tide, and then some, through lots of small purchasing decisions along the way. 

while writing about financial independence as one of a duo of 35-year-old early retirees, i’ve spent copious amounts of time researching how to reduce our grocery expenses. reducing food waste became a central theme of our expert guide to saving money at the grocery store.

ultimately, we cut our monthly grocery expenses from $575.80 to $339.85 in 2019 — a more than 40% savings.

in the process, we found the fortunate side effect of a reduced carbon footprint and a dramatic drop in food waste. put in place our strategies and do the same today. cutting food waste can lead to favorable outcomes for society and the environment.

it can even save you money — and you have full control over it.

reducing food waste can save you money

when food is wasted, so too are the resources used to produce that food.

an average u.s. household spends about $5,850 per year on food, according to the aaea.

reducing waste is an opportunity for households to directly improve the environment and strengthen their own financial position. while landfills are overflowing with wasted nutrition, food banks run out of resources to provide for those in need. in the time of a global pandemic, those most vulnerable tend to be those most in need of resources like food banks.

food waste in the united states

the average u.s. household wastes 31.9% of the food it purchases. consumer‐level food waste was valued at $240 billion in a single year, according to the aaea. the average u.s. household loses $1,866 on wasted food per year, according to a recent penn state study. this food waste is all-encompassing within a household: groceries, restaurants, and fast food. 

the money you might be wasting in the food you throw away

penn state’s study is based on u.s. households, which the census defines as 2.5 people. that means there’s $746.40 per person, per year or $62.20 per month in wasted food for just one person! cutting your personal food waste in half could put enough money into your budget for your netflix subscription and cell phone bill combined. not to mention all the knock-on effects to the environment.

so what can you do?

it’s easy to say we can reduce our food waste to help the environment and ourselves. but what actual steps can we take to make this change? here are five ways to reduce food waste and save money.

1. rethink what a meal is

if you’re like me, you grew up with a dinner plate that was nicely divided between three sections. it was a little pie chart of meat, a “starch,” and hopefully a vegetable. eggs were for breakfast. cereal was a complete meal. sandwiches with cold cuts were for lunch.

it doesn’t have to be that way. it can be any way you want, you’re an adult!

you don’t have to eat meals the way that we’ve decided they should be in the last 1% of the timeframe of human existence (and 1% is very generous). your goal is to satiate yourself and provide adequate nutrition, at a reasonable cost.

2. rethink your diet from zero

that doesn’t mean you need to switch to a diet of rice and beans. but, it does mean you should rethink your diet: start from the ground up rather than trying to remove things from your current diet. consciously add dishes that meet nutritional requirements along with foods you enjoy! devise how they can fit into your meal plan.

if you couldn’t care less how you eat it, identify the healthiest ingredients at the lowest cost, stick them in a blender, and go to town. kale and peanut butter in a smoothie? i mean, have you tried it? 

no one said you have to use a fork!

3. don’t let time be the master of your meals

you can eat dinner things for breakfast. leftover beans from last night’s dinner? mix them in with your eggs! just because you don’t normally eat green beans with your breakfast doesn’t mean you can’t. 

if you’ve run out of your typical breakfast foods, don’t force yourself to run out and restock the eggs just because they’re the normal accompaniment. challenge yourself to incorporate the beans with breakfast instead. you’ll help prevent your leftover food from going to waste and make your tongue a little more flexible.

having flexibility in your diet and your idea of what a meal is will permit you to be more efficient by maximizing your food use and reducing waste. flexibility saves you money, and not only with food.

4. don’t buy bulk when you don’t eat bulk

i don’t know about you, but our household is just two people. we’re decidedly averaged sized, too. i don’t know why we so often wind up with “family-sized” multi-packs of oatmeal that might be intended to feed horses. actually, i think i know why.

for years, we’ve read those repetitive “10 grocery tips to save money!” type of articles. they typically include:

• buy in bulk

• pay the lowest per unit/ounce price

here’s the thing. that’s great starting advice when you’re just trying to get an idea of how to save money on groceries. but, if you’re not in a household of four people, bulk buying could be more expensive. we’ve followed that simple starting advice and wound up with more than our fair share of big-bottle condiments sitting in the bottom fridge shelf slowly changing colors. 

i thought ketchup was supposed to be a brighter red?

here’s the advice when you’re concerned about your food budget and waste: buy what you need!

put that optimizing part of your brain to work on figuring out how much of the product you actually use over time. purchase the size that’ll be consumed before it begins to crawl out of the fridge on its own.

reduce waste, save money.

