RENewsletter | June 28, 2009

 

The Free environmental newsletter from RochesterEnvironment.com  

“Our Environment is changing: Keep up with the Change.”

[06/21/09– 06/28/09]

 

* Need to vent? | Go to my blog: Environmental Thoughts - Rochester, NY

 

Opening Salvo | NewsLinks | Daily Updates | Events | Environmental Site of the Month | Take Action |

 

[Hyperlinks work by CTRL + click to follow a link]

 

*** The June 2009 Environmental Site of the Month Award goes to Cool Rochester--Save money, energy, the planet  http://www.coolrochester.org/   Go to Award

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Opening Salvo:  “Green Jobs: Position Yourself!”

 

Much of the news and information about green jobs (still) seems like hype: Lots of cheerleading, but few actual green ‘shovel-ready’ work opportunities. As one who has been following this thread myself for some time, it does seem like a highly inflated exuberance over an employment market that has yet to be.  But, I believe ‘seems’ is the operative word here.

 

Despite more talk and less jobs, there is hard evidence that green jobs are the real deal. Witness the passage of the climate bill just passed in the house and Obama’s Stimulus package promising new jobs. Things are radically changing, but how will new attitudes towards climate change and green technology translate into actual jobs in our area?

 

Presently, you search for green jobs on all your favorite search engines and you come up with: cardiology, electrophysiology, oncology/hematology, systems key operator, Sr., pathologist, podiatrist, electrical test technician ITT, spot welder, registered nurse/RN, speech-language pathologist—you get the picture.  These jobs are great if you have the credentials, but what’s especially ‘green’ about them?  People looking for green jobs now need to get the proper training to get the credentials for actual jobs that exist today. 

 

At a green job forum last Thursday, sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County many were hoping to learn just that—where do I go, what do I do?  I’ve listed and organized much of that material on this page: Green Business. [http://www.rochesterenvironment.com/Green%20Business.htm] It is worth your time to learn about this emerging market, and while I may not be able to point you that perfect job tomorrow, I’ve got some ideas on how you can position yourself for the green-job tidal wave.  There’s no lack of energy in industry, government, and non-profits as they ramp up getting the public ready for these new jobs.

 

Quickly, here’s what you do: 1. Get educated and trained. We are lucky to live in a community with many institutions for higher education and an official green attitude.  Our community colleges are able to find out what local industry needs and ramp up training for those green jobs.  Not to mention we have some of the best universities in the country offering degrees in environmental studies, while researching cutting-edge environmental technology and medicine.

 

2. Stay informed on green jobs and act: Some local and national web sites are devoting special attention to the latest companies providing green jobs and what industries are best positioning themselves to compete in this new economy.  When bills come up that favor green jobs, contact your representatives. Also, align yourself with groups petitioning the government for more green jobs, like The Center for Working Families and Green For All  Next, press your government for more green jobs now by letting them know it matters to you. Check this site often: Recovery and Reinvestment Act

 

3. Frequent specific green job search engines and post your resumes: Without a doubt, online search engines are where you go to find employment today—newspaper classifieds are history. Yes, sites especially focused on the green market are rampant. However, most have yet to be really useful and won’t be until they stop the misleading ads, drill down to actual green jobs, and not simply list blue-collar jobs painted green. Admitted much of the green job future will be engineers, installers, designers, etc. but to be accurately labeled ‘green’ they will need to be retrofitted to increase energy efficiency and decease pollution and stop waste. So, until this green search market gets more sophisticated you’ll see the jobs without the training. But eventually, by reputation the sites that actually get people jobs will prevail. (Google took over the search engine market because it took you where you wanted to go, not where those who paid the most to search engines wanted you to go.)

 

4. Volunteer and branch out: To best position yourself in fields (web designers, grant writers, project managers, environmental educators, etc.) that have the most promise in the new economic world, get yourself volunteered.  With the Recession plunging our present job market into a freefall, many green oriented businesses or non-profits need help: interns, volunteers, grant writers, clerks, drivers, you-name-it.

