Chapter 32. Chapter 32: Urbanization and Sustainable Communities

What are the trade-offs associated with cities...?

Why You Should Care

Chances are, if you haven’t been already, you’ll be faced with deciding where to live and start a career. You also probably have a good grasp of the pros and cons of city life. If you lived in the city, you’d probably be closer to work and a more diverse array of entertainment, people, and food. But you’d have to pay more to live there; in fact, you probably couldn’t afford to buy a home. It’s also crowded and could be noisy or polluted. If you lived in the suburbs, you’d have room to move around, but you’d have to do a lot more driving—to get to work, buy food, etc. Many of the environmental pros and cons are readily apparent, too. Living in cities saves land resources and should reduce carbon footprints since you don’t need to drive as much. But large amounts of waste are produced by cities, and disposing of it causes both environmental and social problems. Moreover, cities tend to be hotter than the surrounding countryside. Even the difference of a few degrees can make a huge difference in the environment—even if the hotter weather in cities is only enough to make air conditioners run a few extra minutes each day. Multiply that by millions of homes in a city and it’s a huge problem, especially if the electricity provided for the city is derived from coal. Although city and suburban living both have their drawbacks, the prospects of making city living sustainable are better than the suburbs, so hopefully, the current trends to make cities greener will continue.

1.

Thought Question: The y axis specifically lists the units as CO₂-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions. What do you think this means?

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CO₂ isn't the only greenhouse gas, and each greenhouse gas has a different warming potential in the atmosphere. If you calculated the entire warming potential created by all the greenhouses gases emitted, you could convert that potential to the tons of CO₂ alone it would take to reach it. So although these numbers are measuring CO₂, they actually represent the combined effect of CO₂ plus other greenhouse gases. For now, you can think of the CO₂ equivalent emissions as a way to represent a carbon footprint.

Incidentally, if you were to measure just CO₂ produced for energy and construction (making concrete releases CO₂) but not CO₂ and other gases emitted from other sources, like land clearing, China comes out slightly ahead of the United States.

2.

Refer to Infographic 32.2 above. Of the country-city pairs, the one with the largest disparity between average and city carbon footprint is:

A.

China/Shanghai.

B.

Japan/Tokyo.

C.

United Kingdom/Glasgow.

D.

United States/New York City.

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3.

Homes in urban areas tend to be _______ compared to rural areas.

A.

smaller and more energy efficient

B.

smaller and less energy efficient

C.

larger and more energy efficient

D.

larger and less energy efficient

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4.

The numbers listed in the circles on the graph refer to:

A.

the average tons of carbon emitted per person per year.

B.

the average tons of carbon emitted per country per year.

C.

the average tons of carbon emitted per city per year.

D.

Both b and c are correct.

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Per capita is per person, so the numbers refer to tons of carbon emitted per person each year, regardless of whether the person is in a city.

5.

If you were to turn the numbers into a story, you could sum it up best by saying that the graph in Infographic 32.2 is portraying:

A.

how much the carbon emitted per person has increased due to urbanization.

B.

the difference between the carbon emitted per person per year in general for a country and the amount emitted for people living in a large city within the country.

C.

for a variety of different cities, how successfully efforts to become more sustainable have lowered their per capita carbon footprint.

D.

how much the carbon footprint of different megacities contributes to the national carbon footprint of the countries where they are found.

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6.

The graph in Infographic 32.2 is showing the per capita carbon footprint for the different countries and cities listed. How could you determine what the total carbon footprint is for all the countries combined?

A.

Multiply the average per capita footprint by the total population.

B.

Multiply the city per capita footprint by the total population.

C.

Divide the total population of each country by the average per capita footprint.

D.

Divide the total population of each.

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The correct answer is to multiply the average per capita footprint by the total population. Remember that per capita means per person, so multiplying the carbon emitted per person by the number of people in the country should approximate the total carbon emitted by that country.

7.

Nation	Approximate Population in 2012*	Carbon Footprint in Tons of Carbon per Year
Spain	47,000,000
United Kingdom	63,000,000
United States	314,000,000
Brazil	206,000,000_206000000
Japan	127,000,000
China	1,343,000,000

*As found in the United States CIA World Factbook; rounded to the nearest million people.

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8.

Of the following countries, _____ has the highest annual carbon emissions.

A.

Japan

B.

Brazil

C.

the United States

D.

China

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Please note that this is true based on the way carbon footprint is measured here (remember that the CO₂ equivalent emissions convert several other greenhouse gases emissions into one number). If you were to measure just CO₂ produced for energy and construction (making concrete releases CO₂) but not CO₂ and other gases emitted from other sources, like land clearing, China comes out slightly ahead of the United States. Measuring CO₂ equivalent emissions is a more comprehensive way to estimate how much impact a person or country has on increasing the greenhouse effect, so it's fair to say that the United States is slightly ahead of China in contributing to global climate change.

Incorrect.

9.

Of the following countries, ______ has the lowest annual carbon emissions.

A.

Spain

B.

the United Kingdom

C.

Brazil

D.

Japan

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10.

Thought Question: Using the U.S. figures as an example, would you expect the per capita emissions for people living in exurbs and suburbs to be higher or lower than the national average?

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An average has to be within the range of a set of numbers; so, some people must emit more than the average. You could therefore expect that, in at least some regions, suburbanites and exurbanites emit more than the national average.

11.

All of the following are disadvantages to living in cities EXCEPT:

A.

causing farmland to be lost to development because food must be imported.

B.

the social and environmental issues of disposing large amounts of waste.

C.

the formation of slums, shanty towns, and tenements in many cities.

D.

traffic congestion and limited parking.

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12.

_________ is NOT an advantage of living in cities.

A.

More educational and cultural opportunities

B.

More variety in job offerings and social diversity

C.

Lower disease rates

D.

Lower ecological footprints per person

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13.

The urban heat island effect is caused by all of the following EXCEPT:

A.

too few plants.

B.

too much pavement and asphalt.

C.

waste heat from high energy use.

D.

sewage overflow.

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14.

_________ do/does NOT contribute to the lower per capita footprint found in most cities.

A.

Smaller homes

B.

Concentration and disposal of wastes

C.

More mass transportation and pedestrian friendliness

D.

Higher energy efficiency of multi-unit housing

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15.

Relative to suburbs and rural areas, cities have:

--------moreless traffic congestion.

--------moreless green space.

--------moreless environmentally caused illness.

--------moreless concentration of waste to be disposed of.

--------moreless violence.

--------morefewer transportation options.

--------higherlower ecological impact per person.

--------moreless effective zoning ordinances (usually).

--------lowerhigher average temperature.

--------moreless dependence on food and resources that aren't local.

--------morefewer advanced health-care options.

--------moreless diversity of job opportunities.

--------higherlower home energy efficiency.

--------moreless traveling to get to work and to buy goods or services.

--------moreless difficulty handling stormwater runoff and flooding.

--------lowerhigher air quality.

--------smallerlarger homes on average.

--------morefewer educational opportunities.

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