The Resilience Action Plan Team got a grant from the Kresge Foundation's Climate Resilience and Urban Opportunity Initiative and they have the support of the city of Newark to enable their work and possibly shape their way of thinking about disaster and health.
Officials are looking to change something like the trucks within the port industry in Newark to counteract air pollution while keeping in mind the jobs of many who can be affected by the changes. The port of New York and New Jersey supplies 270,000 jobs and $36 billion in economic activity for shipping. If the possible changes were implemented, they must make sure that this industry is not impacted negatively because that can hurt the communities connected to the industry.
The article talks about improving pollution in industrial neighbourhood but they forget to realize that there is water contamination in Newark and also the fact that what can be done to improve pollution rather than just stating to improve pollution but they forget about the pollution thats already been emitted, what can be done regarding that.
In the future, I do believe that industrial development and sustainable development are compatible because there is a possibililty of a new source of green energy that is not fossil fuel that can aid both developments. However, currently I do not believe that it is possible to have industrial and sustainable development together with the current resources that we have. Fossil fuels are too harmful for the environment while implementation of green energy in industry is too costly and will not yield the same amount of productivity. Once there is a source that is as powerful and easy to implement, such as fossil fuel, becomes apparent, or companies/officials find an efficient way to implement green energy into industry, then industrial and sustainable development will become compatible.
In this article, it is comparing how polluted Newark is compared to the country mentioning facts such as Newark residents face the nation's second greatest risk due to diesel emissions, the city being the nation's largest trash incinerator in the Northeast, and 25% of the school children in Newark face asthma which is double compared to the nation's average rate.
Air pollution in Newark that is caused by port traffic, waste facilities, industrial plants, and trucks. Some of the air pollution in New Jersey is also caused by air pollution drifting in from Pennsylvania.
According to the article, Hurricane Sandy has caused severe damage in Newark and with the public health and safety in mind, the organization wants to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in Newark and help reduce climate change and make Newark more resilient.
One of the possible solutions to air pollution is the truck replacement program where old trucks are being replaced with newer trucks to "curb diesel emissions, and that low-sulfur fuels were making ships’ engines run cleaner." However, this is difficult to implement because it can affect the jobs of many truckers and trucking companies by limiting how many pickups they can make.
Since Newark is a major port for all transportation methods, it indirectly produces a lot of air pollution because of most of these vehicles in result people living in areas close to the ports suffer more from air pollution in terms of health.
I personally do not think that filing complaints will help reduce air pollution because officials are already aware of the problem. Doing so, will do nothing in aiding the problem. Unless people are able to make officials aware of unknown issues, filing complaints will not help