RENewsletter June 10, 2012

RENewsletter | June 10, 2012

The Free environmental newsletter from RochesterEnvironment.com

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

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/FrankRrrr

Please “like” RochesterEnvironment.com’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RochesterEnvironment

My companion book to RochesterEnvironment.com written in 2005 still holds true. Now, “We Don’t Get It!” is an E-Book on Amazon.com and Kindle Amazon.com: We Don't Get It! eBook: Frank Regan: Books

[06/03/2012 – 06/10/2012]

Opening Salvo: “Climate Change, a failure of leadership and courage”

If you are accustomed to gathering environmental news from around this region, you must have come across this news that Syracuse has completed a draft Sustainability Plan.

Comments sought on Syracuse sustainability plan The city of Syracuse has published a draft “sustainability plan” and is seeking public comments. The plan sets goals for the city in five areas: energy and green building; waste and recycling; natural environment; food systems and education. (May 23, 2012) syracuse.com

There has been scant attention to it here in Rochester, except for this sour note:

Lofty goals for Syracuse's first sustainability plan | Innovation Trail The city of Syracuse wants to get half its power from renewable energy sources by 2020. That's just one of the targets laid out in a draft version of Syracuse's first sustainability plan [PDF]. (May 31, 2012)Innovation Trail

In truth this ‘sustainability plan’ is a ‘climate action plan’, and it’s a darn shame the authors and those who handled the authors failed in courage to call it what it is. These two sentences, buried in the first paragraph of the introduction, reveal this document’s true nature:

While the use of this energy has led to the success of Syracuse as a cultural, economic and educational hub in New York State it also comes at a cost. The burning of fossil fuels for energy is the single largest contributor to climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. (Page 5, Syracuse Sustainability Plan)

Other than failing to own up to the fact that it is a climate action plan, it is not a lofty plan but a very realistic and environmentally sound position that a Northeast city in the midst of a warming planet should take. Just to emphasize what a myriad of official Climate Change Studies keep telling us, our planet is warming, and this spring was the warmest ever:

Warmest U.S. spring on record: NOAA | Reuters (Reuters) - So far, 2012 has been the warmest year the United States has ever seen, with the warmest spring and the second-warmest May since record-keeping began in 1895, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Thursday. Temperatures for the past 12 months and the year-to-date have been the warmest on record for the contiguous United States, NOAA said. The average temperature for the contiguous 48 states for meteorological spring, which runs from March through May, was 57.1 degrees F (13.9 C), 5.2 degrees (2.9 C) above the 20th century long-term average and 2 degrees F (1.1 C) warmer than the previous warmest spring in 1910. (June 7, 2012) Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com [more on Climate Change in our area]

There are many wonderful aspects to this Syracuse draft, and I hope Rochester, when it gets around to it, adopts many of its provisions. For example, in this paragraph about food systems that are greatly influence by energy use, it mentions ‘social justice’:

What we eat seems like a matter of individual consumer choice. Yet, before food even reaches the table, it has been influenced by the decisions made by farmers, distributors, grocery store managers and other businesses, food banks, and government at all levels. Each decision has consequences not only for our health but also for the health of the environment, energy consumption, the economy and social justice. However it is difficult to see the consequences of these decisions, especially as they are often made in a piecemeal, isolated fashion. (Page 18, Syracuse Sustainability Plan

Holy cow! Did I actually read that a local government concedes that addressing food issues and Climate Change was also about social justice? Scotland was able to say it and not be vilified by the free market fundamentalists, but here in one of the major Climate Change denial countries, it just takes one’s breath away.

