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RochesterEnvironment.com

Daily Updates for August 2009 

RochesterEnvironment.com

These Daily Updates for this month represent just one month in over a decade of connecting the dots on our area's environmental situation.

Find out what’s going on environmentally in our area—and why you should care?  

These daily updates pertain to what is going on in our environment in Rochester & around the world. Although I do not see RochesterEnvironment.com, or Global Environmental Resources, as environmental activist sites, I do view them as active. They are active conduits for all the environmental news, services, links, and an on-going discovery for the potential role that I believe the Internet will play in environmentalism. Your local news media is not doing its job in informing the public on the breath and depth of our environmental problems, so you are going to have to get on the Internet. 

• 8/31/09 - More information about gas drilling in our area is good not bad.  This new citizen-based web site maps and chronicles the spread of gas drilling in our region:     MAP–Tompkins - Home "The Marcellus Accountability Project for Tompkins County Gas drilling is coming soon to the Finger Lakes Region. Rumors abound, but one thing is sure: in the next few years residents will see a dramatic transformation of the local area to a more industrial landscape. How many wells will be drilled? How rapidly? Economic uncertainty makes answering these questions difficult, but predictions range from hundreds to thousands of wells over the next 5 to 20 years."
• 8/31/09 - What’s the harm? Find out about invasive species in our area, what they are, why you should care, and what you can do about them.  Brought in or slipped in, either way they challenge our environment. Invasive Species: Information, Images, Videos, Distribution Maps The Global Invasive Species Team... ...is part of The Nature Conservancy's response to abating the damage caused to native biodiversity by the human-facilitated introduction of non-native, harmful invasive species. This web site provides many resources designed to help all conservationists deal most effectively with invasive species.  
• 8/29/09 - Action: Help make public comment on: EPA Seeks Comments on New Information about Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide   WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is requesting comments on new information it has received about geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide. During geologic sequestration, carbon dioxide is injected underground for long-term storage. This technology can be used to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.   Under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), EPA protects underground sources of drinking water from threats related to injection activities. The new information supplements the agency’s 2008 proposed rule that, if finalized, would create a new class of injection well and establish requirements under the authority of the SDWA to ensure that geologic sequestration activities do not endanger drinking water sources. The publication reviews research and data on geologic sequestration and presents an alternative the agency is considering related to the proposed injection depth requirements for carbon dioxide. In addition, the publication announces that EPA is evaluating the need for a more comprehensive regulatory framework to manage the geologic sequestration of CO2.   The agency is requesting public comments for 45 days after publication in the Federal Register.   More information on geologic sequestration and how to submit comments: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/uic/wells_sequestration.html   R232 Note: If a link above doesn't work, please copy and paste the URL into a browser.    View all news releases related to water
• 8/26/09 - As we move into the flu season with the Pandemic still around, it's good to keep track Novel H1N1 Influenza Novel H1N1 Influenza Hotline for the Public 1-800-808-1987 New York City residents call 311  | New York State is carefully monitoring a new flu strain, referred to as Novel H1N1 Influenza, that began to appear in the U.S. and worldwide in Spring 2009. New York is working with national, state and local officials to track the disease and provide guidance to members of the public, health care professionals and others. --from the New York State Department of Health
• 8/22/09 - Important information about our area's Air Quality, which of course determines our health and Transportation. Home - American Lung Association in New York American Lung Association’s 10th Annual State of the Air Report Details Air Quality in New York State New Standards Provide New Insight into New York’s Toxic Air The American Lung Association’s tenth annual State of the Air report, released today, finds that over 12.5 million New Yorkers - a stunning 65 percent of the state’s residents - live in counties where air pollution levels endanger lives. According to the report, which applies new and stricter federal air quality standards, 22 out of the 33 counties with air quality monitors received failing grades.
