EUS 202 Lecture Notes - Endangered Species, Smog, Stormwater

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Environment and Urban Sustainability
• Course: EUS 202
• Professor: Christopher Greene

Document Summary

Component 03 cities contributing to global sustainability. Difficult to compare cities: a range of problems can be considered. Immediate environmental hazards less of a concern in the north than in the. In contrast, the south exhibit lower levels of energy use, resource use, waste production. North responsible for high levels of pollution and ghg production. These differences point to a need to distinguish between categories of environmental problems. One benefit is the ability to compare performance of smaller cities. Danger is a reliance on indices that are easy to measure but omit potentially more relevant data. Satterthwaite argues the following example related to air pollution. Satterthwaite argues there is a need for better definition of environmental problems. Should not exclude those problems that may present difficulties in obtaining data. Also important: once defined, attempts to improve one category should not proceed at the expense of others. He suggests five broad categories of environmental action as a framework for comparison.