PUP 301
5th February 2013
Putting Greenways in My life
The article “Putting Greenways First” talks about how cities in America are trying to “Go Green” by investing in more parks, the planting of trees, and creating overall green neighborhoods and streets. These will encourage citizens to spend more time exercising outside rather than being cooped up inside in front of their television. In the 21st century, a lot of land is cut down and built on to serve as neighborhoods, shopping malls, government buildings and grocery stores as urbanization occurs due to high pressure of immigrants and population increase every year. These cities, such as Mumbai, often have little trees due to large population and no land to support the …show more content…
The term “Greenway” comes to mind, as it is one of the first steps to making a city more environmentally friendly. Greenways are pedestrian streets like sidewalks, but instead of it being only concrete there is a high emphasis on vegetation. This creates both a visually attractive and comfortable setting for people to enjoy taking walks in contrast to taking the car. As the article suggests, low-density suburban sprawl may directly influence obesity rates in cities. Encouraging citizens to walk to school or use their bike by creating an attractive and pleasant environment may be one of the many solutions to lower obesity rates. As we see more development in our life, we can argue that the environment becomes more contaminated. There are around 20 billion tons of CO2 and other poisonous gases, like methane gas, that are absorbed by the atmosphere every year. This poisonous environment kills around 14 thousand people all over the world, for example if exposed to methane gas, it causes dizziness, headache and nausea. This confirms that to achieve a healthy lifestyle at which people are not only wealthy but also healthy and safe, we need to find ways to protect our environment. Building a green city is thus a very sustainable