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.
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Three Brooklyn Students Are Finalists in 'Green Teen' Essay Contest
Six New York City students — three from Brooklyn — were finalists in the second annual Green Teens Essay Contest. It was a competition which invites young writers ages 12 to 18 to submit a 300-word personal essay about how they will help Mayor Bloomberg implement MillionTreesNYC, which is a PlaNYC initiative to plant and care for one million trees by 2017.
The grand prize winner of the contest (who was from Manhattan) received $1,000, two runners up received $500 each, and three honorable mentions received $100 each.
“Growing young minds through environmental awareness is the key to success in greening New York City,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “These green teens have demonstrated a savvy understanding of the immense health and environmental benefits of trees, and they have generated a number of creative ideas to engage even more New Yorkers in MillionTreesNYC. We look forward to working with the essay finalists to further develop their ideas for implementation and help create a greener, greater New York City.”
Runner up Nedine Dobson, 17, from Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights titled her essay, “A Melting Pot of Beautiful People With Beautiful Trees,” and in it wrote, “Each school district should be responsible for involving each school in the district to embark on a go green project. The project will require groups of students to be responsible for the design of areas in their school district to plant trees — this initiative promises to make New York, with its melting pot of beautiful people, a garden of beautiful trees.”
Eric Murray Datcher, 16, from the Bushwick High School for Social Justice, earned an honorable mention with his essay, writing, “The key to the Mayor’s plan is involving the youth of New York City. There are young people throughout the city who are simply waiting for an opportunity to make a major change. The Million Trees project could be that change to unite the youth in a positive project. I believe I can use my strong voice to gather more students, young people, and community members to beautify more places throughout New York City.”
Jamel Irby-Shabazz, 12, of Park Place Middle School in Park Slope, also earned an honorable mention with his essay, in which he wrote, “Every month we will get teens to sign up as a special citizenship program with the NYC Parks Department to help plant trees. Teens will then make a difference in their community and experience something positive in their community. The teens will also be able to place their family name on the trees. I also believe that a million trees will equal a million healthy breaths. A million healthy breaths can help a brain learn and be more conscious about the environment in which we live.”
The essay contest was sponsored by Flowerworks Florist & Landscape Contractor, Carver Federal Savings Bank, Our Time Press, and Gxart Studio. Essay finalists were honored on November 19th at Restoration Plaza on Fulton Street, in an event celebrating the newly-formed Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District (BID).
For more information about MillionTreesNYC, visit www.milliontreesnyc.org.
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The grand prize winner of the contest (who was from Manhattan) received $1,000, two runners up received $500 each, and three honorable mentions received $100 each.
“Growing young minds through environmental awareness is the key to success in greening New York City,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “These green teens have demonstrated a savvy understanding of the immense health and environmental benefits of trees, and they have generated a number of creative ideas to engage even more New Yorkers in MillionTreesNYC. We look forward to working with the essay finalists to further develop their ideas for implementation and help create a greener, greater New York City.”
Runner up Nedine Dobson, 17, from Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights titled her essay, “A Melting Pot of Beautiful People With Beautiful Trees,” and in it wrote, “Each school district should be responsible for involving each school in the district to embark on a go green project. The project will require groups of students to be responsible for the design of areas in their school district to plant trees — this initiative promises to make New York, with its melting pot of beautiful people, a garden of beautiful trees.”
Eric Murray Datcher, 16, from the Bushwick High School for Social Justice, earned an honorable mention with his essay, writing, “The key to the Mayor’s plan is involving the youth of New York City. There are young people throughout the city who are simply waiting for an opportunity to make a major change. The Million Trees project could be that change to unite the youth in a positive project. I believe I can use my strong voice to gather more students, young people, and community members to beautify more places throughout New York City.”
Jamel Irby-Shabazz, 12, of Park Place Middle School in Park Slope, also earned an honorable mention with his essay, in which he wrote, “Every month we will get teens to sign up as a special citizenship program with the NYC Parks Department to help plant trees. Teens will then make a difference in their community and experience something positive in their community. The teens will also be able to place their family name on the trees. I also believe that a million trees will equal a million healthy breaths. A million healthy breaths can help a brain learn and be more conscious about the environment in which we live.”
The essay contest was sponsored by Flowerworks Florist & Landscape Contractor, Carver Federal Savings Bank, Our Time Press, and Gxart Studio. Essay finalists were honored on November 19th at Restoration Plaza on Fulton Street, in an event celebrating the newly-formed Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District (BID).
For more information about MillionTreesNYC, visit www.milliontreesnyc.org.
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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.
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Isabella Rossellini to Debut 'Green Porno' in Greenpoint
Screen goddess/model/director Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet) will be at Word Bookstore in Greenpoint on Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. for a screening/Q&A/book signing of Green Porno — her book and accompanying short film series about the sex lives of marine animals, insects and other creatures. Tickets are $25 and include one copy of the book and two seats at the screening. They are available at www.wordbrooklyn.com. For those of you not up on film icons, Rossellini is the daughter of actress Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca) and director Roberto Rossellini.Back to homepage
Monday, November 30, 2009
Williamsburg Florist Honored For Green Entrepreneurship
While growing up in West Virginia, Kimberly Sevilla (pictured at left with her daughter Lavender) frequently noticed non-natural gardening practices: plants lined up in rows, and the use of Miracle-Gro products, to name a few.“Americans were never really taught how to garden and how to compost and use the world around them,” said Sevilla, who cultivated a passion for gardening as she traveled the world to study the techniques of other cultures, reading historical books on the subject.
