Making Streets Green

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 453.

Air Pollution

NYC has a significant air pollution problem that causes premature death for many people. Ozone, or smog, is the biggest problem. It is caused by sunlight interacting with vapors released from motor vehicles, factories and fuel-burning sources. The American Lung Association says the NYC metropolitan area ranks 16th for ozone pollution when compared to 25 other American cities. Fine particulate matter is another culprit, and it is caused by ash, soot, diesel fumes and chemical emissions. Particulates burrow their way deep into the lungs and cause asthma, chest pain, wheezing and cancer.

One way New York City fights pollution involves reforesting city streets, parks and homes. MillionTreesNYC is an environmental program that combines the expertise of community groups, volunteers and government agencies to solve pollution problems in the city. Trees reduce street temperatures and clean city air of the dust and pollutants that contribute to respiratory illness. The tree canopy in NYC helps offset the harm of global warming. Green spaces also encourage the city's residents and visitors to get out and enjoy the beauty and wildlife of the city

1. What are the biggest pollution problems in NYC?

2. Why is NYC sewing system so vulnerable to storms? What does the runoff contain? What does it damage? What solutions did they find to this problem?

3. What is the greatest urban myth about water? Why is bottled water environmentally unfriendly?

4. What is the biggest problem about air pollution in NY? How is ozone pollution composed? What does fine particulate matter consist of? Why is it so dangerous?

5. What is MillionTreesNYC? What is the role of trees in the city?

4 (a). Listen to the fragments of President Obama's speech on Climate Change Action Plan delivered in Georgetown University on 26 June 2013. Fill the gaps in the following fragments of his speech transcript:

Now, we know that no single ____________is caused solely by climate change. _______ and ________ and______, they go back to ancient times. But we also know that in a world that's warmer than it used to be, all weather events are affected by a __________ . The fact that sea level in New York, in _____________, are now a ____ higher than a century ago -- that didn't cause Hurricane Sandy, but it certainly contributed to the _________ that left large parts of our mightiest city dark and underwater.

The potential ______ go beyond rising ____________ . Here at home, 2012 was the warmest year in our history. Midwest farms were parched by the worst _______ since the Dust Bowl, and then __________ by the wettest spring on record. Western _________ scorched an area larger than the state of Maryland. Just last week, a __________ in Alaska shot temperatures into the 90s.

And we know that the costs of these events can be measured in lost lives and lost livelihoods, lost homes, lost businesses, hundreds of billions of dollars in ___________________ and _____________. In fact, those who are already feeling the effects of _______________ don't have time to deny it -- they're busy dealing with it. Firefighters are braving longer ____________________, and states and federal governments have to figure out how to budget for that. I had to sit on a meeting with the Department of Interior and Agriculture and some of the rest of my team just to figure out how we're going to pay for more and more expensive ______________.

Farmers see crops _______ one year, ______________ the next; and the higher food prices get passed on to you, the American consumer. ___________________________ worry about what smaller _____________ will mean for tourism -- and then, families at the bottom of the mountains wonder what it will mean for their ________________. Americans across the country are already paying the price of inaction in insurance premiums, state and local taxes, and the costs of _____________ and _____________________.

So the question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science -- of chemistry and physics and millions of _____________________-- has put all that to rest. Ninety-seven percent of scientists, including, by the way, some who originally ____________ the data, have now put that to rest. They've acknowledged the planet is warming and human activity is __________________ to it.

So the question now is whether we will have the courage to act before it's too late. And how we answer will have a profound _________ on the world that we leave behind not just to you, but to your children and to your grandchildren.

As a President, as a father, and as an American, I'm here to say we need to act.

Six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that _______________ are ______________ covered by that same Clean Air Act. And they required the ____________________________________, the EPA, to determine whether they're a threat to our health and welfare. In 2009, the EPA determined that they are a threat to both our health and our welfare in many different ways -- from ______________ to more common _____________ -- and, therefore, subject to regulation.

Today, about ___________ of America's ______________________ comes from our _______________. But here's the thing: Right now, there are no federal limits to the amount of _________________ that those plants can pump into our air. None. Zero. We limit the amount of ________________ like ____________ and _________and ______ in our air or our water, but power plants can still dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air for free. That's not right, that's not safe, and it needs to stop.

So today, for the sake of our children, and the health and safety of all Americans, I'm directing the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end to the limitless ____________ of _________________from our power plants, and complete new ______________________ for both new and existing power plants.

And that brings me to the second way that we're going to reduce carbon pollution -- by using more _____________. Over the past four years, we've doubled the electricity that we generate from _______________________ and ______________ power. And that means jobs -- jobs manufacturing the _________________ that now generate enough electricity to power nearly _____________ homes; jobs installing the ________________ that now generate more than ___________ the power at _______ cost than just a few years ago.

I know some Republicans in Washington dismiss these jobs, but those who do need to call home -- because _________ of all _____________ in this country is __________ in Republican districts. And that may explain why last year, Republican governors in Kansas and Oklahoma and Iowa -- Iowa, by the way, a state that __________ almost ____________ of its electricity from the wind -- helped us in the fight to extend tax credits for _______________ manufacturers and producers. Tens of thousands good jobs were on the line, and those jobs were worth the fight.

And countries like China and Germany are going all in in the race for ____________. I believe Americans build things better than anybody else. I want America to win that race, but we can't win it if we're not in it.

So the plan I'm announcing today will help us _________ again our energy from wind and sun. Today, I'm directing the Interior Department to green light enough private, ___________ energy capacity on public lands to power more than __________ homes by _______.

The Department of Defense -- the biggest _____________ in America -- will install ____________ of ____________________ on its bases, generating about the same amount of electricity each year as you'd get from burning ___________ tons of _____.

And because billions of your tax dollars continue to still __________ some of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world, my budget once again calls for Congress to end the tax breaks for big oil companies, and ________ in the _____________ companies that will fuel our future.

4(b). Read the infogram of the US President B. Obama's speech on Climate Action Plan.

Divide into the groups according to the following aspects: Group A) weather getting more extreme and costly; Group B) carbon pollution; Group C) plan to cut carbon pollution in the US; Group D) preparing the US for the impacts of climate change; Group E) leading international efforts to address global climate change. Share with the rest of the class.

5. Divide into the groups, three people in each, where the first person will present problems with water, the second – problems with land and the third – forest issues. Read your portion of the text and make up the chart according to the sample below. Organize a round discussion dedicated to the environmental issue in the USA.