Climate Awareness Day in Brooklyn

This Sunday, Jan. 23, from 2 to 5 p.m., join Parents For Climate Protection, the New York League of Conservation Voters, NYPIRG, Transportation Alternatives, Park Slope Parents, and the Brooklyn Food Coalition at Congregation Beth Elohim for Climate Awareness Day.

The featured speaker will be Liz Butler, campaign director of 1Sky, the largest collaborative climate and energy campaign in the United States. Butler was a co-founder of ForestEthics and was directly responsible for the protection of over 50 million acres of forests in the U.S., Canada, and Chile. She also served as the National Organizing Director for American Lands Alliance and the Director of Missouri Public Interest Research Group. 

Butler's address will be followed by an audience Q & A and a letter-writing session directed at local and national politicians urging them to take action on climate change legislation. At 4 p.m. the event will split up into four breakout sessions that focus on topics including environmental policy at the state and local level, the impact of climate change on food production, green values and ethics, and new developments in building and transportation efficiency. There will also be special activities for children.

Congregation Beth Elohim is located at 274 Garfield Place at 8th Avenue in Park Slope. There will be a suggested donation of $5 for the event.

City Tech Professor's Solution to Climate Change: Resources From Space

City Tech physics Professor (and Bed-Stuy resident) Gregory L. Matloff recently released a new book he co-authored called Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth.

The book outlines how space resources and space-based power generating systems can work together with Earth-based conservation to meet industrial needs and forge a sustainable future.

Matloff co-wrote the book with Les Johnson, deputy manager of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Advanced Concepts Office at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Al.

“With an ever-increasing share of the human population making the transition to the ‘developed’ world,” said Johnson in a press release, “will come increasing stress on the Earth’s environment, natural resources and ability to produce enough food. The modern environmental movement is tackling these problems head-on by promoting energy efficiency, recycling and renewable resources. While these strategies and technologies are vital, they will be woefully insufficient to provide for a prosperous, long-lived global society with a moderate-to-high standard of living.”

The solution to a progressively worsening environmental situation and its negative impact on society will require “drawing upon the vast energy and material resources that space alone can provide,” said Matloff in a press release. “Doing so will enable us to create a cleaner, healthier environment essential to sustaining life on Earth far into the future.”

Paradise Regained is published by Springer Science & Business Media and is available on Amazon here.

Back to homepage  

Bloomberg Releases PlaNYC Study of Future of Electric Vehicles in NYC

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the results of a study of what the city government and other sectors can do to foster the use of electric vehicles and what factors would lead New Yorkers to drive them.

Developed in partnership with McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, the study found ways to facilitate adoption of this technology in the short-term. Transportation emissions currently account for 22 percent of New York City’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The study found that there is a potentially large group of New Yorkers in all five boroughs who are willing to change their behavior to accommodate electric vehicles and become “early adopters.” Market research projects that by 2015, up to 16 percent of all new vehicles purchased by New Yorkers could be electric.

The study found that early adopters are willing to change their habits to adapt to an electric vehicle, including switching from an on-street parking space to a parking garage that has a charging station (see New York's first — in Brooklyn — here). The research also found that consumers’ attitudes, rather than their driving or parking behaviors, are strong indications of their willingness to adopt electric vehicles.

Early adopters also understand that electric vehicles will cost more than a comparable gasoline-powered vehicle — and they appear willing to pay that premium for the benefits that electric vehicles will offer them. This suggests that in the short-term tax incentives may not be necessary to attract additional demand.

Manufacturers have announced more than a dozen highway-capable electric vehicle models for introduction between 2010 and 2012, in limited global production. Because the demand of early adopters is projected to outstrip the available supply of electric vehicles to the New York market for the next five years, the study suggests targeting early adopters and delaying a focus on the “average driver” for several years.

Ways to help early adopters enter the electric vehicle market include providing clear information on the benefits and challenges of using an electric vehicle and developing a convenient and easy-to-understand process to install charging equipment.

The study also found that the projected level of adoption of electric vehicles will not unduly tax the electrical grid as long as most chargers are configured to allow charging to take place during off-peak hours.

Back to homepage

Rudolph, Eco-Conscious

Happy holidays.

