Environment 5/12/17

We had to do a says-means-matters.

https://static.pexels.com/photos/166651/pexels-photo-166651.jpeg

You are working with a partner. For each of the actions included in the Urban Environmental accords, record what you understand about what it says (means). Then add why you think it it important (matters). The first one has been done for you.

Says	Means	Matters
Energy
Action 1: Adopt and implement a policy to increase the use of renewable energy to meet ten percent of the city's peak electric load within seven years.	In the next seven years, cities will increase the use of renewable energy to produce electricity.	By having more electricity coming from renewable resources there will be less pollution from fossil fuels and it will cost less.
Action 2: Adopt and implement a policy to reduce the city's peak electric load by ten percent within seven years through energy efficiency, shifting the timing of energy demands, and conservation measures.	In the next seven years, we will reduce energy use.	By reducing energy use, we are slowing down the process of pollution.
Action 3: Adopt a citywide greenhouse gas reduction plan that reduces the jurisdictions emissions by twenty-five percent by 2030, and which includes a system for accounting and auditing greenhouse gas emissions.	By 2030 we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.	By reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we will conserve our planet longer.
Waste Reduction
Action 4: Establish a policy to achieve zero waste to landfills and incinerators by 2040.	We are letting 0% of our trash go into incinerators and landfills by 2040.	Because there will be less pollution so the air will be clean.
Action 5: Adopt a citywide law that reduces the use of a disposable, toxic, or nonrenewable product category by at least fifty percent in seven years.	In seven years all toxic and non renewable material will be reduced by 50%.	If non renewable materials are still around, then there will be more pollution and less clean air.
Action 6: Implement "user-friendly" recycling and composting programs, with the goal of reducing by twenty percent per capita solid waste disposal to landfill and incineration in seven years.	In the next seven years, we will reduce disposable non renewable resources and start composting more.	Then if we do compost more than incinerating, that we can reuse things and we don’t have to ruin the air and resources such as trees that we already have.
Urban Design
Action 7: Adopt a policy that mandates a green building rating system standard that applies to all new municipal buildings.	Building stuff will pollute less if we enforce this law.	Pollution can kill babies and older people with weaker lungs, or make it harder to breathe for them. Also, animals will die too.
Action 8: Adopt urban planning principles and practices that advance higher density, mixed use, walkable, bikeable and disabled-accessible	Make things accessible for disabled people, bikes and pedestrians.	Bikers and pedestrians cannot get to places if they do not have a car. It can be hard to get where you want to be.
Action 9: Adopt a policy or implement a program that creates environmentally beneficial jobs in slums and/or low-income neighborhoods.	There will be more jobs in neighborhoods where there are no jobs.	Some people do not have jobs and then there will be more people with jobs.
Urban Nature
Action 10: Ensure that there is an accessible public park or recreational open space within half-a-kilometer of every city resident by 2015.	By 2015, there will be a park accessible to everyone in the community.	Everyone needs to be able to get to an open space or recreational area somewhere near them.
Action 11: Conduct an inventory of existing canopy coverage in your city; and, then establish a goal based on ecological and community considerations to plant and maintain canopy coverage in not less than fifty percent of all available sidewalk planting sites.	There must be a place with lots of trees and plants.	Trees and plants are much needed by the community and we need the air from the plants so we can breathe.
Action 12: Pass legislation that protects critical habitat corridors and other key habitat characteristics (e.g. water features, food-bearing plants, shelter for wildlife, use of native species, etc.) from unsustainable development.	Pass a law that will protect water, food, and shelter for humans and animals.	Animals need food, water, and shelter to live.
Transportation
Action 13: Develop and implement a policy which expands affordable public transportation coverage to within half-a-kilometer of all city residents in ten years.	In ten years, all affordable transportation will come within half a kilometer of all city residents.	People will not have to walk so far to a bus stop or train.
Action 14: Pass a law or implement a program that eliminates leaded gasoline (where it is still used); phases down sulfur levels in diesel and gasoline fuels, concurrent with using advanced emission controls on all buses, taxis, and public fleets to reduce particulate matter and smog-forming emissions from those fleets by fifty percent in seven years.	In seven years, 50% of all pollutants in gasoline will be reduced.	If pollutants are not reduced, people with weaker lungs, like babies and older people, will get lung disease or die.
Action 15: Implement a policy to reduce the percentage of commute trips by single occupancy vehicles by ten percent in seven years.	In seven years, the percentage of commute trips by single occupancy vehicles will be reduced by 10%.	Because there will be more pollutants that do not have to be in the air harming people.
Environmental Health
Action 16: Every year, identify one product, chemical, or compound that is used within the city that represents the greatest risk to human health and adopt a law and provide incentives to reduce or eliminate its use by the municipal government.	Choose a chemical or product that could be at risk for human health and terminate it.	If there was a harmful chemical that would hurt people, eliminate its use.
Action 17: Promote the public health and environmental benefits of supporting locally grown organic foods. Ensure that twenty percent of all city facilities (including schools) serve locally grown and organic food within seven years.	In seven years, people will support the use of locally grown organic foods at schools and places.	People need lots of healthy food to feed their children so they will be healthy in the future.
Action 18: Establish an Air Quality Index (AQI) to measure the level of air pollution and set the goal of reducing by ten percent in seven years the number of days categorized in the AQI range as "unhealthy" or "hazardous."	Measure the level of pollution in the air and reduce that number by 10% in the next seven years.	If there is too much pollution in the air, then people will  get sick and die from loss of clean air.
Water
Action 19: Develop policies to increase adequate access to safe drinking water, aiming at access for all by 2015. For cities with potable water consumption greater than 100 liters per capita per day, adopt and implement policies to reduce consumption by ten percent by 2015.	By 2015, safe drinking water will be in range of everyone.	If people have dirty or no water they will die.
Action 20: Protect the ecological integrity of the city's primary drinking water sources (i.e., aquifers, rivers, lakes, wetlands and associated ecosystems).	Protect all of the drinking water.	If water is dirty, animals and people will not be able to live well.
Action 21: Adopt municipal wastewater management guidelines and reduce the volume of untreated wastewater discharges by 10 percent in seven years through the expanded use of recycled water and the implementation of a sustainable urban watershed planning process that includes participants of all affected communities and is based on sound economic, social, and environmental principles.	In seven years, we will reduce the volume of untreated wastewater discharges by 10%	There will be more clean drinking water to drink.