5. grocery price-shop online; avoid driving

most grocery stores have their in-store pricing available online either through their website or app. if the brand itself doesn’t, you might have luck getting an idea of the prices by using contracted shopper services like instacart (though their prices tend to be marked up a bit). this also lets you compare pricing with online grocers like amazon or boxed from the comfort of your home.

if you want to get the absolute lowest price for your grocery list and are willing to make multiple trips to do it, do your price comparisons online. 

generally, it’s probably not worth it to go to multiple locations (especially when a car is involved) to save a few extra dollars. if you can live in an urban environment that’ll let you walk to pickup your food, that makes it easier to locally price-shop.

save money and improve the environment by reducing food waste

altering your perceptions of what a meal can be, when to have it, and not giving into marketing hype will let you rethink what food means to you. using the tactics outlined in this article, along with a few extras focused on reducing costs, let us save over 40% on our monthly grocery budget while eating a healthful diet.

a pleasant side effect has been a much lighter trash bag with barely any food waste in sight. it’s taken us some time, but our grocery spending reduction has lead to more efficient use of resources and a small improvement to the environment we had full control over.

you have the ability to make the same changes as we did, today. you can add to your wealth while taking less from the world around you.

what do you intend to do to help solve food waste in america? reach out to tictoclife on twitter with your ideas!

countries like kenya will need to reimagine their food systems to feed a growing urban population with fewer farmers. as food security concerns grow for the city of nairobi, farmers like francis wachira are transforming urban lots into highly productive green spaces to raise livestock, grow vegetables, and fight climate change. cities like nairobi will depend on urban farmers like francis to produce sustainable food systems to confront this growing food security crisis.

francis dreams of a world where more urban residents produce their own food to escape poverty and fight climate change. will others adopt his model of urban farming to feed the future of nairobi? learn from francis and see how urban farming can help 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 .

rising junior grace jaeger said she was a freshman when she first noticed the transportation needs on northwestern university’s evanston campus. her first-year dorm was located roughly half a mile from her classes, and, as a result, she was frequently late. she found the campus shuttle system unreliable, and she resorted to calling uber to avoid tardiness. this, she said, was the inspiration for eo — northwestern’s first student-run subscription bike-sharing program.

jaeger with a team of four other northwestern students, officially launched eo this spring and expect to expand the campus service this fall. eo is a subscription-based service in which students pay $20 per quarter for unlimited rides and the ability to pick up and leave the easily identifiable purple and orange bikes almost anywhere on campus since the bike has a locking system triggered by a telephone app. 

within the first week, eo had over 100 memberships, more than 275 miles traveled, and — most notably — roughly 110 kilograms of carbon saved in uber rides and car commutes. by april 22, only three weeks after the company’s launch, that number had risen to almost 500 kilograms of carbon saved, according to jaeger. carbon — as in the heat-storing carbon dioxide greenhouse gas — is the thermostat for turning up global warming. 

“we want our system to decrease the environmental impact of students and community members by providing an affordable and accessible method of transportation,” jaeger said. “and [we want] to create a culture of sustainability on campus.”

thus far, eo has done just that, and the start-up is not alone. eo is just one of a growing number of bike-sharing programs that have been gaining traction over the last several years. just outside evanston, the city of chicago is helping lead the charge in encouraging residents to opt to use carbon-free or low-carbon transportation such as biking as a means to mitigate climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

most recently, the chicago city council, in tandem with the chicago department of transportation, approved a $50 million expansion of the city’s largest bike-sharing program that partners with divvy. as part of the expansion, divvy bikes will now be available and accessible in all 50 of the city’s wards. at a press conference introducing the expansion, former chicago mayor rahm emanuel explained part of his administration’s reasoning for supporting the investment. 

