Steven Solomon and Water Scarcity

Steven Solomon is a journalist who has written for the New York Times, Business Week and the Economist. He recently published a book called "Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization." The book is a comprehensive history of how various civilizations have built water projects, managed water resources and delivered these resources to the people. In short, it's about water management. I read the book this past December and enjoyed it very much. I was thinking of writing a book review for it but due to the hectic and busy nature of my schedule right now, I don't have time. Luckily, David Zetland of Aguanomics found time to write a really thorough and informative review of Steven Solomon's book. You can see his review here. Below is an excerpt from David's review:

"Although I enjoyed the historical narrative in Water, I was less-compelled by Solomon's thesis, that success and failure is determined by good water management. Yes, of course, good water management is necessary for continued success, but it is not sufficient.* Success and failure can come from many directions (poor leadership, for example). It would perhaps be more correct to claim that civilizations with good governance also manage water well".

The final section of Solomon's book is about the age of water scarcity which is a more contemporary outlook on how water policy and governance are playing out internationally. There are indeed many water challenges such as the ones he speaks about in the video above. Don't, however, be discouraged by the forthcoming challenges around water and climate change. There is a lot of work to be done. The first step is to start learning about the nature of the water problem; the second, well, I will leave that to you. Read the book if you get around to it.

Guest Entry: A View from Above: Examining Ottawa’s Greenbelt

By: Liam McGuire

Photo Courtesy and Copyright of Jason Walton

It takes a view from above to see what is happening below. This past December I was reacquainted with the snow covered landscapes of Ontario, as white terrain stretched out underneath my flight. As we descended, streetlights below illuminated the urban layout of my hometown Ottawa. As I craned my neck to the windowpane for a better look, my view from above told a story of how this city has grown. A large black swath of darkness interrupted the city lights, separating the urban core and the surrounding constellation of suburban communities.

This observation reignited old thoughts about the Greenbelt that surrounds Ottawa’s core urban region. The greenbelt in itself is not a new idea. Among other influences, the idea of an environmental buffer zone comes from the Garden City concept of Ebenezer Howard. In Howard’s time, overpopulation was a huge worry for cities, and the residential communities on the other side of the greenbelt offered relief to the bustling industrial core. Lewis Mumford sums it up well: “the Garden City, as Howard defined it, is not a suburb but the antithesis of a suburb: not a more rural retreat, but a more integrated foundation for an effective urban life.”

Garden City Plan (Ebenezer Howard)

If urban planners wish to preserve that foundation for an effective urban life, they need to sit down and think about the green belt in a contemporary sense. My view from above observed communities that had leapfrogged, trading density for the greenfield development of former farmland. Abundant green space is by all means necessary to keep a strong ecological balance, however the city’s inability to enforce urban density has allowed exponential amounts of sprawl. Population forecasts for the outer greenbelt communities are high. By 2031, Orlean’s population will grow by 25%, Kanata/Stittsville by 83%, and Riverside South Leitrim by 381%. Inside the Greenbelt, the population will grow a meager 7%. So much for “smart growth.”

Ottawa's Greenbelt (City of Ottawa)

Ottawa in 1955 (Natural Resources Canada)

Ottawa in 2002 (Natural Resources Canada)

Inevitably this will place huge pressures on the infrastructure of the city. Jobs will continue to be located in the urban core, and highways will need to expand rapidly. Judging by Ottawa’s track record with municipal light rail, there will be no mass transit solution anytime soon. It's time to rethink Ottawa’s master plan, and the upcoming National Capital Commission (NCC) greenbelt review is the perfect time to do it. Starting thoughts range from planning for density in the core to speeding up mass transit plans, however my purpose is just to get the conversation started. Ottawa is a beautiful city, and we pride ourselves on it. I’m not advocating tearing down our Greenbelt, I’m advocating that we start to make it a functional part of the city’s ecology. The City of Ottawa and the NCC need to consider the view from above as they plan for the future. This requires an approach of balancing environmental and infrastructural considerations, and finding city officials and community leaders who are up to the challenge.

Liam McGuire is a Master's student in Urban Geography at the University of British Columbia. He completed his Honour's BA at Trent University in 2009 in Human Geography and Political Science. Liam is very passionate about cities; their development, spatial growth and demographics. He has many opinions and insights about how cities should develop and could be contacted at: liam.mcguire@geog.ubc.ca

Jamie Lerner and Curitiba

In the video above, Jamie Lerner, a former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, shares his thought about how we can achieve a sustainable city. Enviro Boys has blogged about Curitiba in the past highlighting the city's success with its bus rapid transit (BRT) system. Through innovative urban planning the city has become a much more compact urban form. The BRT system was initiated in 1974 and at the time had 25,000 passengers per day. With Jamie Lerner's leadership and continuous influence on the city, there are now close to 2 million passengers using it every day.

