Archive for the ‘Environmental’ Category
As is occurring in many states, New York is trying to promote Green Building practices. The state is doing it by offering tax credits as financial incentives.
New York Green Building Initiative
The concept of green building isn’t particularly old and has arisen as a result of a better understanding of the impact of buildings on people and the environment. Ideally, green buildings are designed to use non-polluting energy, recyclable resources and systems that avoid health impacting elements. These buildings are extremely environmentally friendly, provide healthier environments for workers and decrease the heat and pollutant situations found in tightly packed structure and population areas such as New York City.
While green building is a nice idea, our country is based on capitalist methods. If green building isn’t cost efficient, no developer is going to pursue it because doing so will give their competition a price advantage. This is where the New York Green Building Initiative comes in.
Both now-discarded Lamarckism (the supposed inheritance of acquired characteristics) and Evolution Theory postulate that function determines form. Natural selection rewards those forms best suited to carry out the function of survival (“survival of the fittest”) in each and every habitat (through the mechanism of adaptive radiation).
But whose survival is natural selection concerned with? Is it the survival of the individual? Of the species? Of the habitat or ecosystem? These three – individual, species, habitat – are not necessarily compatible or mutually reinforcing in their goals and actions.
If we set aside the dewy-eyed arguments of altruism, we are compelled to accept that individual survival sometimes threatens and endangers the survival of the species (for instance, if the individual is sick, weak, or evil). As every environmental scientist can attest, the thriving of some species puts at risk the existence of whole habitats and ecological niches and leads other species to extinction.
In today’s economy, with America’s increasing consumption of electricity and natural resources, the possibility of an inexpensive, renewable and reliable energy source is seen by consumers as a breath of fresh air. That’s where wind energy comes in.
According to the Department of Energy, modern wind turbines can convert winds in most U.S. states and coastal waters into reliable, clean electricity. While wind today provides only a small percentage of our national electricity needs, it is an immense homeland energy resource and is the fastest-growing energy supply technology.
The United States has an abundance of potentially viable wind resources-onshore and offshore-estimated at over 2,000 gigawatts (GW). To put this into perspective, 350 GW of installed wind capacity would represent about 20 percent of our nation’s current electricity demand. This is similar to the level of electricity produced from the nation’s nuclear or natural gas-fired generation today.
There is nothing worse than seeing garbage blowing down the street of your neighborhood, or finding broken shards of glass at the local swimming hole where children play. Wildlife is just as vulnerable to garbage and many have lost their lives after becoming tangled in waste or mistaking garbage for food. It is up to each of us to make an effort to minimize this unsightly, and sometimes hazardous, problem.
Animals, wind and traffic breezes put legs to loose garbage and are able to distribute it great distances from the original source. The first thing that we can do to prevent this is to ensure trashcan and dumpster lids are secure. Metal and plastic trashcans are more preventative than bags – leaving a bag out over night or even for several hours, is an enticing invitation for stray animals to wreak havoc. When taking a load to the dump, be sure that it is securely covered by tightly tying a tarp over the load with some rope or bungee cords.