Scotland announces 'climate justice' fund for world's poorest | Global development | guardian.co.uk The scheme will focus on helping people in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia cope with the effects of climate change | The Scottish government has unveiled a £3m initiative to help people in the world's poorest countries adapt to the impact of climate change. The climate justice fund, launched in Edinburgh on Thursday, will disburse the money in equal instalments over the next three years to support water projects in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia. The scheme, which provides new funding rather than drawing on Scotland's existing overseas aid budget, was announced by Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, and the former Republic of Ireland president Mary Robinson. Both called on rich nations to reduce carbon emissions, arguing that the developing world bears the brunt of flooding, drought and other natural disasters, despite doing little to cause such events. (June 6, 2012) Latest US news, world news, sport and comment from the Guardian | guardiannews.com | The Guardian

There are other measures in the report worth mentioning for their insight and responsible planning. Get this -- they’re suggesting to “Create and implement a municipal street lighting energy reduction strategy...” because “…in 2010, street lighting accounted for 33% of all electric use at the City. It also represents the largest percentage of the City’s utility bill.” (Page 18, Syracuse Sustainability Plan) Holy cow, again. (Sorry, I’m running out of superlatives.) Who knew that street lighting gobbled up so many tax dollars and burned so much (fossil fuel) energy? I wonder what percentage of Rochester’s electric bill street lighting takes up. Some nifty solar panels atop each pole powering our street lights would look really nice here in Rochester.

There’s more: route optimization for example. “Fully implement DPW route optimization recommendations for trash and recycling pick-up. Identify other opportunities for route optimization across departments.”(18) Imagine how much tax payer money and greenhouse gases can be reduced by the entire City of Rochester, maybe even the Country of Monroe, if all stepped back and rethought and consolidated routes covered by their gas guzzling vehicles?

Improving active (walking and bicycling) transportation, as always, is recommended: “Encourage alternative modes of transportation by improving City infrastructure for multi-modal transportation that enhances appeal and safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and wheel chair users.” Rochester is doing their part with City of Rochester | ROC the Bike! But, again, there is no connecting the dots between active transportation and solving Climate Change by using these methods.

The report mentions deconstruction (which I’ve mentioned a lot in the past) and they mention education and training: “Raise a generation of environmental stewards to tackle the unique environmental issues associated with urban living and living with global climate change” (16). (See, they slipped in Climate Change again.) They also talk about urban forestry and capturing rainwater to ease the load on waste treatment plants.

In all it’s a very good report, but failing to call this plan what it is—an attempt by government to adapt to and mitigate Climate Change—creates the dangerous illusion in the public that the warming we are experiencing is normal. Failing to admit that conditions are so dire that major adjustments need to be made to our way of living enables our leaders to attempt the impossible: Solving Climate Change without informing the public.

The President of the United State is taking that tack by failing to even mention Climate Change in the 2011 State of the Union Address, and expressing that it is too toxic to talk about in this 2012 Address. Obama is using his energy policy Energy, Climate Change and Our Environment to wag the Climate Change dog. He thrusts energy solutions towards a problem that includes Climate Change but does not dare inconvenience the public, the media, or the political arena with all the implications of solving this issue. Because, presumably, it’s too toxic. So, we have to try and solve Climate Change by using just an energy plan, while we dragged our feet at the Durban Climate talks, and we are going to drag our feet at the Rio+20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development coming up in a few days.

Closer to home, Governor Cuomo also dropped the ball on climate action and went for the energy switcheroo: The New York Climate Change Advisory Group, created under Governor Patterson, published an exhaustive Climate Action Plan The New York State Climate Action Plan Interim Report, which addressed the issues confronting our state due to Climate Change, but that effort has been quietly thwarted. The present governor won’t reconvene the New York Climate Change Advisory Group, according to NRDC’s Ready or Not report. This means Cuomo doesn’t have to mention Climate Change under his new energy plan--New York Energy Highway--and can push Fracking, which, if anything goes wrong (and it will), means he won’t even get elected dog catcher—let alone US President in 2016.

So does it matter if our leaders don’t use ‘Climate Change’ in their official language, but take on many of the policies that would address Climate Change anyway? Yes, it matters whether our government places Climate Change before energy, even though bad energy got us into this dismal state. It matters because we cannot just possibly get the public on board with the incredible changes to our environment, our economics, and our system of justice, if the government does not lead.

For example, locally there are three issues—off-shore wind farms, Fracking, and Great Lakes water levels-- that should be orchestrated under the rubric of Climate Change but are not. Instead, they are viewed in the public’s mind as ad hoc, special interests, and unconnected to anyone except those with enough energy and time to pursue them.