For years children have been learning how to separate their garbage and have taken the initiative to teach their parents. As a result, a significant percentage of the city' waste is separated.

Check out the video to learn more.

Eco-Friendly School in Bali

Image credit: gizfactory.com

"Understanding the current and future needs of our planet it is extremely vital that we move to renewal sources of energy in all spheres of our day to day lives. Keeping in lieu with this, a beautiful eco-friendly school has come up in Bali. The idea behind the school is to empower global citizens and green innovators who are inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world".

Read more here.

Climate Change and Transportation

In this video, Michael D. Meyer, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, delivers a lecture at the University of Kansas about the link between climate change and transportation. In essence, he discusses how transportation contributes to climate change and the opportunities we have to mitigate its impact and better adapt our transportation systems to become more resilient to floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes etc. The video is long but very educational and informative.

The focus of his talk in on the United States. Nonetheless, he still presents a number of ideas and opportunities that apply to Canada and other jurisdictions. In the U.S., transportation is 28% of national GHG emissions. In Canada, it's about the same. Within the transportation sector, highway vehicles (passenger cars and trucks) account for 82% of the GHG emissions.

He also talks about how various states are now writing aggressive climate change plans to address how they will reduce their emissions on the transportation front. Some are very ambitious indeed.

The most interesting part of his lecture to me was his discussion of adapting to climate change from a transportation perspective. Floods, earthquakes and hurricanes can bring about serious damage to our municipal and provincial infrastructure. To learn about how transport engineers and planners are dealing with this, and the various opportunities for improvement, check out the video. The Alaska Department of Transportation is now re-designing their highways because the foundation of their roads are sinking due to permafrost.

Cycling Success in Copenhagen

My friend, EP, shared this link about Copenhagen's immense success with its cycling culture, planning and infrastructure.

From the article:

"Copenhagen has almost 40% of all their overall trips by bike, a staggering figure that is already the best in the world. And yet they're not satisfied.... their goal is to raise that to 50%, and they've got aggressive strategies to do it. This is a lesson to cities that think it’s too hard to double their mode bike mode share, from, say, 2% to 4%"

"In Copenhagen, cycling has become "hip" and trendy. This is not accidental. A significant part of the traffic department's work is to promote this trendiness, through awareness campaigns, promotions and branding/ marketing (you can picture the traffic director getting the Crown Prince of Denmark to be out seen more on his bike). They use the media and popular culture vigorously, feeling that "if the media is talking about cycling, then politicians are, and if politicians are, then the media is."

"To make cycling, which can be a somewhat solitary experience, more social, they have schedules posted along the routes for unplanned biking groups to meet and cycle together, like a bus schedule.... A "cycle-bus" of sorts. This is fascinating, as I've often heard in North America one of the perceived attractions of cycling over transit is that it is seen as "individual" and at your own schedule, and thus closer to the "freedom" of the car than transit. The Danes, though, apparently will wait to commune with strangers on bikes, once again illustrating how much more social they are than we. Niels is quick to point out that it wasn't always this way though, and that any city can achieve it if the will is there."

Read more about the city's biking creativity and success here.

Hong Kong Apartment that transforms into 24 rooms

In this video, Gary Chang, an architect, has designed his 344 sq. ft. Hong Kong apartment in a way that is able to change into 24 different designs.

The mirrors in the main room have combined reflective metal and glass surfaces that increase the light value within the apartment. The apartment receives a lot of natural light through the tinted windows which has significantly decreased his use of electricity.

Such small spaces have huge eco-friendly possibilities. Indeed, Hong Kong's population and housing density, as I witnessed when I was there, can allow people like Gary to innovate with environmentally sustainable solutions.

For a longer version of the video, click here.

Beijing's new subway lines

Just last week Beijing opened up five new subway lines and 108 kilometres of new track. The new subway lines cost $9.4 billion to build and were not supposed to be completed until 2012. The Chinese however, have an impressive track record for completing large scale urban infrastructure projects ahead of schedule.

From the Toronto Star:
“We intend to bring on more new track every year for the next five years,” says Jia Peng, chief spokesman for the transit corporation. “We have the technology, we have the funds; the only thing we don't have much of is time — and time is crucial.

These new subway lines will undoubtedly ease traffic congestion both inside and outside of the urban core. Both congestion and pollution (air and noise) in Beijing have hitherto been an egregious problem with multiple social costs for the populace.