• 8/22/09 - Scientists are watching how Climate Change is going to affect our National Parks: NPCA | Climate Change and National Park Wildlife: A Survival Guide for a Warming World "Climate change has arrived in America’s National Parks. Native trees and animals are losing ground because changing temperature and weather patterns are making the availability of food, water, and shelter less certain. Fish and wildlife are being driven from their national park homes by changes that are unfolding faster than the animals’ ability to adapt. If we fail to act, some wildlife may even go extinct."
• 8/21/09 - How Clean are our beaches? NRDC: Testing the Waters 2009 "Did you know that beaches around the country posted more than 20,000 closing or advisory days last year -- for the fourth year in a row? Check out NRDC's 19th annual Testing the Waters report to see how 200 popular beaches around the country fared and learn how to stay safe the next time you spend a day at the shore. "
• 8/21/09 - Event: Important event for healing our freshwater: New York State Healing Our Waters Coalition Conference Uniting New York’s Great Lakes Communities to Restore our Freshwater Coast  Saturday, October 24, 2009 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Buffalo, NY • Achieving Great Lakes Restoration • Implementing the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Compact in New York • Managing our Great Lakes ecosystem holistically For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.citizenscampaign.org/glconference/ or contact greatlakes@citizenscampaign.org There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. Cosponsored by: Audubon New York, Center for Environmental Information, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Great Lakes Research Consortium, Great Lakes United, and Environmental Advocates of New York --from CCE - Water Protection Public Health Energy Renewable Policy Toxic Wildlife Chemical Contamination Subscribe Newsletter Jobs Calendar Pollution Air Quality Advocacy Farmingdale White Plains Albany Syracuse Buffalo
• 8/21/09 - Increasing bicycling for the Rochester, NY area will reduce air pollution, positively affect your health, decrease traffic on our streets and give you a chance to smell our roses and see our sites.  Check out this site and help out getting more bike to more people.     R Community Bikes: Rochester, New York "R Community Bikes is a grassroots, 501(c)3 organization that collects and repairs used bicycles for distribution, free of charge, to Rochester, NY's most needy children and adults. Our mission is meeting the basic transportation needs of those in the community who depend on bikes for recreation as well as for transport to work, school, rehabilitation programs, and training sessions. For this segment of the population, both quality of life and the ability to participate in our community are greatly enhanced when our mission is achieved. R Community Bikes also provides a venue for the Rochester bicycling community to conduct educational programs relative to bicycle safety and maintenance. We are open to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm at our warehouse at 226 Hudson Ave. (at the intersection with Woodbury Street). In addition, on Wednesdays in the summer we conduct bike repairs at St. Joseph's House of Hospitality at 402 South Avenue. We welcome donations of bikes, bike parts, tools and money to cover expenses such as spare parts. We are always in need of volunteers to serve as mechanics and a variety of other positions. We provide the necessary training."
• 8/21/09 - If High Speed Rail comes to the Rochester, NY area (via the Buffalo to Albany corridor) it is going to have an tremendous, environmental, economic, and transportation impact on our area.  Be sure to get the latest official news and updates for this incredible project. Program: Nation-wide Discretionary Grant Program for High-Speed Rail (HSR)  "In April, President Obama released a strategic plan outlining his vision for high-speed rail. The plan identifies $13 billion in federal funds -- $8 billion in the Recovery Act and $5 billion requested in the President's budget -- to jump-start a potential world-class passenger rail system and sets the direction of transportation policy for the future." --from NYSDOT Home
• 8/18/09 - Other groups like the Citizens' Environmental Coalition are working on finding Green Jobs for the New York State area.  As always, we will post anything we can dip up on finding employment for people who want to sustain themselves and the planet at the same time. Green Jobs by CEC "CEC is promoting a positive vision of a sustainable future that prevents pollution and waste, protects the health of New York residents and invests in a greener economy and jobs, while eliminating environmental degradation." 
