New York City is the "greenest" place in the US

I used to think that cities were filthy, dirty places that consumed vast quantities of resources. The thing is though, they house vaster quantities of people--and consume less resources per capita than rural areas (apologies for the goofy font choices).

The Herald Tribune agrees:

"The old paradigm of the pollution-filled city as a blight on the landscape and the leafy-green suburbs as the ideal is outdated and does not lead us to a future of energy independence, clean air and a stable climate. Cities are the best hope to realize our need for a bright, sustainable, and promising future.

New York City, for example, is the most energy efficient place in America. Yes, it houses 8.2 million citizens and uses an enormous amount of energy to do so. Its electrical load, more than 12,000 megawatts, is as large as all of Massachusetts. Yet because the buildings are dense and thus more efficiently heated and cooled, and because 85 percent of all trips in Manhattan are on foot, bike or transit, New York City uses dramatically less energy to serve each of its citizens than does a state like Massachusetts. Indeed, it uses less energy, on a per capita basis, than any state in America."

There's some pretty heavy red-taping going on when you compare a 20-some square mile island to spread-out states, but the article is still worth a read..