Climate Change

Canadian Tar Sands + Peace Poets Make for an Interesting Day

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Sr. Margie Swedish and the Peace Poets
Margie Swedish and the Peace Poets

This weekend’s event for Homecoming Farm in Amityville, NY (http://homecomingearth.org/), a CSA on the land of the Dominican sisters, focused on our inter-connectivity with nature and the debate of oil mining for our immediate needs versus awareness of its broader impacts. Speaker Margaret Swedish, author of “Living Beyond the End of the World: A Spirituality of Hope” and the blog http://www.ecologicalhope.org/category/blog/ showed profoundly moving photos and videos from her travels to Alberta Canada where boreal forests are being clear-cut for the mining of sand containing bentonite that can be converted into fuel oil. In her interviews of locals, she discovered that people are generally split on whether or not they support the mining since it has been a large boon to the economy but they, including some native tribes, also see beautiful areas of their homeland being destroyed and the work itself is dismal.

The mood was lifted to a more hopeful one by an incredible performance by the Peace Poets, a group of young Bronx men that “spits” positive messages about peace, caring for family, and personal responsibility, in an artistic form of rap. See https://www.facebook.com/ThePeacePoets.

Repost from Climate Reality Blog: 100% Renewables Now!!

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Happy to have contributed to the Climate Reality Blog, on a report released by the organization I work for, Renewable Energy Long Island.

100% Renewable — 100% Doable

09/10/2012 // 2:00 PM //

Source: Renewable Energy Long Island

 

This is a guest post by Beth Fiteni, Program Manager at Renewable Energy Long Island.When Al Gore challenged the nation in his famous 2008 speech to achieve 100% renewable electricity within 10 years, Gordian Raacke listened. As a Climate Reality Leader and executive director of the advocacy groupRenewable Energy Long Island (reLI), Gordian was already powering 100% of his home with solar energy. But he didn’t want to stop there.

He picked up on Mr. Gore’s challenge and wondered whether Long Island could meet the electricity needs of its 3 million people with renewable energy technologies available today. With funding from two foundations and supported by a coalition of organizations including national groups like 350.org, reLI hired Synapse Energy Economics to get some expert answers.

The result is the Long Island Clean Electricity Vision, which found that by 2020 it is possible to meet 100% of Long Island’s residential electricity needs from renewables, and by 2030 to have a 100% renewable, zero-carbon electricity supply. The study finds the cost to be modest: Average customer bills are estimated to increase by roughly 8-12%. On a typical household’s monthly utility bill, this amounts to between $12 and $18, or the price of a pizza. [Read more…] about Repost from Climate Reality Blog: 100% Renewables Now!!

1000 Trained by Al Gore on Climate Reality

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People from 47 U.S. states and 58 countries spent 3 days in San Francisco being trained by Al Gore and team at the Climate Reality Project training, 8/21-23/12. The group included none other than Ms. Bette Midler! (see more on her NY Restoration Project at www.nyrp.org) Mr. Gore presented his entire current slideshow, supported by climate scientist Mike MacCracken of the Climate Institute.

3 new things I learned:

1) Humans emit 90 million tons of CO2 every DAY (we are now up to 390ppm in the atmosphere though scientists say we should be at 350ppm);

2) Some climate scientists are now saying that the high number of extreme weather events around the globe can clearly be attributed to climate change, whereas they had been hesitant to make that connection in the past;

3) Other countries are facing climate impacts so directly that they don’t have the same level of denial we have here. The fossil industry has paid PR firms to successfully plant doubt in the public’s mind in the U.S. It was embarrassing – at one point conference organizers said “people dealing with deniers (Americans) stay in this room, and people from other countries who want to focus on action steps meet in room B.”

But it wasn’t all bad news: last year more was invested globally in renewable energy ($187 billion) than on fossil infrastructure- yay! And San Francisco is an exemplary green city. There is hope….  See http://climaterealityproject.org/ if you would like a presentation.

Beth Fiteni & Gordian Raacke of Renewable Energy LI at training

An Evening with Frances Moore Lappe’s Small Planet Fund

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Frances Moore Lappe and daughter, Anna at the Small Planet Fund Gala & Auction

One of the reasons I love living near New York City is the opportunity to attend events like I did last night. I had the great fortune of spending an evening with Frances Moore Lappe, her daughter Anna Lappe, and 100 of their closest friends. It was the 10th Anniversary of their Small Planet Fund, and an auction was held to benefit this year’s grantee, Real Food Now (see realfoodchallenge.org). The event took place in a beautiful private loft in Soho, NYC, and guests included many from around the region who work to support local food production, fresh food access for all, and healthy options in schools — such as Catherine Gund, maker of the film “What’s On Your Plate?” and Bhavani Jaroff, of Slow Food Huntington. It was a pleasure to meet Frances Moore Lappe, whose seminal book “Diet for a Small Planet” published in the 1970s created such a wave of awareness, and it is doubly inspiring to see how her daughter Anna has followed in her footsteps. They co-authored the book, “Hope’s Edge” several years back, and each have newer books out since then: Frances has written “Eco Mind” about the psychology of changing our attitudes towards the earth, and Anna has written “Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It.” See smallplanetfund.org.

Conservation Commissions Hold Conference on the Environment

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Oct 21-23, 20011– The NYS Association of Conservation Commissions (NYSACC) held their annual meeting in Rensselearville, NY (near Albany) and I was invited to participate in a panel on climate change. It was a very smart and conscientious group, including some students who were given scholarships to attend. It was a fact-filled conference, with many from around the state sharing stories of their efforts to reduce their town’s greenhouse gas emissions. A compelling lecture was offered by Michael Gerrard, a well-known expert on environmental law from Columbia University. He spoke about the fact that when scientists talk about the effect of excess carbon dioxide, they have already taken into account all the natural background contributors, such as volcanoes and sun activity. He noted the widespread doubt being fostered by conservative news outlets and politicians, however there really is no scientific doubt anymore. Robert Moore, Environmental Advocates, spoke about hydrofracking and some of the other campaigns their organization is working on. I think everyone gained a lot of information that will assist them in going back to address the work that is clearly cut out for us. See www.nysaccny.org.

Mark Lowery, NYS DEC conducts workshop

Greater Long Island Clean Cities, Advancing the Choice

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The Greater Long Island Clean Cities held its annual Advancing the Choice Conference on October 14th, 2011 at Bethpage Park. This event highlights alternative fuel vehicles, alternative fuels, and all the people locally who are helping to make them a reality here on Long Island. Peter Scully, Regional Director of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) addressed the crowd with facts about climate change to remind the group why their efforts are so important. He pointed out a scary fact– because we are releasing so much carbon into the atmosphere that is binding with oxygen, there is now actually less in oxygen in the atmosphere. On the positive side, it’s therefore always inspiring to hear about successes with fleets being converted from conventional fossil sources of fuel, and to actually see cutting edge vehicles on display. See GLICC.org.

David Schieren, Empower Solar, loves his new Chevy Volt
Peter Scully, Regional DEC Director speaks at GLICCC event