• 8/15/09 - Don't miss that chance to interconnect with those in our community interested in Green Business and getting or helping others get a green job --or maybe start up that new Green business idea: Green Drinks with Incentive Thursday, August 27 | 6:00pm-8:30pm at the Robach Community Center, part of the Ontario Beach Park, in Charlotte, NY This month's Green Drinks will be hosted by the Monroe County Parks Department. Come join us for another combined Green Drinks event:  presenter Larry Simpson from Blue Springs Energy, LLC (link to Blue Springs Energy) will be speaking about green energy incentives, programs, rebates and tax incentives available to local governments, businesses and homeowners.  He will explain how to determine what types of funding are applicable, based on your determined eligibility.  His presentation is designed to help limit the confusion that results from an overload of information available to those interested in these types of funding. Larry’s presentation will begin after an introduction from a Monroe County Parks representative, who will be speaking about the Parks' own green initiatives.  There will be time for a Q & A session after Larry’s presentation, followed by our networking portion including free local food and beverages. [Map] to register call: 585-262-2870.
• 8/13/09 - Important Green Business EVENT: THE JOB DEVELOPMENT NETWORK’S 1st “GOING GREEN” CAREER & TRAINING EXPO   Baden Street Settlement of Rochester, Inc. 13 VIENNA STREET, Rochester, NY   WEDNESDAY, September 23, 2009   CAREER EXPO OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: 10:00am – 1:00pm   MEET EMPLOYERS WITH CAREER AND TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES IN GREEN INDUSTRIES:   Energy efficient building/construction trades   Renewable energy   Bio-fuels industries   Deconstruction materials   Re-manufacturing & sustainable products manufacturing     $$$ MAKE GREEN BY GOING GREEN $$$   FREE ADMISSION FOR ALL CAREER SEEKERS!!!   Equal opportunity employer/program.  Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities.
• 8/12/09 - Unsolvable Problem: As we ignore the signs that the underpinnings of the environment we have inherited are breaking down—global warming, pollution, oceans dying—so as it goes with the underpinnings of the environment we created: our water and sewer systems, our roads and highways are crumbling.  If we adopt other ways of getting around such as high-speed rail or maybe ‘hover’ cars, we can let our highways goes and move on to something else, as is our species way.  But, regardless of how we design our future, we are going to need the systems that bring in our fresh water and take away our used water to be sound.  I have my doubts that we will be able to address the issue of a widespread deterioration of our water and sewer systems because: it will cost a lot of money and isn’t an issue that grabs public attention, it will be politically unpopular because we need so much public money to go elsewhere, and because this issue has been foretold long ago and little has been done about it. Basically, unless we can retrofit an economic boon to a looming disaster (as we are now doing with energy and conservation issues) we are dysfunctional. Overcoming the costs and recriminations that will come as various parts of our system fail in various localities on an issue that is literally underground and out of our sight and one that we have been ignoring for decades means we are going to let it go until a disaster occurs.  It’s the way we react to problems involving the underpinnings of our environment.  I applaud the Comptrollers efforts, but little will be done.  This story will go away again and keep going way until it’s in our face. Read on... DiNapoli: New York’s Local Infrastructure Needs Projected To Be $80 Billion Under Funded Over Next 20 Years Multi-Year Capital Planning and Increased Federal Funding Needed Driscoll Joins DiNapoli at News Conference in Syracuse At the current rate of spending, New York will have $80 billion in unmet infrastructure needs over the next 20 years unless state, federal and local governments work together to improve multi-year capital planning and better fund infrastructure projects, cautioned State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli in a report he released today in Syracuse. DiNapoli’s report estimates the state’s capital needs for repairing roads, bridges, and water and sewer lines will swell to a quarter trillion dollars over the next 20 years. (August 11, 09) New York State Office of the State Comptroller
• 8/10/09 - ACTION: Take Action with 350 on October 24th On October 24, 2009, millions of people around the globe will take action in their own communities, and call on world leaders to sign a climate agreement that leads us down the road to 350. We already have events planned at some of the world's most iconic places -- Australia's Great Barrier Reef, in front of the Pyramids in Egypt, in the Himalayas of South Asia and at the Great Lakes in the USA -- but we need you to host an event in your community. It doesn't have to be large (though that would be great), but it does need to display the number 350 in some visual way. Be creative! You can organize a rally, a hike up the closest peak, an educational forum, a community art project, or anything else. Just make sure you have fun, and represent 350 somehow -- on a banner or a sign, on your t-shirt, or by spelling it out with your bodies. This may not sound like it could really help, but it does--already we've had churches ringing their bells 350 times, 350 bicyclists circling through cities, even 350 people standing on their heads. The resulting media coverage has helped spread the word fast, so that many groups have joined this campaign. To sign up, please go to http://350.org/oct24 And make sure you snap a photo of your event and upload it to our website. We'll take those photos and pass them to our global leaders. Together we can let them know: 350 represents safety, and anything that doesn't meet the 350 test is gambling with our future.