 

Don’t focus on one employment thread and don’t waste this crisis. Don’t give up. Position yourself for the change that has to come. Don’t just wait for something to happen, make it happen.  OK, so this cheerleading thing is hard to control, and many anxious to see this new market happen now engage in it. But really, green jobs are coming.  If they weren’t, we wouldn’t be adapting to change. Get ready.

 

 

FrankRegan@RochesterEnvironment.com  (Click on my email for feedback)

 

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NewsLinks – Environmental NewsLinks – [Highlights of major environmental stories concerning our area from the past week]

 

·         House Passes Climate Bill

·         Electronic Bicycle

·         New York's Role in Climate Bill

·         NYS DEC "Summer Camps"

·         Seaway Concerns

·         Emerald Ash Borer - Nature Conservancy

·         Cormorant Control

·         600 Neighborhoods Air Have Cancer Risk

·         Climate Showcase Communities Grant - EPA

·         Gov: Rochester Jobs

·         Wind Power Off-Shore

·         Boatwrap Recycling

·         Bottled Water Withdrawals from Great Lakes

·         Water Withdrawals - Great Lakes?

·         Wind Energy - Great Lakes

·         Wind Turbine Codes - Victor

·         Is Flu Mutating?

·         Jamestown Coal Plant Issue

·         Checking out Lake Erie

·         The Cost of Coal

·         West Nile Virus Hotline Suffolk Co.

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Updates – Daily Updates – [Connecting the dots on Rochester’s environment. Find out what’s going on environmentally in our area—and why you should care? Clicking on -DISCUSSION – will take you to my blog “Environmental Thoughts, NY, where you can add your comments.]