“my administration has made it a priority to create a variety of high-quality, reliable transportation options to get chicagoans and visitors where they want to go,” emanuel said.

under new chicago mayor lori lightfoot, support for green initiatives in transportation has continued. julia gerasimenko is the advocacy manager at the active transportation alliance, a lightfoot-supported non-profit advocacy organization whose goal is to improve conditions for bicycling, walking and transit, and engage people in healthy and active ways to be mobile. gerasimenko said the expansion of divvy bikes throughout the city is essential to ensure that all chicagoans have access to bikes and low-carbon mobility.

“at active trans, we definitely advocated for bike-share to come to chicago [in 2013] and we’ve been really excited to see the growth of divvy over the years,” gerasimenko said. “they will now be expanding to cover all of chicago, and we’re really excited to see that happen so that everyone in the city can have access to biking.”

chicago was recently named a winning city of the bloomberg philanthropies’ american cities climate challenge, based on city plans to expand bike-share programs to reach 100% of the city and policies that support car sharing and transit ridership while reducing vehicle ownership overall. in doing so, chicago joined 20 other american cities in sharing a $70 million grant from the organization to accelerate  efforts.

encouraging low carbon mobility options through bike-sharing is as important today as ever before. with more news every day unveiling the seriousness and pressing nature of climate change, the time for change is now. according to a recent report by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), “global warming will likely reach 1.5°c between 2032 and 2050, causing massive increases in already life-threatening environmental changes if it continues at its current rate.” 

this means that during the next 12 years, significant change must occur in the amount of carbon consumed across the globe to deter the climate from changing, and the planet from warming to life-threatening levels. a huge step in reaching this goal comes from the reduction of carbon through low-carbon transportation options. according to data published by the environmental protection agency in 2017, 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the united states result  from transportation — the largest contributor of any one category. 

encouraging people to reduce their carbon footprint through low-carbon transportation options such as biking is a vital part of the ongoing fight. when asked of the importance of encouraging more people to use low-carbon transportation options as a means of decreasing chicago’s carbon emissions, gerasimenko said that it is absolutely vital.

“if we are able to make a substantial impact in the individual day-to-day choices that people are making in their transit,” gerasimenko said, “i definitely think it would lead to decreased emissions and to better air quality for everyone.”

while chicago was not the first city to launch a widespread bike-sharing service, the business of bike-sharing has expanded rapidly across the united states since divvy bikes debuted  in chicago in 2013. more specifically, motivate — the parent company that owns divvy — has expanded its efforts vastly in recent years. today, motivate owns city-wide bike-sharing operations in nine major american cities, including new york, chicago, boston, and san francisco, and has teamed up with major ride-sharing services like lyft. 

not only is motivate helping to promote sustainable and healthy low-carbon modes of transportation across the country, but the company is proving that doing so can be a profitable practice. according to a report from the bike-sharing service market, the global bike-sharing industry was valued at nearly $1.6 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $5.4 billion by the end of 2024.

at northwestern university, eo team member and co-founder grace jaeger also sees the profitability of bike-sharing, especially on college campuses like northwestern’s.

“we believe eo is economically profitable on a campus like northwestern,” jaeger said. “it’s a niche community where we are all close and have pretty uniform needs in terms of where we need to go” 

commuting to classes is a high priority and, at northwestern, eo fills that niche. further, as a source of profitability, eo team members say they believe investors will be attracted to their service, and invest in their program, subsequently investing in low-carbon transportation.  

“we believe that we can grow as a company by expanding to other campuses,” jaeger said. this summer, jaeger and the eo team say they plan to conduct research in order to determine which other campuses in the nation are marketable and open to eo’s expansion, as well as possible ways that they can best manage that potential expansion.

at a recent conference on sustainability held at northwestern’s kellogg school of management, valueact capital founder and ceo jeffrey ubben stressed the importance of encouraging business leaders to invest in sustainability. ubben said that, to change the industry, business leaders must work to make active investments and be a part of the change themselves, rather than giving their money to others as a way to promote change. 