Courtesy of Cagle Cartoons

Back to homepage

The Actifist: Connecting New Yorkers to Copenhagen

Documenting Chris Neidl's third day at the climate conference is a clip about the "actifist," an interactive installation designed by Adam Harvey that connects New York to Copenhagen. When New Yorkers slam their fists down onto a podium here in support of a science-based climate change treaty, an artificial fist slams down on the other end. Check it out in action:

Scientist James Hansen Speaks at Secret Science Club in Brooklyn

Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and adjunct professor at Columbia University's Department of Earth and Environmental Science, James Hansen, visited the Secret Science Club at the Bell House on Tuesday evening to speak about the climate crisis.

He doubted that the climate conference in Copenhagen will change much, while warning that environmental troubles are nearing a "tipping point" of no return unless action is taken while there is still hope. Though "CO2 has already passed its limits into the dangerous zone," Hansen said, "we can still reverse it."

His solutions are to "phase out coal, prohibit carbon fuel, improve forest practices and re-forest lands, and institute no-till agriculture."

Eagle reporter Harold Egeln went to the meeting. You can read his full story here.

Park Slope Petitions Obama For Leadership On Climate Defense

The Eagle received this press release:

On Sunday, Park Slope citizens had a chance to tell President Barack Obama that real cuts in carbon emissions are necessary to avoid environmental catastrophe, as activists from the Park Slope Greens and Parents For Climate Protection collected signatures to send to the White House.

In under two hours the activists collected close to 150 signed pledge cards from Brooklynites, stating that US legislation and policies must cut climate pollution by at least 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent to 95 percent by 2050. These are the targets that climate scientists say are necessary to avoid a climate crisis.

The Obama administration’s earlier announcement of cuts of 6 percent from 1990 levels fall far short of the warnings of the scientific community.

In addition to posters and literature about the climate defense movement, the activists displayed a dozen home-made ice globes that melted in the afternoon sun to symbolize the need for climate defense now, as glaciers and arctic sea ice recede every year.

Activists in attendance included David Pechefsky, Green Party 2009 Candidate For City Council, and Gloria Mattera, Green Party Candidate For Brooklyn Borough President in 2005.

The pledge cards will be mailed to the White House before President Obama appears at the Copenhagen conference on December 18th.

Back to homepage

Environmental Film Screening at St. Francis in Brooklyn

Tomorrow, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m., attend a free screening of the film Split Estate in the main auditorium at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen St. between Clinton and Court streets. The screening is co-sponsored by the Independent Neighborhood Democrats and is hosted by Ken Lowy.

About the film, from its web site:

"Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.

Zeroing in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, this clarion call for accountability examines the growing environmental and social costs to an area now referred to as a 'National Sacrifice Zone.'

This is no Love Canal or Three Mile Island. With its breathtaking panoramas, aspen-dotted meadows, and clear mountain streams, this is the Colorado of John Denver anthems — the wide-open spaces that have long stirred our national imagination.

Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One Garfield County resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children. All the while, the industry assures us it is a "good neighbor."

Ordinary homeowners and ranchers absorb the cost. Actually, we all pay the price in this devastating clash of interests that extends well beyond the Rockies. Aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states, the industry is even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.

As public health concerns mount, Split Estate cracks the sugarcoating on an industry touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, and poignantly drives home the need for real alternatives."

For more information, www.splitestate.com.

Back to homepage

March for Climate Leadership Over B'klyn Bridge

Hundreds of New Yorkers joined environmental advocacy group Greenpeace this past Saturday in the March for Climate Leadership across the Brooklyn Bridge. The march was part of the largest global day of climate action ever as one of more than 4,500 events in over 170 countries to call on President Obama and other world leaders to secure a fair, ambitious and binding global deal in Copenhagen this December at the UN Climate Change Conference.
There were more than 50 events throughout New York City, as reported by the New York Times. Why was the number 350 on so many signs carried by demonstrators? According to the report, 350 parts per million is the upper limit for heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
 

Photos by Michael Nagle courtesy of Greenpeace


Back to homepage

Green Brooklyn … Green City at Brooklyn Borough Hall This Thursday

This Thursday, New Yorkers will converge yet again at Brooklyn Borough Hall for another fair, this time a green one. It’s the fifth annual Green Brooklyn … Green City fair and symposium, where attendees will visit workshops and exhibits to learn about how New York City is creating a sustainable future.

Hosted by the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC), the fair is free and will run from noon until 6 p.m., with opening remarks at 11:30 a.m.

Three workshops are scheduled throughout the day, to take place in the Court Room at Borough Hall. From noon – 1 p.m. is “The State of the Climate” workshop, where the science of climate change and its impacts on a local and global scale will be discussed. Presenters at this workshop are Dr. Radley Horton, Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Hugh Hough of The Climate Project and president of Green Team USA; and Dr. William Solecki, professor of Urban Environmental Change at Hunter College and director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities.

