Paris Climate Accord – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Climate Change Resources

David Posnett — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 19:58:25 +0000

April 25, 2022

If you don’t already receive this excellent weekly climate-round up newsletter, read on. And sign up.

Climate Change Resources was created in 2016 by publishers Lena Tabori and Mike Shatzkin to educate and empower us all to be climate change activists, and to take the critical steps necessary to rescue humanity’s future. There is simply no time to waste.

Take a look at their invaluable and beautifully designed website https://climatechangeresources.org/. Lena’s weekly newsletter was just selected as one the top climate newsletters in the country. I’m honored that she highlighted one of my recent articles. MCF Morgan

This is your weekly newsletter from Climate Change Resources, keeping you informed and involved in the fight against climate change as we all search for solutions. Each week, you’ll find breaking news, valuable resources, actions to take, answers to common questions, and more — even sustainable shopping suggestions.
• The hideous war continues. CCR’s People Are Talking About (PATA) are keeping track of the way war and climate change interact here.
• For Earth Day, climate reporters from The Washington Post wrote about some of their favorite stories–from Juliet Eilperin’s magnificent piece about a tree in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to Michael Robinson Chavez’s terrifying photographs of Hurricane Ida slamming the Gulf Coast. Our lead story on CCR’s Earth Day PATA is both angry and somber as Bill McKibben is struck by what we haven’t done.
• Disinformation reporting ramped up with the first of a 3-part series from PBS on big oil, a new report on social media companies, and, not surprisingly, rampant corporate climate denial on Earth Day. Much more on CCR’s Greenwashing page and CCR’s PATA…misinformation page.
• Americans are beginning to migrate in the hope of finding more climate friendly homes. The Northeast is where they should be heading, reports CNBC. More on CCR’s Migration page.
• They took a poll in Massachusetts and discovered that residents are less concerned about climate change now than they were in 2019; Democrats were more alarmed than Republicans; Latina women considered climate change a more serious issue than any other group; nearly half of the respondents are considering acquiring an electric car, and climate change trailed several other priorities.
• Just in time for Spring, one of our wonderful contributors, Mary Foster Morgan, reminds us of the power of eating locally, wasting little and composting much in her latest blog, Farm Stands Open, Don’t Look Up, Kiss The Ground.

FYI• Our website, Climate Change Resources, has now been live for nine months! Press materials are here. Please forward this newsletter to anyone you feel should know more about climate change with the intention of doing more.
–Lena Tabori, Co-Founder & Publisher The description of each item below is drawn from copy provided in the article or website cited.

NATIONAL NEWS

TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook Are Letting Climate Denial Run Rampant
By Lauren Leffer
Gizmodo, 4/22/2022
Twitter is the worst of the bunch, followed by TikTok. YouTube and Pinterest are a bit better. Fossil fuel companies have known about climate change since 1966, and for almost as long, they’ve been buying TV, radio and newspaper ads trying to make sure you don’t. Decades later, lies about climate change haven’t disappeared; they’ve just gone digital. Almost half of people in the U.S. regularly get their news from social media, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey. Those social networks are often chock-full of lies. Social media companies like Facebook have claimed to be combating false information on climate change, but their efforts are inadequate to the challenge, according to a new report by the environmental non-profit groups Friends of the Earth, Avaaz, and Greenpeace USA. In order from best to worst, the report ranked the platforms as follows: Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and, lastly, Twitter. More here.

Greenwashing 101: How to decipher corporate claims about climate
By Douglas MacMillan
The Washington Post, 4/21/2022
Companies are eager to tout their environmental progress on Earth Day. As big businesses face more pressure to act on climate change, corporations have unleashed a tsunami of environmental pledges, net-zero commitments and sustainability certifications, all designed to show they are part of the solution. Here are five tips for investigating whether their claims tell the full story. More here.

Biden restores climate safeguards in key environmental law, reversing Trump
By Dino Grandoni and Anna Phillips
The Washington Post, 4/19/2022
The White House on Tuesday announced it has restored key protections to a landmark environmental law governing the construction of pipelines, highways and other projects that President Donald Trump had swept away as part of an effort to cut red tape. The new rule will require federal agencies to scrutinize the climate impacts of major infrastructure projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a 1970 law that required the government to assess the environmental consequences of federal actions, such as approving the construction of oil and gas pipelines. More her e.

