Exercise #3: Connecting Past and Present
April 21, 2023 By: Philip Thrum
Urbanization
Before automobiles, horses were a primary method of transportation. Over 500 tons of horse manure was collected in the streets of New York every day in the early 1890s. Horse manure was the CO2 emissions that we face today, though since it is organic matter, it was recycled and repurposed into fertilizer. In our modern world, our transportation methods mainly burn fossil fuels producing an excessive amount of CO2 emissions. Since the CO2 emissions we create aren’t organic there is no way to dispose of them naturally. Therefore, we are stuck with this off-gas for hundreds of years to come. The Government of Canada (2017) stated, there are 18 million passenger vehicles on Canadian roads, and are a major contributor to air pollution, particularly in urban areas. It seems as if now everything always must be bigger, food portions are bigger, houses get bigger, and even our cars. Though large cars may be practical for some they also have an impact on our environment. Douglas Todd (2023) states, “The average SUV… produces 14 percent more carbon emissions than a typical passenger car.
References:
- ”How Much Horse Manure Was Deposited on the Streets Before the Advent of the Automobile? (2012) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt0mk1b09NM&feature=youtu.be (Accessed: April 20, 2023).
- Canada, E. and C. C. (2017, February 23). Air pollution from cars, trucks, vans and SUVs. Canada.ca. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-pollution/sources/transportation/cars-trucks-vans-suvs.html
Media item:
Todd, D. (2023). Douglas Todd: Canada’s SUV addiction endangers our safety and climate … Vancouver Sun. Retrieved April 22, 2023, from https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-canadas-suv-addiction-endangers-our-safety-and-climate
The Parks Movement
A considerable topic when it comes to parks is the challenge of preservation and access. Implementing new parks with the idea to preserve them has can and has led to overuse. This overuse of a newly built park reverses the idea of preservation and deteriorated the land. Recently a park was proposed for Bowen Island. The park was not given the red light as residents raised concerns about the island’s infrastructure and small RCMP detachment. This newly proposed park would not just influence the land it is built on but also the residents that live there.
Media item:
- Chan, C. (2023). Proposed Bowen Island regional park doesn’t get green light from everyone. Vancouver Sun. Retrieved April 22, 2023, from https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/support-for-new-bowen-island-park-highest-among-metro-vancouver-residents-report
Hi Philip,
I agree with your statement in regards to preservation and the accessibility to parks and how this will influence the residents that live there. Implementing new parks with the intention to preserve them will ultimately lead to challenges such as managing overuse, the overuse will then negatively impact the condition of land, which is what we are trying to prevent. Your mention of Bowen Island is a great example of this. While the proposal of new parks may come with great intentions, these proposals are often faced with concern from local residents, which is something we see quite often with new land development. While planning for new parks can provide more access to natural spaces for the public, they can also impact the environment and the people located nearby, so I think overall as we see more and more development, these types of things require extensive consideration.
Rosie.
Hello Phillip, it’s interesting to see how metropolises like New York, London, and Beijing all followed similar pathways to an addiction to fossil fuels in parallels to their development of expansive roads and concrete jungles. The larger additional issue is the impacts of anthropogenic climate change caused by fossil fuel burning, deforestation, and land use changes that contributes to the onset of the heat-island effect (where temperatures inside urban areas are hotter due to lower albedo). If we consider the spate of wildfires and heat domes affecting urban areas, another issue would be the installation/energy costs of air conditioners within housing complexes. Shifting to your note about cars, even the widespread adoption of electric vehicles would necessitate significant infrastructure changes to accommodate the installation of charging stations (as well as additional electricity demands placed on homeowners/BC Hydro). It’s an unfortunate environmental Rubicon we’ll all have to eventually cross soon.
Hello Phillip,
I really like the comparison you make between the horse manure being left on the streets of New York and modern CO2 emissions. I also find it quite frustrating to see the trends of “bigger is better”. I feel this ideology of mankind to make things larger and more extravagant is almost childish, as it undermines the world we live in.