Identifying Needed Antibodies in an Urban Environment

an·ti·bod·y

ˈantiˌbädē/

noun

plural noun: antibodies

1. a blood protein produced in response to and counteracting a specific antigen. Antibodies combine chemically with substances that the body recognizes as alien, such as bacteria, viruses, and foreign substances in the blood. 

Let's parlay our knowledge of what an antibody is into a new context; how can we identify the "alien" component in our urban environment to improve them?

When you wake up in the morning, what are your first thoughts?
For many of us, we are flooded with a desire to continue sleeping and to stay comfortable in bed, however, often our responsibilities drag us out of bed.

Our bodies have adapted around the Earth's natural circadian rhythms, our wakefulness is directly related to how much light is in our immediate environment. Several researchers have found that natural light in our homes helps us fall asleep and wake up at the same time the sun rises and falls. Other studies have found that natural light in a hospital can help the patient's mental attitude, as well as quicken the healing process, in some instances.

I've always been an early riser,  and actually enjoy waking up at 7:00 or 7:30am. That is, until I moved into my most recent apartment. My bedroom now doesn't have a window that allows natural light to come through, it opens to a hallway. My normal sleep schedule has fluctuated dramatically, I can sleep much longer, and wake up with little intuitive sense regarding the time. I can personally testify that not having natural light flooding into my room in the mornings makes me feel slightly off.

When we explore our urban environments, and observe people interacting within them, there is something about natural lighting that people always gravitate towards; perhaps this may be for a reason? Design that incorporates natural lighting may be a small, often overlooked feature that can positively influence peoples' lives in urban environments.

In this case, florescent lighting may be the alien that needs to be remedied into something else...

Visit for an more information about natural light benefits in the workplace:
( http://www.medicaldaily.com/natural-light-exposure-improves-employee-health-workers-tend-exercise-and-sleep-better-297666 )

As we look to identify more potential health hazards in our urban environment, lets start at the breakfast table. 

What do you eat for breakfast?

In most first world countries we have an abundance of different types of foods, even if these are fresh foods its common that they are packaged or cloaked in plastic. Many of these plastics contain BPA or DEHP, amongst others, which are found to be harmful to human health for having endocrine disrupting properties.

These nicely wrapped foods are also an obvious offender when it comes to the natural environment. A way in which we could mitigate our environmental impact, and improve our health while sitting at our breakfast tables would be to try to limit the plastic packaging that comes along with each trip to the grocery store. We can also try to only purchase items that come in a type plastic that our local recycling stations can rekindle into something new, and of use again.

Alien #2: Plastic, plastic, and more plastic.



For more information visit:
 ( https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/ )

Isn't it amazing to think about the distance our vegetables and fruits must travel to get to our plates? When we try to purchase local foods, and especially those that are in season, we eliminate the fossil fuels usually burned to transport them.

Here in Salt Lake City, we have a nasty, gnarly inversion season. We've got the perfect combination of factors working against our cause, the first being the natural geographic basin that we reside in traps pollution in the valley when temperatures drop. Because of this, we are ranked as the city with the 6th worse air quality in the States.



When we think about how our actions impact our own health, as well as the health of others, perhaps we will gradually adopt more sustainable consumption habits...  And having a diet that doesn't require polluting your air, or your neighbors for that matter, may become more attractive to you.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

What can you identify in your environment that could be better for your health and the environment? 

Journal: 4 Samsø Case Study/Transition Strategies

WE CAN MAKE TOMORROW A BRIGHTER DAY

ENVISION & ENACT

Some of us self proclaimed environmentalists are often made fun of for being too nonsensical when it comes to envisioning a future of energy independence and a sustainable world. We are cooky because we see a world in which people don't need to fill their cars with gasoline, where people are able to sustain their lifestyles without sacrificing their health, as well as the health of their environment. 

In this epoch of mass consumption of fossil fuels, believing that there will be a time in the future when our habits change seems all too unrealistic.

Samsø, Denmark

Mini-Samsø Documentary

Lets take a closer look at this island municipality. . .

This quaint, pastoral island nestled off of Denmark's peninsula is revered as the "The World's First 100% Renewable Energy Powered Island."  Resident engagement and the desire for clean energy made it possible for the 4,000 inhabitants of Samsø to meet their goal giving up fossil fuels completely.

Beginning with specific individuals putting forth the idea of clean energy alternatives at public city council meetings, people began to see the potential of investing in these types of solutions. They felt inspired to break free from the shackles of fossil fuel dependence. 

Many people were skeptical and hesitant to want to invest their time and effort towards working together on these project. As it had never be done before, there was cynicism and doubt in several residents. However, the community's perseverance and collective effort has now experienced great rewards and paybacks, it has even made the island famous. 

