environmental Strategist, between the lines: Reports like this push the issue of transparency to a broader audience. I would review the report and see where your city ranks. For cities with low rankings, this competitive environmental intelligence can be useful to encourage the cities and businesses operating in the cities to be more environmentally proactive. It can also be used for those cities that rank near the top to want to continue their good work and strive for continual improvement through development and execution of an environmental Management Strategy (eMS).
Businesses and residents are looking to work and live in environmentally proactive cities. Being environmentally proactive is an economic multiplier.
City mixed in environment report
Air poor, climate better
By Erica Molina Johnson / El Paso Times
Article Launched:02/23/2007 12:00:00 AM MST
A national study released Thursday shows that El Paso is ranked near the bottom when it comes to environmental problems affecting vulnerable residents, but a closer look shows the city performing more moderately for the general population.
The Urban Environment Report released by the Earth Day Network ranked 72 cities in seven areas: air quality, quality of life, parks and recreation, toxics and waste, drinking and surface water, human and public health, and global warming climate change.
The city ranked 69th out of 72 major U.S. cities under the new “vulnerable population index,” which takes into account factors that make residents vulnerable to environmental changes, such as living without health insurance or being impoverished, unemployed, disabled or undereducated.
“This study is the first of its kind, not only because of the sheer quantity of environmental data analyzed, but also because it redefines the term ‘environmental’ to include public health, poverty, education and other quality-of-life issues,” Earth Day Network
President Kathleen Rogers said in a news release. “Expanding the definition of environment is critical to the success of our mission to broaden participation in the environmental movement.”
While the index’s rankings of El Paso in the seven subject areas are near the bottom of the pack of studied cities, the baseline outlook is a little better.
Generally, El Paso ranked higher than most other cities in both quality of life and global warming climate change. It was in the middle of the pack for areas such as water, health and parks and recreation.
The city ranked 47th out of 71 overall, and 61st of 72 using the index ranking for parks and recreation.
Norman Merrifield, director of the city Parks and Recreation Department, said that though the city does need more parks, he is not sure about the study’s validity.
“I would not put any substance on a park study done by non-parks and recreation professionals,” he said.
Merrifield, however, said that the city’s approximately 195 parks are about one-third of the number needed. He said the department recently completed a comprehensive master plan and is on its way toward changing the situation.
A big help with this, he said, will be a new land dedication ordinance, recently passed by the City Council, that will bring in more land as developers create new neighborhoods.
“We are hoping over the next four or five years to see a significant increase in quality parkland,” Merrifield said.
Another area where the city ranked moderately well was human and public health. El Paso ranked 65th out of 71 according to the index, but was number 47 according to the baseline figures.
The factors that were looked at for this component included obesity, diabetes, access to health insurance and cancer deaths.
The city scored poorly for the percentage of adults who are obese.
Ann Pauli, president and CEO of the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, said the city’s obesity rate, though high, is still the lowest in Texas.
“It’s 22 percent, which is still too high, but the rest of the state has gone up higher,” she said. “When you compare it, we’re looking pretty good.”
El Paso also scored poorly in the percentage of people without health insurance. Pauli said that this is no surprise, and that increasing the number who have health coverage could change the city’s standing in other health matters. “This is the real issue when we’re looking at some chronic diseases,” she said.
The city scored the poorest in the air quality and toxics and waste areas, ranking second to last under the index for both, and 65th overall.
Among the cities that ranked best on the organization’s report of index rankings were Fargo, N.D.; Portland, Ore.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Sioux Falls, S.D. Near the bottom of the list with El Paso were Detroit, Miami, Cleveland and Houston.
Erica Molina Johnson may be reached at emolina@elpasotimes.com; 546-6132.
To view the complete report visit www.earthday.net/UER/report.