NYC “greenest” location in the U.S.?

Many people may be caught off guard by the claim that New York City could possibly be greener than Vermont. NYC is known for its large buildings, outrageous populations, and emitting many pollutants. Surprisingly, NYC could be considered a healthier, “greener” environment. We tend to disregard the fact that many people in NYC walk everywhere instead of emitting gas emissions through driving. In Vermont many people drive their cars as opposed to walking everywhere they need to go. This could help define why the city could be considered “greener” than the entire country. In NYC people take advantage of public transportation, and walking as a source of traveling from place to place. They are one of the only large cities in the country that use public transportation as much as they do. In the city everything is concentrated over the somewhat small radius of Manhattan. Where in many other towns and cities across America, everything is more spread out and unable to be reached through walking distance or not as much public transportation is available. The car has such a great impact on the way energy is consumed. Our country has become so dependent on cars, that there are now more cars on the road than ever. Cars require us to build more infrastructure that revolve around cars, including roads, and power sources. To reduce the use of cars we would have to concentrate more communities within closer range of everything. Basically, we would have to develop our communities to be more similar to big cities like New York.

Many  states pride themselves in being “green” and having  healthier community, when they are very wrong. Vermont claims to be the “greenest” state in the country, when they are far from greener than New York City, which is practically  the opposite of Vermont as a whole. The large population of New York is condensed into a smaller range, where the large population of Vermont is spread out throughout a much wider range.

It is almost impossible to develop every community to be more like NYC. The only way to reduce the problems are to reduce peoples consumption. The consumption is growing higher, and higher every year. This makes it virtually impossible to reach this goal. You can not cut back transportation, or stop someone from traveling in their car. We can try to generate the most possible “green” options to work towards a “green” nation. Although this may seem very easy, we are very far from reaching this goal.