Sevilla has always gardened for herself — she has a garden in upstate New York and one at her home in Williamsburg — but didn’t make it part of her profession until just over a year ago, when she opened Rose Red & Lavender, a full service florist in Williamsburg.
Rose Red & Lavender isn’t just a place to buy cut flowers. Sevilla offers classes in urban gardening to the community through the store. “We’re teaching people how to repurpose and reuse things that they may have already to grow [gardens].”
She showed children how to plant a variety of seeds — herbs and vegetables — in a five-gallon bucket to create a “meal in a bucket” and also teaches students at her classes to create planters out of old tires. “This was popular in the ’60s,” she said. “We’re trying to revive that.”
Sevilla started a campaign to distribute seed balls, which are balls of clay that have flower seeds in them that don’t need to be planted in the soil. “It’s a technique used by Native Americans,” she said, and the flowers can sprout anywhere, namely the number of vacant lots in Williamsburg.
During the summertime, Sevilla sources her flowers from local farms. She grows the lavender she sells at the shop on property in West Virginia. She composts all the waste from the flowers and recycles everything she can.
It is this commitment to educating the community and making Williamsburg a greener place that won Sevilla an award for green entrepreneurship by the Business Outreach Center (BOC) Network, an organization dedicated to small business development in New York City’s ethnically diverse neighborhoods. Entrepreneurs were selected for this award for their efforts to go beyond just recycling in their green businesses.
Sevilla wants the award to help her spread eco-awareness. “I hope that people will seek us out for advice,” she said. “Everybody wants to be green — I don’t think they necessarily know how to do it.
“People come to me and say, ‘I don’t have a yard.’ Well, you don’t need a yard,” Sevilla continued. “We could be growing food on the roofs, there’s so much wasted space on the roofs ... you have a wall, put hooks on your wall, use window boxes.
“There are a lot of things around us that we can use.”
For hours and information about Rose Red & Lavender’s products and services, visit www.roseredandlavender.com. For information about BOC, visit www.bocnet.org.
Photo above by Amy Wise. Little Lavender came before the shop.
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Mayor Bloomberg Appoints Brooklynite Caswell Holloway to Head Department of Environmental Protection
The Eagle received this press release:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today appointed Caswell F. Holloway — who lives in Brooklyn Heights — as Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. Holloway currently serves as Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler and as Special Advisor to Mayor Bloomberg.
Holloway took a leading role in the writing and implementation of the Administration’s report on the health impacts of September 11 and led negotiations on 9/11 health legislation that has been introduced in both houses of Congress. He also played a lead role in developing the City’s comprehensive cleanup plan for the Gowanus Canal and in the passage and implementation of the City’s new Solid Waste Management Plan.
Holloway will replace Acting Commissioner Steven Lawitts, who has served since the departure of Commissioner Emily Lloyd last October. Holloway will begin work at the Department of Environmental Protection in January.
“Since he came to City Hall, Cas has worked a couple of desks away from me and I have watched him take on some of the toughest assignments and deliver solutions, from 9/11 health to the Gowanus Cleanup to reforming demolition procedures in the wake of the tragic 130 Liberty Street fire,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “I’ve seen him work closely with senior managers at a range of City agencies on matters large and small, with a singular focus on results. Under Cas’s leadership, we’re going to complete vital infrastructure projects like the Third Water Tunnel, improve security of our city’s 2,000-square-mile watershed, and move forward with DEP’s ten-year, $13 billion capital program. I want to thank Steve Lawitts for leading this agency during the transition period, and I know Cas will build on his good work.”
“New York City has the best drinking water in the nation, and the waterways that surround us have always been a key to the City’s prosperity,” said Commissioner Holloway. “Mayor Bloomberg has led the way in making the investments necessary to prepare our water and sewer infrastructure for the next century, and I am thrilled at the opportunity to work with the talented and dedicated team at DEP to continue that effort, and to press forward aggressively to open as much of our waterfront as possible to renewed investment and recreation.”
Commissioner Holloway has started key initiatives like the new citywide public recycling program and worked with the Fire Department to implement new inspection protocols and safety measures for first responders on construction sites. Over the last year, he led the negotiations that resulted in the Project Labor Agreements announced last week, which will allow the City to save money on and invest more in major infrastructure projects. The agreements include provisions that will ensure better access to good construction jobs for Minority and Women-owned small-business enterprises.
The Department of Environmental Protection’s more than 6,000-person staff is responsible for the City’s air and water quality, for the safety and operation of a water supply system that serves more than 8.5 million people daily, for collecting and processing wastewater, and for enforcing compliance in the handling and disposal of hazardous materials.
