While cycling has increased in French cities, sustainable neighborhoods begin to bloom in the capital. Residents may well be among the first to use the bike paths of sustainable neighborhoods, which are biased toward light motorized traffic and public transport. The construction of an eco-district among other thing rests on better living and living together. The urban setting has to be warm and alive, and natural heritage, security, as well as biodiversity, water management, noise and air pollution are taken into account. Building a sustainable community is based in particular on high environmental quality rewarding the preservation of the planet and a better quality of life. A sustainable community is designed according to environmental and energy challenges, but also according to economic and social criteria. Eco-building, renewable energy, greening techniques are widely used in these eco-neighborhoods.
The concept of eco-neighborhood was first developed in the countries of northern Europe. The Government has encouraged its development in France where the projects of sustainable neighborhoods are still very recent. These neighborhoods are close to the center and well served by public transport. Meanwhile, there is a proliferation of small projects in France. These new neighborhoods are truly eco-neighborhoods, they need to be serviced by public transport and car traffic and parking are limited. It is a difficult objective to implement but the view is changing even though it is still a gamble at this stage. Indeed, 40% of average emissions of greenhouse gases are produced by buildings and 40% by public transport. Other sectors, which include industry, only account for 20%. In France the focus is on the building with techniques such as thermal insulation, while in the first experiments in Germany, the main criterion is a city without a car.
The construction of an eco-district refers to the principles of sustainable development based on economic issues (including development of commercial and non-polluting activities), social (build social housing and community facilities) and environmental (focus attention on managing energy, water and waste). The principle of an eco-neighborhood is a first step towards a new vision of the city, the goal is to break the boundaries of these eco-communities across the territory of the city. To do this, these areas must be readily accessible to all, that they are role models. Beyond the planned actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the City of Paris is acting on the environment: adaptation of buildings, vegetation of Paris, creating green spaces, roofs, shared gardens and playing grounds. The sustainable neighborhoods are emerging especially on the outskirts of the city, on vacant urban land or concerted development zones.
The district Fréquel Hondarribia in the 20th district was awarded in November 2009 a contest in the category of driving down energy costs. The Batignolles district in the 17th district will be divided into three areas including. In 2012, the heart of the 18th district will pilot an eco-neighborhood in Paris, while it will retain its architectural heritage site. Launched in December 2009, the warehouse Macdonald located in Aubervilliers, is the largest geothermal project of its kind in Paris and covers an area of 1200 hectares. By common impulse, the inhabitants of the street Denoyer, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, decided to participate together in the greening of their neighborhood.
In Europe, there are many sustainable neighborhoods, including the Netherlands, Ava-Lanxmeer in Culemborg, Sweden, B001 in Malmö and Hammarby in Stockholm, and Finland in Helsinki Vikki. BedZED is a neighborhood built between 2001 and 2002 in south London. Covering an area of 43 hectares, it accommodates 100 housing units, 2,500m² of offices and shops, green spaces, playing fields, a theater, a gaming center, a health center, a sports complex and a nursery. Since its inception, and compared to conventional dwellings, this eco-district reduced its energy consumption for heating by 88% and electricity by 25%.
In Germany, the Vauban district in Freiburg im Breisgau was rehabilitated in 1996. Nearly 3,000 homes and 600 jobs were created. The homes are powered by solar energy and produce more energy than they consume. The neighborhood was built for optimal sun exposure, with ecological materials, and the roofs are vegetated. The traffic is reduced and the outdoor space reserved for soft play and travel. Switzerland also has many eco-neighborhoods, in Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich and Bern near the casino area. Plans are under way in Austin, Texas, United States, and Wuhan, China as well.
The City of Paris has been engaged for several years in a new policy of sharing public space. For example Alesia-Tombe Issoire sponsored by the code bonus pokerstars 2012 covers an area of 465 hectares and is built to improve safety and comfort of residents. The continuity of bicycle routes has been optimized, and speed of traffic has been limited. A significant portion was also dedicated to the greening of the district, with the planting of 45 trees and 14 planters. In the 12th arrondissement, the district encourages slow travel, with a velocity of 30 km/h, a revamped parking lot, or the creation of bike paths. Shrubs and planters were installed to add vegetation to the area.
How can you contribute to a greener planet
Most of us tend to wrongly believe that only governments and climate change organizations can do anything to bring down the effects of global warming. But the truth is that each one of us can contribute individually to this and have a major role to play in global climate change. There are a lot of global warming solutions that you could undertake in your home and contribute your bit to save the planet.
Cutting down on heat-trapping emissions does not mean using less electricity or avoiding the comforts of the modern technology. It only means installing energy-efficient devices and using smart technology to reduce the effect of global warming.
Choosing the car you drive is one of the most important ways by which you can help bring down the climate change impact. It is best to buy a vehicle that offers maximum fuel economy which not only helps you cut down costs but also offers better gas mileage. Cars with hybrid engine technology is one of the best buys for this reason. Another great one among global warming solutions is to switch to an electricity company which offers clean renewable energy. Most often the electric current we use come from highly polluting coal-fired plants which is the biggest source of heat trapping gas.
Whenever you buy appliances or gadgets, look out for the energy star label; these may cost a little higher at the time of purchase but can save you a lot of money in the long run. A lot of heat-trapping gases can be eliminated if you invest a little smart and wise in such appliances. If your family owns an extra freezer or refrigerator, then remember to unplug it at all times it is not in use. This can save a lot of energy and is one of the most practical global warming solutions for a household. Replacing your ordinary light bulbs with energy saving models are the best way by which you can cut down energy use and costs. These days, you can get compact fluorescent bulbs in all attractive shapes and sizes to suit your interior décor and these can greatly help to save energy.
