I went to a Rose Cafe last week where we talked about city planning. Professor Schmidt asked us where we were from and whether we thought that our hometown was a city, suburb, or a rural area and why. I’m from Pittsford, NY, which I would describe as a suburban area. We talked a lot about what defined a suburban area, and the thing that stood out the most was the need to drive everywhere. This is definitely true for Pittsford because Wegmans is about a 15 minute drive from my house, and the mall is about 25 minutes away. This definitely has environmental consequences. Climate change is a huge issue right now, and we need to find a way to stop or slow down climate change. Millions of people driving everywhere is definitely not good for the environment, but there really isn’t a good solution for this problem. Public transportation really isn’t very good where I’m from, but even if it were I don’t know how many people would use it. The reality is that using public transportation can be a huge inconvenience, as I’ve learned from my experiences at Cornell, because you have to plan your schedule according to the bus’s schedule. You also can’t go grocery shopping as easily because it’s hard to carry a lot of bags on the bus. It’s just easier to toss the grocery bags in the trunk, and go shopping whenever you have time. I don’t know how many people are willing to give up their cars, especially in a suburban or rural area where everything is far away. One solution to this problem might be electric cars because they are better for the environment. Of course, they also have their drawbacks because they are pretty expensive right not and there are not as many electric car charging stations as there are gas stations. But, if we can find a way to get around these problems, electric cars could help stop or slow down climate change.