Low-producing oil wells cause 50% of methane emissions
By Carlos Anchondo
E&E Energy Wire, 4/21/2022
Low-producing oil and gas wells are to blame for roughly half of the methane emitted from all U.S. well sites, despite making up 6% of the country’s total production, according to new research published this week. The study, published in Nature Communications, is the first comprehensive look at low-production well site emissions nationwide, researchers said. The paper found that low-producing or “marginal” wells emit methane at a rate 6 to 12 times higher than the national average — releasing some 4 million metric tons of the potent greenhouse gas a year. “Our research shows that the total methane emitted from the country’s half million low-producing wells has the same impact on the climate every year as 88 coal-fired power plants,” said Mark Omara, a scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund and lead author, in a statement. More here.

Natural gas-fired generation peaked in 2020 amid growing renewable energy production
By Ethan Howland
Utility Drive, 4/13/2022
The Institute for Energy Economics and Finance expects wind, solar and hydroelectric generation will make up a third of U.S. power production by 2027, up from about 19% in December, according to its report. “The transition has just started,” Wamsted said. “We do believe that the takeoff is right now.” More here.

STATES

Green infrastructure helps cities with climate change. So why isn’t there more of it?
By Lauren Sommer
NPR, 4/15/2022
Federal agencies are beginning to hand out billions of dollars in infrastructure spending, the largest investment ever made in the country’s water system. Much of it will go to improving pipes, drains and stormwater systems. But some scientists and urban planners are pushing to fund projects that are better adapted to the changing climate. Instead of just gray infrastructure, supporters say the answer is green. Green infrastructure, whether it’s large rain gardens or plants along a street median, has the same purpose as big storm sewers: to manage large amounts of water that can build up during heavy rains. Plants and soil absorb and slow runoff from rainstorms, while a stormwater drain captures water that runs down a street gutter and diverts it underground into pipes. More here.

Big fight brewing over California ballot measure to reduce single-use plastics
By Suzanne Rust
Los Angeles Times, 4/17/2022
Oakridge Mall food court overflow with plastic spoons, forks, soft drink cups and takeout food containers. Paper frozen yogurt containers are mashed in with plastic boba tea cups and soda bottles. The same can be seen across California — piles of single-use plastics that can’t easily be recycled, pollute roadsides and waterways and add to the garbage that clogs landfills. In November, Californians may get a chance to shrink that waste. An initiative designed to reduce single-use plastics and polystyrene food containers will be on the ballot, a move by environmentalists to bypass the Legislature, where such measures have repeatedly failed in the face of industry lobbying. The initiative — known as the California Recycling and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act — would require all single-use plastic packaging and food ware used in California to be recyclable, reusable, refillable or compostable by 2030, and single-use plastic production to be reduced by 25% by 2030. More here.

Gas Hikes Prompt New York to Investigate Potential Price Gouging by Oil Companies
By Lauren Leffer
Gizmodo, 4/15/2022
Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP, four of the largest petroleum companies, are raking in record profits. Meanwhile, prices at the pump have surpassed the (non-inflation adjusted) highs of 2008. If that dynamic seems fishy to you, you’re in good company. First, U.S. House Democrats and President Joe Biden raised concerns. Now, Letitia James, New York State’s attorney general, is officially suspicious, as well. On Thursday, the attorney general’s office launched a statewide investigation into whether or not the gas industry is engaging in price gouging. The probe was first announced in a CNN report. More here.

In Pennsylvania, Ukraine invasion and urgent climate report drive new interest in renewables, efficiency
By Jon Hurdle
WHYY, 4/17/2022
Pennsylvania’s renewables industry may have an opportunity to sell more solar panels or wind turbines as prices of fossil fuel-powered energy spike in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and warnings of climate chaos intensify, analysts said. With U.S. natural gas prices at their highest in more than a decade, and electricity costs rising in tandem, individuals and businesses are more inclined to seek alternative energy sources that will be less costly and more sustainable, energy industry observers said. More here.