“you can’t go into the system, take advantage into it, then come out and try to fix it through philanthropy,” ubben said. “you have to combine the two, and fix the issue from the inside and that’s what i’m trying to do…we are tomorrow’s company now and not yesterday’s.”

according to ubben, profitability in sustainable businesses is the key to gathering investors as well as maintaining progress in reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change. in the greater chicago area, bike-sharing companies like divvy and eo are proving to be a profitable and sustainable business.

at a time when reducing the collective carbon footprint must be an ultimate priority for businesses and nations around the world, it is small businesses like eo, and larger corporations like motivate, that must lead the charge. by creating profitable business models anchored in low-carbon mobility, and specifically bike-sharing, eo and motivate are successfully doing their part. 

what i have learned since moving to seattle is that what i witnessed is not new and it is throughout the city. film director christopher rufo aggregated data on homeless encampments and their hazards, such as trash, feces, and used needles, on to one map. the data points show that residents in every single neighborhood have seen sights like the ones that i have seen: large homeless encampments near freeways, people living in broken down rvs in front of people’s houses, and people sleeping in business entryways.

seattle now has a humanitarian crisis, with more than 11,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in january 2019. this crisis is front and center in the city council elections. major flashpoints in the elections include the approval and subsequent quick repeal of the seattle head tax and komo news report, “seattle is dying,” an inflammatory piece focusing on a failing criminal justice system.

homelessness and what the city can do to solve it is on the minds of voters in this year’s city council election, in which seven of the nine seats are on the ballot. district 3, where i happen to reside, has been labeled the most competitive and is the most expensive. councilwoman kshama sawant, the socialist alternative incumbent, is the most vulnerable to lose her seat to the now five candidates hoping to unseat her. this district will show if seattle wants to keep moving forward with progressive policies and with divisive leaders, or to change course and focus on more pragmatic progressive solutions.

one of the challengers, ami nguyen, is a king county public defender and the daughter of vietnamese refugees. her ideas and beliefs are formed by her experience as a child where her family “…relied on government benefits like subsidized housing, food stamps, public schools, and school lunches,” ngyuen told me. and because of this she believes that “…it is important for a city councilmember to understand the importance of those programs.”

that is the message that nguyen is telling the voters. she understands the plight of low income people in the district because as a child she lived in poverty, and as an adult she helps those living in poverty as a public defender. this message is resonating with voters, as shown by the fact that she has received over $57,000 from the city’s democracy vouchers program, the most for any candidate in her district.

when asked about her policies and positions on how to handle the homelessness crisis she said that there needs to be a mix of affordable housing and supportive housing.

“we just can’t only build low income and affordable housing, or only build supportive housing, because we are limited in money,” nguyen said. “with the private companies they’re building affordable housing, and they’re (being built) faster. supportive housing will cost more. but a lot of nonprofits in the city are capable of it.”

supportive housing not only focuses on housing people, but provides services such as addiction and mental health treatment, to deal with the underlying  causes of homelessness. nguyen said, “i think that it’s a great way to make sure that people are not only housed, but they stay housed.”

when it comes to the environmental impact of homelessness, nguyen focused on the feces outside. “… if you are having feces (on the ground) then it not only affects the soil for the community long term, but also short term because they (homeless people) are sleeping right next to it. there are potential diseases that can make them sick.

“give people access to bathrooms. we don’t have enough,” she said. “if you don’t provide enough then people are going to use the restroom in public and it’s going to have that environmental impact and also that health and safety impact.”

nguyen is correct. diseases that are transmitted through human waste include hepatitis, meningitis, and typhus and all of these diseases are found in homeless encampments in san francisco, los angeles, and seattle respectively.

when asked about the litter, including the needles that are scattered throughout the city, nguyen shared a story when canvassing throughout the district.

“we actually found a bag of — a sports bag — had at least 50 needles in. …it was out in the open and this bag is open, there was a playground across the street. it was just scary.”

this anecdote shows the chilling reality of the problem in the city. there is a lack of respect, not only for the health and safety of the community members, but for the wellbeing of the city itself and its environment.

another candidate that is hoping to unseat councilwoman sawant is egan orion. orion is the director of pridefest in seattle, the head of the broadway business improvement area (bbia) in the capitol hill neighborhood, and a small business owner. his ideals and experience in the private sector have lead him to gain the endorsements from both the chamber of commerce, including a sizable contribution from amazon, and the seattle times.

through his work at the bbia, orion has been able to bring homeless outreach workers to the district in order to “connect with them (homeless individuals), getting to know them, and to help them navigate the system.” along with the outreach workers, he also runs a 7-days-a-week clean up of broadway, “…including needles and graffiti that have become an everyday part of our urban village,” he said.

the focus for orion is showing district residents that seattle needs “a fresh start” — one that focuses on bringing different communities together to include small and large businesses, nonprofits, community organizers, and everyday citizens. orion wants to do “…whatever it takes to move our city forward and solve or mitigate the many problems we face,” which is something he thinks is lacking from councilwoman sawant.