Aside from the obvious reward of renewable energy and a longstanding positive economic return, the projects that the people of Samsø undertook together created a greater sense of community. Some of the projects catered to wind energy, with the implementation of windmills. Fiscal responsibility of such turbines were delegated between willing individuals and allocated tax funds. This resulted in both shared and individual turbines. After the success of the first turbines on land, they decided to catch more energy off shore, an unprecedented feat! 

Other projects were the utilization of rapeseed oil, which was made from a local plant that people grow on the island. This gave people the opportunity to use alternative vegetable oil to fire their engines. In a video of the community, the farmer that was discussing the alternative actually stuck his finger in the oil and licked it, proving to the viewer just how nontoxic the energy source is. Many other residents drive electric cars, which their own turbines power.

Samsø’s agriculture and its abandonment of fossil fuels has made it more than carbon neutral, it is now carbon negative; meaning that its energy and agriculture actually remove surplus carbon from the atmosphere.

 This island now holds workshops for other city leaders and inspired individuals to learn how to embrace renewable energy sources. 

How can U.S. cities switch to renewable energy?

Here in the States, we often don’t feel the need to look to other countries for inspiration. This attitude can foster arrogance and will be more harmful than anything else when it comes to combatting our fossil fuel dependence. By looking at communities like Samsø, we can find a template for practical solutions that we can implement in our societites. 

Here are a few ideas as to how cities in the U.S. can move away from pollutive energy sources….

One of the most important factors that aids in people’s desire to invest in a brighter future is seeing it as that, something positive and necessary. There are many people in the U.S. who rely of fossil fuel consumption not only to go about their daily routines, but their careers are dependent on the industry. By helping people see not only the criticality of reducing CO2 emissions, and the economic benefit and job opportunities of renewable energy sources, people will feel more inclined to reconsider being apart of the push for change. 

Spreading information as to why renewable energies are essential for our health and climate are necessary to create a foundation on which projects can be planned. This could be done through government mandates in school, or by public awareness notices.

The success of communities that make the switch to sustainable energy sources are those that collectively declare its importance. Once everyone wants to make the change, the matter of switching becomes less of a debate and more of a practical question; how are we going to accomplish this?

We need policy to enforce that a city or state derives a certain portion of its energy from a renewable source. For example, here in Salt Lake City, we could mandate a requirement stating that specifies a tax fund that would pay for wind turbines, which will serve as a longstanding "money saver" for residents. 

Setting goals for each city to achieve within a set time period gives the challenge of renewable more importance. There are many other issues that each State and municipality has to dissolve everyday, so sustainability more often than not takes the back burner. Placing it on the top of the list is necessary for people's health, and should be considered a pressing issue, despite the fact that the impact is often invisible to many.

Other strategies that can be taken to alleviate our fossil fuel consumption would be to offer citizens some sort of incentive to begin purchasing electric vehicles, this would look like a tax reduction (similar to, yet the inverse of a carbon tax).

These are just a couple small ideas that could have a huge positive impact on the planet if taken into consideration and backed by strong willed communities. . . Sustainability isn't impossible.

Journal 3: Case study: Curitiba

Curitiba, Brazil has been put on the map for its significant cultural heritage, but also for its sustainable infrastructure. It homes approximately two million people, but does so in a way that inspires urban planners all over the globe.

What makes Curitiba so unique?  

This city in the South of Brazil has adopted policies and practices that not only benefits its citizens fiscally, and socially, but also serves to protect and respect the local environment's well being. It is one of the greenest, happiest cities in the first world, due to its bold, and dynamic response to everyday problems.

Congestion was one of the issues that Curitiba addressed; they did so by actually removing one of the city's most popular commuter roads. This redevelopment of a road into a pedestrian street received a lot of flack from locals when it was first proposed. People couldn't understand how removing a road would help traffic, wouldn't it make it worse? As counterintuitive as it seemed, the result of removing cars from the road and transforming it into a pedestrian only street was one of the city's greatest feats at both ameliorating traffic, and making the street a more popular attraction. It boosted property value, their local economy, and reduced traffic in the area by making it more popular to walk!

Another feat of Curitiba's was removing lanes typically used for single occupant vehicles in the center of the five busiest, multi-lane arterial roads. These buses were custom designed for the city, and hold as many people as an average New York City subway. The bus system allows people to take faster, more direct routes to navigate the city, while saving them both time and money. Who wouldn't love that? Another benefit to this integrated transportation system is that it allows people from greater distances around the city's limits to access areas they may not be able to without a vehicle. Not only is traffic throughout the city reduced, but the implementation of buses was actually cost effective for the city.