As Earth’s temperature rises, Massachusetts residents’ sense of urgency on climate change declines
By Sabrina Shankman and Darma Noor
Boston Globe, 4/19/2022
Despite increasingly urgent international warnings and an onslaught of catastrophic wildfires and weather linked to global warming, fewer Massachusetts residents see the climate crisis as a very serious concern than they did three years ago, according to a new poll. It’s not that respondents weren’t aware of the climate threat; a large majority acknowledged that symptoms of the crisis such as increased flooding, extreme heat waves, and more powerful storms are either already happening or very likely within five years, according to the poll, a collaboration of The Boston Globe and The MassINC Polling Group. And more than three quarters called climate change a “very serious” or “serious” concern.” But with a pandemic and war in Ukraine as a backdrop, fewer than half, 48 percent, ranked climate in the highest category of concern, down from 53 percent in 2019, the last time the poll was taken. Less than half said they would vote along climate lines or take steps such as switching their home heat off fossil fuel. More here.

Unregulated Texas gas pipeline triggers a huge methane leak
By Aaron Clark and Naureen Malik
Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 4/19/2022
A natural gas pipeline in Texas leaked so much of the super-potent greenhouse gas methane in little more than an hour that by one estimate its climate impact was equivalent to the annual emissions from about 16,000 U.S. cars. The leak came from a 16-inch pipe that’s a tiny part of a vast web of unregulated lines across the U.S., linking production fields and other sites to bigger transmission lines. Although new federal reporting requirements start next month for so-called gathering lines, the incident highlights the massive climate damage even minor parts of the network can inflict. More here.

New York green lights massive renewable energy projects to cut fossil fuel reliance
By Shirin Ali
The Hill, 4/15/2022
New York state has made a big step in cutting off its reliance on fossil fuels, announcing contracts for projects that will channel clean, renewable solar, wind and hydroelectric power from upstate New York to New York City. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced on Thursday that the State Public Service Commission approved contracts for the Clean Path NY project and the Champlain Hudson Power Express project. Both are expected to reduce the city’s reliance on fossil fuels by more than 50% in 2030, pushing towards the goal of having 70% of the state’s electricity fueled by renewable sources by 2030. New York hopes to have a zero-emission electricity grid by 2040. Hochul’s office said both projects are expected to deliver $5.8 billion in overall societal benefits statewide and $8.2 billion in economic developments across the state. More here.

LEARN MORE

The Next American Migration: What Cities Should Know About Climate Change and Populations on the Move
National League of Cities, 4/22/2022
Climate change is no longer just a problem for future generations – it is here now, with storms, wildfires, droughts and extreme temperatures becoming more prevalent in our cities, towns and villages. As these impacts intensify, more Americans are being forced out of their homes or are voluntarily relocating in advance of catastrophes. With new sources of federal funding now flowing directly to cities, local leaders have a critical opportunity to transform their communities into equitable and resilient places to live. Download the report to learn more. More here.

The hottest electric vehicles at New York’s auto show have two wheels
By Maria Gallucci
Canary Media, 4/15/2022
A staggering number of electric vehicles are projected to hit roads worldwide this year as automakers launch new plug-in models and drivers ditch their oil-guzzling engines. But another mode of electrified transportation is booming and, in the United States, even outpacing sales of battery-powered cars: bicycles. More here.

In a comparison of life-cycle emissions, EVs crushed combustion cars
By Prachi Patel
Anthropocene Magazine, 1/13/2022
Electric vehicles have lower tailpipe emissions compared to fossil fuel-burning cars, but they don’t go scot-free when it comes to the environment. Mining the raw materials for batteries is dirty business, and manufacturing and charging them can produce emissions. Those overlooked indirect emissions have led skeptics to argue whether EVs are really as green as touted. New research from Yale University should put those arguments to rest. The study finds that the total indirect emissions from EVs pale in comparison to the indirect emissions from fossil fuel-powered vehicles. And if a carbon price is placed on all the emissions, both direct and indirect, from a vehicle’s full life cycle, EVs become far more attractive to buyers. “The elephant in the room is the supply chain of fossil fuel-powered vehicles, not that of electric vehicles,” says lead researcher. More here.

WATCH

‘Truth Has Nothing to Do With Who Wins the Argument’: New Details on Big Oil’s Campaign to Defeat Climate Action
Frontline’s latest documentary, 4/22/2022
Through new documents and exclusive, on-camera interviews, “Denial”, the first episode of The Power of Big Oil, reveals the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to forestall action on climate change and to sow seeds of doubt. Among those efforts was the media campaign spearheaded by the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), an industry group comprising major fossil fuel companies, trade associations and corporate consumers of fossil fuels. More here.

