Environmental Affairs

Lesson 3: Linkages between the air (and other things) we breathe, housing and business

OBJECTIVE: To deepen understanding of environmental factors related to air quality. The student should arrive at a good appreciation of the linkages between various environmental issues and factors. Case studies will be presented and the student will provide an analysis and personal comments in a concluding exercise.

Things in the Air

In the November 2002 “Harper’s Index” one cited figure is telling with regard to recognizing the cross-sectoral nature of environmental management. It states:

“Days it takes an adult in Los Angeles to breathe in more air pollution than EPA (the US environmental protection agency) guidelines recommend for a lifetime: 25”.

The importance of our lesson’s second key issue cannot be expressed more dramatically. In an easily constructed chain of constraints, it can be suggested that those people who live in L.A., especially in housing areas close and exposed to pollution emitting businesses and major highways, will live shorter lives. In particular those people who for economic reasons have no possibility to move to less polluted areas, tend to suffer from higher rates of cancer, they need to seek medical assistance more frequently (if they even can afford to) and eventually will not be able to lead as productive and healthy lives as they and their children could have, had they been able to live in a less polluted city.

A basic linkage chain can be established:

Housing ~ Air ~ Business/Industry

How long before the chain snaps, or has it already done so? Can it be mended or will we have to have to make do with the broken pieces?

The environmental issue most everyone will recognize is that the air is bad, in fact not fit for humans to breath on a daily basis. In nearly all major cities of the world, air pollution is a constant, not merely a seasonal problem. It causes innumerous problems and side effects, not only to urban residents. Most everywhere, the causes are similar: too much fossil-burning activities, from transportation to household emissions, from cooking and heating to factories polluting the air.

Few urban managers succeed in effectively reducing air pollution and thereby to significantly improve air quality. Piecemeal and at best secondary measures are taken, ranging from installing some industrial filters, a slightly stepped-up urban transport program or public appeals to switch to less polluting household heating and cooking methods. Perhaps some marginal incentives are provided, like tax cuts on less-polluting newer cars, subsidies for “cleaner” industrial production. Root causes remain stubbornly unimpressed. More emissions-reduced vehicles still mean more vehicles, less-polluting factories help, but the old ones roll on: in sum, this adds up to more pollution than before. While things might have been worse without new pollution control measures taken, the air is still worse than before; the average L.A. citizen may soon again be mentioned in Harper’s, now exceeding the guidelines recommendations already in 22 or less days.

By exploring the range of environmental indicators related to settlement patterns, it quickly becomes obvious that there are very strong linkages between the way we live and the air we breathe.

Several indicator categories can be established:

- urban population growth rates - water consumption rates - price of water - air pollution indexes - amount of wastewater treated - level of solid waste disposal - disaster prevention and mitigation instruments - transportation indicators such as travel time and transport modes.

To explain and understand the air pollution problem, experiences form around the world need to be taken into account, since the problem is in every way a global one and lessons can be learned from faraway and unlikely places.

Perhaps at first glance, how humans settle and live is not an obvious environmental issue. Yet it does have a great impact on the environment. Urban planning and management are of critical importance to arrive at housing solutions with minimal environmental impacts. The location where settlements are set up can have direct impacts upon watershed, ground water levels or flooding occurrences. In the context of air quality, housing patterns can have very direct impacts. Urban sprawl is often accompanied by decreasing air-quality, as individual households tend to burn more fossil materials for heating and cooking purposes. Poorly insulated residences with inefficient furnaces use up considerably more energy for heating than upgraded houses do.

In urban settings, sound environmental management will need to pay strong attention to reducing air pollution from residential properties, as up to 50% of emissions can originate from them.

In the next section you will find a case study from Finland; it provides you with an excellent example of how forward-looking urban/municipal management is related to sound environmental practices.