Which Is Greenest, City Living or Country Living

We often equate living in an environmentally responsible way with country living. The imagery is appealing: sun-drenched fields, tender green leaves on young fruit trees, laundry on the line, harvesting fresh chicken eggs. However, the question deserves to be examined: which is really greener, urban living, or rural living? Environmental Arguments for Rural Living Children with opportunities for ample outdoors experiences have frequent, genuine interactions with the natural world. There is some evidence that these experiences have health benefits like reduced anxiety and lower risks of myopia and obesity.Living closer to nature provides more hands-on experience and direct understanding of environmental issues. Witnessing sediment pollution, acid mine drainage, or algae blooms make it more likely that someone will seek to educate themselves about the problem, and perhaps organize their community to find solutions or otherwise take some steps to mitigate the issue.  By living closer to agriculture, one can get to know farmers, learn about the sustainability levels of the various practices they follow, and choose quality local food with a low environmental footprint. When the space is available, rural residents can grow healthy crops themselves or harvest wild foods, reducing their reliance on meats, fruit, and vegetables grown with questionabl e practices and transported over long distances. In addition, backyard food growers can control food waste better; supermarket food goes through distribution and marketing practices that create large amounts of waste.Rural living provides unique opportunities to minimize energy needs, reduce one’s carbon footprint, and lower contributions to global climate change. Less constrained by apartment or condo living, in the absence of restrictive homeowner association rules, and with more space available, rural residents have more freedom to design their own passive solar house, put up solar panels, or even install a micro-hydro turbine. Environmental Arguments for Urban Living Cities are characterized by dense housing, with many more people living in a comparatively small area. This concentrates human land use, easing pressure on natural areas outside the city. Without the high demand for suburban or rural living, there would be much less pressure on agriculture lands and wild lands, less habitat fragmentation, and less roadkill-causing car traffic.This dense urban fabric means small dwellings, requiring far less energy to heat and cool and leaving less room for energy-hungry appliances than the bigger homes typical of the countryside.A walking lifestyle is more accessible in the city, where the workplace may be located within walking or biking distance. In rural areas people are much more reliant on car transportation, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. For those not walking to work or to conduct errands, public transportation options are usually much more accessible to urban residents.Access to quality local food. Surprisingly, it is often easier to find farmers markets in the city, where shoppers can make choices that favor local foods grown following sustainable practices. However, some of the worst food deserts in the country are in economically depressed urban areas, where the only accessible sources of food are convenient stores and fast-food restaurants offering few healthy and environmentally conscious options.While it is admittedly more of a health issue, in the United States water quality is generally better in cities, counter-intuitively. There, everyone is connected to a municipal water source that has been treated and is routinely tested. In rural areas, most people rely on well water, which vary greatly in quality and is rarely tested. Furthermore, the proximity to intensive agricultural operations can increase the chances of groundwater being contaminated by pesticides.Sewage treatment is centralized, monitored, and generally effective in cities. Rural residents rely on a patchwork of septic systems of various ages and level of maintenance. The Verdict In my opinion urban living likely results in, on average, lifestyles with a lighter environmental impact. At the same time, rural life may allow more flexibility for individuals to make personal choices aimed at minimizing ones ecological footprint. How about suburban living? That is a great question which deserves to be explored more in depth soon.

The Problem With Social Security Trust Fund - 865 Words

The problem with Social Security trust fund is that at the present time there is more credit in the trust fund than is required for payment of Social Security benefits. â€Å"By 2027 revenue coming into the trust fund will fall below the level of being paid out, and by 2040 the trust fund will be depleted (Quadagno, 2014).†Meaning there will be not enough money from payroll taxes to pay all the benefits that are promised to citizens. This puts everyone who is going to enter retirement in jeopardy. Even though everyone has a right to deserve benefits in retirement I feel more people should take control over their own funds. Some of the reasons that this could have happened is because of the aging of the baby boomers. Another reason is because the population growth slowed since 1960 when women decided to have fewer children. The last reason this could have happened is because people are living longer than the old days. The baby boomer generations are beginning retirement, this c reates a dramatic amount of people who are needed to use the trust fund. â€Å"In 1960 there were five workers for every single retiree. By 2025 that ratio will fall to 2.2 (Quadagno, 2014).† The problem with this is the policy makers do not know how to solve the problem. The two ways that policy makers are trying is to either see if the solution will preserve the basic framework of Social Security as a program or insurance or whether the American welfare state will shift the balance toward more socialShow MoreRelatedThe Social Security System Is The Most Successful Government Social Insurance Program1346 Words   |  6 PagesThe Social Security system is perhaps the most successful government social insurance program in the nation s history; and began with the Social Security Act in 1935. Social Security is a needed federal system that encourages income stability to millions of people across the United States. 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Long ago in Olympus Free Essays

Long ago in Olympus, a new god was to be created, a god wielding thunder and rules over Olympas named Zeus, and a goddess of penalty and wrath named Nemesis or Adrestia , from meeting on a beautiful day, to Hera having a new deity to vanquish. She sent out a bird to search the skies for someone to take over and get rid of Nemesis once and for all, not even sparing the child she had to give birth to. Eventually, Zeus of course had found out about this elegant bird, and had sent out Hermes to warn the deity of Hera’s bird and her wrath, after hours of searching for Nemesis he found the deity, â€Å"Oh great Nemesis of wrath and penalty,† He began, â€Å"My queen has found your interests in the mighty Zeus, and seeks vengeance, she has sent out a beautiful bird of green, a Resplendent quetzal she called it to be exact,† he went on, â€Å"The mighty Zeus wishes for you to hide, for if the bird finds you and and a host, you will be killed. We will write a custom essay sample on Long ago in Olympus or any similar topic only for you Order Now † Distraught, Nemesis spoke with her calm but serious voice, â€Å"My dear Hermes, I am giving birth to a child of his, please bring back this news to Zeus, I shall be off to a place to hide by tomorrow morn,† and with that, Nemesis flew away with her wings, to find a place good for her, and her newborn. Days, weeks, now months have past of the bird being missing and Hera running out of patients, Zeus had looked out for the bird, but when the day came, he knew that Hera was too late, the bird had come back, but to no prevail has he found the right god, and the deity, in rage, Hera had struck the bird,destroying the elegant bird. Nemesis soon came out of hiding, but with a child, whose hair was short to her shoulders but shimmering like beautiful gold, lips dark and beautiful as cherry wood, her skin a fair brown texture like the trees of spring, but with no iris, she was not blind, but her eye color was not seen, at least not by any one yet, this did not come to the little girl as a shock, she always new she was different, and liked it that way. Nemesis picked up the little girl and spoke with a calm voice, â€Å"My darling Pluvo, I have noticed your growth, and wish that you leave, for I can no longer care for you, my job is to bring misfortune, and I have been gone long enough, know that I will always think of you when it rains, for I know that is your purpose, go little one, be on your way,† and with one more hug, she gave her a staff of crystal and water, and a head piece of gold with two little wings at the sides, and away she went. Pluvo was new to the world, she had learned to hunt, fight, and more, but her purpose was unclear, in Olympus there was a river, a beautiful deep crystal blue it had, she would practice with water, she was never sad down there, she was happy and that was all she needed. Soon Pluvo had went up to Olympus to find her mother, to ask why she had to hide, but too soon did Zeus find her, the problem was he had never seen his new child, this could have been a mistake if he did not ask this simple question. How to cite Long ago in Olympus, Papers