• 6/27/09 --Green Jobs: If you missed the Green Job's Forum, Thursday June 25 sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County     I have collected all the resources suggested for finding green jobs from yesterday’s program and added them to my existing Green Business page http://www.rochesterenvironment.com/Green%20Business.htm to help people in our area get jobs and help our environment. 
• 6/27/09 - Critical Feedback Requested about our community: We here at RochesterEnvironment.com wish to remind you again of an important website that has been launched in our area.  ACT Rochester  has been a long time in the works and is modeled on other cities who have worked on this concept of provide communities of important indicator that will determine among other things Education, Environment, Technology, Transportation, Health, Public Safety, etc. This site is an on-going, long-term project to provide not only community groups and governmental bodies, but you the citizen who cares about your community, with critical data (not opinions and news, but expertly acquired data).  Please take a moment to get the facts about the state of Rochester, New York’s sustainability prospects and most importantly get engaged.  Answers to surveys and comments are asked at this site and this is important because feedback from these people who are actually collecting the data about our community is critical.  It’s not like blogs, or newspapers who want to know how important Michael Jackson is to your life, but what kind of information do you or your group need to know to begin project, complete grants, clean up your neighborhood.  So, please get engaged with this special website in our community and encourage your employer, you friends, your groups that you belong to of this unique and important resource for our area. It’s not just the usual stuff, trust me:  ACT Rochester "Changing the Culture of Public Discussion and Debate The mission of ACT Rochester is to stimulate community solutions to our most critical challenges by changing the culture of public discussion and debate.  This will be achieved through focused, independent and objective measurement of key community indicators, through diverse and timely dialogue and by promoting results-oriented actions. ACT Rochester is a collaboration of Rochester Area Community Foundation and the United Way of Greater Rochester.  We developed the Website together, along with assistance from the Center for Governmental Research, and plan to sustain and update it as a central component of ACT Rochester.   We hope that the comprehensive data and other information contained here will serve as a focal point for formal and informal community forums and inspire you and others in the community to share comments and participate in polls, which will be added to the Website in the coming months. In addition, we will be scheduling a variety of community discussions and activities beginning in the fall of 2009. The name ACT Rochester urges action, specifically in response to the issues highlighted by the data.  The name also stands for Achieving Community Targets, which signals the potential to establish specific targets or goals for improvement.  These targets will be the result of the community involvement process, and will form the future development of ACT Rochester. ACT Rochester currently covers a seven-county region: Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Wayne and Wyoming.  This Website contains indicators, analysis of trends, summaries of community efforts to address issues and numerous listings of community resources.  Please see the Using the Site section for details on the rich information contained here and tips on how to best use the site. "
• 6/27/09 -- Help monitor the environment this summer: Make summer a blast with BirdSleuth! Are you looking for new, low-cost activities for your camp, nature center, scouting troop, home school, or youth program? I hope you'll consider the BirdSleuth curriculum developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The first module, BirdSleuth: Most Wanted Birds, contains fun, easy lessons with activities that teach children how to identify birds and collect observations that can be reported to the Cornell Lab and used in scientific studies. The curriculum comes with everything you need to help children make an important connection with nature-perhaps for the first time. Each flexible, easy-to-use lesson in BirdSleuth is geared --from Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• 6/27/09 -- This about the American Clean Energy and Security act by Union of Concerned Scientists" Moments ago, the House of Representatives took a historic vote to pass comprehensive climate legislation that would put in place a nationwide plan to rein in global warming pollution and create an entirely new, cleaner approach to our nation's energy system.     This legislation does not include everything we wanted—nor did we expect it would—but it establishes a critical first step in building the foundation to rein in global warming pollution, reduce our dependence on oil, and transition to a clean energy economy.   What's more, in a clear victory for science, the bill includes key provisions ensuring these policies can be strengthened in the future in response to emerging climate science—provisions UCS helped write and win support for.    This progress wouldn't have happened if it weren't for UCS supporters like you. You've demanded that Congress take action and provided us with the funding needed to advocate for smart climate solutions, distribute our analysis to Congress, and mobilize nationwide support for this bill.    