TAKE ACTION – INDIVIDUALS

TAKE ACTION – BUSINESSES

Salesforce Ramps Up Investments in Global Fight Against Climate Change
By Gary E. Frank
Triple Pundit, 4/19/2022
Salesforce is giving a total of $11 million to 12 global nonprofits in the first round of donations from its $100 million Ecosystem Restoration and Global Justice Fund. The donations, which were announced April 12 at the company’s Net Zero Summit, support key programs that have embarked on various strategies to tackle climate change, including ones that enhance natural carbon sinks, protect biodiversity and create green jobs. “We believe that philanthropy can be a powerful tool in fighting climate change,” said Naomi Morenzoni, senior vice president of philanthropy at Salesforce, in a public statement. “Climate change impacts everyone, and it disproportionately affects the world’s most vulnerable communities. Through our philanthropic donations, we aim to support organizations that work with local communities to find meaningful, nature-based climate solutions.” The organizations receiving the funds include American Forests, the Arbor Day Foundation, Conservation International, Fundación Natura, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, One Tree Planted, Restor, Save The Bay, the Nature Conservancy, the Ocean Foundation, Wetlands International, and the World Resources Institute. More here.

FAQs

Q: Why are we talking about anything but climate change?

A: This is a question I ask myself every time scientists release one of their consistently alarming reports on the projected countdown to doomsday. Doomsday being the moment when the ability to lower the atmospheric temperature has slipped from our control. The moment when we puny humans are finally and irrevocably at the mercy of hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, drought, food shortages, rising sea levels and all the socio-political carnage that will accompany same. The moment that, by the latest estimates, is l ess than 10 years away. So the first thing we need to do is stop using the term “climate change,” which makes the situation seem relatively benign and natural, as if the Earth were entering menopause and all those scientists just want us to know that hot flashes can be expected. The man-made shift they are predicting will cause a large number of humans to regularly die by heat, fire, water, drought and famine. More here.

Find elected officials: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officialsFax legislators for free: Reps: https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.phpSenate: https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php White House contact: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house

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Climate and Real Estate

David Posnett — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 03:58:28 +0000

GUESTWORDS in the East Hampton Star

By David Posnett

January 1, 2020

There is already evidence of a real estate slump in the United States. A housing recession is predicted for 2020. The average price of luxury home sales is falling, as is the number of sales. Long Island specifically is suffering as sales decrease and homes lose value. This is rather astonishing given that the rest of the economy is still on steroids.

What are the reasons? The following have all been suggested.

First, baby boomers from New York are downsizing and moving to lower-tax states. Second, millennials seem to have a distaste for buying second homes and would rather rent. Third, bonuses on Wall Street fell 17 percent in 2018 compared with 2017.

Fourth, the tax changes brought on by Donald Trump: a cap of $10,000 on the amount of state and local taxes (SALT), including property taxes, that can be deducted from federal income tax. For an expensive home with property taxes of $50,000 per year, this means that $40,000 can no longer be deducted.

Fifth, as mentioned by some real estate professionals: chronic flooding, which threatens the values of houses here. According to Aidan Gardiner writing for The Real Deal, a website focusing on New York real estate news: “Chronic flooding threatens to sink the value of Hamptons homes. Hamptons homes are very likely to lose value given that they’ll face chronic flooding as climate changes and sea levels rise over the coming years, according to Bloomberg. Behind only central California, the area has the second-highest level of its property tax revenue at risk among U.S. municipalities with a high likelihood of chronic flooding in the next 12 years. Climate change is expected to bring constant floods that would tank property values, erode infrastructure, and sink tax revenue, all of which will make it harder to fund projects to battle the rising seas.”

You can check for yourself on ss2.climatecentral.org, where you can find a “risk zone map for surging seas.” See the figure appended below. You can input anything from “unchecked pollution” to “extreme carbon cuts,” depending on how you predict future policies will rein in carbon emissions.

I assumed unchecked carbon emissions along the lines of our present-day emissions, and I asked for maps of a 10-foot water level rise. The program produces maps with dark blue shaded areas that will be underwater. Here are some of the highlights for the not so distant future (2050 to 2100).

Montauk will become an island, the Napeague stretch will be underwater, and much of downtown Montauk will be too, including Route 27. Flooding of Route 27 across Napeague will start with just a three-foot rise in sea water levels, shutting down access to Montauk.

