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Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Green NYC

Posted by The Interloafer on May 3, 2006 - 11:17pm in The Oil Drum: Local

Last Thursday I mentioned that my biggest take-away from the recent energy solutions conference here in town was a PowerPoint slide from Charles Komanoff, who noted that the average American pumps as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a day as the average person in the rest of the world puts out in a week. Charles was kind enough to forward me a link to his presentation (PPT!), which includes the slide in question:

I think those of us who ride transit, cycle or walk to work in New York can take a little solace in that we're not as bad as rest of the country.
As David Owen noted in his famous New Yorker article of October 18, 2004, "Green Manhattan":
The most devastating damage humans have done to the environment has arisen from the heedless burning of fossil fuels, a category in which New Yorkers are practically prehistoric... New York City is more populous than all but eleven states; if it were granted statehood, it would rank fifty-first in per-capita energy use.
Urban planners ought to be on the front lines of the anti-global warming battle, revitalizing cities to be more like New York: Dense, walkable, with lots of transit and lots of buildings with jobs and housing close to one another.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Green NYC

PDF version

6 comments

Glenn on May 4, 2006 - 9:07am Permalink | Comments top
And New Yorkers still have a lot of potential to reduce their CO2 emissions:
  1. Most people who currently drive have some mass transit alternative
  2. Most people don't have CFL bulbs instead of incandescent.
  3. We could pretty easily convert the bus fleet over to electric trolleys or electrified buses
  4. We could make the taxis all hybrids.
  5. We could create more and better solar power systems in the city.

etc. etc..

And really the quality of life is pretty comparable. And more and more families are choosing to stay in the city.

Super G on May 4, 2006 - 10:06am Permalink | Comments top
The "Green Manhattan" article is a favorite of mine. Here's a PDF version (may differ slightly from the print version).
The Interloafer on May 4, 2006 - 1:32pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top
Mine too.  Thanks for the link.
crzwdjk on May 4, 2006 - 3:32pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top
the interesting thing is that most of the environmental problems of New York are also due to cars (much of the pollution, the noise, the aslphalt covering everything), and most of those cars are used by people coming in from the suburbs. Discouraging cars and encouraging public transportation would go a long way to making New York a better place to live. Make the suburbanites pay for the full impact of their convenience on our quality of life.
Glenn on May 4, 2006 - 4:55pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top
That is the most succinct statement that clearly makes the case for congestion pricing / commuter tax / east river tolls / etc that I have seen written - thanks crzwdjk
Damek on May 8, 2006 - 4:01pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top
Unfortunately I bet Bloomberg and our other economic betters would say the suburbanites already pay in spades with the economic activity the bring to the city.

Personally I'd rather do without it, but then I just live here.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Green NYC

PDF version

6 comments