Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Just One More Way That New York City Could End Up Saving the World





Today's posts are dedicated to some of the people out there who are looking for innovative ways to help save/preserve the environment. We'll start here . . . in the GREATEST CITY ON EARTH. (No offense. I'm sure your city is nice, too.)

Ever wonder what New Yorkers do with our old subway cars? Well for years, we've been dropping them into the Atlantic Ocean. And believe it or not, that's a very good thing. Over 700 subway cars now form an artificial reef off the coast of Deleware. According to the New York Times, what was once a barren stretch of ocean floor is now a "bountiful oasis, carpeted in sea grasses, walled thick with blue mussels and sponges, and teeming with black sea bass and tautog."

Unfortunately, the Redbird Reef (named after the old "Redbird" subway cars, one of which can be seen in the artwork above) has proven so popular with fish (and fishermen) that the competition for New York's old subway cars has grown quite fierce! Read more (and see some cool photos and animation) here.

(Art by John Blackford and James Fisher, photo by John Barnes, and story via the wonderful Gothamist).

17 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! i would have thought fish would be killed from a falling subway car!

6:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have to say that the GREATEST CITY ON EARTH is Austin, TX. Seriously. No other city even compares.

That's so cool, though! You'd think that dumping old subway cars in the ocean would pollute and stuff, but I guess not!

6:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lucy: LOL. I think the swim out of the way pretty quickly.

Anonymous: I'm ALMOST with you on that one. I'm willing to say that Austin is most definitely the second greatest city on earth.

6:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ananka and Anonymous:
Your BOTH wrong! Chicago is the best!

That's amazing - I would have thought that the subway cars would ruin the habitat for the fish or something horrible like that because humans can NEVER do anything right.

6:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, I forgot. Ananka, where do you find artwork that fits every entry perfectly???

6:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And I thought that was just an irresponsible alternative to recycling...

Pfft. Sydney is better than any American city. xD

7:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Really Ananka - how DO you find the perfect artwork for each entry? Do you like have a person artist who can draw a masterpiece within seconds?

9:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd have to say that the greatest US city is Chicago, but I haven't been to Austin or NYC, so I can't compare. But I'm guessing that London, Rome, St. Petersburg, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Dublin are just as, if not more amazing.
~Spiffy

5:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

(1st anonymous)

Austin is the greatest, sorry. New York is a bit too- BIG and TALL and CROWDED. With Austin, you get some downtown, some suburbia, some outdoorsiness, and some cool randomness.

here's my list of 5 best-cities-ever:

1 Austin
2 New York (I gave in, Ananka!)
3 Crested Butte, CO
4 Dresden (germany)
5 Nashville, TN

Other anonymous- Chicago can be #6 if you want.

: )

5:32 PM  
Blogger FN da World Dictator said...

My city is so NOT great at all. One word to sum it up=BORRRIIINNNGGGG!!!!!!!!

5:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i would have thought that it would be bad but i guess not!

6:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

that would be awesome to go scuba diving and see a subway car!!!!

8:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

we get plenty of suburbia and outdoors in NY! we've got central park and prospect park and a bunch of other parks! we also have flatbush and kensington, which is all suburbia! so don't go talking abt NY if u've nvr been here! i am a TRUE new yorker (well actually i live in brooklyn) and i will stand up for it's awesomeness.

8:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

woah, dudes. and,uh, anonymous, hate to break it to ya, but Austin isn't in Wyoming, so no, it actually sucks. any city in Wyo is better than anywhere alse. except of Oregon or NY or... ok, well my point is is that Wyo rocks.

11:00 PM  
Blogger falcon said...

okay enough with the fighting over who's city is coolest! I'm sure they are all very interesting... Yes. But wont the subway cars have poison toxins in them and stuff? won't the fishers be eating radioactive fish????

12:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fascinating.

I agree w/Spiffy xD Chicago is AT LEAST as good as Austin. They can tie for third.

6:05 PM  
Blogger Zodiac girls said...

Lucy LOL! Taht is so cool!

8:27 PM  

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