Essay Example on Los Angeles' Sustainable City Plan: Connecting the Dots for Lasting Change

Introduction

The Environmental Plan for Los Angeles is under the umbrella plan called the Sustainable City pLAn, which is a plan towards having an economically prosperous, environmentally healthy, and an equitable opportunity for all. The idea is set for the present, and the next twenty years (Sustainable City pLAn of Los Angeles, 2019). The plan is centered on both long-term and short-term results for the change of the city. The plan tries to connect the dots in Los Angeles three-leg, which is focused on the environment, equity, and economy. The author believes that this is the opportunity for them to change their city and transform it completely to attain the above objectives. This paper plans to focus on the environmental aspect of the idea and how it can transform Los Angeles, suggest additional procedures and shade more light on five major actions that will influence and help achieve the objectives of the plan (Chapple, 2014).

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Protection of the environment of Los Angeles will ensure that they concerned authority to harness the naturally occurring resources efficiently and effectively while at the same time having a provision for the clean, healthy, and safe city for the current as well as the coming generations of the Los Angeles people.

Local Water

Los Angeles is facing a persistent drought, which has been labeled the new normal with California being on its fourth year of undecorated drought. The city has been battling with the drought in all the possible ways, but all the actions point to a lack of adequate preparation on their part. They have been hit with the drought, which continues to rummage through the great parts of the city (Porse, et al., 2017). To stand and get prepared, the state needs to account for the loss and the damages brought by the drought. They need to evaluate the effects of the drought in-depth to appreciate its magnitude. The report will furnish the necessarily concerned bodies with insights to the questions asked on the levels of drought on the states and how well formulate the remedies.

The state is advised to capture and clean water from storms, a move that will ensure the dependence of the state on imported water is significantly reduced. Cutting down on the dependency after the subsequent harvesting of rainwater is important as it prepares swift bouncing to shape should disasters strike. The move to conserve storm also keeps the rivers, and the beaches in the state clean, in a state that can be used and finally one where wildlife can thrive. Apart from the environmental plan, the city should come up with ways to conserve water locally and minimize its usage. These measures include ensuring their leaks are fixed immediately they are reported as these may lead to loss of so much water. Ensuring that all the buildings have water saving shower heads or flow regulators will minimize the amount of water used in households too. The above provisions will ensure the state has a strong foundation for the economy in the future. The state is a leading state in the campaign for harvesting and conserving water.

Local Solar Power

The production of electricity from fossil fuels is a source of pollution that comes in a composition smog and the emissions of harmful greenhouse gas. The city has since decided to use the abundant sunshine the city present for its energy sources. The state also owns a municipality utility center and thus a greater impetus to the generation of solar energy (Villaraigosa, et al., 2013). The generation is sound as it is a source of clean power, improves the grid dependency, and reduces pollution that comes from generating electricity from fossil fuels. Apart from the clean energy created by the solar power generation, it is also a source of green jobs for the people of Los Angeles. The power is an excellent motivation for innovation, and ensures the city is moving should disaster strike. The state of Los Angeles has become the most significant producer of solar energy and is on the trend to become the leader even nationwide.In addition to the solar energy, the city could also come up with wind energy plants where energy will be generated from wind. Many major cities who have the capacity are doing so to supplement for their surplus need for clean energy. The move to establish wind fields will however be difficult as it requires a lot of land and open space without barriers and Los Angeles is densely populated area.

Energy Efficient Buildings

All over the world, buildings are the major consumer of electric power and, consequently, major emitters of greenhouse gases. The city has a plan to reduce the consumption and the emission through encouraging the building of more energy-efficient buildings (Pincetl, et al., 2014). They plan to do so by smart, cost-effective retrofits that will benefit buildings for many years to come. The city should encourage the building of structures that maximize natural light through having provisions for glass roofs and natural heating. That will reduce the need to light the buildings and heating them as well. The buildings will are also a compliment to nature because of their architecture.The buildings will not only reduce consumption and emission but also provide employment and lower bills accrued from energy consumption. The city's contribution to global warming will reduce tremendously, and there will be healthier and more comfortable buildings. The state aims to reduce the consumption of electricity per square foot in the buildings all across the city.

Carbon and Climate Leadership

Experts consider climate change as one of the enormous challenges facing humanity now, and the effects continue to grow at unprecedented levels. The effects are projected to grow should there be no effective and tangible combative measures. The effects include affecting the health and welfare of the people of Los Angeles (Bulkeley, et al., 2012). The city in its ambitious and aggressive mode to tackle climate change, the city wants to establish a national leader status in the reduction of carbon emission and in the cumulative efforts to fight climate change. The state has a plan to catalyze the clean energy industry and creation of new green employment opportunities. Los Angeles is currently reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases through the stopping of the use of coal in the energy production sector while making energy efficiency a priority and encouraging other cities to follow in the same footsteps.

The city should also encourage lesser use of personal cars and tell people to embrace public transport, as vehicles are greater emitters of greenhouse gases. Planting of more trees would also help lower the concentration of carbon and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Above all, the state should conduct mass awareness and education to inform people on the need to reduce emission of greenhouse gases.

Water and Landfills

We must acknowledge that every business enterprise and household produces waste in one way or the other, which has led to the filling up of the landfills in the city. Management of waste in a smarter way calls for recycling and the reuse of materials such as those used for packaging, the remainder of food materials and the overused electronics which do not have a function anymore, a move that could transform the problem of waste into opportunities (Park, et al., 2010). The embrace of recovery of resources will lead to opportunities for the city to use new technologies and procedures and propel the state towards a cradle-to-cradle future. Most waste from the state will be recycled and reused in the city, avoiding its exportation to somewhere else. The recovery will also reduce the pressure on the diminishing resources available and speed up the process of green employment opportunities.

The city of Los Angeles is, however, facing complacency crisis is addressing their issues with environmental concerns. They have to implement and put into practice what they have planned to deal with the issue that is affecting the whole world. The plans are realistic, and they should ensure that they are timely, too, for the promotion of a sustainable environment for all before the damage becomes irreversible. The above measures and plans are what the state of Los Angeles needs to deal with the threat of environmental degradation. Failure to do so could lead to irreversible damages and make life even harder than it is now. They should implement the plans to conserve local water, use local solar energy, energy-efficient buildings, their carbon emissions, and finally recycle and reuse their waste.

References

Bulkeley, H., Broto, V. C., & Edwards, G. (2012). Bringing climate change to the city: towards low carbon urbanism?. Local Environment, 17(5), 545-551.

Chapple, K. (2014). Planning sustainable cities and regions: Towards more equitable development. Routledge.

Park, S., Brown, K. W., Thomas, J. C., Lee, I. C., & Sung, K. (2010). Comparison study of methane emissions from landfills with different landfill covers. Environmental Earth Sciences, 60(5), 933-941.

Pincetl, S., Chester, M., Circella, G., Fraser, A., Mini, C., Murphy, S., & Sivaraman, D. (2014). Enabling future sustainability transitions: An urban metabolism approach to Los Angeles. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 18(6), 871-882.

Porse, E., Mika, K. B., Litvak, E., Manago, K. F., Naik, K., Glickfeld, M., & Pincetl, S. (2017). Systems analysis and optimization of local water supplies in Los Angeles. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 143(9), 04017049.

The Sustainable City pLAn of Los Angeles Mar 14, 2019 Discover Los Angeles.

Villaraigosa, M. A. R., Sivaram, V., & Nichols, R. (2013). Powering Los Angeles with renewable energy. Nature Climate Change, 3(9), 771.