How Polluted Is Your City?
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We all know that global warming is caused by greenhouse gases, largely carbon dioxide, that is emitted by everything ranging from home appliances and SUV's to the heating and lighting systems of office buildings. But since we don't see the gas, most of us simply shake our heads in dismay and then continue on with our bad habits. Now, researchers at Arizona State University are trying to change that.
Spearheaded by associate professor Kevin Gurney, The Hestia Project's main goal is to make something that is currently intangible into something a little more tangible, by allowing all of us to visually see how much each and everyone of us is 'contributing' to global warming.
In order to obtain a complete picture of the city's environment, the team begins by compiling data from multiple sources, ranging from property filings to EPA and even DMV records. Then, using special software they lump the emissions into three categories - commercial entities (office buildings and power and industrial plants), households and vehicles.
This is the stage where things start to get really interesting. That's because instead of showing all this information using boring graphs that we all instantly lose interest in, they create an interactive visual 'film', that depicts not just the carbon emitted by each entity, but also the exact location it is coming from and the also the amount, which varies depending on the time of day or season. So for example, the car emissions during rush hour are the highest as is the case for commercial buildings during the day, especially during winter months when the heating is on.
Kevin knows that some of the data revealed may start a blame game among the residents of the city. However, he is hoping that the people will go beyond that and instead use it to make changes in their daily lives or that city planners will use it to improve energy efficiency by adding insulation programs in buildings that reveal the highest rates of carbon dioxide output.
So far, the team has just tracked the emissions for the city of Indianapolis. They are next planning to do the same for Phoenix and Los Angelesand then hopefully all the other cities, not just in the U.S. but also, across the globe. If each city works on reducing their emissions by just 10%, it could go a long way in reversing global warming, something we all know needs to be done, before it's too late.
Resources: fastcoexist.com, inhabitat.com
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137 Comments
- Sarah- Orangealmost 12 yearsThe United States generates so much more Carbon Dioxide than other countries!
- justinalmost 12 yearswow cool
- cahlebalmost 12 yearscrasy
- hiabout 12 yearsyah i care
- queen12about 12 yearsme too
- space outabout 12 yearspeople don't care about this kind of stuff. THEY SHOULD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Beany Babyabout 12 yearsPeople are so selfish now days. If we would just stop and look at the efect that we are haveing on the Earth than it wouldnt be as polluted and it would be a lot safer too.
- partyhouseabout 12 yearsPeople always say that they will try to improve on the problems we have in the world right?????? But it will take probally 10 to 20 years!!!!! hope they find a faster route...
- lilaabout 12 yearsthanks for this article i am using this for project exite definitely
- jaquaveon pabout 12 yearsi learn some new thing in the atride
- kanegirl88about 12 yearsThe U.S. needs to use solar and wind energy!
- first928about 12 yearsMake that the world!