Lauren Ortega
Dr. Wasserman
Science in Perspective
Blog #3
Upon my return to France from our break, I gave myself an entire afternoon alone to sink in everything I saw, felt, and understood. From the enormous amounts of history that was all around me, the way of life from other cultures (customs, traditions, values, etc) and how it all reflected the type of societies and world we live in today. I had never felt so small before, in a world as big as this. I say that to mean that everything I was experiencing made me realize how there’s so much more to life than we may think, and that although we may not all know this, we live in such an interconnected world. Everything we do, anything we take from, get rid of, abuse, improve, etc all inevitably is is linked together to serve a greater purpose. Essentially we begin to see how our thoughts and decisions contribute to our experience. This is empowering because with this understanding we can make more informed choices and take more responsibility for what we are creating and the impact that has not only on our own life, but the impact it has on the lives of others and the environment. “No place is without its genius, and the very existence of any place depends on man’s knowledge of it” (Servius). I found this quote when I was in Milan, Italy for the World Food Exposition 2015. It really stood out to me because it was almost like a reality check, for people to keep in mind that each and every environment is the expression of the interaction between its identity and its inhabitants who, with time contributed to its enhancement, its customs, cultures and traditions.
Continuing on that note, I was around so many different kinds of environments and as I moved from place to place I kept in mind the kind of ways people would dispose of their waste, the amount of regulations there were in respect to waste disposal and air pollution in the countries I visited (London, Milan, Florence and Rome) in comparison to the United States and France. While in London, apart from the undeniably gloomy weather, I felt like I was in such a congested area. I don’t typically feel this way in every city I go to, and even the one I live in (Angers, France), but London felt so clogged and polluted despite its vast amounts of incredible historical sites.Before going to London, I read in an article that it had some of the highest levels of pollution in the United Kingdom due to its location and the density of development. “If everyone in the world lived like a citizen of the UK does, we would need 3 planets to provide the resources to sustain us (Colcott and Bull). Since we live in one planet, the UK is clearly living in an unsustainable manner. Just as we learned about ecological footprints, biocapacity, living planet index and solutions to lowering the rates of our footprints we can attest that the overall ecological footprint of London itself is very high.
Despite London’s air pollution and increasing rates of waste production, there are quite a lot of resources available to better sustain the city of London in an eco-friendly manner. For example, there are arrangements with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets that allows its residents to use their Household Waste Reuse and Recycling Centre (HWRC). Also they run series of “Recycling Roadshows” which allows residents to dispose of any unwanted items they might have. Alongside, they have what they call “Give and Take Day” which helps residents to reuse good quality items. Another method the city of London started to implement for the purpose of reducing the amount of waste and recycling sacks left behind in the highways was to set Time Banded collections for bagged waste between 8am to 6pm (Waste and Recycling).To fully abide by this method, there is an active enforcement team that handles all waste related issues. Their aim is to keep the pavements and highways of the city clear of waste, to ensure that businesses and residents manage their waste responsibly and in line with legal requirements. It is clear that London has good strategies to improve their recycling and waste disposal methods.