“seattle has a core responsibility to shelter and house our unsheltered population,” said olga laskin, orion’s campaign manager. orion’s campaign website shows that this is also a core focus on his campaign, with sections on solving the homeless crisis to ways to combat the housing affordability crisis in the city.

to address the homelessness crisis in the city orion proposes a bond with king county, for over $500 million in order to get supportive housing to the chronically homeless in the city. these supportive housing units will have wraparound services, “including mental health and addiction recovery services, and provide the stability and support these residents need for a better future,” orion said.

like nguyen, orion wants there to be a focus on a mix of affordable and supportive housing. the center of orion’s affordable housing plan is development based around “light density,” which means more duplexes and triplexes, which would be accomplished through the private sector.

in response to the impacts of homelessness, the orion campaign focused less on the environmental impacts, but rather the impacts on public health.

“yes, there’s garbage and needles, but those impacts are not necessarily more than the mess that sheltered people leave,” laskin said. “they’re just more obvious and more likely to have a public health impact, particularly for those who are unsheltered.”

the orion campaign is correct that people who are sheltered have a greater environmental impact than unsheltered individuals, however, in 2018 the city of seattle collected more than 1,180 tons of garbage from unmanaged encampments.

the ideas of candidates like orion and nguyen on homelessness and housing affordability are in contrast to incumbent sawant. the socialist alternative member of the city council believes that seattle should tax the large corporations in order to supply the city with supportive housing and 100% public housing. this is the only way that sawant is proposing to solve the homelessness crisis in the city, and what her entire campaign is focused around.

there is nothing more to be said about the incumbent’s housing policy or other policies. all problems in seattle can be fixed, in sawant’s opinion, through taxing businesses with a steep progressive tax in order to fund social programs for the masses. in the almost five years she has been in office, little has been done to achieve any of the bold policies sawant has presented on homelessness, affordability, and environmental issues.

along with nguyen and orion, sawant​​​​​​​ challengers include: pot shop owner logan bowers, it business owner pat murakami, and zachary dewolf who won his election last year to be on the seattle school board.

on the aug. 6 primary, voters were clear that they want change in their elected representative, with 64% of voters choosing to vote for a candidate that presented pragmatic and tangible solutions to the crises that seattle is facing.

as of aug. 9, councilwoman sawant received 36% of the vote, while during her 2015 primary showing she received 52% of the vote. her challenger in the november general election is egan orion, who received 22% of the vote. ami nguyen came in 5th place with just over 9% of the vote.

the coming months will show if orion will be able to bring together a large and inclusive coalition together in order to bring a “fresh start” to city council.

a love for swimming and experiencing water is a widely popular cultural phenomenon. unfortunately, most individuals are not lucky enough to have access to water sources suitable for public use. as our world continually industrializes, natural bodies of water are increasingly exposed to harmful pollutants. pollution is detrimental to the health of rivers, lakes, and oceans; it threatens natural ecosystems and poses a danger for human health. surface water, encompassing almost 70 percent of water on earth, is frequently contaminated with nutrient pollution. caused by animal manure, sewage treatment discharge, fertilizer, detergent, and stormwater runoff, nutrient pollution results in algae overgrowth. not only is this harmful to human health, but it also damages the ecosystems of various plants and animals that live in freshwater environments.

in particular, the potomac river has a history of struggling with pollution. the river’s water quality began to deteriorate at the start of the nineteenth century when mining and agricultural developments expanded upstream. throughout history, various leaders have made efforts to restore the river. in the 1960s, president lyndon johnson deemed the river a “national disgrace,” before signing the clean waters restoration act, which designated federal funds towards the development of sewage treatment plants. in 1972, the clean water act led to the expansion of several more sewage treatment plants. although progress has been made since its initial deterioration, the potomac river remains incredibly vulnerable to a variety of harmful pollutants.