Off-shore wind, which is still being pursued despite the death of the New York Power Authority’s Great Lakes Off-Shore Wind Program (GLOW), is an important component of renewable energy. Renewable energy, on the scale that could be produced by off-shore wind power, could dramatically reduce our need for fossil fuels, if connected with battery storage, energy efficiency, energy conservation, and a smart grid. Without the governor leading a discussion with Climate Change as the lens through which to understand this issue, wind power becomes the prey of shoreline property owners who don’t want their view despoiled by those ugly turbines.

As for the current brouhaha over Fracking, natural gas is a fossil fuel, a greenhouse gas, and it can potentially harm our fresh water. Though this issue has been hotly debated for the last year in New York State, Climate Change never enters the argument, allowing the illusion that this dangerous energy option has nothing to do with our ability to survive. The failure of leadership on Climate Change and Fracking makes the conversation we are having about Fracking delusional.

And finally, with the International Joint Commission’s recommendation that the Great Lakes water level policy be changed, we are arguing about boat docks, shoreline beach property and boating but not about the fact that Climate Change is going to lower the levels of the Great Lakes anyway (see Landowners Tell Commission Not To Change Lake Levels - 13WHAM.com). Climate studies (check out Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region Impacts on Our Communities and Ecosystems ) suggest that there will be reduced ice coverage on the Great Lakes which will increase evaporation and lower lake levels. But this is not discussed in town meetings, in the media, or anywhere else except between the covers of some unread Great Lakes Climate Studies.

My hope is that Rochester, NY doesn’t drop the ball when it comes out with its own Climate action plan. I know Rochester cares and understands Change (see City of Rochester | Climate and Environment Protection Resolution) but saying you care isn’t enough. You have to write the words ‘Climate Change’ into the heading of your official policy so the public and the media’ gets’ it. Then, Rochester’s plan needs to be linked to Syracuse’s plan, and then all the cities in New York State, then all the states, and then all the countries. It’s a planetary problem.

Whether Climate Change is considered too toxic for beltway politics or not, it is physics. Failure by our leaders to adopt comprehensive, planet-wide, policies to adapt to and mitigate Climate Change won’t even slow the warming down. Those who still think that Climate Change is far off and not something to worry about now have our leaders to blame.

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

__________________________________________

* Got news? | Go to my blog: Environmental Thoughts - Rochester, NY or Tweet me @ http://twitter.com/#!/FrankRrrr On Twitter and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RochesterEnvironment and Examiner/RochesterEnvironment, I post local environmental events, news, and commentary as soon as it happens. If you think this newsletter, which continually informs our community on our local environmental news, events, actions, is worthwhile, please encourage others to sign up. We who care about our environment and future need to ‘Occupy’ the Rochester media to change how the public views environmental news.

The great conundrum of our times is that in a time of rapidly occurring Climate Change and a rapid disintegration of the environment that we need to thrive and survive, mainstream media still marginalizes environmental concerns. [Check often for this continually updated list on the possible consequences of Climate Change in our region--supported by facts.] If there isn’t a quick and substantial change in how environmental concerns are reported, edited, and chosen in mainstream media, the public will continue to believe that environmental concerns are merely special interest matters, issues they can avoid if they choose. How can we inform the public and monitor our environment without abridging our Freedoms--in enough time to safe ourselves?

Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet. -- Carl Sagan

__________________________________________

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

________________________________________

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.]