• 8/06/09 - How does Rochester, NY stack up in being bike friendly for commuters? Click here and vote us un The Top 10 U.S. Cities For Biking Americans overwhelmingly continue to drive alone to work. With more than nine out of 10 workers favoring driving. But these 10 cities are definitely taking the initiative to change that. Here are the top 10 U.S. cities for bicycling commuters. 
• 8/06/09 - I told you so.  There’s something eerily familiar about this plastic accumulating in the oceans story.  Back in the day, some forty years ago when I was a college kid a friend of mine used to mention this story. No one but my friend had heard of this story, but because he was older and a great guy, we didn’t mock him.  Nonetheless, it was a weird story that strained credulity even back in those early seventies, when just about everything strained credulity. So, wherever my friend is today, he must be saying “I told you so to someone who probably thinks he’s made the whole thing up.     Just think what of what our world would look like to today if we had heeded all those ‘chicken little’ environmentalists of the past, like John Muir.  We might just have that clean and verdant world where we could drink our water without manmade chemicals and not have to worry about the vast accumulation of pollution in our oceans.  Of course, we can dismiss this story about the plastics as I did forty years ago and in our minds it will be out of sight out of mind.  But, one day like most pollution, someone is going to have to address the abuses of our past, so our grandchildren can have a future. Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific | U.S. | Reuters LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
• 8/06/09 - Business are going to green and the NYS DEC helps: Greening Your Business - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation Incorporate sustainability into your everyday business practices Today's businesses face many challenges. Greening up your operation shouldn't be one of them. DEC has a variety of programs to help you meet your economic and environmental goals.
• 8/04/09 - Simple idea, spread far and wide, could have a profound energy efficient and global warming effects: By Degrees - White Roofs Catch On as Energy Cost Cutters - Series - NYTimes.com SAN FRANCISCO — Returning to their ranch-style house in Sacramento after a long summer workday, Jon and Kim Waldrep were routinely met by a wall of heat. (July 29, 09) http://www.nytimes.com/
• 8/03/09 - Eco-film opening in New York: "THE COVE" A very important documentary film is opening today in LA and NY and you can be part of the movement to let the secret out of the bag. "The Cove," is a must see for anyone who cares about the planet. Winner of audience awards across the world, including Sundance, "The Cove" follows a team of activists and filmmakers as they infiltrate a heavily-guarded cove in Taiji, Japan. StopGlobalWarming.org Join the 1,306,744 supporters of the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand our leaders freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions now. We are all contributors to global warming and we all need to be part of the solution.
• 8/03/09 - Bike to work, to that festival, that trail, or just about anywhere you want to go in Rochester by using the map: Genesee Transportation Council - TIP Greater Rochester Area Bicycling Map Now Available | The Greater Rochester Area Bicycling Map, prepared by the Genesee Transportation Council utilizing road ratings provided by volunteer members of the Rochester Bicycling Club, is now available.   The ratings represent the opinions of experienced bicyclists on the rideability of major roads based on existing road conditions and features such as pavement width and quality, traffic volumes, presence and type of shoulders, and posted speed limits.
• 8/01/09 - Savings on renewable energy, it's the real deal: U.S. Treasury Department - Registration/Sign on Welcome to the United States Department of the Treasury's Application Submission Page for payments in lieu of tax credits for specified energy property.  These payments are authorized by Section 1603 of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's tax title signed into law on February 17, 2009.