Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
centres had been added in some cities to remove these toxins from the water, there
is increasing interest in adopting these new methods as seen by research at North
Carolina State University (NCSU) and a review of the issues by the city of Victoria
in Canada (CRD). In addition, there are more biological solutions to the problems.
For example, the use of phyto-remediation measures are increasing. This involves
diverting the run-off into vegetated areas where the microbes near the roots filter
out many harmful substances. Examples of this process range from the creation of
wetlands to fulfil this role, to local bio-swales, which are shallow channels contain-
ing vegetation that filter the run-off, as well as slowing it down. An early example
of the bio-swale approach was developed in the Willamette River Park in Portland
in 1997 to reduce pollutants running into the river. Other waste water run-off sys-
tems end in wetlands or in depressions planted with trees. Enkoping in Sweden has
taken the approach further by pumping sewage with high nitrogen content into a
190 acre area of fast growing willows which filter out and convert the pollutants.
These trees are sequentially harvested and turned into wood chip that is then used
to generate electricity.
The examples illustrate the many initiatives in dealing with waste outputs. De-
spite this progress, few sewage plants remove the endocrine-disrupting chemicals
from pharmaceutical products in waste flows which negatively affect sexual de-
velopment, especially in male species (Wood
2014
). Cities also need to reduce of
replace many of the other
inputs
that have major polluting effects. The next section
deals with one of the most important of these inputs in the supply of energy, given
the domination of finite fossil fuels and their negative externalities.
56
Changing Energy Sources
Our towns and cities depend on fossil fuel sources to generate the energy that keeps
them functioning; they would never have grown to their current sizes and complex-
ity without this resource. However, one of the most significant sources of unsus-
tainable activities in urban places comes from this extensive dependence on fossil
energy and its negative effects, not simply from their direct harmful effects on the
health of people in cities, but from all the negative effects they produce at previous
stages in their production, namely: from environmental damage at production sites,
spillage in transportation, their burning to extract energy, which creates noxious
gaseous outputs, from CO2 and NO2 to a variety of particulates. These are simply
deleterious for human health and have caused many air pollution problems in cities.
In a human context the World Health Organization (WHO) report on the Global
Burden of Disease, published in December 2013 estimated that 1.2 million prema-
ture deaths per year occur in China alone because of outdoor air pollution (Wong
2013
). In addition a more detailed study by Chen et al (
2013
) reviewed the effect of
China's free coal policy that applied from 1950 to 80 in areas north of the Huai river
which approximates to the average January temperature isopleth of 0 ﾰC. Although
carried out for humanitarian grounds to keep people warm in winter, the researchers
estimated that the life expectancy of people in this part of northern China was 5.5
