The City Breathes: Urban Trees and Air Quality in NYC

Buy your $5 tickets here! (meetup RSVPs are not counted)

There are so many ways to describe New York City, however few would include “clean” in their list. Yet our city has made great strides towards improving the quality of the air we all share – not only compared to the smoggy era of the mid-twentieth century, but also within the past decade. Join us for a night of science surrounding our most precious shared resource – the city air that we breathe every day – and learn about how scientists measure air particulates and the many efforts, including the planting of urban trees, that researchers are undertaking to continue to improve NYC’s air.

Doors open at 7:00PM. Event is 21+ with limited capacity.

Why has the air quality in New York City improved recently?
Roisin Commane, PhD

Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Dr. Roisin Commane's research combines measurements of trace gases in the atmosphere with models to quantify rates of gas emissions into the atmosphere from both natural and human sources, in cities and in remote areas. Her research group operates a greenhouse gas monitoring network in the New York metro area and works with New York State agencies to identify previously unidentified sources of methane and develop pathways to reduce these emissions in urban areas.

Air quality in New York has dramatically improved in recent years. Dr. Commane will explain why it was so bad, how it has improved and what we might want to think about as we develop future plans for the city.

Seeing the city for its trees
Andrew Reinmann, PhD

Associate Professor of Environmental Science at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and at Hunter College

https://asrc.gc.cuny.edu/reinmann-lab/
Dr. Andrew Reinmann's