Visualising New York City’s carbon emissions

The city generates 54 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. The video displays what the scale of these emissions on an hourly, daily and annual basis and is visualised relative to the city itself.

The graphic is the work of Adam Nieman and his colleagues at Real World Visuals, which makes environmental issues startingly vivid.

2 Comments

alan

Jul 30, 2022

I don't understand how a 'building' produces greenhouse gas, can you explain?

Cliff Mail

Jul 31, 2022

Replying to

Hi Alan

With building there is CO2 emitted in their construction, cement and steel being the highest emitters, broken down per annum over their estimated lifetime. Then of course there are the other CO2 emissions associated with a city -

with vehicles CO2 is emitted in their manufacture, again broken down per annum over their estimated lifetime and then the emissions associated to the burning of petrol or diesel when driving the vehicles. Then there is the electricity required to keep the city running, heating and cooling, lighting, appliances, running offices, computers, manufacturing, etc. We understand that 85% of New York's electricity comes from burning fossil fuels.