Just how much CO2 does New York City emit in a year? (Click Image To Enlarge)
IN 2010, NYC ADDED 54 MILLION METRIC TONS OF CO2 TO THE ATMOSPHERE. THIS VIDEO SHOWS IT AS A BIG, BLUE BALL PIT
Last week, thousands in New York and millions at home watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, an annual, multi-hour affair that fills the streets of Manhattan with characters like Pikachu and Snoopy in the form of massive, inflatable balloons. This video is a little bit like that--except instead of cartoon characters, the objects filling the streets of NYC are huge blue spheres, and instead of making kids smile, they’re intended to visualize the massive amount of carbon dioxide the city pumps into the atmosphere every day. Snoopy, you might want to hold your breath.
The clip is based on a piece of data that showed up in a report published by the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability last year: In 2010, New York City added 54 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. At a moment when our national debt is in the trillions, the number of people in poverty around the world is in the billions, and when we’re all getting, like, a million emails every day, it’s easy to let a number like that pass by without much interrogation. So to give New Yorkers a better sense of the scale of that atmospheric pollution, the emissions-centric graphics outfit Carbon Visuals rendered it as something that’s perfectly easy to understand: a bunch of massive, aquamarine balls.
The most surprising thing, though, may be the source. Instead of gas-guzzling automobiles, 75% of NYC’s emissions come from buildings (Click Image To Enlarge)
In 2010, it totalled 54 million metric tons--shown here as a pile of 33-foot blue bubbles, each with a volume of one ton (Click Image To Enlarge)
At standard pressure, assuming a temperature of 59 degrees, a metric ton of CO2 gas would fill a sphere with a diameter of 33 feet--about half the size of the biggest floats in the Macy’s parade--with a new bubble popping up every 0.6 seconds or so. The video shows what that output would look like if all those emissions emanated from a single point on the island.
It adds up quick. Here’s what Manhattan looks like with all 54 million tons accumulating in one spot (Click Image To Enlarge)
Unsurprisingly, they add up fast! In just an hour, the unruly pile is already about half the height of the Empire State Building. After a day, the pile tops the building’s apex, engulfing dozens of city blocks. And after a year, well, things look pretty bad. The pile of blue spheres is now something more like a mountain, its peak among the clouds and its summit spanning from the Financial District all the way up to the southern border of Central Park.
It looks bad--but it’s only part of the picture. New Yorkers are still three times more efficient than the average American, in terms of emissions per capita (Click Image To Enlarge)
It’s a terrifying picture--but not necessarily the whole one. For one thing, emissions don’t pile up quite so cleanly; the problem is as big as the video shows it to be but not nearly as localized. But more important to keep in mind, as some observers like WYNC’s Robert Krulwich have pointed out, is that cities actually fare way better than suburbs in terms of CO2 emissions per capita. Even the New Yorkers floundering here in their carbon dioxide ball pit are roughly three times more efficient than your average automobile-dependent American. But the idea that cars are the big problem is a bit off the mark, too--75% of New York City’s emissions in 2010 came from buildings, not vehicles.
It’s a mountain of pollution that stretches from the Financial District up to Central Park, its peak among the clouds (Click Image To Enlarge)
That means, to hit its ambitious target of a 30% reduction in emissions by 2017, the city will need to focus not only on smarter transportation but smarter living and working spaces in general. And it also means we probably won’t have to put the parade on the carbon-cutting chopping block anytime soon.
Still, the steadily growing blue ball pit is an effective way to show just how much pollution we’re pumping into the atmosphere every second (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY: That's what I call an AWESOME way to visually show the unseen -- the tons of carbon emissions from fossil fuels released into the atmosphere by transportation vehicles of all types, manufacturers and electricity generating plants into a large metropolitan city like New York City. It makes things crystal clear.
If you were to do the same thing in some of America's major cities, perhaps even in your hometown, you would have a great way to compare the extent of carbon emissions in different parts of the country. Individuals could actually see just how much CO2 is affecting their city or part of the country. Then, and only then, would individuals who don't believe that greenhouse gases create global warming, would change their minds. Look forward to your comments.
Courtesy of an article date November 26, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design
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