Homes all around Accabonac Harbor will be flooded. Gerard Drive and Louse Point will be submerged. Maidstone Park, Sammy’s Beach, and Cedar Point will be gone. Barcelona Point and the Sag Harbor Golf Course will become an island.

Beach homes in Amagansett, homes along Two Mile Hollow Beach, homes around Hook Pond, Georgica Pond, and Wainscott Pond will all be underwater. Indeed, a few homes on Beach Lane in Wainscott will be submerged. That is where the cable from the South Fork Wind Farm is proposed to come ashore and where some of its opponents own property.

Much of Sag Harbor Village will be underwater, and North Haven will be a real island.

Up and down Long Island, the homes close to the South Shore will be underwater, and Fire Island will no longer exist.

The North Shore, too, will be flooded, and Greenport will be on an island.

Kennedy International Airport will be underwater.

It is not just someone else’s problem. Loss of value of high-end homes means loss of significant local business and loss of jobs, and it spills over, resulting in loss of the value of your own property regardless of whether it is in particular danger of flooding.

Showtime’s “The Affair” recently wrapped up its final season, and part of it was set in mid-21st-century Montauk, with warming temperatures and rising seas. The show forecasts what life will look like in 34 short years, including mass transit that routinely short-circuits because of flooding, coastal communities plunged into near-total darkness, and shoreline towns without basic municipal services.

We had better support clean energy (including offshore wind) and work to decrease our carbon footprint. It is urgent.

https://ss2.climatecentral.org/#12/41.0339/-72.0864?show=satellite&projections=0-K14_RCP85-SLR&level=10&unit=feet&pois=hide

“Thank you for caring.” The benefits of changing your mind about climate.

David Posnett — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 17:32:08 +0000

Thank You for Caring. Her clear, youthful voice floated up to the trees above us. Sincere words of a college freshman, Ashley Ambrocio, who had stepped up to the mic, smiling, soft brown curls escaping her pulled back hair. It was a Friday noon, about 75 of us were assembled at Southampton Town Hall park, a show of support for students striking world-wide for climate action.

What did she mean? I looked around. We were writers, artists, a retired school principal, a minister, a surfer, a landscaper, a nuclear engineer, gathered for a rally. A white pickup, bannered with Drawdown East End Global Climate Strike, parked earlier in the circular drive, worked as a message-backdrop for our speakers. Dorothy Reilly, Drawdown East End’s originator had scouted the spot, and I had helped color in her lettering. The mostly white-haired crowd was dotted with about a dozen school age kids. They brought home painted signs: Help fight against global warming. Save the environment. Ashley’s was neon pink.

Thank you for caring. I started. Maybe these young people think we don’t care? Our silence. Our inability to focus on climate change. To talk about it. That we don’t care? Not caring, avoiding, doing nothing — will this be our generational legacy?

Her words seemed a wake up call, like one of those hashtags twittering around the globe, communiques from her generation alerting us to the crisis, the urgent need to act — #FridaysForFuture #ActOnClimate — to create conversation, community, connection.

Ashley spoke about the need to talk about the climate crisis. Make it real. I leaned in to catch her words. She sounded upbeat, appreciating our support. That we wanted to do something.

“Staying home and complaining will not change anything, but coming out to these events can,” she said to the East Hampton Star, and to the East End Beacon.

This is Drawdown East End.

Or one sliver of it anyway.

One slice of the pie — a rally, a film festival being planned, a community compost in the works — rays streaming from a central hub, activated by a core concern, the heart of something called Drawdown.

Have you ever read a book or watched a talk that gave you an “aha” moment — changed the way you viewed a situation, helped you solve a seemingly unsolvable problem?

That is what happened to me, and many of us who spoke at that May Friday gathering. A stunning new book has radically changed our view of the climate crisis. Crisis yes, but do nothing? No. Why not see this as an opportunity — to build, innovate and effect change? Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming tells us how.

Yes. Reverse.

Fact: We have existing today methods and practices when scaled up can not only reduce our overload of atmospheric carbon, but draw it down to safe levels. It’s the power of scale.

Drawdown in a Nutshell.

