#6 – Water Park Conundrum

Imagine you’re a kid again and your parents are taking you on the many summer vacation to a local water park. Put on your bathing shorts and get into the car or SUV and drive about two hours until you reach the destination. You enter the park and treated to a variety of smells and the sounds of running fresh clean water everywhere. You can wait to get on the first ride. You see a giant water slide in the distance and run to get in line. You spend thirty minutes in that line and it’s finally your turn. You climb the stairs you get to the top and see the blue vista in front of you. You hop on the slide and let gravity take you down the slide until you reach the bottom and expecting fresh cool water you get buried in salty sand. The 70.6 percent of the Earth crust is covered in water, but only 1.6% of that is fresh water.  If the water parks we all remember as a child reflected the reality of fresh water scarcity the planet has, it would it be rather a desert park. There would be no giant water slides, large pool areas, boat rides, spray fountains, or other wasteful water attractions that are a pleasure to see.

People don’t really see water has a issue in the United States because it is cheap, and is accessible practically everywhere, which is why it has become a problem. Poorly planned water systems are draining ecosystems of water that takes centuries to recharge and have vast impacts on the environment. Urbanizing the desert has led to a crisis in western states that are continuously draining there underground aquifers. Instead of adjusting to the environment that city sprung, the city planners instead conformed to the American tradition of surburbia, watered lawns, and water parks. Cities such as Las Vegas are after all located in the dessert, and some strict rules for water usage should be common place for that type of environment. But instead of adopting water efficient technologies, ordinances, and other means to replenish and conserve the water used by the city’s residents and businesses, instead used as much as they possible could thinking the wells would last forever. If the city ran out of water, they would have only themselves to blame.

Considering the previous case, imagine now that the water park instead traveled to where you live. Changing ecosystems and moving rivers have become common place when convenient. But imagine if we move a river and unintended consequence was that we have created a man made flood plain right at you from door. People are running motor boats down your street. And when the water finally subsides, there is the damage, the mold, and the destroyed economy along with it. There would have never been a flood there if they hadn’t move that river and created a flood plain. But who can you blame, the river was in the way, it was too much water. Another example of how we don’t build within our means when it comes to the environment. Now imagine that the river was where a city or town dumped its sewage instead of cleaning the sewage to “acceptable” levels and putting back into the ecosystem. Not only would the environment be polluted but your home as well.

Stephen Mally - New York Times

To put it simply the Water Park Conundrum is a problem of how we change the environment to suit are needs are unsustainable to the development of our society. The water park serves no purpose if there isn’t any water and a water deserted city serves no people. An inconvenient water park isn’t fun and has well as a house underwater. The problem can be solve if we are willing to change how we use water every day.

References

 http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/question157.htm

#5 Our Land, Our Values - Social Sustainability

 “You realized that in the era before the automobile, these houses existed in a completely different relationship with the road. The houses honored the road because the road was honoring” (Kuntsler, The Geography of Nowhere, p. 130). The ways we use are land reflects the values of society. I am pretty sure when thing of houses you can imagine the typical generic triangle shape, with a box for garage right next to it or a driveway. What do houses tell us about what we value? Sustainability is not just environmental issue but also a social one. Van Jones in his TED lecture saw that the reason why people have been so wasteful is because of the idea of disposability. That we can use something until it is waste and simply throw it away and move on to better more disposable item. The landfills are proof of our value in disposability. But houses are more personal and tell us what we really value. The modern house is very materialistic. Houses showcase our excess, our three expensive cars, our expensive drapes and holiday decoration. The Department of Transportation in their 2011 Pocket Guide to Transportation found that 57.4% of households own 2 or more cars.  How many times have we heard story of angry neighbors you complain about other people unmaintained lawns? They say that house makes all of us look bad. The modern day house shows us to be selfish, and materialistic.

Suburbia

There is no easy way to change how people live. Changing the way people can be has impossible as changing the tides. But a way to be socially sustainable is to change the way re build neighborhoods. Instead of having houses face streets, how about houses facing other houses. Move the sidewalks away from the streets place them straight in the middle. Build the garages in the backs of the house so they have access to the streets. This solves alley problem Kuntsler mentions his book, The Geography of Nowhere and the simple design puts value on the community rather than the material goods. The lines between houses will be blur because private residence would blend seamlessly with the public sidewalk. It also allows for more of a park setting. Can you imagine walking out your front door right into a public park filled with benches trees? People will be more incentivize to get out and meet people and actually walk for the sake of walking. It would be a great deal better then peaking your window and seeing some raggedy building, or your neighbor’s gas guzzler, or the 100 cars that drive down the street every day. More importantly the neighborhood would be socially more sustainable. People would have interest in the well being of others. Instead of disliking the person you has maintain his lawn, you would want to know more about why he hasn’t cut his lawn. The houses would honor the community because the people were worth honoring.

Imagine stepping out your front door to this everyday.

Technology - Solar Power Tower