Aside from transportation changes, Curitiba is also unique in its waste removal from the city. Rather than a standard solo garbage truck cruising through the neighborhood to collect trash, Curitiba has two. One is for organic waste, meaning primarily old food, and the other is for recyclable items. Citizens sort their recyclables and leave them on their curb to be picked up. The second step after doorstep removal involves a sorting facility. People are employed to further sort the "garbage," and are often people who are being helped to correct undesirable behavior, such as drug addiction, or are new immigrants to the country. These people make a fair wages, and make it possible for Curitiba to recycle more than any other city on the globe! 

Another creative change that Curitiba implemented was the transformation of a housing area that used to be flooded seasonally into a magnificent green park. The city paid the people who previously lived in the area to abandon their homes so that they could transform the space into one the city's most beloved areas. 

This strategy not only eliminated flooding, but raised property value in the area by allowing nearby skyscrapers to build higher. Some of the property taxes that these skyscrapers paid to the city were then spent on affordable housing projects. It was a win, win on all sides. 

The man responsible for putting these sustainable ideals into practice is Jamie Lerner, the mayor of Curitiba. Interviews of him and his team highlight how unprecedented the city's transformation was, and just how quickly they were able to make the needed changes they did.

Curitiba should be a role model for cities all over the planet. Prioritizing people over cars, human and environmental health can be nothing but beneficial for a society, and the world at large. 

Journal 2: Streets for people.

Safe, sustainable, healthy, full of life. 
These are words that people yearn for in built city environments. Throughout the past century, the designs of our spaces have catered greatly to the automobile. This revolutionary feat has transformed the essence of what cities used to be into what they are now.

You may be asking yourself, "whats the difference between then and now?"

According to the book entitled Cities for People, areas considered populated in the past used to house seven times more people than the same sized area in today's world! The reason being that we've neglected to value walking as a means of getting around, its as simple as that!

In the "olden days," people had critical destination points that they needed to get to everyday, or every week, in order to sustain themselves. Their only modality of transportation was either their feet, or utilizing a horse and carriage. Because of this, villages and cities were organized to allow shorter pedestrian trips, requiring a close proximity to needed destinations. These patterns of development sprung from need, and were designed purely on the basis of functionality.

Nowadays our contemporary city designs are created to sustain our modern lifestyles and all of its privileged creature comforts, in other words, our cities are designed for the automobile. Of course they are designed for people, but the automobile takes serious priority over people, especially in the United States.

A single occupant vehicle changes the overall tenure of a street. It increases the tempo at which people move about in the space, and decreases nearby human activity. When a road is dominated by cars, there are generally less activity on its sidewalks, creating a near "life-less" atmosphere.

But why is this bad? There are a couple of reasons; one being that our lifestyles have become increasingly more sedentary, resulting in heightened health risks that include depression, anxiety, and weakened cardiovascular health. Another concern regarding car domination in our towns and cities is the exhaust that comes with them. Burning petroleum or gas reduces respiratory health because the combustion creates an increase in particulate matter elements, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, among other gases.

Aside from sacrificing human health and the "life" in our city streets, the gases exhaled from our beloved cars trap heat within our atmosphere, contributing to what the science community call "human induced climate change", or more popularly, "global warming." The detriments of this phenomenon are not entirely predictable, but we can predict some of its consequences. Some of which include sea levels rising, wiping out costal communities and forcing the migration of people inland, and a drastic change in growing seasons worldwide. Other impacts include a change in usual weather patterns and their amounts of precipitation, as well as the acidity of the precipitation, an increased amount of heat waves, wildfires, and unknown impacts on many species' longevity, amidst many other predicted circumstances.

Daunting, eh? Good thing we have an idea of what we're in for, and how the design of our cities can  mitigate these effects! But thats another conversation, lets get back to what makes city areas inviting, irresistible and full of life, the sustainable conversation can happen another time...

The first thing we need to do? 

Dissent design that caters solely to cars. 

According to Cities for People, historically, urban planners were not as aware as we are now that physical environments impact behavior. Now, we know that there is no dispute to the fact that our environments create a stage for our lives, thus impacting health and human relations. Notably so, people tend to gather in places where there are other people milling about. With more "eyes on the street," there is greater safety in an area. What attracts people to utilize a space, and actively incorporate it into their lives? Usefulness, accessibility, overall attractiveness, and less cars! 

In observance of my own life, the most popular areas where I notice people congregate are those that offer a safe and inviting pedestrian pathway. These corridors typically consist of stores, and restaurants; places where people feel invited and come to enjoy the day. The most abandoned places in my city, Salt Lake City, are those that offer no dimension designed for human interaction. These include the bases of taller buildings that don't have windows on their ground level floor, and places that are out of peoples' daily travel ranges. In other words, this is a underutilized "edge," which is typically a great place to add design elements that create usable and enjoyable spaces for people, whether they are simply walking past the building, or sitting in the area.