The second workshop of the day, “Green Your Business,” from 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., will focus on new innovations in green buildings, ways to make operations more green from the ground up, and resources needed to minimize the impact of a business. Presenters will be Vanessa Knight, director of the Sustainable Business Network of New York City; Andrew Kimball, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard; and Jim Holiber, general manager of Green Depot.

“Local vs. Organic: And Why We Care” will be the last workshop of the day, running from 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. Discussing how we grow and get our food will be Michael Hurwitz, director of the Greenmarket Program at CENYC; Anna Lappe, noted environmentalist and bestselling author; and Justone Bossert of Red Jacket Orchards.

The Borough Hall Greenmarket will be running as usual on Thursday, so attendees to the Green Brooklyn fair will be able to purchase fresh local produce and baked goods.

CENYC’s Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) will be on hand doing on-site recycling by hand, and Brooklyn-based clothing recycling company Wearable Collections will also be there accepting donations of old clothes.

Clothes collected by Wearable Collections will be given to artist Derick Melander, who will be conducting a daylong sculpture demonstration. Aided by 20 volunteers, he will carefully sort, fold and stack recycled clothes into an art piece, to be completed by the end of the fair.

Non-profit organization Bags for the People — which provides a sustainable alternative to plastic bags — will be sewing cloth bags live at the Green Brooklyn fair, giving them out for free.

Over 30 exhibitors will be at the fair, including the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Greenbridge/The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Pratt Center for Sustainable Design/Pratt Design Incubator, the Prospect Park Alliance Volunteer Corps, and Green Depot.

This is the first year CENYC has hosted the fair — the now-closed Center for the Urban Environment (CUE) having hosted it the previous four years. CENYC spokesperson Amanda Gentile (who actually used to work at CUE) said that this year the fair will be “more interactive and less paper-focused” than in previous years. For example, a green plumber will be bringing in a dual flush toilet for attendees to see.

“We’re trying to make this as close to zero waste as possible,” said Gentile.

“The 5th Annual Green Brooklyn … Green City conference is a great opportunity to connect city residents with the tools they need to take direct action to improve the environment,” said CENYC Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen.

“CENYC is known for being a roll-up-your-sleeves kind of organization between our work in community gardens, Greenmarket farmers markets, service learning programs for youth, and grassroots recycling outreach,” he continued. “What better way to dig in than to bring together residents, government agencies, nonprofits and green businesses to learn and partner around green initiatives across the city?”

This event is sponsored by Waste Management, TD Bank, Green Mountain Energy, National Grid, and the Village Voice.

Mayor Bloomberg on Reducing GHGs in New York City

In response to Governor Paterson's goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in New York State by 80 percent below the levels emitted in 1990 by the year 2050, Mayor Bloomberg issued the following statement:

"I applaud Governor Paterson for taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New York State. The Governor and the Public Service Commission are already important partners with the City on PlaNYC, including our initiatives underway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New York City. I look forward to working with them and the new Climate Action Council as they create a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide and then implement initiatives to achieve it."

Back to homepage

Paterson Signs Executive Order to Reduce New York’s GHG Pollution

The Eagle received the following press release:

Governor David A. Paterson signed Executive Order No. 24 setting a goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in New York State by 80 percent below the levels emitted in 1990 by the year 2050.

The Executive Order also creates a Climate Action Council with a directive to prepare a draft Climate Action Plan by September 30, 2010. The Climate Action Plan will assess how all economic sectors can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change, as well as identify the extent to which such actions support New York’s goals for a clean energy economy.

“Climate change is the most pressing environmental issue of our time. By taking action, we send a signal that New Yorkers will do our share to address the climate crisis and we will do it in a way that creates opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship to flourish,” said Governor Paterson. “One way we will achieve this goal is by focusing our efforts on a clean energy economy that will create jobs for New Yorkers.”

Governor Paterson has already taken a number of steps to address the climate crisis in New York through innovative, cost-effective policies and programs such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), stricter automobile greenhouse gas emission standards and the “45 by 15” program for expanding efficiency measures and renewable energy. State programs and incentives are working in concert with federal efforts to increase the use of clean energy technologies and to promote emission reductions.