Another sensible and practical way of contributing to climate change is by using wood and wood products which are obtained from supporting and sustainable forests. This helps to preserve the trees and also cause least disturbance to the carbon-storing soils. Plant trees wherever you can; this single act by every individual can make such a huge impact on energy saving and climate change. You can also undertake this as a local project and gather people in your neighborhood for this. Carpooling is another way by which you can save fuel. If you have more than one car in your household, use the less fuel efficient one only if there are a lot of passengers or you are going on a long trip. Or you can be kinder to the environment by taking the mass transit or public transport.
The right global warming solutions can create a huge impact on our climate and help keep our environment green.
The average temperature of the Earth as a whole is not stable but varies with time, as evidenced by analysis of geological layers. For example our planet was ten degrees colder 20,000 years ago, during the height of the last ice age. These variations are still very slow, and the temperature has fluctuated by only 0.2 degrees between the year one thousand and the late nineteenth century.
The fact that worries the international community at present is the acceleration of the phenomenon, which now occurs at a rate unmatched in the past. Thus, since the late nineteenth century, a hundred years ago, the average global temperature rose 0.6 degrees. Worse, the computer simulations suggest that warming will accelerate and the average temperature could therefore increase by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees by the end of the century. It is this unlucky phenomenon that is called global warming.
Temperature variations of the atmosphere are usually linked to factors such as fluctuations in solar activity or speed of rotation of the Earth. But most scientists believe that the main cause of the current warming of the planet is a different phenomenon called the greenhouse effect. It is a process by which a large part of the Sun’s energy reaching Earth is stored by the atmosphere of our planet, rather than reflected back into space.
As we have seen, according to Wien’s law, the nature of the radiation emitted by a body depends on its temperature. The Sun, with a surface temperature of 6000 degrees emits mainly in the visible and energy passes easily through our atmosphere. But as the Earth’s temperature is much lower than that of the Sun, the Earth re-emits this energy as infrared radiation. However, certain gases in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, although transparent to visible light, are opaque to infrared light. So they block the re-radiation, absorb its energy and thereby heat up. Much of the solar energy is absorbed by the atmosphere, a phenomenon that is also found on the planet Venus.
The most likely cause of the acceleration of the greenhouse effect and global warming since the late nineteenth century is the impact of humans playing on the environment. Huge amounts of greenhouse gases are indeed released into the atmosphere by various modern activities such as fossil fuel use in industry and transport, and agricultural practices such as deforestation and farming cattle. For example, it is estimated that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased 30 percent since the beginning of the industrial age, which contributes significantly to the greenhouse effect.
The effects of global warming already being seen with, for example, the withdrawal of some glaciers, rising of sea level by thermal expansion of water as well as reduction in thickness of the polar cap Arctic. The acceleration of the phenomenon in the twenty-first century should lead to stronger effects, especially a sharper increase in the mean sea level and extreme changes in weather, with powerful heat waves and periods of heavy game rainfall .
The effects will induce great human suffering with more floods, more droughts, problems of water supply, development of diseases like malaria, the disappearance of certain coastal areas or low altitude islands. In the longer term, we can worry about such phenomena as the melting of the ice sheet covering Greenland, which would result in a 6 meters rise of sea level, with the disappearance of most coastal regions of the world. We should not count on luck for the game of global warming effect to reverse, but only hard work for the current and future generations can make it happen.
“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
– Albert Einstein
According to a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), cows, pigs, sheep and poultry are among the world’s greatest environmental threats in the cards and contribute a staggering 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions—considerably more than transport, which emits 13%. The report, entitled “Livestock’s long shadow,” says the meat industry is degrading land, contributing to the greenhouse effect, polluting water resources, and destroying biodiversity. Livestock use 30% of the earth’s land surface and pastures for cattle use 70% of deforested areas in the Amazon. Massive deforestation is expected as meat consumption is expected to double by 2050 as the populations from emerging countries embrace an unhealthy “western diet” based on meat products and fast food.
Curiously, the environmental threat caused by the meat industry has been mostly absent from the ongoing dialogue about climate change. Even the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth failed to address the livestock industry’s impact on global climate change.
In the video Methane, I combined footage of factory farms found on the web using the search tool in Flickr, YouTube, and various blogs, with an animation from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre Scientific Visualisation Studio. The animation depicts the breakup of the Ayles Ice Shelf in Canada’s Ellesmere Island on August 13, 2005. More than 90% of the ice cap has been lost. The piece shown in the animation is equivalent in size to approximately 11,000 football playing fields. The Canadian Arctic is experiencing the highest degree of climate change on the planet.
– Michael Alstad
Have we overlooked one of the largest factors in global climate change? Methane is an eye-opening and devastating portrait of the livestock industry as a main producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Our contribution to a destabilizing climate does not stop at the toxins being dispensed into the water and air, but includes the animal products we farm and consume. Alstad emphasizes a circuit between the unnatural living environments of stockyards, ensuing environmental damage, and the Arctic ecosystems that are impacted. Though the footage is shocking, the real cause for alarm—and motivation for immediate action—lies in the causal relationship that is exposed. Why has this link been so often ignored or concealed? What other aspects of the debate have been deliberately left in the dark? It is not a game.