San Francisco Hosts U.N. Conference Green agenda for world's urban mayors

San Francisco plays host this week to mayors from around the globe who will be attending a United Nations conference dedicated to adopting sound environmental practices for urban centers -- where the majority of the world's population lives.

.... an annual event in its third decade, but the first in the United States -- comes 60 years after the city served as the setting for the signing of the charter that created the international body.

This time, the issues at hand are quite different. The theme of the conference is "green cities,'' and the mayors will hammer out an accord on ways to improve energy use, recycling, environmental health, urban design, transportation, metropolitan parks and water quality and supply.

World Environment Day, a five-day conference that begins Wednesday, will also spotlight initiatives in the Bay Area that conserve resources and cut pollution at the local level. And it will give residents a chance to find out what they can do.

"With more people living in urban areas than ever before, it's the mayors that disproportionately are going to influence environmental causes around the world,'' San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said.

San Francisco was picked by the United Nations, the mayor said, because the city embraces environmentally sound policies.

In October, it begins the $392 million construction of a new California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park, which will meet the highest of green-building standards. A decade ago, the city passed a pioneering ordinance, dramatically reducing the use of insecticides, rat poisons and weed killers.

The gathering -- part policy workshop, part festival, part environmental education -- acknowledges the city's historical role in the birth of the United Nations on June 26, 1945. The charter was signed in the auditorium of the War Memorial Veterans Building at Civic Center.

Where are Allergies and Asthma the Worst?

.....The most common allergen of all is pollen and since there are so many more plants growing in the country than in the city, it would make sense then that there is more allergy and asthma in the countryside. Right? No, wrong! Allergies and asthma are far worse in the city than they are in the country.

Several things contribute to this:
1.Pavement makes a poor pollen trap. Pollen in the city often lands on pavement where wind can cause it to become airborne again. In naturally vegetated areas where there is much more vegetation, pollen often lands on and becomes stuck in grasses, shrubs and vines or in trees.
2.Cities have more air pollution, which weakens the immune system and lung function.
3.Stress, which is generally higher in cities, can contribute to both asthma and allergy development.
4.Increased carbon dioxide levels within cities causes pollen-forming plants to produce more pollen with each bloom cycle, and also often causes urban plants to bloom more often.
5.Pollen loads are actually far greater in cities because there is a sexual imbalance within the plant community. In the city there is a preponderance of male trees and shrubs, while in the rural areas there is almost always a complete balance of plant sexuality. The excess of male plants in the city results in an excess of pollen.
6.The very lack of female plant materials in the urban environment also is a prime factor in the epidemic of allergy and asthma. Female flowers carry an electrical negative (-) charge (the trees are grounded with their roots) and airborne pollen holds a positive (+) charge. The tree and the pollen are mutually attractive; thus a female plant becomes a very effective pollen trap for pollen of its own species. But with almost no female trees and shrubs in modern landscapes, most of the pollen remains airborne..........

http://www.sensiblesoftware.com/articles/a/Allergies-Asthma-and-City-Trees.html

Newsom will preside over the opening of the conference. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected in town Wednesday to announce proposed targets reaching to 2050 for reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in California. Former Vice President Al Gore will discuss global warming as the keynote speaker at the delegates' closing dinner.

The capper of the conference will be the formal signing of the Urban Environmental Accords, an action plan outlining 21 goals for cities, encompassing energy, waste reduction, environmental health, urban design, transportation, water and urban nature.

Ugh.

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