The second city I visited was Milan, also being the second largest city in all of Italy located in the plains of Lombardy! I could not believe how many people one city could fit (especially when I went to the Food Expo, truly unbelievable). From the two days I spent there, something that caught my attention was how most of all the means of transportation were motor based. I never actually saw anyone on bikes, like I do here in Angers. At first I thought perhaps it might be in part because of the size of the city, but then I thought that it couldn’t be, because Paris is just as big and there are still a lot of people who use bikes alongside motorbikes. Milan however seemed to have fewer clean streets, with little to no signs of those big bins I would always spot in most of other cities I visited and the one I currently live in (Angers). I wondered if the city of Milan was on the same side of the pollution spectrum in comparison to Paris and London and even some of the biggest cities in the United States. In past decades, Milan began having atmospheric emission problems (The World Bank). With the population number increasing, so are the means of transportation. More people use the underground metro system, and if you don’t own a car then you own a motor bike. In turn, there are more emissions of green house gases. However Milan has plans to cut back these increasing rates by 15% in 2012 and 20% by 2020 (The World Bank). Milan’s climate program focuses on cutting emissions from residential energy use and transport, yet it is also based on a programmatic approach that takes into account all the factors of producing, collecting, and absorbing emissions. Milan’s strategy on carbon dioxide forms parts of a framework of measures designed to deliver an organic and programmed reduction of greenhouse gases, directed at the principal sources of emissions: household energy use and the transport sector. They also started something in 2008 called The EcoPass Project, designed to restrict access to the central Cerchia dei Bastioni area of Milan by charging the vehicles that pollute most heavily. Their aim is to improve mobility and safeguard both public health and the environment. These signs are good because they show that these cities are well aware of the negative environmental impact they are making, but are trying to come up with systems to reduce its emissions. And on that note, I want to mention that it was very nice to see that The Expo 2015 was characterized a profound concern for climate issues and is driving a variety of innovative policies and programs for Milan. Through the Expo 2015, “Milan will act as a reliable partner and a forward looking protagonist of international cooperation in the struggle to combat climate change and desertification. A protagonist capable of realizing projects directly and of informing and educating people here and in their own countries to develop these projects and establish a model and guidelines for new projects that comply with the Kyoto protocol” (The World Bank).
The third city I visited was Florence, Italy, being one of the Earth’s most pedestrian friendly cities was quite the opposite from Milan. The streets were cleaner, there pedestrians mostly walked, if not were on bikes, and there was fewer use of cars (Amy). This is in part because the streets are much narrower and there is less space for cars, but I think that its what has probably helped preserve the beauty of this city. While I was walking through the cobblestone streets, I did spot several large bins, each labeled differently depending on where your waste should be disposed of accordingly. I saw these bins all over the city, and it reminded me of Angers because there are so many of those all over the place. Its nice to see that people actually take the time to properly dispose of their waste in the appropriate bin. In contrast with the United States, although we have bins marked with either recycle or trash, I have witnessed people choosing to ignore the difference and still throw their waste where it doesn’t belong. So by throwing their trash into recycling bins or vice versa, and even worse just plainly throwing their trash in neither but rather their environment. Sometimes I feel like it doesn’t matter how many regulations we may place to make people do the right thing, instead it really depends on the person, and the kinds of things they choose to value over others. Of course I cant say I can agree with people not valuing their own environment, its something I will never understand, but at the end of the day it really comes down to where our values lie and how far we will go to make a difference in the way we protect the world we live in.
After visiting these different cities I came back to Angers continuing my hunt for a way to bring recycling bins into the classrooms of UCO. It seemed as though each city had their fair share of recognition on adding on to the fast degradation of the environment by doing things that we do on a regular basis, that we don’t really stop to think about the effects on. However they all had a set course of action they would put into action, in the hopes to decrease the levels of human caused effects on the environment.
(Bins of Disposal in Florence)
Work Cited
Amy. “Green Travelogue: Firenze.” GreenBeams RSS. GreenBeams, 29 Apr. 2015. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. <http://www.greenbeams.us/?p=2422>.
“Rete Civica Di Comune Di Firenze.” Sustainability Info. Città Di Firenze, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. <http://en.comune.fi.it/city/environment/sustainability_info.html>.
“Sustainability Report | Expo Milano 2015.” EXPO. The Expo Milano 2015, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. <http://www.expo2015.org/en/sustainability-report->.
“Waste Strategy 2013-2020.” – Waste and Recycling. City of London, 03 Feb. 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. <http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/environment-and-planning/waste-and-recycling/Pages/Waste-strategy.aspx>.
Calcott, Alan, and Jamie Bull. Ecological Footprint of British City Residents. Weyside Park: Panda House, 2001. World Wildlife Fund, Oct. 2007. Web. 9 Nov. 2015. <http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/city_footprint2.pdf>.
“Climate Resilient Cities.” (2011): n. pag. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The World Bank, 2009. Web. 9 Nov. 2015. <http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEAPREGTOPURBDEV/Resources/573631-1233613121646/milan_extop.pdf>.