History has shown that when it comes to cleaning up our environment, getting a national policy in place makes an enormous difference. Again and again, we have shown that we can rise to the challenge set by these national policies by meeting and surpassing environmental standards through innovation, smart science, and American ingenuity. The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act made possible the healthier environment that we take for granted today. When people saw that these vital pieces of legislation were saving lives and helping us breathe easier and drink safer water, they pushed for more. And then we were able to make these protections even stronger.   But we have a long, up-hill battle before us to ensure this groundbreaking legislation becomes law—and the scientific and technical expertise UCS brings to these issues will be essential in this fight. The House of Representatives has shown the way forward, but now our work moves to the Senate where we’ll once again be up against the coal and oil industries and the legislators who support them.   President Obama has already expressed support for this bill. But we will need your help to put a strong bill over the finish line. Specifically, you can help turn up the heat on the Senate to act quickly and ensure that we enact a final bill that helps build a revitalized clean energy economy, while reducing the threat of global warming.  "American Clean Energy and Security Act | Union of Concerned Scientists American Clean Energy and Security Act H.R. 2454 The American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) sets us on the path toward curbing global warming, reducing our dependence on oil, and putting Americans back to work. Specifically, the bill: --from the
• 6/27/09 --Here's what the city of Toronto (just across the waters) is doing about climate change in their city this summer: City of Toronto: Change is in the Air... Climate Change, Clean Air & Sustainable Energy Action Plan In July 2007, Council unanimously approved Toronto's Climate Change, Clean Air & Sustainable Energy Action Plan. This plan outlines how the City of Toronto, and its residents, businesses and communities will cut greenhouse gas emissions, clean the air and help create a sustainable energy future.
• 6/26/09 - Still looking for that Green Job? This page Green Business has been updated with information and resources I learned from yesterday's Green Jobs Forum from the Monroe County branch of the Cornell Cooperative Extension / New York Energy Smart Programs.
• 6/24/09 - Quietly working on our Environment, don't forget what our city of Rochester is doing to make our city sustainable: City of Rochester | Green Team Mayor Duffy set up the Green Team to ensure that the City maintains and enhances its long-standing commitment to preserving, protecting, and restoring our natural resources.  The City of Rochester will demonstrate through practice and policy our commitment to exemplary environmental stewardship.  The City, while cognizant of fiscal limits, is committed to the implementation of environmental management practices which will provide a healthy and sustainable environment and enhance the quality of life for our citizens. 
• 6/24/09 - Something from the EPA on environmental education: Climate Change, Wildlife, and Wildlands Toolkit | What You Can Do | Climate Change | U.S. EPA A Toolkit for Formal and Informal Educators The new Climate Change, Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit for Formal and Informal Educators is an updated and expanded version of the award-winning (2001 Public Relations Society of America Bronze Anvil Award for Interactive Communications and 2002 Telly Award) and very popular (over 40,000 kits distributed in all 51 states and territories and over a dozen countries across the world) Climate Change, Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit for Teachers and Interpreters first published in 2001.
• 6/23/09 – You’re going to see Purple Boxes in our area soon: MDA - Emerald Ash Borer - Purple Trap Survey Q & A "The emerald ash borer (EAB) is a small, metallic-green, wood-boring beetle that was discovered in southeast Michigan in 2002. Native to Asia, it’s believed to have been unknowingly transported to the United States in wood packing material. Since its discovery, the EAB has been detected in six other States -- Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Federal and State quarantines have been established in these States to mitigate the spread of EAB. Quarantines prohibit the movement (within the State and out of the State) of regulated articles, which include ash nursery stock, ash logs and lumber with bark, pallets, branches, stumps, etc., and all hardwood chips and firewood."-MDA - Department of Agriculture
• 6/22/09 - This weeks RENewsletter is now published: RENewsletter | June 21, 2009
• 6/22/09 - With summer nowadays, comes West Nile Virus: Take precautions and learn more form Public Health | Monroe County, NY West Nile virus (WNV) is an illness transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. The illness is most serious for older people; healthy children and younger adults are at very low-risk for serious WNV infection.
• 6/22/09 - Summertime and we’re thinking beaches.  But, how safe are they this year?  How many times have they been closed?  Check here: Monroe County Beaches –from Beaches | US EPA "Beaches are a place to play, watch wildlife, fish, and swim. With beaches giving us so much, we have to protect them from a variety of potential problems. We can help you plan a trip to the beach, learn about beaches and the issues around them, and understand how we protect beaches."

