Urban Environmental Problems
Earth, Wind, and Fire
Urban environmental problems
19th-century health problems
Epidemics:
Yellow fever; cholera; smallpox; typhoid fever; typhus
Endemic
diseases: Scarlet fever; tuberculosis; diphtheria
Miasmas and disease
Filth, dirt, & poverty: sources of disease
Poors physical, moral, productive condition
Sanitation and Garbage
Dumping in lots, rivers, or the sea
Cleaning up water
Purification of drinking water
Sand
or mechanical filtration
Acceptance
of Pasteurs theory by 1900
Chlorine
(after 1908)
Issues
Water
closets: need for water & sewers
Water
use skyrockets
Creating
water supplies
in other peoples back yards
Rise of urban pollution
control
Sewer-building
programs by 1880s
Sewers dump directly into streams
By
1890s: demand for change
Rise of citizen groups: middle-class women
New profession: sanitary engineering
Sewage
treatment is expensive and lags
Industrial
pollution ignored
Too expensive; economic power of industries
Fish kills not a political issue
Urban air pollution
Atmospheric inversion
Location of cities near water for power and transportation
Energy transition and the
air
From renewable energy of muscle and wood
Cheap,
polluting bituminous coal
Expensive,
cleaner anthracite less used
Railroads
Factories
Blots out sun; covers everything in soot
Sickens people
Trees die
Foundations, viaducts, statues crumble
Fighting air pollution
Civic & womens groups attack smoke nuisance
Smoke
Abatement Leagues
Passage
of local smoke legislation
Newspapers attack lenient judges
Uphill fight
Smoke
= progress, prosperity