City Warming And Its Effects

The journal article is titled Adaptation: How can cities be “climate proofed”. The author poses a rhetoric question to his audience which entails the American population as well as the global population. The title puts to task the reader’s mind on what to expect in the article. He takes us back to July 1995 when the effects of climate change was felt in an American state of Chicago. The state was hit by a scorching heat wave which resulted in the death of seven hundred and thirty nine people. The residents who were affected comprised mostly the African-American population.

When flat and crowded intersect you get the energy supply and demand problem. David Douglas, a chief sustainability officer for a corporation used this analogy: if you give 1 billion people a 60 watt incandescent light bulb and they all use their light bulbs four hours a day, that’s 10,000 watts at any given moment. You would still need about twenty new 500 megawatt coal burning plants just so the next 1 billion people can turn on their lights (68). We also have to keep in mind that burning coal releases CO2 and other pollutants into the air which then effects global warming. We have now brought in the concept of hot. Friedman also gives the example of the cities Doha and Dalian who have rapidly grown sprouting a “mini Manhattan” leading to much higher energy consumptions. He called this high consumption an “America lifestyle” saying that affluenza, the “unsustainable addition to economic growth was spreading all over the world

The report states that there is a correlation between increased daily temperatures and increased deaths, illnesses and hospitalizations and that living in urban areas increases vulnerability to heat exposure. These higher temperatures in urban areas are attributed to a lack of vegetation, waste heat from vehicles and buildings and the size of the city. Low-income neighborhoods are especially vulnerable as they lack the resources to adapt to the heat. The study reports that green projects reduce exposure to multiple pollutants and help mitigate urban heat. This report was a culmination of 102 studies and research projects from many credible academic papers. The David Suzuki Foundation is a world-renown conservation organization. This report will be used to show the benefits of trees and expanding urban green spaces such as combatting pollution and enhancing the health of inner-city

Over the last several decades, global climate change has been scientifically proven to be a result of human activity (“Carbon Dioxide Emissions”). Industrial processes, fossil fuel combustion, and changes in land use have altered the balance of greenhouse gases (GHG’s) in the Earth’s atmosphere. (City of New York et al. 2013) By increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide and other GHG’s in Earth’s atmosphere, our modern society is gradually warming the planet and altering its climate (“Carbon Dioxide Emissions”). Most recently, a March 2012 study found that climatic changes resulting from a warming planet have already increased the frequency of extreme weather events, “most notably heat waves and precipitation extremes” (“Carbon Dioxide Emissions”). As New York experienced not too long ago with Hurricane Sandy, the Earth’s climate and weather patterns have responded to such changes, with increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, loss of animal and plant species, impacts to human health, disruption of ecosystems, and other effects (City of New York et al. 2013) Such effects of human-induced climate change present potential threats to the infrastructure, economy, and health of not only New York City but the entire U.S.

Heat waves are often overlooked as an important natural disaster because they do not have the immediate effects of other disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes. However, over the last fifteen years, more people have died from heat waves compared to all other weather-related disasters combined (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2005). Heat waves are more dangerous in cities like Chicago because the buildings and paved roads stores heat and it dissipate very slowly (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2005). The Chicago heat wave resulted in temperatures of 106 degrees and the actual heat index was almost 126 degrees. As a result of these high temperatures and humidity, over 700 people were left dead in

Climate change in today’s day in age attracts people’s attention very easily. There is no doubt that climate change will indeed affect everyone.

This phenomenon increases the temperature in the area due to the increase in the amount of asphalt and building structures. Phoenix, AZ is a great example of a city which has significantly suffers from this phenomenal due to excessive urban sprawl. Harvey Bryan, senior sustainability scientist at ASU’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture says: “It’s a magnitude now of about 12 degrees above our historical nighttime lows. It was very typical to have summer evenings of 78 degrees back in the 1950s. Today we rarely go below 90. I think we’re headed to conditions where we have 100 degrees as our maximum nighttime low.”