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Events – Rochester Environmental Events Calendar – [The most complete listing of all environmental events around the Rochester, New York area.]  If you don’t see your event, or know of a local environmental event, please send me the info: FrankRegan@RochesterEnvironment.com with (EV event) in the subject line.

 

• The Finger Lakes:  Lake Country or Trash Country?  Thursday July 2, 2009 6:30-8:30 at the Wood Library, 134 N. Main Street, Canandaigua, an educational forum on Zero Waste principles and landfill issues.  Free and open to the public.  Refreshments provided by Doc's Lakeside Restaurant. Link to www.fingerlakeszerowaste.org
• Genesee Valley Audubon society presents Painting Birds in Pastel by artist, Gloria Betlem July 16 & 23,  7-9 pm Two delightful Tuesday evenings This workshop is for those who like to express themselves artistically and who love birds! Some drawing experience will help you as you learn how to apply the luminous pastel colors which so perfectly express those of our fair feathered friends, and we explore bird shape, color, and expression.   $40 REGISTRATION MUST BE RECEIVED BY JULY 9  please send by July 6 for registration info: CALL 585-739-2124 or email globeing@aol.com   or     wwww.gloriabetlem.com - (studio schedule) Where:      Betlem~Divers Studio 6414 S. Lima Rd, Livonia Instructor:  Gloria Betlem, MFA is an award winning artist and teacher, with over thirty years experience as a pastel artist. Her teaching style embraces your individual needs with exceptional sensitivity and ability to communicate. She received a grant from New York State Council on the Arts this year for her bird paintings which will be shown this fall. Keep this date! Exhibition: “THE BIRDS” September 26 & 27, 1-5 PM Chip Holt Nature Center, Vitale Park, Lakeville, NY
• Think Green' at the RMSC - Canandaigua, NY - MPNnow Rochester, N.Y. — The Rochester Museum and Science Center will offer a new Family Friday program about conservationism and environmentalism on July 24 from 12-4 p.m. (June 22, 09) Home - Canandaigua, NY - MPNnow
• New York Green Fest 2009 Share ideas and skills for sustainable living and Green politics, August 7-9, in Alfred, NY. Learn how to build your own wind turbine, produce videos for the internet, make tofu, make poetry, grow nut trees, and build an earth oven. Discuss economics as a cultural system, sustainable cities, the rights of nature, local sovereignty, the reality of renewable energy and liberation ecology. Listen to our plenary speakers: Virginia Rasmussen and Cyril Mychelako on the Politics of Sustainability, Art Weaver and Dan Miner on Sustainable Energy, Joel Kovel and Tony Gronowicz on Politics and Nature, Bill Kauffman and Lyn Gerry on Regionalism and Sustainability, and Steve Welzer and Jason Nabewaniec on Visioning a Green Future. Green Fest 2009 will be held on the campus of Alfred University in Alfred, NY. Alfred is in rural Allegany County, 80 miles south of Rochester. The Short Line Bus runs several buses daily between Alfred, Westchester, New York City and Long Island. Green Fest will arrange buses from Rochester for attendees.
• Healthy Buildings 2009 (http://www.hb2009.org), an international conference and exhibition showcasing innovations in indoor environmental quality and healthy and sustainable environmental technology, will be held in US for the first time in 12 years, September 13-17, 2009. Hosted by the Syracuse Center of Excellence and Syracuse University, ISIAQ's signature conference will draw more than 1,000 researchers and professionals from the disciplines of architecture, building products and services, engineering, indoor environmental quality, public health, urban planning, and workplace performance from more than 42 different countries. HB2009 includes remarkable plenary speakers such as Rick Fedrizzi, Founder of USGBC, as well as Dr. Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes of the University of Porto in Portugal, Dr. Yuguo Li of the University of Hong Kong, and Dr. Shin-ichi Tanabe of Waseda University in Japan; who have each made immense contributions to the body of research in indoor air quality and related fields. The exhibition (http://hb2009.org/exhibition), featuring the latest advancements in green and clean technologies and innovation, will also showcase "OppEx," an Opportunity Exchange (http://hb2009.org/opportunity_exchange) that will include industry-leader keynote speakers; healthy buildings and clean and green technology product and service demonstrations; technology transfer ideas from world-class research universities; and many more opportunities for intellectual collisions among attendees. In today's uncertain economic climate, the benefit of international exchange and engagement is critical. HB2009 offers researchers, professionals, and community planners a unique opportunity to think strategically about the direction of industry and technology through academic and industry collaboration in a world going green. For more information about the conference and exhibition please visit our website at www.hb2009.org, or contact clmatthe@syr.edu. Also, in addition to the rates currently listed on the web site, there is also a $25 one-day exhibition pass for those wishing to be a part of HB2009 on a limited budget.
• Help Clean Up the World and put your activity on the global environmental map!   Held in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Clean Up the World is one of the world’s largest community-based environmental campaigns with an estimated 35 million volunteers from 120 countries participating annually in environmental activities.   Join the campaign and put your group and its activity on the global environmental map by visiting activities.cleanuptheworld.org .  Activities can be conducted year round, however the campaign’s flagship event, Clean Up the World Weekend (18-20 September 2009) is a global celebration of the environmental actions and achievements of participants.   Joining Clean Up the World is simple: ■ Register online: http//:activities.cleanuptheworld.org ■ Email: info@cleanuptheworld.org ■ Visit: www.cleanuptheworld.org ■ Call: +61 2 9692 0700 ■ Post: 18 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037, Australia. Clean Up Clean Up the World partners with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to inspire and assist communities to "clean up, fix up and conserve their local environment" through carrying out initiatives ranging from waste removal and tree planting to water and energy conservation projects. Clean Up the World and its participating organisations mobilise an estimated 35 million volunteers from more than 120 countries annually.
• October 24, 2009 is INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE ACTION DAY, and is being coordinated by 350.org, the grassroots organizing brainchild of Bill McKibben. The idea is to mobilize grassroots groups all over the world to hold highly visible public / media events on 10/24/09. Each event should highlight the number 350—the maximum global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (in parts per million- ppm) that is safe for the long term. We are already up to 387, and increasing. For more details: http://www.350.org/  We need to do something in Rochester, and to be worth doing, it should be a coordinated effort between several groups, and something creative, eye-catching…. Media-worthy! That’s the point—to have media worldwide show that there is a groundswell of popular support for a global treaty (successor to Kyoto), and that therefore world leaders must craft a plan to bring levels down to 350 ppm by the time they leave the international climate talks in Copenhagen in December of this year. Are you interested in helping? If this is to be done, we would need people to: • Reach out to other groups/ organizations to see what they are doing, and try to coordinate (for all I know, there is already an effort planned that we could work with) • Be creative- come up with a good location / “shtick” to make it media-worthy • Recruit others • Contact media