6/09/2012 - Hard to whip up public enthusiasm about nuclear energy even though we don’t have a clue how to handle the waste. Solving energy issues are critical to solving Climate Change and nuclear power shouldn’t be an option—if sustainability is our goal. A. G. Schneiderman Wins Landmark Victory In Challenge To Continued Storage Of Nuclear Waste At Power Generating Stations Across The Country | Eric T. Schneiderman U.S. Appeals Court Agrees With A.G. That Nuclear Regulatory Commission Cannot Okay Re-Licensing Indian Point & Other Nuke Plants Without Rigorous Review Of Risks From Spent Fuel Leaks & Fires Schneiderman: Whether For Or Against Nuclear Power, We Can All Agree That Environmental, Public Health & Safety Risks Of Long-Term Storage of Nuclear Waste Must be Thoroughly Examined NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that he has won a landmark victory in a suit against the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) challenging a Commission finding that the long-term storage of radioactive waste at the nation’s nuclear power plants is safe and has no adverse environmental impacts. This decision means that the NRC cannot license or re-license any nuclear power plant, including the Indian Point facility in Westchester County, until it examines the dangers and consequences of long-term on-site storage of nuclear waste. (June 8, 2012) Eric T. Schneiderman | New York State Attorney General [more on Energy in our area]
6/09/2012 - The Associated Press: Appeals court rejects waste storage at nuke plants WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday threw out a rule that allows nuclear power plants to store radioactive waste at reactor sites for up to 60 years after a plant shuts down. In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not fully evaluate the risks associated with long-term storage of nuclear waste. The court said on-site storage has been "optimistically labeled" as temporary, but has stretched on for decades. (June 8, 2012) The Associated Press.
6/09/2012 - This is what the public doesn’t seem to get about Climate Change—extreme events costing billions we don’t have. Climate Change is not some slow and gradual annoyance that will only occur far into the future-something to be dealt with by our children far into the future. It’s happening now and we are responsible for its solution. Report: Storm Surge Could Cost U.S. Hundreds of Billions | Climate Central A new analysis highlights the enormous exposure the U.S. has to storm surge-related impacts, which is one of the most significant hazards posed by a land-falling hurricane. The report from CoreLogic, a private company that provides financial and property information for risk management, shows that for the country as a whole, more than 4 million residential structures are at risk from storm surge flooding in a worst-case scenario storm, with a total estimated price tag of $710 billion. The report ranks New York City and Long Island as the most at-risk metropolitan area, where a Category 4 storm could inflict damage to residential homes of up to $168 billion. (June 9, 2012) Climate Change | Climate Central [more on Climate Change in our area]
6/09/2012 - I remember back in 1998 when it was the Year of the Ocean, an attempt to galvanize the public and governments about the dire state of our oceans. Don’t seem like much got better for the oceans. In fact, with acidification because of Climate Change, it’s gotten much worse. Learn more about the predicament of our oceans, meaning our predicament, here: The Future We Want on World Oceans Day Today, people around the world celebrate our ocean and call for its conservation. Covering 70 percent of the planet, its vast waters provide food, oxygen, jobs, and more. Although we heavily depend on the ocean, new fishing technologies, pollution, lax regulation, and a growing global human population with its higher demand for fish have all put the ocean’s health at risk. (June 8, 2012) Pew Environment Group
6/08/2012 - GOP, here’s why free market fundamentalism should be thrown on the ash heap of history—without environmental regulations it destroys our environment and then we the people have to clean it up with our hard earned money. 114 Brownfields Improved In New York, $1B Spent, Group Says - Rochester, News, Weather, Sports, and Events - 13WHAM.com 114 Brownfields Improved In New York, $1B Spent, Group Says - Rochester, News, Weather, Sports, and Events - 13WHAM.com Albany, N.Y. (AP) — An environmental group says the state has paid out $1 billion in tax credits to developers in cleaning up and redeveloping 114 brownfield sites across New York over the past decade. Environmental Advocates of New York says its review of state tax and cleanup records for the brownfields program show those tax credits went toward redevelopment of 68 sites, largely from incentives based on the value of construction, not cleanup costs. (June 8, 2012) Home - Rochester, News, Weather, Sports, and Events - 13WHAM.com [more on Brownfields in our area]
6/08/2012 - Hunter’s rule: Here’s another one of the inconvenient truths about our way of life that affect our environment but brings in so much money we just shut up about it. We have designed a system where much of the money spent on preserving our environment comes from hunters and fishermen that we ignore their transgressions and give them an inordinate amount of power in determining what constitutes a healthy wildlife population. We frame the health of our wildlife around hunter’s desires, not around what makes a sound environmental baseline. EPA sued over wildlife exposure to lead from spent ammunition | Reuters (Reuters) - Environmental groups filed suit on Thursday seeking federal regulation of lead in ammunition, claiming exposure to the toxic metal from spent bullets fired into the environment by hunters kills millions of birds and poses a risk to human health. The Center for Biological Diversity was among 100 organizations that this year unsuccessfully petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to restrict the use of lead-based ammunition, which accounts for most bullets and shot used by hunters and other shooting sportsmen in the nation. (June 7, 2012) Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com
