With the most developed cities surrounding the world, we would think they have the most organized and effective system when it comes to sustainability. But is it actually effective? As a person living in a big city, I’ve always wondered if cities all around the world have an impact on climate change. From the traffic congestion, factories, waste system, the concrete jungles surrounding me. I knew in the back of my mind that it was not good for the environment, but I never knew what exactly made it bad for the environment. As climate change is currently one of the biggest issues this world is facing, I also wanted to know if these cities can do anything to help and prevent climate change from worsening. But before we get the answer to that, we need to know first what impact do these cities have on climate change.

Source #1

Trotta, Daniel. “Cities Drive Climate Change, and Can Provide a Solution, U.N. Says.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 5 Apr. 2022, https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/cities-driving-climate-change-part-solution-un-report-2022-04-05/. 

Summary

       After reading the article “Cities drive climate change, and can provide a solution, U.N. Says” by Daniel Trotta, based on this article, it is said that cities play a major role in causing planet-warming emissions. However, because of this, cities can also help address climate-change and create solutions that can help with this issue. Since cities are responsible for 71-76 percent of the emissions due to buildings, transportation, heating, cooling etc. Cities like London are starting to create solutions like creating fees for highly polluting vehicles to encourage people to stop using these. Other cities have already started with planting green roofs, incorporating parks and trees, as well as improving energy efficiency buildings etc.

Rhetorical Analysis

Daniel Trotta has been working in the journalism industry since 2000. His foundation in the journalism industry has been from working overseas like Cuba and Mexico as a chief and general news correspondent. The purpose of this article was to be informative. To inform people how cities are one of the main causes of global warming/climate change. The primary audience are the people that live in cities, to inform them  how the place they live in is taking steps for the better. Daniel Trotta published this April 5, 2022. Which I would consider as the critical year for humans to help prevent climate change from happening, since we are on the verge of this global issue. 

Key Quotes

“The world’s cities are a big driver of planet-warming emissions, but can play a major role in addressing climate change in the near future.”

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report found urban infrastructure and activities caused about two-thirds of today’s emissions”

“Other actions cities can take include improving energy efficiency in buildings, designing streets to avoid traffic congestion, planting “green roofs” and incorporating more parks and trees that help remove some carbon dioxide emissions and also help to keep cities cooler, the report says.”

Source #2

 

Shamasundari, Rebecca. “Climate Change Dilemma Driven by Urbanisation.” The ASEAN Post, 26 Aug. 2017, https://theaseanpost.com/article/climate-change-dilemma-driven-urbanisation.

Summary:

       The article, “Climate Change Dilemma Driven by Urbanisation”, focuses on the increased urban population of South-East Asia. People are constantly moving to cities for better opportunities for things such as employment, education, and/or economic reasons. However, poor sustainability for the ever-growing population can cause a lot of damage to the environment. It is said in the article that urban sprawling brings out deforestation, habitat destruction, and greenhouse emission. Living with fewer trees in an urban setting decreases oxygen supply as well as an increased carbon dioxide. Since people living in urban areas also consume more food and energy, this also leads to an increase in commercialization and industrialization, both using fossil fuel. Fossil fuel being the biggest cause of climate change.  

Rhetorical:

This article was written by Rebecca Shamasundari under “The ASEAN Post” website. This media organization creates content that are mainly about renewable energy, geopolitics, and economic topics of South-East Asia. It is an intergovernmental organization of ten countries from South-East Asia. The audience this article targets are the communities in the cities. For them to be educated and understand the care cities need to prevent climate change. Not also the community within the cities but the people in these cities that have the power to help and change ways to better the sustainability of these cities. These are the people that this article is targeting. The genre of this article is an academic genre. It shows charts, writing, and diagrams to help the reader understand the context better. As well as to show what their research has found. Research without diagrams and charts may be hard for readers to understand what the author is trying to show. Which is why the genre this article used, academic genre, is very important to get their message across. The tone the author used was very formal, to show that this is not just another article to read and forget about, instead it is an article to inform and give the people a notice of how urbanization has been one of the main causes of climate change.

Key Quotes:

 

“Human and nature must coexist. One without the other is meaningless. There’s no two ways about it.”

 

“According to Lee, the effects of climate change caused by urbanization can be addressed by ‘promoting the use of green technologies, improving efficiency in using fossil fuels, reducing traffic congestion and encouraging the use of public transport by improving road and public infrastructure.’”