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Action – Take Action - Often, I receive request to pass on alerts, petitions, Public Comments on local developments, and environmental items needing action by the Rochester Community and around the world. I’ll keep Actions posted until their due date. 

• I’m passing on this interesting proposal: Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Bond Act. For those of us [the public] who helped the banks who almost failed save our bailout monies, now it’s time for us to consider a bill that would protect our environment and help create green jobs.  So, on the face of it, this bill seems especially timely: the proposed Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Bond Act - A writer suggests: "The $5 Billion Clean Water, Clean Air & Green Jobs Bond Act of 2009 as it is proposed would vastly expand opportunities for conservation beyond state and federally funded programs and initiatives.  Voter-approved bond proceeds would be utilized for state environmental projects that protect our water, land and air and create jobs.  Funding created through this initiative would make long-term improvements to our environmental infrastructure and natural resources, energy efficiency, transit, building weatherization, public health protection and economic development.  The Bond Act would build upon the federal stimulus and provide a significant investment to further New York’s economic recovery through environmentally friendly capital investments.    It was our intent in the development of this proposal to have the largest economic benefit as possible and in areas where their were natural fits - seek to elevate some of the burdens put on local municipalities - such as wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, energy efficiency program, brownfields cleanup and environmental remediation program funding,  as well as traditional conservation efforts like the protection of open space, habitat restoration and parks.     As you will see from the attached draft case statement, there are areas that could have a significant benefit regions across the state - including the Rochester area." Here's more  Working Daft NYS 2009 Environmental Bond Case Statement | ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

 

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Award – Environmental Site of the Month Award – [On the last Sunday of each month, we present an environmental award for the Rochester-area environmental web site or blog that best promotes the need to protect and offers solutions for our area's environmental issues.]

 

Proof that our region is greening up for the future (more conservation, less pollution, less waste) are emerging programs like Cool Rochester. These dedicated people’s goals are to “…engage 100,000 people (40,000 households) in the Rochester area to reduce their annual carbon footprint by 10,000 pounds per household (a total annual reduction of 400 million pounds - 200,000 tons - of CO2.) Over a three year-period this will reduce the carbon footprint of the Rochester, NY area by over 1 Billion pounds – 500,000 tons – of CO2. This will be 10% reduction of residential CO2 emissions.” No half-measures here.  Check them out this site, as it grows, join up and become part of Rochester’s greening up for our future.  

 

Cool Rochester--Save money, energy, the planet http://www.coolrochester.org/ Cool Rochester is a non-profit group composed of concerned citizens who are engaging the Rochester community in the fight against climate change. We believe dramatic reductions of carbon dioxide emissions are necessary to preserve and protect a functioning planet for this (and future) generations. Our goal is to reduce Rochester area carbon emissions one billion pounds in three years. To achieve this, we need to recruit 80,000 households and workplaces to participate in our program, to reduce their emissions by 25%. By unleashing the power of community we can save energy, save money and save the planet. Join Cool Rochester.