Social commentary...

I've kept this blog centered for the most part on trees and other plants; they are my passion. It isn't that I have little to say about other things; I've just chosen to keep this relatively focused. However, there are times that I just need to reflect on things besides plants -- or at least use plants as a segue to other issues.

I just returned from a 5-day venture in the South Bronx helping my advisor conduct a study on airborne pollution. The overall purpose of the project is to examine what (if any) impact local vegetation has on removing airborne particulates. We are tracking those tiny particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, as they are notorious contributors to the asthma epidemic. Due to its high level of pollution, the South Bronx has one of the highest concentration of asthmatics in the US, particularly among children.

I've barely spent time in NYC, and aside from a day at New York Botanic Garden a few years ago, I've never been to the Bronx. It was certainly an experience on many levels, and many thoughts passed through my mind. For instance, I think everybody should be placed in a situation where they are clearly a distinct minority; people looked at me as if I was from Mars. Just imagine a skinny white guy wearing a button-down plaid GAP shirt, khaki shorts, and a Cornell University baseball cap, standing on 149th street equipped with a laptop and portable aerosol sampler (both powered by a car battery). I got lots of stares! Its true that in a few instances I was a bit nervous, like when several guys with a plethora of old and recent heroin tracks were oggling my gear. But for the most part, passersby were positive and they all know, through first-hand experience, just how polluted the air is.

It really bothers me that so many of these kids are born not just into poverty, but a situation where they are highly likely to develop respiratory problems. Imagine growing up in the projects:





























You have little open space to play in, and your school recess period is held on a cement pad ringed by two security fences. Perhaps it is a good thing that you don't have much of an option for exercise, as the air you would be breathing would be anything but clean.
















While perched on the roof of one of the schools, I asked myself where I would be now had this been my childhood home instead of the rural Midwest. All of the opportunities that I took for granted are simply not available to these kids. They don't have acres of woods to play in, horses to ride, a neighbor's pond to fish in. A battalion of security guards are stationed in their school, and crack addicts mingle with the kids as they wander home at day's end.

While there are some trees here and there, they are just a few and are far between. Trees are great, and do amazing things for the urban environment (among other things, they generate oxygen, mitigate the urban heat island effect, attenuate storm water, and of course are nice to look at). But, it is doubtful that they can do much with respect to airborne particulate pollution. We need to nip this problem in the bud, at the source: scrub the stuff coming out of the factory stacks, curb the car emissions, etc... Trying to put the genie back into the bottle after it has gotten out is futile.

Yet, those with the power to ameliorate the problem (i.e., policy-making politicians) don't live in places like the South Bronx, and neither does the vast majority of the population who votes them in. The view seems to be that the problem belongs to those who by the luck-of-the-draw were born there.

I think the word is apathy.