Global surface heat has been increasingly high to the cause of a thing called a green house effect. In

The existence of Urban heat islands has become a growing concern over the years. An urban heat island is formed when industrial and urban areas produce and retain heat. Much of the solar energy that reaches rural areas is consumed by evaporation of water from vegetation and soil. In cities, where there is less vegetation and exposed soil, most of the sun's energy is instead absorbed by buildings and asphalt; leading to higher surface temperatures. Vehicles, factories and industrial and domestic heating and cooling units release even more heat.[28] As a result, cities are often 1 to 3 °C (1.8 to 5.4 °F) warmer than surrounding landscapes.[29] Impacts also include reducing soil moisture and a reduction in reabsorption of carbon dioxide emissions.[30]

Global Warming is quickly becoming a growing issue for large urban cities in America. As we expand our urban areas with the growing population, cities use more energy for air conditioning, water, and lighting (). Although air conditioning is powered by electricity, many urban cities rely on the combustion of coal for energy (). Combustion of coal emits CO2 and deadly gases into the atmosphere which leads to Global Warming (). Buildings in urban areas use conventional roofs as their main aesthetics. Conventional roofs are generally comprised of tar and gravel. On hot summer days, conventional rooftops can be 27–50°C hotter than the surrounding air temperature. This happens because the albedo of tar and gravel is extremely low which allows for the sun’s energy to be absorbed instead of reflected (). The increased temperature leads to urban heat islands (). Increasing higher albedo surfaces on roofs will result in more reflection of solar energy away from the urban areas (). Rooftops covered in plants, also known as Green Roofs have grown popular tremendously in the last decade. These rooftops are covered in natural greenery like small trees, bushes, flowers, grass, etc. Green roofs are cost effective way to solve many problems with global warming in urban areas (). Environmentalists could use data from satellites and compare the number of green roofs and

Urban Island Heat Effect: how cities are warmer than surrounding rural areas because of the many buildings, roads, parking lots, and other structures that replace natural vegetation. Due to the replacement of natural vegetation this results in more of the sun’s energy being absorbed and retained in urban areas compared to rural areas; leading to urban areas cooling at a much slower rate than rural areas at night. This study aimed to investigate whether urban areas, due to the amount of asphalt coverage, would be warmer and retain it’s heat longer than rural areas after sunset. The hypothesis was that urban areas would be warmer and retain it’s heat longer than rural areas after sunset since urban areas have more asphalt coverage. Data temperature

The increasing amount of green house gases (GHG) released in the atmosphere is causing significant changes in the environment leading to unpredictable weather patterns and warming of the climate system is putting a great pressure on city development and infrastructures. This essay outlines three problems caused by climate change in urban areas, and evaluates the effectiveness of some of the mitigation and adaptation strategies. This essay reasons that mitigation and adaptation strategies need to work in synergy in order to address the situation effectively.

What is global warming? Over the past 50 years, the average temperature of the earth’s has increased at the fastest rate ever recorded. And scientists notice a trend is beginning. The earth hasn’t been this hot since 2000. People who deny climate change have argued that there has been pause in increase of temperatures, but studies have shown from a paper published in 2015, has disproved this claim. Scientists say that unless we stop using harmful emissions, the average U.S. temperatures could increase by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit within the next century.

“Another important fact in Global warming is known for causing more natural disasters such as floods, wildfires, heat waves, tropical storms, and etc.”(Jones, 2010). This seems to me to come into place as common sense if temperatures escalate, glaciers will melt and as a conclusion, it will possibly make the oceans rise causing erosion.

Global warming is the steady increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature. There are two sides of this story. Some people believe that global warming is caused by natural components in the environment and not man-made production of carbon dioxide, while the others believe that it is caused by man-made production of carbon dioxide and not by natural components in the environment. Global warming is due to the increased level in temperature of a climate which is certainly not proven that the humans are the cause of this global warming effect. To the ethos approach, this documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle by British television producer Martin Durkin presents a number of respected scientists, economists, politicians, and writers who dispute the scientific consensus regarding fictitious global warming. According to the narrator “The earth’s climate keeps on changing but there is nothing unusual about the current temperature and the scientific evidence does not support the notion that the climate is driven by CO2 man made or otherwise.”