6/08/2012 - Let’s face it United States, ‘climate justice’ is the real reason why we won’t discuss Climate Change in our presidential elections. To address Climate Change would be to admit our role a putting a disproportional amount of the greenhouse gases into our atmosphere and helping those who will receive the brunt of Climate Change. Scotland announces 'climate justice' fund for world's poorest | Global development | guardian.co.uk The scheme will focus on helping people in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia cope with the effects of climate change | The Scottish government has unveiled a £3m initiative to help people in the world's poorest countries adapt to the impact of climate change. The climate justice fund, launched in Edinburgh on Thursday, will disburse the money in equal instalments over the next three years to support water projects in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia. The scheme, which provides new funding rather than drawing on Scotland's existing overseas aid budget, was announced by Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, and the former Republic of Ireland president Mary Robinson. Both called on rich nations to reduce carbon emissions, arguing that the developing world bears the brunt of flooding, drought and other natural disasters, despite doing little to cause such events. (June 6, 2012) Latest US news, world news, sport and comment from the Guardian | guardiannews.com | The Guardian
6/08/2012 - Here’s how we solve major environmental problems in the news: pit one side against the other, and then forget about the elephant in the room: Climate Change. Climate studies on the Great Lakes say the water levels will go down because of less ice cover and more evaporation, but the media won’t do their homework. They just like a good squabble between shoreline property owners and environmentalists. It’s like how the media handled the off-shore wind farms (GLOW) a year ago. The media won’t do their homework, so the public thinks it’s just a small fight between two interest groups—as if the Great Lakes water levels won’t affect all of our lives, even those who don’t have a mansion on the shore. Landowners Tell Commission Not To Change Lake Levels - Rochester, News, Weather, Sports, and Events - 13WHAM.com
6/08.2012 - We are hoping that Rochester, NY joins the many communities in New York State who think putting a moratorium on Fracking is the prudent thing to do. If all one cares about is jobs and getting rich, we should move to renewable energy battery storage development and conserving energy. Trashing our environment so a few can get rich doesn’t seem wise. ENVIRONMENT: Rochester to ban fracking? « City Newspaper
6/07/2012 - Is Rochester, NY going to be prepared as Philadelphia as prolonged heat wave come to our region because of Climate Change? “Philadelphia, which is expected to see only a small increase in deaths, is a model city in handling heat waves, Kalkstein said in the news conference. It has set up a heat task force and cooling centers where people can go to escape high temperatures; employed an effective early warning system; assigned block captains to check on vulnerable residents; and spent roughly $150,000 a year on the program. The city even has an agreement with its electricity provider to suspend disconnects for nonpayment during heat waves.” The Deadly Consequences of Climate Change | InsideClimate News
6/07/2012 - Let’s talk about Climate Change: On July 9th at 7pm, Greentopia | FILM and The Little Theatre will be co-presenting the Rochester premiere of The Island President. Featured on the right is President Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed of the Maldives. The Island President captures his first year in office and his struggle to solve one of the most difficult challenges a world leader has had to face: the literal survival of his country and everyone in it. As one of the lowest-lying countries in the world, should the sea level rise a mere three feet, the 1,200 Maldive Islands will become submerged and uninhabitable. Following President Nasheed's efforts, the film takes viewers to the Copenhagen Climate Summit of 2009. When hope fades for a written accord to be signed, Nasheed makes a stirring speech which salvages an agreement. Despite the modest size of his country, Mohamed Nasheed has become one of the leading international voices for urgent action on climate change. A panelist discussion and a question and answer session will follow the feature presentation. Also, arrive early because there will a pre-show surprise! Tickets for the film are available at http://greentopiafest.com/film/ under the Summer Premieres tab. Additionally, passes for Greentopia | FILM will be on sale at the showing!
6/07/2012 - Climate Change and the controversy over Great Lake levels In this controversy about adjusting the Great Lakes water levels few mention the influence of Climate Change. In the report “Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region |Impacts on Our Communities and Ecosystems” by The Union of Concerned Scientists and The Ecological Society of America, the Great Lakes will experience lower lake levels due to evaporation because of less ice cover. more...