Future climate change will impose significant economic burdens on New York. Heat-related mortality in the New York City metropolitan region could increase by 47 to 95 percent when compared to 1990 levels. New York’s public drinking water supplies may also be compromised by changes in temperature and precipitation. In addition, a warmer climate will adversely affect the state’s crucial dairy production and crops, including grain, apples and potatoes, resulting in a potential increase in the cost of food.

Though it is anticipated that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be paramount, the Climate Action Plan will also include adaptation measures that will safeguard people, the environment and our infrastructure from expected climatic changes.

Back to homepage

No Words

AP Photo

Climate Change Exhibit Extended in DUMBO, and Other News

The photography show, Visualizing Climate Change, at DUMBO's Henry Gregg Gallery, has been extended until July 31st. It is a showcase of work from photo agency GHG Photos. For more information go to www.henrygregggallery.com.

Joshua Wolfe, founder of GHG Photos will receive the 2009 Ansel Adams Award. The “award honors an individual who has made superlative use of still photography to further a conservation cause.” Josh will be the third GHG member to win the award. Steve Kazlowski was last year’s recipient and Gary Braasch won in 2006. This is coming on the heels of his recently published book Climate Change: Picturing the Science, that was co-authored with Gavin Schmidt. For more information on the book and reviews go to www.picturingclimatechange.com.

Back to homepage

Climate Week NYC Coming in September

The Eagle received this press release:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group; and Paul Dickinson, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project, today announced Climate Week NYC, a five-day program of events being held throughout New York City from September 21 – 25 that will address the urgent need for action on climate change.

The Climate Group, an international organization that brings governments and businesses together to tackle climate change, will serve as the secretariat for the Climate Week NYC activities, which will focus on carbon emission reduction, alternative energy, LED lighting and super grids. As a member of the HSBC Climate Partnership, The Climate Group works with New York and other world cities to accelerate low carbon development.

“This fall, our City will be honored not only to host the annual UN General Assembly, but also to enthusiastically support Climate Week NYC and the summit on climate change on September 22. The summit will spotlight the urgent need for action, both to slow the pace of climate change, and also to adapt to the environmental effects of global warming that are already underway,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

“We are far beyond the point of debate over whether climate change is real,” said Secretary-General Ban. “I have seen the impacts of climate change first-hand. I have met families whose crops have been withered by droughts. Billions of people are at risk. Never before has there been such universal acknowledgement that now is the time for decisive action. And just as we have collectively contributed to the creation of this problem, we must also collectively implement solutions. I commend the Climate Group for creating a dynamic platform through which the public, organizations and private business can participate in this process in a direct and meaningful way.”

The event will coincide with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Ban announced that he is inviting all world leaders for a one-day summit on global climate change on September 22, a day before the opening of the general debate of the UN General Assembly. Over a hundred leaders are expected to participate and provide political impetus and direction to the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations to reach agreement on a new climate deal in Copenhagen in December.

The United Nations Foundation is a vital member of the Climate Week NYC team, working to connect a diverse array of advocacy groups with their counterparts in the UN system in order to jointly push for a new climate deal in Copenhagen.

The Climate Group is launching a Web site, www.climateweeknyc.org, that will be updated regularly with details on descriptions, locations and times of events, and information on how the public can participate or attend. Some events will be coordinated directly by The Climate Group, while others will be organized by other partner organizations. Organizations that wish to have their events partnered with Climate Week NYC can call can call Callum Grieve at 646.233.0552, or e-mail him at cgrieve@theclimategroup.org.

“Influential US partnerships and smarter choices will be critical to tackling global warming and setting the world on a pathway to a prosperous low carbon future,” said Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group. “As world leaders gather in New York, Climate Week NYC will let everyone know that the time for change is now.”

Back to homepage

A Reason to Recycle

For people skeptical of recycling, here's a message from an expert:

"There's a link between recycling and climate change. Everything that goes in a landfill is creating methane," says Julie Walsh, assistant director of the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC).

After carbon dioxide, methane is the greenhouse gas that has the highest impact on global warming. So when you choose to recycle, you know that diverting those materials from a landfill will help reduce global warming. Of course, it's always best to reduce your garbage.

"Recycling is good, but waste prevention is even better," Walsh noted.

Back to homepage

NYC Carbon Counter

Have you ever wondered just how much greenhouse gases are contributing to global warming? Crain's New York reports that a 70-foot-high billboard is outside Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, and will track in real time the growing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The sign uses low-energy light, offset by carbon credits and is sponsored by Deutsche Bank.