fortunately, the potomac riverkeeper network has been fighting against pollution since its establishment in 2000. with a mission to protect the public’s right to clean water, prkn focuses on identifying pollution, fighting this pollution, and encouraging the community to engage with and appreciate the river. much of the organization’s works is focused on holding major polluters, like power plants, manufacturing facilities, and coal-ash storage facilities, legally accountable for the pollution they produce. the organization’s efforts will be supplemented by the donation of the sea dog boat and the launch of the swimmable potomac campaign.

in march, the potomac riverkeeper network held a boat launch to signify the start of new monitoring practices. to expand their patrolling and water quality monitoring capacity, prkn secured a donation of a 42-foot custom chesapeake deadrise powerboat called sea dog from a retired four-star u.s. navy admiral. sea dog’s primary functions will be to facilitate water quality monitoring on the potomac river, increase the visibility of potomac riverkeeper on the water, and engage the public in conversations about the health of the river, human impact, and future opportunities for public stewardship.

in tandem with this monumental donation, the prkn will launch a swimmable potomac campaign using the new information that will be available as a result of the bacterial water quality monitoring program.  the results from the bacterial monitoring program will be used to inform the public about when it is safe to go in the water – as well as when it is not – and push for more safe swimming days.  in addition, the campaign will seek to have dc’s historic ban on swimming in the potomac repealed while restoring swimmable use access.

if successful, the swimmable potomac campaign will lift the ban on swimming and other direct water exposure activities in dc and also provide sufficient, timely information to the public about water safety that people can make good decisions about whether to go in the water.

water is an essential element of human life. our entire existence is reliant on water, and our daily lives are enhanced by the privilege of interacting with natural water sources. thanks to the potomac riverkeeper network, there is hope that potomac river will make a full recovery from its polluted past, and be accessible to communities all across the watershed.

sources:

1. denchak, melissa. water pollution: everything you need to know. natural resources defense council. may 18, 2018. 

2. united states senate. the clean waters restoration act signed into law. us senate art and history archives. november 3, 1966. 

3. potomac riverkeeper network.

i sat down with professor josh cousins at suny-esf and talked about this topic. cousins, who has a ph.d. from the school for the environment and sustainability at the university of michigan, teaches community planning & sustainability, sustainable urban development, and an environmental energy auditing course. urban resilience, according to cousins, is “ultimately a social concept. we developed it, we created it, and we use it as a metaphor to describe something we see in the natural world.

“it has this positive connotation along with it in terms of applying that metaphor to a city; thinking about how a robust ecosystem is able to bounce back from certain shocks and stresses. so when applied to a community or city, how can a city respond to different shocks and stresses? whether it’s a hurricane or an economic downturn, etc.”

this resilience is really important when we’re thinking about what we want a sustainable future to look like. with rising sea levels and more extreme weather-related disasters, resilience is crucial in how our cities can bounce back from these shocks and stresses.

the main question isn’t if we should make strides for our cities to be more resilient, but rather: resilience for whom? with any policy or social change, certain groups always seem to be excluded. obviously we want our cities to be able to bounce back from environmental stresses, but if this happens only in more affluent areas of the city, for example, is the city truly resilient?

an important way to combat these disparities within urban resilience, according to cousins, is to “start at a local, grassroots level and try to incorporate (a diverse group) within planning processes. give them the resources at the grassroots level to do that, rather than initiating that from a top-down drive.”

many cities are implementing a resiliency leadership position, which cousins argues isn’t a bad idea, but there needs to be an emphasis on encouraging citizen-led change through local movements. those who live within a particular area of a city are the most knowledgeable about the day-to-day resiliency strengths and weaknesses, since they are witness to it every day. this aspect cannot be acknowledged and utilized enough.

a lot of general greenspace development, according to cousins, has been linked to gentrification and displacement because as more projects work to make an urban area appear more green, certain groups are pushed out of their familiar urban environments. this also plays into that question of: resiliency for whom? the adverse effects that green space planning might actually have can be significant. sometimes certain amenities can bring certain disservices. for example, something like tree planting might result in added labor for a community that might not have the capacity to maintain new trees. the result is an environmental benefit that may turn into a disservice to the community in the long run.

resiliency is crucial in order to create societies that thrive and react to growing environmental concerns. but resiliency also must be sure to include low-income communities and communities composed mainly of minorities.

said cousins: “resilience is here to stay whether you like it or not. you have to engage with it. overall, more resilient futures are better futures.”