13
No.
First, if you throw things in the river, especially waste, you'll likely be cited for dumping and/or littering.
Second, there are definite environmental concerns to doing so. Dog waste is quite unhealthy; there are definitely bad bacteria and potentially bad parasites in there. Dogs don't poop in rivers naturally; do not put it in there. Also, ...
12
Quick summary:
The city and the country both have positives and negatives in pollution production... the data here suggests perhaps the urban core produces slightly less pollution (depending upon how you score follow-on effects)...
But both areas fall far far short of the exurbs, where people combine the negatives of both the city and the country for ...
10
The opther answers are all basically ok, but I want to add some details.
The first issue is nutrients: By adding your leftovers to the river, you practically add fertilizer that can lead to algae blooms and, ultimately, eutrophication. Of course, fish also poop in the river, but they also eat from the river, so they don't add much nutrients. Soil ecosystems ...
7
Pollution
Trees (and plants for that matter) can reduce air pollution by trapping small particles (fine dust) on their leaves and by absorbing gases such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulfur dioxide.
However, depending on the location and type of tree it is also possible that trees prevent pollution like exhaust fumes from cars from flowing away quickly. ...
5
Both LED and flourescents can produce 'ideal' lighting conditions for plants. LED Lights are the most efficient measured in lumens per watt, and also in terms of material waste, since they last longer and are smaller. Their biggest current disadvantage is that they are significantly more expensive upfront. Depending on the model and how you figure the ...
5
Since you don't indicate in which country you're thinking of implementing this plan, I'm going to write from my perspective in the US, considering chain hotels (Marriot, Holiday Inn, Hilton,, etc) that make up the majority of hotels here.
I can think of several ways in which a building constructed as a hotel would have greater environmental costs than a ...
4
I've seen the technique that you describe used in hot desert climates, were it was used in rooms that were cooled by refrigerated air conditioning. Such air conditioning can dehumidify the air.
Having a container with a larger surface area; a flat pan rather than a tall narrow glass will increase the potential for evaporation of the water.
The ...
4
You have to persuade people to do it and ensure the infrastructure is there.
For the first, start an organisation of volunteers. Put up posters, organise lectures in schools, factories, social centres, do radio interviews... it takes time. Don't lose heart.
For the second lobby your local and national politicians, make sure everybody has access to ...
4
There is something called Reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance (RISUG, see Wikipedia page for more details) which is alternative to a condom which is 100% eco friendly.
In short, it a one time operation that "sterilize" the sperm, making it uncapable of reaching the egg or impregnating it.
Sadly, it's available only in India at this point, ...
3
This is simply a fancily designed chain of cities based on the about 40 years old idea of the "compact city". The idea is to reduce urban sprawl, reduce traffic and improve living conditions.
Each link of the chain in itself will be not self-sufficient, but provide all necessary (daily) needs to its inhabitants, including doctors and if not a ...
3
You ask a very open ended question. You could refine it somewhat by stating what you see as the pollutants and their problems.
Decide on what your priorities are, and how you will make tradeoffs between them.
Is global warming more important that local health? Is local health more important that a clean river?
One way is to decide on the externalized ...
3
(This is not really an answer, more a mixed bag of additional background information, but it got a bit too much for a comment.)
Previously, in Tokyo, we used to split waste into burnable and non-burnable, with the latter going into landfill; that was stopped a few years ago because it was "too expensive". So now it all gets burnt. (I.e. both categories got ...
3
Others have touched on this too, but if it's purely about economic or environmental concerns, then saving energy is better than creating new energy just to turn around and waste it.
If you spend money (energy) on heating and/or cooling, double glazing your windows and add insulation to external walls floors and ceilings if you can. In an apartment it may be ...
3
It depends on your motivation for producing your own energy. If you simply like the engineering challenge then it doesn't look like you have many choices.
If however it's because you want "to do your bit" and transition to using renewable energy as much as possible then I'd suggest a shift in mindset away from owning the means of producing energy.
Half a ...
3
In addition to what the other answers said I want to add some details about historical problems of organic waste and rivers, as well as issues here in Indonesia today.
You have basically a number of problems that come with throwing waste into the river. These include downstream:
Downstream effects on water quality
current and downstream effects on water ...
2
Besides those mentioned in Fred's answer, there are more choices available that you could consider trying.
You can find non-electric humidifiers in most major online shops as Amazon. These are spheres that absorb water and restore moisture to the room bit by bit. I haven't tried them myself but the reviews are positive in general (although some of them ...
2
Some interesting work on this problem is being done by researching university campuses as "microcosms" of society. I recently came across a paper that used my school, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as one of eight example campuses in the U.S. for a study of best practices for promoting modal change in transportation, from SOV (single occupancy vehicle) ...
2
I have tried vermi-composting in an apartment, and despite the theoretical lack of fruit flies, I was never able to eliminate this problem in reality. Since you have a balcony, fruit flies may not be an issue for you. Instead, you will need to deal with the minimal level of maintenance for the worms, which need to be checked on occasionally, given bedding ...
2
A "city" implies people. Lots of people. Those people need to eat. Food generally is purchased at (super)markets and grocery stores. It usually is delivered by trucks. No roads means no trucks means no markets means no food means no people means no city. I see a teeny, tiny problem with the plan, don't you?
Of course, one can transport and ...
2
There's another completely natural and sustainable and reusable alternative, although NOT vegan. Its the lambskin condom, made from lamb's intestines.
1
There is an indirect subsidy that most people ignore.
In contrast to where I live (Finland), where gas taxes are high, higher than the cost to construct roads, in USA gas taxes are almost nothing. The total amount of gas taxes collected in USA is not enough to fund the total amount of roads that are constructed and maintained in USA.
Thus, some part of road ...
1
Much depends on the local hierarchy of settlement. Canada tends to have smaller numbers of larger cities. There are relatively few cities in the 50-100K class.
At present I live on a farm. (I grow landscape trees)
* It's 6 miles to the nearest village. This is where I pickup parcels, and sometimes milk. It's also where I can take my lawnmower to be ...
1
My contribution to pollution comes from three main areas:
my travel, both the daily commute as well as shopping, visiting, and recreation
how I heat my house
stuff I buy and throw out
If you truly want to hold everything else constant, the country-dweller will have far more travel (since everything is further apart.) It is my experience, however, that ...
1
I did find some hydroponics and lighting supply shops that told me there are spectrums that help different kinds of vegitation grow.
An LED example here:
http://www.advancedledlights.com/products/NEW-%252d-All-Blue-Extreme-Veg-LED-%252d-USA-Made-LEDs.html
A cheap Home Depot solution from windowFarms.org:
Compact Fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs in Daylight ...
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