"Last year more than 2,000 new cars flooded into Beijing's streets and highways each day, for a total of nearly 800,000 new vehicles in 2010."

"Desperate to curb congestion in the city, the government announced it will restrict new car sales in Beijing this year to just 20,000 per month, holding a monthly public lottery for the privilege of buying one. Annual sales in the capital in 2011 will be capped at 240,000."

Sounds bold and progressive but is certainly doable in China.

The point of the Toronto Star article was to compare Beijing's remarkable progress in public transit expansion with Toronto's abysmally slow progress with new subways, light-right etc. While I commend the Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp with its success thus far, it operates in a jurisdiction that has much less stringent planning and environmental processes. Indeed, environmental impact assessments for such urban infrastructure projects in Canada can take months if not years.

In Canada, the public input alone is invaluable but incredibly time-consuming. Interest groups, community associations, business organizations, system users and concerned citizens might have reservations or suggestions about the transportation project. They are all important stakeholders and our elected officials must respond to them. It is therefore unfair do compare the two cities simply based on their planning processes.

In Toronto, for example, the urban transportation planning process might establish a vision of what a community wants to be and how the transportation systems fits into this vision. As you can imagine, in Toronto, with such a diversity of people, needs and interests, this process can take eons to complete thus delaying the building of the project be it subway or light-rail.

But, the urgency around public transportation in Beijing -- notwithstanding the limited planning and public involvement -- still showcases the commitment of the Beijing government to reduce traffic congestion and bring about a healthier and more efficient metropolis.

As the article writes, in Beijing "The government is planner, builder and arbiter all in one."

Read the full version of the Toronto Star article here.

I finally get charged for water. But you'd never guess from who...

When you live on a bike, you drink a lot of water. Because (most) bikes aren't hooked up to a stable water supply, one needs to refill quite often. As I travel around the United States, it hasn't be as difficult to get my hands on clean, fresh water as I had initially predicted. Even in the most remote of areas, water holes exist. Indeed, one must only encounter a cafe, restaurant or bar in order to refill. Heck, even a Rona has filled me up.

The process is quite simple. You walk in with your bottles, making sure to identify yourself as a weary traveller. This is done in a variety of ways, although some are unavoidable. For example, you will likely already be dirty and smelly, but your cycling clothes or shoes will provide evidence that you are not some homeless person they'd rather kick to the curb. For added sympathy, bring your cycling specific gear inside with you, such as a helmet or riding gloves. You look like a dork, yes, but you have to keep your eye on the prize: you're here for water, not a modelling audition. You can also make sure to strategically position your bike outside where it is easily visible to those inside.

In most cases, however, it is unnecessary to do any of this and folks are often happy to fill up your bottles regardless of who you are. Although you might get a fun social encounter with some locals if they ask about your bike.

Before I left, I thought it'd be more difficult to obtain water refills. But until I hit the Florida Keys, I had no problem. But in the Keys I got turned away for the first time. Because of their geographic location, the Keys have very little fresh water and have to pipe in a lot from the Miami area. This doesn't come cheap and the region is littered with campaigns to conserve water -- difficult in a tourist economy. But restaurants, even Mom & Pop types, were more than happy to refill my bottles.

After spending $10 on food at a McDonald's in Marathon, Florida, I asked if they could also fill up my water bottles. The cashier gave me a strange look and said she'd have to charge me for it. Not only that, but she'd also have to pour it in one of their own cups, for inventory sake, I guessed. I didn't even bother to ask how much it would be and declined her offer.

I couldn't believe it. One of the richest companies in the world has to charge for water? This wouldn't be nearly as shocking had the Mom & Pop diner next door not been willing to fill up my bottles. But guess what? They were happy to.

Screw you McDonald's. You're lucky your food is so cheap and energizing, otherwise I'd join the group of largely ineffective boycotters.

Guest Entry: Climate Change and the Construction Industry

By: Trevor Shah

We frequently hear about the negative impacts of climate change, but not often do we talk about the potential positive impacts and the opportunities that can stem from it. I wanted to take the chance to write about an industry that stands to benefit from increased global temperatures: the North American construction industry.

But before I begin explaining why this industry will benefit from higher global temperatures, please note that I will be using the A2 scenario from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). This conservative scenario projects an increase in global temperatures by about two degrees Celsius. Evidently, this temperature rise will contribute to many environmental changes which will greatly affect the construction industry.

