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Activity 4.2.1 – Applying My Environmental Policy Frameworks.

  The environmental policy I will be looking at is “Why can’t NYC get a congestion charge?”. The article with the title “Why can’t NYC get a congestion charge” goes into detail about why congestion is bad for the environment. To begin, a congestion charge is a fee imposed on vehicles operating within a specific area during certain periods of the day, typically in urban centers. Sometimes these congestion charges help lower emissions within the city, traffic congestion, better air quality, promote transportation options, etc. It would be understandable why NYC has so much traffic since it is a touristy city. However, it is weird as to why NYC does not impose a congestion charge. After reading the article I learned there are many issues, and debates going on with the congestion charge in NYC. The first issue I see has to do with economic framing, meaning that there are just so many people and most use public transit, or private planes. Also as I mentioned there are so many people commuti
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Activity 4.2 Environmental Policy Frameworks

  The Ohio Antidegradation Case The Drake Chemical Case The Quincy Library Group Case Gain/Loss Frame Views of Nature Frames Economic Framework Basically in 1972 the Clean Water Act required states to define their water quality standards. The Ohio case was a gain/loss frame, because both groups where fighting in court what they wanted the policy to be, yet due to potential loss/gain from both sides they just stopped, and left the case as it is. This was a chemical production company back in the 1940s and early 1980s. The company would dump chemicals into the lagoon and got told by the Department of Environmental regulation that they had to stop doing that. Since the facility didn't want to accept the environmental policy they filed for bankruptcy, and abandoned the facility by stating that “complying with the new regulations  would be prohibitively costly”. This framework is a view of nature, because these individuals working that facility were not perceiving the effects of human i
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Activity 4.1 - US Environmental History and Major Regulations

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  In this week's module I learned about the history of environmental change throughout the US. I think it's important to know our history, especially now that climate change is becoming a more serious issue. I spend a lot of time on social media like Tik Tok, and I see a lot of the things that are going on in the world in terms of news, politics, the environment, etc. When learning about history we as a society should learn what has happened throughout the years to where we are now. I see things on the internet like Antarctica is melting, many wildfires, extreme heat, no potable water, etc. While I was reading the articles for class I learned that back before the internet even existed, people really didn't have to worry about pollution, or waste. The reason due to this, is because back then it wasn't as populated as it is now, and technology didn't exist. In the article it states “When one stand of trees was consumed for housing or fuel, another was nearby; when one
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Activity 3.3.3.1 Current Events In Plastic Pollution

  1. Exploratory I wasn't able to find any recent articles about plastic pollution, but the latest article I was able to find is from CNN. The article is titled “More than 170 trillion plastic particles found in the ocean as pollution reaches ‘unprecedented’ levels”. This article mentions how the ocean is deeply polluted, and that it is increasing at a high rate. This is an issue, because plastic contributes to our huge climate problem. In terms of what we have been learning  in class is about the environment, and maintaining it healthy. This can only be done if we as a community help keep the earth clean. The article also mentions how by 2040 there will be a 2.6 rate increase in how plastic gets into the ocean.  2. Diagnostic The way that plastic is getting into the oceans is from land, getting swept by rain, rivers, etc. Thus happens, because people can be careless and just litter their trash. It can also be due to landfills being full, that there is no space other than to dump t
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Activity 3.3.3 - My Plastic Use

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 Short Essay:  In this module I learned more in depth what microplastics are, and their effects to the environment. To begin microplastics come from plastic, and we've been using plastic since the 1950s, so around 65 years. Plastic takes 20-500 years to decompose, but over time that plastic will brake down into smaller pieces to what scientists now call “microplastics”. Microplastics, which are plastic particles, or fibers smaller than 5 millimeters in size, are one of the many are one of the many reasons for the widespread use of microplastics in our society. Due to their miniscule size, microplastics are not able to be removed by wastewater treatment plants. Wastewater treatment plants is something I learned in the last module, which was very interesting, because I learned how sewage water gets cleaned to get released back into the environment. However, learning about how microplastics don't just disappear with a wastewater treatment plant made me realize that they are so sma
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Activity 3.3.1 Air Pollution Core Activity

  Air Pollution Basics Sulfur Pollutants  Nitrogen Pollutants  Hydrocarbon and Volatile Organic Compound Pollutants In this weeks module we are learning about air pollution. It is important for the air quality to be good, because breathing is an essential part of living. As times have become more industrialized the air quality has gotten more polluted, so its important to know some of those toxic chemicals that are in our air. Now some common air pollutants are sulfur, nitrogen, hydrocarbon, and volatile organic compound pollutants. Volcanoes are natural sources of emissions of sulfur gasses, and extracting metal is also another natural source. Coal and petroleum also contain mineral compounds of sulfur as well as vehicles or equipment that burns fuel with high sulfur content. Nitrogen pollutants are also similar to sulfur, its a colorless gas, but Nitrogen dioxide forms when fossil fuels such as coal, oil, methane gas, or diesel are burned at high temperatures. Lastly, hydrocarbon and
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Solar Power and Energy Policy

  1. Exploratory The article/video talk about Georgia, and the power plant project implemented in the state. It is called Silicon Ranch Hazlehurst 2 project on Georgia Farm. Being the largest solar panel assembly plant in the Western hemisphere, being a 150 million investment. 2. Diagnostic This occurred, since there are a lot of powerful market forces at work. In Georgia there is a company thats providing Facebooks access to solar is Walton EMC, an electric cooperative based outside Monroe, GA. The reason these solar panels were basically built is for the Facebook solar market. 3. Cause and Effect What this project has caused is for other states t see the positive effects of solar panels. In other words they are cheap and because Georgia has a lot of sun its easier to get more energy from it. Also renewable energy makes up a tiny project, but with more solar projects coming into the mix renewable energy will jump. 4. Priority I feel like the most important issue to look at when I was
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