6/07/2012 - Find out how New York City is combating Climate Change from the rooftops: Explore New York's green rooftops – interactive | Environment | guardian.co.uk NYC's billion-square-foot roofscape is getting a climate makeover with solar, living roofs and white paint Latest US news, world news, sport and comment from the Guardian | guardiannews.com | The Guardian
6/06/2012 - Help work out solutions for better active transportation in Brighton. Remember transportation accounts for 27% of greenhouse gases, and more active transportation (bicycling and walking) counts. Public Meeting Notice: Exploring the Alternatives Town of Brighton Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan Study | Rochester Cycling Alliance "Public Meeting Notice: Exploring the Alternatives Town of Brighton Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan Study Brighton residents and non-Brighton residents invited. Thursday, June 28 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 P.M. Brighton Town Hall Auditorium www.BikeWalkBrighton.org "
6/06/2012 - I'm passing this not about stopping Fracking on: "Statewide Call-In Day to Assembly members to Ban Fracking! Wednesday, June 6, 2012 9am- 5pm There is legislation in the New York state assembly — A-7218-B — that would ban fracking in New York once and for all. With Governor Cuomo on the verge of opening our sensitive region to the dangerous form of drilling for natural gas, it is crucial that the assembly pass this bill in support of a ban. Can you call your state assembly member and urge him or her to co-sponsor A-7218-B for a statewide ban on fracking on June 6th? 1. On Wednesday June 6th from 9-5pm, call your assembly member using 866-739-8818, where you will be connected to the switchboard, and then ask to be connected to your legislator. For the Buffalo-area, the three assemblymembers are Sean Ryan, Crystal Peoples-Stokes, and Michael Kearns. 2. When you're connected to their office, tell them your name and where you’re from, and then simply tell them that Assembly member must protect New Yorkers by co-sponsoring a ban on fracking. Or use this script: "Hello my name is (first and last name) and I live in (city, state). I am calling to tell Assembly member (their last name) to protect our water and ban fracking by cosponsoring bill A7218!" 3. After you’ve made your call, encourage friends and family to make calls too! Share this link: http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10676 From New Yorkers Against Fracking "
6/06/2012 - Check out new report by ACT Rochester, especially the ‘environment.’ I think our local environment constitutes far more than the data supplied for this report, but admittedly its difficult getting data for indicators on Climate Change and the myriad issues that constitute our environmental issues. Good to start with the facts, though: ACT Rochester Delivers Our County Report Cards |In March, ACT Rochester released its 2012 Regional Community Report Card, which showed how well the seven-county region compares to New York State in education, health, housing and nine other areas. The message was clear from the more than 225 people who attended our Community Report Card event that while the regional report was eye-opening, more county-specific information was needed to drive action.
6/06/2012 - Find out what going on at Rio+20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and get your questions answered:Rio+20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development "The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (or Rio +20) will be held from 20 to 22 June at the Riocentro Convention Center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "
6/06/2012 - Our oceans: have we brought them to their knees? I read this article-- The Ocean of Life’—And the Sorrow Beneath the Sea-- while I was waiting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. I forgot all about my exam as I read this haunting story about the state of our oceans. It is incredible how we have so vastly altered the oceans in a few decades—70% of our Earth’s surface. I like the author’s use of ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ to explain what seems normal to one generation like a relatively small catch can see enormous if you have little knowledge of what plenitude there was just a short time ago. more...
6/05/2012 - BRIGHTON GREEN ENERGY FAIR ColorBrightonGreen.org Contact: Cheryl Frank cherylmfrank@yahoo.com, 241-3078, 730-1719cell 5th Annual Brighton Green Energy Fair Brighton High School Parking Lot Sunday, June 10, 9am-1pm Taking place alongside the Brighton Farmer's Market Over 20 vendors and nonprofits represented. *Green Products and services *Information on recycling, alternative energy technologies, home energy audits and financing *Children's Activities *Local environmental initiatives *a silent auction to support ColorBrightonGreen.org Visuals: Tents, tables, farmer's market, lots of families coming on bike and walking. For More info: colorbrightongreen.org or info@colorbrightongreen.org
6/05/2012 - ACTION: Giant Ducky and Stroller Brigade: Saturday June 9th at the Rochester Public Market | Join parents, health advocates, policymakers and anyone concerned about our health and chemicals in our environment to call on the New York State Senate to enact policy that gets toxic chemicals out of children's products. Saturday, June 9th, 11AM - 1PM, Rochester Public Market 280 North Union Street Rochester, NY 1 4609
6/05/2012 - Would Rochester, NY (which is on a major waterfront) consider a “City of Water Day Event”? Check this out and maybe we can have our own version someday:MWA Presents City of Water Day - Festival Home

