The illustrious, sandal-wearing scientists at Berkeley have published a new study which identifies the carbon footprints of municipalities all across the United States. The scientists have assembled all sorts of economic research to triangulate the average household demand for energy, transportation, food, goods and services. The map is really cool and intricately color-coded.
Not like this is breaking news or anything, but the study finds that core cities (at least in more metropolitan areas) produce way less emissions (fewer emissions?) on average. Population density is by and large a good thing, the study concludes, up until the threshold at which people emigrate en masse to far-flung suburbs like Gates Mills, where high density has an adverse effect.
And Gates Mills is not just some arbitrary suburb I picked out of a hat, folks. It’s far and away the worst carbon emissions offender in Northeast Ohio. Here are the other culprits, courtesy of Green City Blue Lake.
Hudson is a distant second, followed by deep suburban communities like Hinckley, Chagrin Falls and Novelty. It’s not like homes in these communities are necessarily a lot larger or less eco-friendly than those in the inner-ring burbs or Cleveland neighborhoods (though they generally are). Most of the Gates Mills carbon footprint problems stem from driving, sometimes upwards of 70 miles every day just for a commute and a trip to the grocery store. This obviously isn’t the only problem related to carbon emissions, but it has the folks at Green City Blue Lake wondering about regional planning outlooks and the relationship between core cities and their suburbs.
On the flip side, downtown, University Circle, Central and Kinsman, and the near west side were Cleveland’s lowest-emission zip codes. (Downtown Akron and downtown Canton also did really well).
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2014.
Gates Mills is rockin’! I wonder what LakeErieSeaGulls thinks.
Global Warming and Global Climate change….is bullshit.
whatever politicians get worked up about the most is usually what you should be most suspicious about. and the green movement is high on the list. not true environmentalism though, the green that goes into pockets and offshore accounts.
….at least the carbon footprint around Hopkins Airport will be sliced to one size two shoe, due to the slashing of service by United Airlines.
True that.
The Greater Cleveland community can just roll up and die, and we’d have a carbon footprint of zero.
Would that make Berkely happy?
Give me a break.
California is the biggest offender of everything