The Environmentally Healthy City: The Pressing Need of the 21st Century - Research Paper Example

? The Environmentally Healthy The Pressing Need of the 21st Century The Environmentally Healthy The Pressing Need of the21st Century Introduction to Healthy City and Environmental Health The environmental friendly city is defined as a locality that offers a healthy atmosphere by minimizing air and water pollution (Moore, 2006). The main idea is to reduce harmful industrial activities while replacing these kinds of operations by green ones. The major power source of the Earth should be changed and the population should be induced to use green power sources such as solar and wind energy (Wustenhagen & Bilharz, 2006). The green or environmental friendly city should have a lot of trees and greenery that will play a notable role in minimizing the carbon emissions in the air and water. Moreover, it should also use alternative energy sources to generate power. Relation of Environmental Health with Healthy City All of the famous alternative energy producing methods such as solar and wind energy do not produce carbon emissions and therefore, they are considered integral parts of conceptualized healthy city. Obstacles in Making a Healthy Possible The alternative energy sources are the futuristic version of energy production but, their implementation is purposely being halted consistently by conventional energy providers (Komendantovaa, Patt, Barras, & Battaglini, 2012). The oil producers are defaming major alternative energy projects in order to save their own skin. The alternative sources’ inability to produce enough energy to power massive equipment is presented as the major concern by oil producers around the world. Still, the supporters of conventional energy are forgetting about the nearing shortage of oil and therefore, in a few years, the major countries of the world, will initiate to produce energy via alternative sources. The Chinese and Japanese economies, have already been working towards reducing their dependence on oil and it is just the matter of time before others fall in line. Financial Issues with making a Healthy City Possible The oil producing economies are suggested to support alternative energy projects because it is a well known fact that their oil deposits are depleting rapidly. The reducing level of crude oil means that there will be lesser and lesser oil supplies in the future. But, if humans want to sustain the oil supply, then they have to deploy alternative sources to power less energy demanding operations. The major operations such as construction and engineering equipment can rely on oil based products for the time being. But, it is also important to note that making a switch to alternative and eco-friendly power generation is an expensive state of affairs. The substantial amount of financial resources and infrastructure is required to test vast scale viability of all alternative energy sources. The importance of alternative energy production techniques in making healthy city possible is growingly becoming part of literature relevant to strategic planning and development. The previous paragraph just attempted to provide a short term solution to a problem. Humans have to revert towards a simpler existence so that; it can prolong its existence on this planet. The scientists have recently been emphasizing on the value of planting trees in parallel with the attempts to reduce carbon emissions. The greenery will produce sufficient oxygen that will counteract the adverse effects of greenhouse gases. Additionally, the scientists are working to erect an artificial ozone layer on the areas of Africa where the natural one has become completely ineffective. Societal Benefits of the Healthy City The need to promote and support global citizenship is being strongly felt because it will lead to international pooling of resources to fight prevailing problems of humanity. Furthermore, international business community has to demote the greed and attach itself with environment friendly practices so that, they can save the future of humanity’s next generations. Environmental Health: A Global Concern The global citizenship cannot be implemented, if nuclear war breaks out, due to old national conflicts. Moreover, humans have to revert towards simpler existence in order to control carbon emissions that are significantly responsible for consuming ozone layer. The depletion of ozone layer can also be compensated with the help of artificial means. But, before that general public and industrialists have to control their contributions in causing carbon emissions. Environmental Health: An Individual Concern The environmental scientists are emphasizing on creating eco-friendly cities where people should devote their energies towards preservation of green living on the face of the Earth. According to latest research, blaming governments is not going to serve the purpose. The driving down of individual carbon emissions is being considered as the key towards saving the planet (Jorgenson & Wilcoxen, 1993). Central Idea and Conclusion This paper has reviewed the concept of green cities and found that the humanity has not committed its efforts towards sustaining eco-friendly lifestyle. The conventional energy producers on the other hand, are hindering green energy projects in order to keep their monopoly intact. The natural environment of Earth is degrading and increasing number of people is getting concerned about saving the planet’s atmosphere (Marres, 2008). The main problem that is hindering the process of restoring innate habitat is the issue of carbon emissions and greenhouse gases. Both of the factors are significantly causing the ozone layer to thicken and therefore the escape of Sun’s ultraviolet gases is halted. The above mentioned process is playing a notable role in raising global temperatures. The sudden uplift in terms of international temperatures is believed to be the major cause of melting glaciers that in turn provide the basis for flooding and hurricanes. In few African areas, the outbreak of skin related diseases is yet another consequence of ozone layer depletion. It is important to note that, the environmental outlook of the Earth is becoming hopeless with every passing year. The global temperatures are on the rise and so-called developed nations such as America and China are significantly polluting the atmosphere (Streets, Gupta, Waldhoff, Wang, Bond, & Yiyun, 2001). The facts point out that there is only negligible commitment towards green living present in humans. Finally, humanity is warping into a nuclear war that will further diminish the probability associated with human survival. In the view of ecological scientists, alternative energy sources can play a significant and notable role in driving down global carbon emissions. Presently, rising global temperatures and melting glaciers are symptoms of further environmental deterioration. The notions of global citizenship and international pooling of resources may save this planet from self-inflicted destruction in few centuries. The humans are in need to consider themselves as the citizens of the entire globe while working for its environmental and fiscal growth as well. The concept of nationalism should be diluted even further because the challenges that humans face today are immense and due to this reason, one nation alone cannot control and manage them (Parekh, 2003). 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