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Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today appointed Caswell F. Holloway — who lives in Brooklyn Heights — as Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. Holloway currently serves as Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler and as Special Advisor to Mayor Bloomberg.
Holloway took a leading role in the writing and implementation of the Administration’s report on the health impacts of September 11 and led negotiations on 9/11 health legislation that has been introduced in both houses of Congress. He also played a lead role in developing the City’s comprehensive cleanup plan for the Gowanus Canal and in the passage and implementation of the City’s new Solid Waste Management Plan.
Holloway will replace Acting Commissioner Steven Lawitts, who has served since the departure of Commissioner Emily Lloyd last October. Holloway will begin work at the Department of Environmental Protection in January.
“Since he came to City Hall, Cas has worked a couple of desks away from me and I have watched him take on some of the toughest assignments and deliver solutions, from 9/11 health to the Gowanus Cleanup to reforming demolition procedures in the wake of the tragic 130 Liberty Street fire,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “I’ve seen him work closely with senior managers at a range of City agencies on matters large and small, with a singular focus on results. Under Cas’s leadership, we’re going to complete vital infrastructure projects like the Third Water Tunnel, improve security of our city’s 2,000-square-mile watershed, and move forward with DEP’s ten-year, $13 billion capital program. I want to thank Steve Lawitts for leading this agency during the transition period, and I know Cas will build on his good work.”
“New York City has the best drinking water in the nation, and the waterways that surround us have always been a key to the City’s prosperity,” said Commissioner Holloway. “Mayor Bloomberg has led the way in making the investments necessary to prepare our water and sewer infrastructure for the next century, and I am thrilled at the opportunity to work with the talented and dedicated team at DEP to continue that effort, and to press forward aggressively to open as much of our waterfront as possible to renewed investment and recreation.”
Commissioner Holloway has started key initiatives like the new citywide public recycling program and worked with the Fire Department to implement new inspection protocols and safety measures for first responders on construction sites. Over the last year, he led the negotiations that resulted in the Project Labor Agreements announced last week, which will allow the City to save money on and invest more in major infrastructure projects. The agreements include provisions that will ensure better access to good construction jobs for Minority and Women-owned small-business enterprises.
The Department of Environmental Protection’s more than 6,000-person staff is responsible for the City’s air and water quality, for the safety and operation of a water supply system that serves more than 8.5 million people daily, for collecting and processing wastewater, and for enforcing compliance in the handling and disposal of hazardous materials.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
Recycled and Stitched Art Exhibition in Brooklyn
The Gumbo Gallery and Stevie’s Artisans present a multimedia exhibition of “Recycled and Stitched Art: The Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary” at Gumbo, 493 Atlantic Ave. (between Nevins and Third avenues). The exhibition opens with a reception Sunday, Dec 6 from 3 – 5 p.m. and runs through Sunday, Jan. 31.
“Recycled and Stitched Art,” will feature fabric art by Margaret Cusack; zipper jewelry by Kate Cusack (left); pillows and wall hangings by Joyce Daniels; stitched portraits on paper by Marlene Mayerson; mobiles made from recycled wood, metal and poetry fragments by Elizabeth Ortiz; paintings on broken glass and sculpture by Ibou N’doye; spray painted fabric and paper towel construction by Beatrix Piesh (What Do You Do For Love, spray paint on wood, below); mixed media wood boxes by Leslie Rubman; quilts by 
Teri Scaduto,;and dolls from recycled New York Times bags by Beatrice Weiner Cohen.
During the reception, artisans featured by Stevie’s Artisans will demonstrate their crafts in mini-workshops. Participating artisans are Elizabeth Ortiz, Karen Ahn, Aaron Lazansky and Diana Pucci.
This exhibition complements this year’s theme — “A Green Holiday” — of the holiday window displays of the Atlantic Avenue merchants. Windows will be judged by a distinguished panel of judges and winners will be announced at the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the Belarusan Church at Atlantic and Bond.
Images courtesy of Stevie’s Artisans
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“Recycled and Stitched Art,” will feature fabric art by Margaret Cusack; zipper jewelry by Kate Cusack (left); pillows and wall hangings by Joyce Daniels; stitched portraits on paper by Marlene Mayerson; mobiles made from recycled wood, metal and poetry fragments by Elizabeth Ortiz; paintings on broken glass and sculpture by Ibou N’doye; spray painted fabric and paper towel construction by Beatrix Piesh (What Do You Do For Love, spray paint on wood, below); mixed media wood boxes by Leslie Rubman; quilts by 
Teri Scaduto,;and dolls from recycled New York Times bags by Beatrice Weiner Cohen.During the reception, artisans featured by Stevie’s Artisans will demonstrate their crafts in mini-workshops. Participating artisans are Elizabeth Ortiz, Karen Ahn, Aaron Lazansky and Diana Pucci.
This exhibition complements this year’s theme — “A Green Holiday” — of the holiday window displays of the Atlantic Avenue merchants. Windows will be judged by a distinguished panel of judges and winners will be announced at the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the Belarusan Church at Atlantic and Bond.
Images courtesy of Stevie’s Artisans
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