Megacities and Environmental Catastrophes: An Update

All over the developing world, ultra-modern megacities are being built. In Egypt, two new megacities are rising from the desert about 20 miles outside Cairo because city planners have deemed the existing city center to be "overtaxed beyond repair." In the Philippines, a new "Global City" with modern high rises, shopping centers, and hospitals has sprung up on the high ground of a former military base near the existing business center.

These new, modern cities are essential. As reported in an earlier post, more than 5 billion people, or 60% of the world's population, will live in cities by 2030 -- and many of those cities will have populations in excess of 25 million people. Unless we build new infrastructure and even new cities, the pollution and waste generated by megacities will literally kill millions of people.

The problem is what we are leaving behind. Critics of the new cities say they are only for small populations of the rich, while tens of millions of poor people will be left behind in the old cities. Without investments in the old cities, they will turn into massive shantytowns as the existing infrastructure decays. Critics see a future not all that different than the animated movie Wall-E, where all the humans left earth to live on a space ship because cities had become massive garbage dumps surrounded by decaying infrastructure. It turns out in real life that we have enough vacant space outside existing cities so we need not move to outer space. We are just moving 20 miles outside the existing city instead.

The impacts of cities, however, have never been contained within their geographic boundaries. Throughout history, cities have influenced the culture, politics, and commerce of entire nations. That is as true today in the internet age as it was at the dawn of civilization. (My recent-college-graduate son, for example, is considering employment opportunities in the web-based video game industry. All the job offers are in either New York City or Irvine, California, and none allow telecommuting. It appears that even those who spend most of their waking hours in virtual worlds on the internet want to physically live and work in the same city as everyone else working on their virtual worlds.)

Cities also have tremendous impacts on a nation's ecology. Highly efficient housing, energy, waste disposal, and mass transportation systems can dramatically reduce pollution not only within a city, but also throughout a region and across national boundaries. On the other hand, inadequate housing, energy, waste disposal, and transportation systems result in increased pollution that create health risks to everyone who shares the air, groundwater, rivers, streams, lakes and oceans. Even if they live 20 miles or more away.

These new, ultra-modern cities are a step in the right direction. They will provide more efficiency in energy, housing, waste disposal, and transportation. It just makes no sense to build them if we are going to ignore the environmental catastrophes that will develop in forgotten urban wastelands 20 miles down the road.

John Howley
Orlando, Florida
www.HowleyGreenEnergy.com

The Mouse That Roared: Micronesia Challenges a Czech Power Plant

World government conspiracy theorists must be foaming at the mouth.

The Federated States of Micronesia has demanded that the Czech Republic allow an international audit of a planned upgrade of the largest coal-fired power plant in the Czech Republic . . . and the Czech Republic acceded to the demand.

Micronesia made the demand pursuant to recently adopted European Union regulations allowing any nation in the world to challenge construction or upgrades of industrial sites emitting carbon dioxide. Under EU law, transboundary environmental impact assessments are part of normal procedure.

The essence of Micronesia's claim is that the upgraded Czech power plant should be required to use the best available technology for the project. The Czech plant is the 18th-largest CO2 emitter in Europe, emitting 40 times more CO2 annually than the whole of Micronesia.

Why is a nation on the other side of the world complaining about a coal-fired power plant in the Czech Republic? Micronesia is a chain of more than 600 islands in the west Pacific, and some of its land area has already been lost to rising ocean tides. It asserts that failure to control CO2 emissions in the Czech Republic will further contribute to the warming of the planet blamed for rising ocean water levels. It fears that climate change could also result in more intense and damaging storms.

“Climate change is real and it is happening on our shores. It’s a matter of survival for us,” Andrew Yatilman, the director of Micronesia’s Office of Environment and Emergency Management, told Reuters.

The Czech utility that owns the plant, CEZ AS, asserts that it is using the most advanced technologies and that the refurbished power plant will emit less CO2 than it does now. The plant's efficiency will increase from a current level of 32.8% to 39.06%, a spokeswoman for CEZ AS said.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg Promises to Clean Up Toxic Heating Oil

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) praised New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for addressing the issue of toxic heating oil in New York City during his State of the City speech this afternoon. The mayor pledged that his administration will be "greening the heating fuels used in our schools and big buildings."

The mayor's announcement follows an EDF report last month showing that just one percent of New York City's buildings -- those burning the dirtiest grades of heating oil -- produce more pollution than all the city's cars and trucks combined.

"Mayor Bloomberg's pledge to green the dirtiest types of heating oil is one of the biggest steps New York can take to reduce soot pollution linked to asthma and heart disease," said Isabelle Silverman, an attorney for Environmental Defense Fund. "The dirtiest grades of heating oil must be phased out by 2020. Ten years is a long enough timeframe for buildings to convert and get the best use out of the older burners that can't burn cleaner fuel right away."

More information on toxic heating oil is available on the EDF Website.

John Howley
Orlando, Florida

More Good News for Vehicle Fuel Efficiency

Yesterday I reported on a survey by KPMG suggesting that the automotive industry sees great promise in consumer demand for hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles, and that the industry plans to build and promote more hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles over the next 5 years.

Today comes another story that puts a little meat on those bones. According to a study by Thomson Reuters, alternative power and pollution control have become the biggest source of patent activity in the automotive industry, surpassing perennial leaders such as engine design, braking systems and safety in 2009. Together they accounted for 23% of the patents issued within the automotive industry last year, with alternative power accounting for 14% and pollution control accounted for another 9%.

The report notes that "Only unique patent inventions were counted, providing the truest picture of innovation activity."

While it is too soon to tell whether any of these patents represent significant technological breakthroughs, the trend is encouraging. Obtaining patents is an expensive and time-consuming process. The issuance of patents in the areas of alternative power and pollution control means, at a minimum, that the automotive industry is serious about these technologies. It also suggests that the industry has been shifting R&D money to these areas for some time.

The Thomson Reuters study, 2009 Innovation Report: Twelve Key Industries and Their States of Innovation, tracks unique inventions in granted patents and published applications within 12 key industries. Click here to gain access to the full report.

John Howley
Orlando, Florida