The small towns making a big difference in the move towards sustainability
We heap a lot of praise onto large cities making a difference by adopting greater sustainability initiatives. There’s reason for this praise: in general, people living in close quarters can be better for the environment and with a greater population, there’s more money for sustainability efforts.
Even though small towns, by and large, have been slower to adopt eco-friendly initiatives — many have their own set of woes, like shrinking jobs that have taken precedence— that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Some small towns have proven to be mighty in their pivot towards sustainable initiatives.
Greensburg, Kansas
After a devastating tornado in 2007, Greensburg used the
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After that, Greensburg was faced with a choice. They could rebuild with disaster funding to bring things back to the way they were, but that wouldn’t do anything to prepare them better for a disaster in the future.
Greensburg also proved that it’s not the type of community to do things halfway. According to a report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, they made their goal “100% renewable energy, 100% of the time.”
Their planned initiatives were all laid out in the Greenburg Sustainable Comprehensive Masterplan. The plan also included initiatives to rebuild city buildings to green standards, make the downtown area more walkable, and to include infrastructure that would manage stormwater to avoid a potential flooding disaster.
Eleven years later and Greensburg is doing a great job of following through on their green initiatives and they’re adding more. This December they will be breaking ground on their hotly anticipated Eco-Homes project.
Columbus,
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South Daytona has earned the designation as a Green Local Government at the Gold Level, as awarded by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FBS).
As you might have guessed, South Daytona’s sustainability efforts have been primarily focused in the building sector. The town was one of only thirteen entities in Florida to win the title. They have reduced emissions by replacing parking lot lights with energy efficient fixtures.
What else did South Dayton do to deserve such an auspicious award? They helped to conserve energy use, used hybrid vehicles, offer a comprehensive recycling program, and they have excellent practices when it comes to landscaping and water irrigation.
These three little towns are making a big difference in our move towards sustainability. If you’re interested in bringing sustainability efforts to your small town, now you can hold Greensburg, Columbus, and South Daytona up as examples of small towns that have made a huge difference. We’ll be hoping that this push towards sustainability catches on as more towns get “Green”
Finally in 1991, the federal government initiated a ‘Better Cities Program’ which aimed to make Australian cities sustainable and more liveable. It encoura...
The history-making documentary footage made available by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has been subjected to careful analysis. As noted by Grazulis (1993; pp. 879-880), the tornado in question was part of an outbreak in Kansas on that day, including a violent killer tornado near Clyde, Kansas, and a "barn shifting" F1 tornado in Rooks county. It seems that shifting human structures was a common feature of tornadoes on that
In the article by Jeff Piotrowski and the article on the Joplin Tornado: Evil Swirling Darkness, explains that the Joplin tornado took out the city of Joplin, Missouri. The tornado came into the town of Joplin on May 22, 2011 and was about a mile wide. Fires were attacking the city and homes from broken gas lines, and many people were buried alive in their houses. The fire department was gone and no one could find any police to help. Neighbors helped neighbors, pulling each other out of the ruble. Over 125 people had died all from being trapped and suffocated, to be cut open by sharp objects that fell. In the end many people had died and were injured during the tragic tornado that came through and left Joplin in horror and terror.
In conclusion, the deadliest and most devastating U.S. tornado outbreak of the 20th century was the April 3–4, 1974, “Super Tornado Outbreak.” It lasted 16 hours and at least 148 twisters tore up 2,500 miles of Earth through 13 states over a 24-hour period, according to the National Weather Service. The "super outbreak," as meteorologists now call it, left 330 people dead and 5,484 injured. Property losses were placed at $600 million and only ten of the thirteen states that were hit, were declared a disaster area.
City of Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department. “L.A. Made a Difference!” Los Angeles, CA: US. 1998. www.cityofla.org/EAD/article3.htm
On May 4, 2007, the town of Greensburg, Kansas was devastated by an exceptionally strong tornado. With maximum winds estimated to be in excess of 205 miles per hour, and leaving a damage path as wide as 1.7 miles, the storm would go on to be rated a rare EF5, the first recorded in the United States since 1999. When the storm finally subsided, 95 percent of Greensburg had been destroyed, killing eleven people.
On May 22nd, 2011 a massive tornado hit Joplin, Missouri killing 162 people and injuring 1150. With wind speeds of 322km/h, the tornado made a total cost of over $2 billion for the city. 8000 structures were destroyed, 2000 of which were homes. Many people were left homeless. The tornado held an incredible EF5 rating on the Fujita scale, measured from the amount of destruction. The tragic event lasted 38 minutes, from 5:34 pm to 6:12pm. Cool wind from the Rockies in Canada and warm wind from the gulf of Mexico formed into a supercell thunderstorm creating a tornado in Kansas. The tornado rapidly moved into Joplin and continued on its 35 km path.
A tornado struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011 at around 5:40 pm. With a population around 50,559, it killed 161 people and injured approximately 1,100 people. The cost was an estimated $2.8 billion in damage. The American taxpayers had to give about $500 million in recovery money. This made it the deadliest tornado since 1950, which was when modern recordkeeping began. Since it was an EF5 tornado, it destroyed everything in its path. The city was ruined with only piles of debris left. It was a half-mile wide when it hit Joplin and grew to three-quarters of a mile wide. It destroyed nearly 7,000 homes in Joplin and damaged hundreds more. It covered over 1,800 acres of land. The warnings that the Joplin residents received were through three different ways. The tornado warning that was sent out for Joplin’s county was from Jasper County Emergency Operations Center (JCEOC) and they claim that the first siren went off at 5:11 pm. Two other warnings for the Joplin residents was they saw the tornado heading their direction, and the media coverage which was all local electronic media switched to wall-to-wall coverage seeing live footage of the tornado.
In this regard, city authorities all over the world are increasingly adopting energy efficiency measures in a quest to become sustainable into the future. Consequently, this has led to the emergence of the term ‘green cities’ (Aulisi & Hanson, 2004). New York City, viewed by many as an urban, concrete jungle, was recently named the “greenest city" in the United States. This is mainly because most of its residents live in energy-efficient buildings, and use public transport, bicycl...
The Green Building is a way to increase the positive effects and fade the negative effects through the life cycle of the building.
Surely there exist cities that are determined to transform into more eco-friendly representatives of urban civilization, yet these efforts are typically focused on minimizing the harmful output of cities rather than rew...
A green building (also referred to as sustainable building or green construction) is a structure that employs an approach that is responsible for the environment besides being efficient in regard to resources all through its life cycle: This is from selecting the site to designing it, constructing, operating, maintaining, renovating and demolishing it. To achieve this, the client, the engineers, the architects and the entire design team closely cooperate at all stages of a project (Yan and Paliniotis, 2006). Practicing Green Building complements and expands the conventional building design areas of comfort, durability, utility and economy.
Kneidel, Sally, and Sadie Kneidel. Going Green: A Wise Consumer's Guide to a Shrinking Planet. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Pub., 2008. Print.
The concept of “going green” is a necessity for the future because “our children deserve cities as beautiful as they are”. Works Cited Russell, Lauren. A. Web. " An Evaluation of Municipal Recycling Programs."
"Eco-Friendly State Laws and Green Mandates." Black News, Opinion, Politics and Culture - The Root. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. .