To begin, there will be a rise in home and corporate building retrofits which will generate additional business for the construction industry. This is primarily due to rising electricity and natural gas prices in North America. Total electricity demand is projected to increase by 30 percent in 2035 (from 2008 levels). Accompanying this growth in demand is a 39 percent rise in electricity prices from the current average price. In addition, the price of natural gas in the U.S. and Canada is expected to double as demand intensifies and lower-cost resources are depleted. If the United States and Canadian governments decide to introduce a carbon tax system, the price of natural gas will rise even further. This is because natural gas produces 117,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per billion British Thermal Units (BTU) of energy.

Due to rising energy prices, housing and building retrofits will generate higher savings and shorter payback periods. Furthermore, building retrofits will grow even more profoundly if Canadian and American governments continue to offer incentives such as energy retrofit programs. The U.S. Government will be offering $452 million for the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE program) which will allocate funds for energy efficiency retrofits. The United States government also recently introduced the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) PowerSaver Loan Program which provides Americans with up to $25,000 in low-cost loans from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These programs will lead to considerable growth in home retrofits resulting in additional business for the construction industry.

Second, the United States will continue to experience increasing weather extremes due to climate change: heat waves and heavy downpours are very likely to increase in frequency and intensity. Substantial areas of North America are likely to have more frequent droughts of greater severity, hurricanes, heat waves, rainfall intensity and cold season storms are likely to become more frequent with stronger winds. Combined, these weather extremes will cause a surge in property damage.

In addition, regions with rivers and lakes will need to be protected from floods as the amplified intensity of rainfall and storms continues to rise. The associated clean-up and repair work will generate considerable business for the North American construction industry. This is what Matt Kahn discusses at length in his book Climatopolis. That is, forward looking entrepreneurs --such as those found in the construction industry -- can reap huge profits if people start to think more seriously about the value of adapting to climate change. People will soon realize the need to make their homes more climate change resilient and this will allow the construction industry and other forward looking entrepreneurs to innovate and make profits.

The demand for more resilient building materials, greater protection buffers around our homes and even the floating home idea proposed by Tom Mayne, will not only help urbanites adapt to climate change risks (floods, hurriances etc) but bring about new innovation, smart design and creativity from construction companies, product designers and more.

There will certainly be negative consequences of rising global temperatures on the North American construction industry. Firstly, the cost of construction materials are likely to increase due to higher demand, greater transportation costs, depletion of natural resources and future carbon taxes. Secondly, rises in global temperature may create unsafe working conditions due to extreme heat and the frequency of heat waves (say if you live in cities like LA or Phoenix). Lastly, melting of the permafrost will reduce the bearing capacity of the soil causing settlement and structural damage. However, these negative impacts are offset by the significant benefits.

I don’t mean to paint a negative or daunting future for North America. Instead, I wanted to talk about some of the opportunities that climate change can bring to industries like construction and forward looking people who care about the future and environmental sustainability.

Trevor Shah is a third-year commerce student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He is currently on an international student exchange in Bangkok, Thailand.

Environmental Challenges and Opportunities in 2010

Happy New Year! Many thanks to our readers, followers and guest post authors who continue to support and read Enviro Boys. Many more posts to come in 2011!

A blog post from the NY Times' Green Blog highlights the many environmental challenges and opportunities of 2010. Most of the examples are from the United States but there is discussion of Russia's summer heat wave and the US senate's postponed decision on whether to approve a controversial 2,000-mile, $7 billion pipeline project to deliver crude oil from Canadian oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Here is a highlight that caught my interest and is more promising than it is depressing:

Tigers and Bears: With major reports on biodiversity all showing an accelerating loss of species on land and in the oceans, attention was focused most closely on polar bears, whose sea ice habitat is melting for longer periods almost every year. A team of climate scientists and biologists is promoting the idea of setting aside a “sea ice refuge” — a swath of the Arctic from northwest Greenland west through northern Canada where the ice remains thickest. Another study predicted that polar bears would breed with grizzlies, creating hybrids that are less resilient. Meanwhile, fears of the extinction of the wild tiger prompted a summit of sorts in Moscow, at which officials agreed to a goal of doubling the number of wild tigers — now about 3,200 — by 2022.

Read the blog post here.

Key message: We have a long way to go on the environmental front. While it is still pretty common to dismiss the ominous nature of climate change -- especially in a time when people are more concerned about finding a job -- the reality of our environmental challenges are significant and require meaningful action. Heat waves in Russia, water droughts in the US Southwest and renewable energy opportunities may seem distant from you but everything is interconnected and closer than you think. Always think about your impact on the environment and ask yourself how you can conserve and lower your ecological footprint.