Source #3

 

Cullis, James D. S., et al. “Urbanization, Climate Change and Its Impact on Water Quality and Economic Risks in a Water Scarce and Rapidly Urbanizing Catchment: Case Study of the Berg River Catchment.” H2Open Journal, IWA Publishing, 1 Jan. 2019, https://iwaponline.com/h2open/article/2/1/146/69067/Urbanisation-climate-change-and-its-impact-on.

“How Climate Change Is Going to Affect Cities, Urban Spaces: Kinder Institute for Urban Research.” Kinder Institute for Urban Research | Rice University, https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/how-climate-change-going-affect-cities-urban-spaces#:~:text=Cities%20are%20growing%20and%20as,energy%2C%20according%20to%20C40%20Cities. 

Summary:

      In the article “Case Study of  the Berg River Catchment” by James D. S. Cullis; Annabel Horn; Nico Rossouw; Lloyd Fisher-Jeffes; Marlé M. Kunneke; Willem Hoffman, their study predicts that 67% of the world population is expected to be living in urban areas. With the rapid growth of urbanization, this has been impacting the degradation of the environment due to the lack of basic services like water supply, sanitation, and formal housing. This also includes noise and air quality. The article mentioned the disadvantage of a developing country like Berg RiverCatchment in South Africa, as their water quality is at risk due to climate change. Although they have water treatments to treat their domestic wastewater, it does not work properly. Because of the rapid growth of urbanization, this has impacted their sanitation service provision, agriculture, and other practices. 

Rhetorical Analysis:

      The studies shown in the article shows how much urbanization can affect the environment. That it takes a lot of care and services to preserve such an environment and prevent the degradation of the environment. With this type of information, the genre the authors used is informative. To give awareness and to educate the readers on how important management is for growing cities. “Better understanding of the link between increasing water quality risks due to urban development and climate change and the associated economic impact that this has, is therefore, critical in terms of identifying the need for interventions, improved management and investments in ecological infrastructure”. Given this information, it tells me as a reader how it is important to invest in interventions and  improved management to prevent the degradation of the environment. This article was written in 2019 on January 1st. Although it was written not long ago, there are still developing countries till this day, therefore, this article was written to prevent any more mistakes a growing city can make and to inform them the importance of management in services, especially water quality that is harder to maintain because of climate change. 

 Key Quotes: 

“Better understanding of the link between increasing water quality risks due to urban development and climate change and the associated economic impact that this has, is therefore, critical in terms of identifying the need for interventions, improved management and investments in ecological infrastructure to ensure sustainable development and to mitigate against the increasing risks associated with rapid urbanization and climate change.”

“Both climate change and increasing urbanization, particularly informal development, are likely to negatively impact on water quality of rivers which, in turn, could have significant economic impacts for the communities dependent on these rivers both for direct use, but also indirectly in terms of the water-dependent economic activities such as agriculture.”

“Poor water quality in the Berg River, resulting from poor sanitation service provision, agricultural and other practices, could have a significant impact on the regional economy.”

Conclusion:

       In conclusion, these articles have shown a lot of similarities. From cities in America to cities in South East Asia, it is proven that urban settings need more effective sustainability. For a person living in one of the biggest cities, I found it very informative and educational. Simple things like taking public transportation can help a lot for our environment. Like what the author quoted from the article in source #3 “Human and nature must coexist. One without the other is meaningless. There’s no two ways about it”. It starts with the simple things. Past generations have taught us a lot of things that are more convenient and faster, but we don’t realize that these things have been inconvenient for our planet. We can start by using and promoting green technologies. It may sound complicated because of the use of the word technology but green technology is as simple as recycling and waste management. As well as generating vertical gardens, vertical gardens are walls that contain plants. Using vehicles that do not use fuel, like electric cars. First thing that comes to your mind is Tesla, too expensive! But the local buses that the city has provided are electric buses. Which means they do not use fuel. Starting a change to unlearn old ways and learning new ways for our environment shouldn’t be as complicated as people should think it is. For the people that have more power than regular individuals, using their platforms to corporate more parks and green roofs for buildings.

      As an architecture major, I hope that in the future, I can use my platform to create buildings, parks, and houses that are sustainable for our environment. This research inspired me to be a future architect that cares not only for the customers and the aesthetic of a building, but how this building reacts with the environment. It can be as simple as using eco-friendly materials, a design that connects with nature, and creating a design that uses renewable energy. For someone that has more years to live on this planet than older generations that have created this issue and have been ignoring it, it is only right for me to be educated in this topic by these articles. These articles helped me understand the current situation of cities and how it contributes to climate change. Most importantly, it taught me that learning new ways to help fight climate change isn’t as complicated as we always thought it was.