Global Warming has gone from a politically charged point of contention, to a widely recognized phenomenon — temperatures are rising, storms are becoming more violent, droughts or floods beset wide area of the country, sea levels are rising. Congress and the political parties are arguing about massive solutions, leaving us individuals mystified about what, if anything, we can do to help fix our broken planet. Here are some steps we can take locally.
Development standards
Living in the high growth southeast, I see large new developments popping up all over. Developers’ first steps are to clear the forest, then to burn the unsalable wood, followed by asphalted roads with houses appearing like mushrooms. So, we lose the benefits of the forest (carbon store, several degrees of cooling on hot summer days and loss of groundwater retention.
While stopping development is unlikely, we can pressure our local governments to consider the long term impacts of development — infrastructure, roads, schools, before giving rubber-stamp approval of every plan brought forward.
For those plans likely of approval, make sure they don’t worsen rising temperatures:
- End clear cutting or at least require preservation of a percentage of trees in every development.
- End use of fire to dispose of cleared trees and shrubs. The smoke is a health hazard throughout the community and fire speeds the conversion of the stored carbon into carbon dioxide (CO2), while chipping or mulching the waste slows the conversion to CO2. Finally, loss of the trees loses the local cooling effect of shade, worsening summer heat.
- Decrease coverage ratios in developments. This reduces the percentage of a development that is covered with impervious materials like houses, sidewalks, roads, etc. It reduces surface water runoff by capturing more rainwater into the groundwater system.
- Improve groundwater retention by other techniques, e.g., use of natural or artificial wetlands to control stormwater runoff.
- Address neighborhood cooling by increasing use of street trees and shaded parks.
- Investigate use of reflective coatings on asphalt and concrete surfaces to reduce solar heating.
- Investigate similar reflective coatings for roofs.
- Trees – our greatest resource
- plant, plant, plant
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