"What is City of Water Day and the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (MWA)? City of Water Day is the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance’s way to bring together everything about the water that is exciting and fun, from port commerce to environmental education to active recreation. The event is a celebration of the potential of the waterfront. MWA works to transform the New York and New Jersey Harbor and Waterways to make them cleaner and more accessible, a vibrant place to play, learn and work with great parks, great jobs and great transportation for all. "

6/04/2012 - Economic justice may be the real denial behind Climate Change action; to address it we’d have to protect everyone—even the non-rich. Pollution, Poverty, People of Color: The factory on the hill. — Environmental Health News It's the triple whammy of race, poverty and environment converging nationwide to create communities near pollution sources where nobody else wants to live. Black leaders from the Civil Rights Movement called the phenomenon environmental racism, and beginning in the early 1980s, they documented the pattern at North Carolina's Warren County PCBs landfill, Louisiana's "Cancer Alley," Tennessee's Dickson County, Chicago's South Side, Houston's Sunnyside garbage dump and other places across the country. About 56 percent of the nine million Americans who live in neighborhoods within three kilometers of large commercial hazardous waste facilities are people of color, according to a landmark, 2007 environmental justice report by the United Church of Christ. In California, it’s 81 percent. Poverty rates in these neighborhoods are 1.5 times higher than elsewhere. (June 4, 2012) Environmental Health News: Front Page
6/04/2012 - Plan B: Acknowledge Climate Change, continue business as usual, and then call in Climate Hero to fix. Geoengineering is loony. Geoengineered Sky: Bye-Bye Blue, Hello White | Climate Central Ask the smallest child what color the sky is and you know what answer you’ll get, even if that child lives in cloudy Seattle or polluted Mexico City. Even in places where the sky is often gray or vaguely yellowish, everyone knows the sky is supposed to be blue. If the concept of a blue sky isn’t literally part of our genetic makeup, it might as well be. And that’s why an otherwise harmless side effect of one new geoengineering study might turn out to be deeply troubling. Geoengineering itself is a sort of Plan B, a way to fix global warming after the fact if we fail to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. One such scheme involves spewing particles of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to cut down on incoming sunlight — and according to new paper in Geophysical Research Letters, that could make that canopy of deep blue a thing of the past. Instead, Ben Kravitz, of the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford and his colleagues say, the sky will become a washed-out white. (June 4, 2012) Climate Change | Climate Central
6/04/2012 - Will salmon-cyclists destroy Rochester’s chances for greatness? Every time I march out this quote by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on transportation, people’s eyes glaze over and their attention starts to wander: “Transportation sources emit greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. In 2008, transportation sources contributed approximately 27 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.”Basic Information | Transportation and Climate | US EPA I don’t know why it has this effect on folks, as it’s an amazing quote. It says a lot. It doesn’t just say a lot about the way we presently get around—usually by our favorite gas-guzzler on asphalt pavements we get from fossil fuels—it says something profound about our ability to stop (Anthropomorphic Accelerated) Climate Change. With the exception of who we vote for, our transportation choices are our biggest influence on Climate Change. more...