Back to homepage

DUMBO Photo Exhibit Grapples With How to Portray Climate Change

The term “climate change” is used often these days, in conjunction with “global warming” and “extreme weather.” Sure, we know that the earth is hotter today than it has been in the past four hundred years, the polar ice caps are melting and sea levels are rising. But what does it all actually look like? Most of us don’t have the means or ability to see the effects of climate change, we usually just hear about it.

The current photography exhibition at the Henry Gregg Gallery in DUMBO, entitled “Visualizing Climate Change,” brings powerful images from around the world to Brooklyn. Work of photographers Gary Braasch, Ashley Cooper, Benjamin Drummond, Peter Essick, Steve Kazlowski and Joshua Wolfe is on display, with subjects ranging from polar bears, to glaciers, to forest fires.

Brooklyn-based photographer Wolfe explained that, as members of GHG (which stands for greenhouse gas) Photos, these photographers deal with the basic question of: “How do you portray something that’s happening as gradually as climate change?”

“For me, a lot of it is trying to explain through images not just that climate change is all extreme weather all the time and a polar bear,” Wolfe explained. “There’s more depth to it, the issue is more complex, there are a lot of factors going into it.

“Any of us working individually can’t create such a complete or such a nuanced picture of climate change,” he continued. “Our goal is to present people with what’s going on, to give a more complete picture.”

On one wall of the gallery is a photo by Wolfe of an oil pump in the foreground and a group of wind turbines in the background (above). Another by Kazlowski — whom Wolfe calls “the best polar bear photographer in the world” — is a member of the threatened species swimming in the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Yet another by Cooper shows a man knee deep in water in his South Yorkshire kitchen, searching for food after floods in the summer of 2007.

Hanging on another wall of the gallery is a series of before and after photos of glaciers, taken by Wolfe and Braasch, portraying the stark decrease in glacier size over the years.

Using photography as the medium to portray climate change was challenging, says Wolfe. “If you look at photojournalism, we really thrive on an event. We thrive on a conflict. We know how to do wars, we know how to do protests, to a lesser extent, we know how to do celebrities,” he said. “Gradual, decade-long, century-long, year long changes aren’t things that photojournalism is necessarily comfortable with.”

Adding to the difficulty, Wolfe says, is that in some cases it’s hard to tell if something like extreme weather is climate change or not. “With hurricanes or forest fires or droughts, is this just noise in the system or is this definitively climate change?” he asked, which is the reason for pairing before and after photos of glaciers, or juxtaposing a picture of a forest fire in Greece with a satellite image of more fires ravaging the country.

Collaboration with Henry Gregg Gallery director André Martinez-Reed gives the show a different perspective: “He’s relating to the images in a different way than I do,” Wolfe said. “André mixed them up to make a layered and more nuanced story.”

“Each individual show has its own spirit, its own energy,” said Martinez-Reed. “With Visualizing Climate Change, it gives people a chance to experience something that’s going on in the world that probably they wouldn’t normally have an opportunity to experience.”

“We have this unique experience to view a lot of the things going on with climate change that the average person can’t see,” Wolfe said. “We’re changing the way people look at things around them.”

Visualizing Climate Change will be on view at the Henry Gregg Gallery at 111 Front St., Suite 226, in DUMBO through June 21. The exhibit is also on view at the Port Authority building at the corner of 42nd St and 8th Ave in Manhattan. Wolfe will be speaking at this Thursday’s Nerd Nite at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO about climate change.

Photo above by Joshua Wolfe, courtesy of GHG Photos

Back to homepage

Congresswoman Clarke Urges New Yorkers to Take Action

Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, along with Greenpeace NYC field organizer Eva Erbskorn, submitted an editorial to the Eagle about the current climate crisis.

Given that hurricane season is upon us, we may soon be confronted with intense storms caused in part by global warming. "Unless we take action immediately," Congresswoman Clarke writes, "that means more flooding of basements, more disease, and more drinking water shortages (and worse)."

She urges New Yorkers to take action: "We can start by investing in efficiency and clean energy sources like solar and wind power, as well as in smart transportation, like more subways and buses."

For Congresswoman Clarke's full editorial, Greener Economy Essential in Face of Rising Waters, click here.

Back to homepage

Earth Hour Tomorrow Night

Tomorrow night, March 28, turn off your lights for one hour, starting at 8:30 p.m. Use your light switch to VOTE EARTH!

Earth hour is an initiative started by the World Wildlife Fund. Click here to find out how you can make your vote count toward the target of 1 billion, which will be presented at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

Back to homepage