The Big Green Apple

New York has been making headlines lately by announcing its steps to make the city greener.

Just a few weeks ago it announced that by 2012 it wants to make its cab driving greener by using hybrid taxis. Though taxis still create emissions (as opposed to electric cars like the Tesla) hybrid cabs are an ideal choice for New Yorkers. The traffic in New York is very dense which means they have to "stop and go" all the time, re-charging the batteries every time they break and using it when they drive.

The Master Plan - PlanNYC 2030
This is all part of a Master Plan for greening New York by the year 2030 (I'm amazed a city will plan for that long!). They even have a nicely designed website and a 158-page report to go with it. Here are some of the interesting measures that are part of "The Plan":

• Energy: Create the New York City Efficiency Authority (NYCEEA) responsible for reaching the city's demand reduction targets
• Transportation: Increase Capacity on key congested routes - Seek to fund five projects that eliminate capacity constraints
• Water: Encourage the installation of green roofs through a new incentive program (I don't know why this was put under "water")
• Air: Waive New York City's sales tax on the cleanest, most efficient vehicles
• Air: Partner with stakeholders to help plant one million trees by 2017
• Land/Open Space: Fulfill the potential of at least one major undeveloped park site in every borough
• Transportation: Complete the City's 1,800-mile bike master plan
• Transportation: Seek to use pricing to manage traffic in the Central Business District (CBD)

These are very ambitious goals for greening New York. The question is, whether they will achieve these. But with a good plan in place and a motivated mayor it's possible. But with 23 years to go in the plan, we have to wait and see.

But they're off to a good start. According to the SustainLane rankings (which ranks US cities' urban sustainability) New York is already in 6th place, just behind Oakland and before Boston with Portland leading the race. (article continues)

Mayor Bloomberg interviewed on green cabs



London Calling
London is another big city that is working on its green image. London's mayor Ken Livingstone has introduced a congestion charge of 25 pounds (about 50 dollars) for every day you drive in Central London. It's that high because it has to "hurt". And this actually only effects about 5% of the drivers.
People who live in Central London and who own a "gas-guzzler" will have to pay an additional annual fee with which you can buy a small car - 6000 pounds. (article continues)

Listen to London's Mayor Ken Livingstone being interviewed


Even Abu Dhabi is working on creating an almost zero-carbon, zero-waste city extension by 2009. It would be nice in the future to see a big city in one of the emerging countries like China or India to push towards greenery. Though China have set many new regulations, implementation by the local and regional government is still lacking.

It's very encouraging to see London's and New York's plans in place. The cities' high visibility and popularity will make them a role model for other cities who wish to become greener.

Geo-engineering: or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the space mirror

It's amazing what engineers and scientists and other bright minds will come up with if they really have to. Often technology thrives when crisis erupts, wars have often been cited as pushers of technology and innovation.
Geo-Engineering against global warming is a very interesting feat of human kind and it does spruce up the mind and gives interesting and mind-blowing ideas. Here are some examples:

1. The Space Mirror! This is one of the most famous ones, of course. If you could just take a mirror big enough to reflect some of the sun's rays, we could get some global cooling! (Maybe a big white material instead of a mirror or a cloud-creating machine would do.)

2. Fertilise the ocean! Another one would be to fertilise the ocean by putting in some iron in a part of the sea that is lacking CO2-consuming planktons (and according to theory this lack of iron is the reason why the planktons don't exist) or how oceanographer John Martin said it with his Dr. Strangelove-accent: “Give me a half-tanker of iron, and I will give you an ice age.”

3. Storing CO2! Another would be to capture and store some CO2, this technology is currently being developed and implementation is currently on the way. Everyone's trying to become the first implementor.

These are just some of the ideas, but they can mostly be grouped into two categories: Keeping things out (e.g. sunlight) or hiding them where no one sees them (e.g. CO2 storing). One is a game with dice, the other a ticking time bomb. Feel free to choose which one is which.


One-time quick-fix vs. a sustainable growth solution
It does seem that we are looking for the easy way out - a one-time quick fix. If you had to choose a source of energy, what would be its characteristics? Available everywhere, de-centralised, no pollution at all, short investment payback time, you can use it for an indefinite amount of time, no harm to the environment? We have that! Solar energy! Wind power! Water! Of course the effects on the environment are debatable (especially wind power and water), but it's much less harming than coal or oil and it's less of a russian roulette than geo-engineering.

"I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."

It sounds like the words of an environmentally-conscious venture capitalist from a few years ago. But in fact these are the words are from Thomas Edison in 1931!

Mr. Branson and the Climate
Even though many of these ideas might not be sustainable (or to say the least freakishly dangerous) they might offer a short-term quick solution until we get things in order. Even Virgin boss Richard Branson wants part of the action by offering the Earth Challenge Prize for 25 million USD to whoever finds a technology that reduces 1 billion tonnes of CO2 per year (to compare, in 2004 the US emitted about 5,8 billion tonnes, China's emissions were 4,7 billion tonnes). Even Leo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, George Clooney are putting their bit for the environment.

Planet B? I hope not
My only hope is that until we find the consciousness and technology to sustain a healthy life on earth we don't invent technology that can make life on another planet liveable. Why? Why would (probably the wealthiest) people living on Planet B care about earth? As long as we only have this one planet, we're all in this together. For better or for worse.



Further reading and references:

• Five ways to save the World (60 minute BBC documentary available on Google Video)
• How earth scale engineering can save the planet (Popular Science, 06/2005)
• US answer to global warming: smoke and giant space mirrors (Guardian, 01/2007)
• Current Thinking (New York Times article on Thomas Edison, free registration required)
  

Why Sustainability and Engineering

Welcome to the new Sustainability and Engineering Blog! Why does it even exist? Do we really need it? And do engineering geeks really need to know about sustainability?

Short background story
I changed the department at my university and am now studying electrical engineering in Cologne, Germany. As luck would have it, there's a sustainability workgroup at my new university campus and a lecture series on sustainability organised by them. I shared my interest with them and soon I was joining the discussions in the group. The only sad thing: Of about 10 members, I was the only student! At a university, where young fledglings are supposed to learn about their surroundings, think about society and their place in it, in the country of thinkers and poets ("Land der Denker und Dichter" - a german expression) at a university of about 15,000 students, there was one student (including me). The other members are professors and other faculty.

Oh, well, as I am part of several sustainability groups outside the university, I do see some motivated students, but I saw a big gap for engineers and engineering students. Why is that? I can't tell for sure, I hope this blog can contribute to solve a part of the question. Or maybe even prove the question wrong.

I will post on sustainability-related, engineering-related and sustainable-engineering related stuff here, be it some cool new product, maybe a comment on an interesting news story, something philosophical or experimental, or even provocative :-). Whatever should come my way.

More on dwrntb (= "do we really need this blog") in the next post :-).