Question
Urbanization Analysis, Green Options & Global Warming Strategies Part 2
Resources: Week 3 Individual Assignment, Instructor feedback and additional research
Based on your research findings in the Week 3 Urbanization Analysis, Green Options & Global Warming Strategies assignment, the Urban Planning Department has asked you to prepare a presentation for city leaders. Relate your Week 3 research to:
- How a population’s culture influences the creation of the modern state.
- How the modern state addresses the concept of climate change.
Construct a Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation of 8 to 10 slides that addresses the assignment requirements outlined in Week 3 as well as feedback you received from your facilitator.
answer
Urbanization Analysis, Green Options & Global Warming Strategies Part 2
Footer notes
According to Aronson, La Sorte, Nilon, Katti, Goddard, Lepczyk, & Dobbs (2014), it is explicit that there is there is ongoing climate change in the world and its consequences are most likely to be stern. The upshot is likely to be experienced everywhere: in the seacoasts, forests, in cities as well as rural areas, rivers and inland lakes and other areas. Some of the predictions given by the scientists as a result of climate change include: Flooding of areas around the coast as a result of the rise in sea levels and storm gush, increased occurrence and degree of drought, increase in the intensity of great weather events including tornados, hurricanes, grave rainfall and ice storms that damages sewerage, energy, infrastructure and buildings: increased in smog and heat waves that results in deaths rising, stress and damage of habitats and vulnerable ecosystems and prolonged range of pests that destroy forests and agriculture produce. The paper will explore on green options and strategies to curb global warming.
Our area of study is in U.S state of Washington. We further narrow down our study to King County (Figure 1), a county located in the state (Cook, Nuccitelli, Green, Richardson, Winkler, Painting, R., … & Skuce, 2013). It covers an area of 2,134 sq miles. It has a population of 1.8 million people and is ranked as number fourteen in the most heavily populated county in the nation. The county is characterized with a variety of terrains ranging from Cascade Mountains on the east side, farmland and urban coastline on the west side.
Global warming is as a consequence of large populace, increase in energy use, and judicious level of dependency on fossil fuel. The global warming projection of King County is that there may be change in rainfall and temperature patterns (Revesz, Howard, Arrow, Goulder, Kopp, Livermore, … & Sterner, 2014). The change is as a result of greenhouses gases concentration in the atmosphere. To address the issue, the county government should ensure that there is way of reversing greenhouse gas emission. Also, the sewage and waste should be disposed effectively.
There is an increase forest growth in the region of King County. It is brought by moderate rise in temperature and the concentration of Carbon (IV) Oxide in the atmosphere due to a passing fertilizing effect. In the long run, the overall forest cover or growth will reduce due to a rise forest fires, diseases, and insect outbreaks. In the coastal region, seal level rise may affect coastal ecosystems posing greater effect to the ecosystems in the coast.
In this county, majority of the people use electricity or gas to cook. Due to large population, most of their foods are transported from neighboring areas. The water available is not clean and their air is vastly polluted (Nordhaus, W. D. 2014). Their transport is majorly by road and rail and their cost of living is average. In education, most of them have gone through tertiary education. Their healthcare is a not up to standard.
The essential urban needs are not sustainable. It is so because of water pollution at the coast and air pollution as a result of a number of companies that emits gases in the air. The energy they use should be replaced with greener options such as solar or wind power. The gases emitted to the air should be treated to remove toxins before they are released to the atmosphere. There should be improved health care through addition of facilities, medicine and health personnel. They should also improve on education so as to have people who understand urbanization and better ways to ensure there is sustainability by going green. King County way of life is harmful to the environment and they should seek greener options to curb global warming.
Power – Instead of using gas they should use a friendlier means of power. The means of power should be a green option that doesn’t pollute the environment. Such include wind power and solar power.
Water – The oceans shouldn’t be polluted by industrial or human waste. The green option available for the people of King County is to dig boreholes. The water from the boreholes is clean as it is covered and not easily polluted (Knothe, G. J. 2012). They should also carry out baseline inventories and monitoring, expand extra reservoir capacity, capture and reuse water from the rain for irrigation, reuse water from sewage treatment, and make a plan to balance the needs of competing users when there is a reduction in the availability of water
There are numerous advantages that come with adaptation of greener options. Reduction of greenhouse activities reduces air emissions; improve comfort levels, and reduces expenditure on energy (Knothe, 2012). It reduces damage of property, inundation of land, and possibility relocation of households. The paper also found out that its necessary to involve all the stakeholders in research and implementation of the project so as to be able to implement the change.
One of the potential barriers in the implementation stage is lack of resources to change from an environmental hazardous way of living to a friendlier one (Aronson, La Sorte, Nilon, Katti, Goddard, Lepczyk, … & Dobbs, 2014). The County government should seek funding from agencies and national government to implement the project. The methods of overcoming the barriers and resistance are by incorporating the local into decision making. In every process, their input should be integrated with that of the management. There is also the problem of lack of alternative solutions to the energy problem. Currently, the available alternatives to dependence on fossil fuels are not sustainable to cater for all the energy needs of the county.