Design elements such as windows, flower pots, and benches can help a space become more lively, but perhaps the most critical component may be density. Without people in an area, the space generally becomes less attractive to people.

The biggest take away from this blog post may just be to draw inspiration from the past. We've got to reduce the need for cars, and make our cities for people again. 

Now that we've gotten here, where do we go?

Humankind has surpassed unprecedented heights throughout the past few centuries; we have explored space, are able to clone organs, and can communicate with people on opposite ends of the world instantaneously, and more. Despite these amazing feats of man triumphing over the natural world that used to rule us, our rein over the Earth may be causing more harm to ourselves than anything else. 

This unparalleled time in history has even influenced much of the community of Geologists to coin a new term for the era we are currently living in: the Anthropocene. You may be asking yourself, "but, what does that mean exactly?" An era or epoch in geochronological history is defined by the characteristics of strata, or layers of rock. Each major time period is defined by the Earth's unique rock and soil compositions. For example, the dinosaurs existed during the Mesozoic era, and we know this because of evidence left in these specific levels of strata. What entering the Anthropocene era means is that when scientists dig through the Earth's surface in the future, there will be distinct evidence of human activity altering geologic, biospheric, and hydrologic systems. 

Isn't that exciting?! We're apart of a new geologic chapter in Earth's history, and we actually have the awareness, scientific backing, and understanding to comprehend the gist of this transformation. 

As a millennial who cares deeply about the environment, it is easy to become saddened and apathetic when considering the amass of ecological issues facing humanity today. We are changing the chemistry of the ocean, and causing a mass extinction event of animals on nearly every continent. Our ingenuity and "progress" may be what is ultimately tearing our world limb from limb, not to be too dramatic or anything. 

While it is easy to let these facts make you lose hope in a livable future, taking a step back and recognizing the many positive forces at work in our world is a powerful practice. All over the globe, communities and groups of people are working together to shift their current cultures of consumption. 

This blog is going to be designated towards dissecting "green communities," and interesting tidbits regarding human history, and how we got to where we are today. With this, I hope to be able to find inspiration and practical responses and solutions to implement in my future career. 

As a student studying Urban Planning/Urban Ecology, it is pivotal to understand human relationships in the context of both built and natural environments; while delving into the ever pressing issue of combining the two, or finding the ecotone. 

Now, lets begin....

How does knowing the historical context of a place give it a different perceived meaning?

When you were younger, did you ever wonder about the people who came before you, and how their remains still play a distinctive role in the places you visit today?

I used to imagine what it must have been like to be a farmer in the old, distraught barns adjacent to my neighborhood as a kid. The people were long gone, but their settlements remained for years and years, and always provoked a sense of mystery within the myself and my peers.

We often except the stories we are told about the past, but every so often we are introduced to a way of life, or an interesting fact that alters our perception of an area.

Having grown up in Utah, I remember learning that most of it had once been submerged under the ancient Lake Bonneville. This thwarted my perception of what I had previously known, and opened my mind to the great wonders of the natural world.

I also remember learning about the Mormon Pioneers, and the silver miners of the Park City area, which dramatically influenced my perspectives of these places. 

Even today, my perception of what I know about California's history changed when I learned that ancient camels, tall bears, elephants, cheetahs, sloths, and dire wolves used to exist in the area. I knew prehistoric animals roamed North America, but I hadn't known they did so in the region we call California, and that their existences influenced the regions' bio-landscape and physical terrain. I was also unaware that their extinction was partially anthropogenic, meaning human caused. 


Moving Forward & Looking Back:

When we peer into the past, we see that need and proximity are always the determining factor when we build our villages and cities.

The critical center points in our cities have always provided people with a service of some kind or another. These places create local commerce, inspire innovation and creativity, and ultimately help people live their lives. How we get to these spaces is the greatest factor in determining the success of an area.  Centrality to transportation stations of whatever kind offer people the chance to build successful businesses and lives.

The evolution of how people move across the land has evolved from utilizing walking to horse drawn carriages, to kinetic trolly cars, then electric trolleys, to trains, automobiles, and planes. Our progression is incredible, but what are the driving forces that influence what we choose to make use of.

As our built environments and patterns for development change with our modern transportation choices, we are faced with an unfortunate, resource depleting system of land use. The insufficiency of "sprawl" is not compatible with the most economically and environmentally sound methods of transportation; these being mass, public transit. Our "commuter sheds" or homes, per say, do not provide us with opportunities to live in sustainable