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In the late 1960's, many people in North America turned their attention to environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widely criticized.
Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in a city often overburdens public transportation and parking lot capacities.Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120, 000 kilowatts -- enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day.
Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or gain)through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times that through a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen the strain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of skyscrapers have begun to use double-glazed panels of glass, and reflective glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise the temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.
Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city's sanitation facilities, too. If fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would alone generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year -- as much as a city the size of Stanford, Connecticut, which has a population of more than 109, 000.
60 年代后期，许多北美人把注意力转向了环境问题，那些崭新的玻璃钢摩天大楼受到 了广泛的批评。
生态学家指出，城市中密集的高层建筑经常给公共交通与停车场的承载能 力造成过重的负担。摩天大楼还是电能的过度消费者与浪费者。最近的某一年，纽约市摩天写字楼 1，700 万英尺办公面积的增加使电能的最高日需求量提高了 120，000 千瓦. 这些电能足以供纽约的整个奥尔巴尼市使用一天.
玻璃表面的摩天大楼特别地浪费。 通过半英寸的平板玻璃墙壁损失(或增加)的热量是典型的加入绝缘板的石墙所允许的热量损失(或 增加)的十倍以上.为了减轻取暖设备或空调设备的压力，摩天大楼的建造者们已经开始使 用双面上釉的玻璃镶板和涂上了金色或银色反光薄膜的反光玻璃，来减少强光照射和热量的增加；但是，镜面的摩天大楼会提高周围空气的温度并会对附近的建筑物产生影响。
摩天大 楼也对城市的卫生设施造成了沉重的压力。单单纽约市的二个世界贸易中心大楼如果完全被占满的话，每年就会产生 2，250，000 加仑的污水.这相当于康涅狄格州的斯坦福市这样大的城市一年所产生的污水量，而康州的斯坦福市拥有 109，000 人口。