For the curious Project Drawdown complete with useful tedtalks and podcasts, gives a fuller picture of an interlocking and very do-able system. What is Drawdown? My 3-point synopsis:

the point in time where carbon begins to draw down from the atmosphere to safe healthy levels. It is a reachable goal.

a path, a roadmap — 100 top solutions, best-practices and technologies we already use now, when scaled up can achieve drawdown (in two ways: 1) not emit carbon by substitution with clean energy, efficiency, reduction, conservation, and 2) bring carbon overload down and sequestered back into soils.) Actions that can be taken personally, locally, and on a national level that all fit together to reverse global warming.

a philosophy — a new way of seeing. As Hawken says in a NYT interview, “a primary goal” of his research, book, and website “is to help people who feel overwhelmed by gloom-and-doom messages see that reversing global warming is bursting with possibility.” He sees this moment as an invitation to invent and create, to move into a renewable energy economy humming with innovation, and its cascading health and security benefits. Rather than game over, it’s “Game on!”

I didn’t know much about Paul Hawken, the editor who summoned over 200 leading scientists, economists and research fellows to peer-review the 100 reversing solutions, but gardeners know him from Smith & Hawken fame. He is also author of a popular college textbook, The Ecology of Commerce. His compendium of carbon-drawdown fixes complete with benefit and cost analysis is very credible.

Game On.

So a cluster of us are meeting at the Southampton Library to discuss ways to bring Drawdown into our lives. It surprised us to learn that the top 100 solutions are both tech and non tech. Some are focused on wind, solar, building materials and refrigerants (i.e. tech), others, amazed that non-tech fixes are equally important, are delving into the chapters on food, farming and forestry, even, yes, educating girls. (More on this in future posts.)

The exciting part is realizing our personal acts matter. What we do daily can lead to drawdown. It’s a bit like learning a new language, or seeing through a new frame, “through the lens of Drawdown” says Dorothy.

For example, a big piece of the carbon puzzle is food waste. Did you know that in the US we waste 1/3 of our food? Thus reducing food waste is ranked as Drawdown Solution #3 reducing 70.53 carbon gigatons. If we started to reduce our food waste, just by 50%, we would reach drawdown. If we do it better, we reach it faster. Again, the power of scale.

Here’s another big pay off. Once you see drawdown as visible, a reachable goal, how all the dots are connected, the true costs and benefits of our actions and inactions, the power of our purchases, then you can make meaningful choices about how you want to live. You start to see how what you do leads to (or not) drawdown. In many cases you find it’s healthier, cheaper and, you know, kind of fun and creative. Choose a food or energy remedy, make it a habit, tell your friends about it, call it a drawdown solution and, then, see if the millennials in your life, who have so much to lose by our silence and inaction, notice that you care.

Hey, game on!

What can I do?

Talk about it. I find useful Drawdown’s 3 levels of engagement:

1) Personally & with your family – First, talk about the climate crisis, hear about how others are feeling. And while you’re at it, take a stab at reducing your food waste.

2) Community – talk about it, with your friends, in your community. Ask your favorite news-source to cover climate crisis solutions. Actually there is a lot happening locally (including the start-up of a sister Drawdown North Fork.)

3) Worldwide – if you look, you will find lots of good news and conversation including 2040 a new film featuring Drawdown.

Heads up, some upcoming events.

#FridaysForFuture next global strike, Sept 27, 2019

Drawdown Conference at Penn State Sept 16-18, 2019.

Drawdown Learn Conference, Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY, Oct 18-20, 2019

Free public series Diving into Drawdown, Rogers Memorial Library, Cooper Hall Board Room, Mondays, September 9, 30, October 7, 28, 2019. Two sessions: 1) Intro into Drawdown 10:30am-11:30am. 2) Solutions Sessions 11:30am -12:30pm. First solution discussion: Energy. Registration is required: www.myrml.org or call 283-0774 x 523.

For more information or to join our discussions: DrawdownEastEnd@gmail.com

Panic or Empowerment? Brought to You by Greta, Alexandria, 1.6M+

David Posnett — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:07:01 +0000

photos from their instagram

Feeling inspired? I am.

Thrilled, actually, to witness the clear clarion call to climate action….. by young people who have their whole lives to live, and so much to loose.

UNITE BEHIND THE SCIENCE, THAT IS OUR DEMAND

As stated by Greta Thunberg, who, at 15, started striking from school on Fridays for climate action, in front of the Swedish parliament, September 2018.

COP24 FAILED US

SCHOOL STRIKE 4 CLIMATE

Signs by Alexandria Villaseñor, 13, who began her own one-student protest in front of the United Nations, December 2018.

Horrified by the smothering smoke and raging California fires last summer, Alexandria was channeled into action by Greta’s December You are Stealing our Future speech at the UN Climate Conference in Poland (COP24), and her subsequent interview: I am too young to vote.…But I can sit down with a sign and make my voice heard. Greta, deeply depressed after learning of the looming 6th great extinction and climate change was, herself, motivated by students from Parkland, Florida, striking from school to call attention to common-sense gun-control legislation.

Now 16, Greta has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and is featured in TIME (by Parkland’s Emma Gonzalez, no less) as one of the 100 most influential people of 2019.

Alexandria, noticed by the media this past February, was asked to speak at the UN. You can see the focus in this young lady through profiles in Teen Vogue, The Washington Post, CBS News.

She has joined forces with three other young women co-founding US Youth Climate Strike, penning an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists entitled Adults won’t take climate change seriously. So we, the youth, are forced to strike by Maddy Fernands, Isra Hirsi, Haven Coleman, Alexandria Villaseñor,

Sweden’s Greta, 16, New York’s Alexandria, 13, Minnesota’s Maddy, 16, and Isra, 16, Colorado’s Haven, 13, all found each other through social media.

On a recent Friday I met Alexandria, camped out on “her bench” at the UN. My friend Dorothy Reilly, founder of Southampton-based Drawdown East End, encouraged me to join her in a show of support. So I trekked from Orient with my message-sign and chatted with Alexandria’s mother, Kristin Hogue, a graduate student in the Climate and Society program at Columbia University, and two visiting teachers from England and Germany, while Rolling Stone interviewed the lone school-striker. Late in the afternoon we were joined by 6 teens from the Institute for Collaborative Education, each with a message on a hand-painted sign.

I found their passion and positivity heartening.

In the focus, bravery and determination of these young women I see leadership. By taking a stand, by putting something they value on the line —their education— by using their voice, connecting though social media, they have helped push climate change into the forefront of the national conversation.

TRUTH MATTERS

Don’t you think it is inspiring to see these young women, teens, girls, acting so empowered? Not victims. They just cut through all the gas-lighting by the self-dealing troika: big oil, big money, big power.

They see through the lies, excuses and information-withholding and, instead, substantiate reality with facts. Alexandria is taking personal action, like recycling and eating less red meat. She also says there needs to be a systemic change, as she told a reporter: It does come to the point where I do realize that 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from 100 companies all around the world, and so that’s why you need more governmental action to combat climate change.

They call attention to the silence, the delay, the pretend ignorance. Greta’s now famous:

GROWNUPS HAVE FAILED US

YOU ARE STEALING OUR FUTURE

OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE

They bring up the on-going denial of the consequences of global warming, meant to keep us confused, off focus. Greta talks about the 6th great extinction. She reminds us:

11 YEARS

11 YEARS = 132 MONTHS = 4,015 DAYS

They speak up about the obvious. Greta: Treat climate change as a crisis. Do something about it. Change your own habits and put pressure on people in power. Start living within planetary boundaries.

They point out the failure of leaders entrusted to meet agreed upon targets and the inadequacy of the agreements themselves. Alexandria’s poster:

COP24 FAILED US

They call out the guilt trip of you should .…be in school .…let adults handle this .…etc., etc. Greta: Some people say I should be in school instead; some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can ‘solve’ the climate crisis, but the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. And why should I be studying for a future that soon may be no more, when no one is doing anything to save that future?

Millions of students around the world are joining Fridays For Future. They are showing us they have healthy boundaries. They can say NO. No, I will no longer pretend. No — I will sacrifice my education to sit at a government building to pressure officials to act and meet the Paris Climate agreement goals.

And, what stabbed at my heart: No, you will not put this on my generation to solve.

They empower themselves and students world-wide by stating their feelings, I want you to feel my panic, by facing the problem, face facts, by focusing on mutual interests, I’m fighting for OUR future, by insisting on objective criteria, listen to the scientists.

They are positioning their generation as problems solvers, offering options for mutual gain, joining forces with other notable voices like author Margaret Atwood, sustainable ocean advocate David Suzuki, PhD, forest restoration scientist Charlotte Wheeler, PhD, urging governments around the world to prioritize existing natural solutions to the climate crisis.

I’m inspired. This is what empowerment looks like. Empowered young women. Wow.

How to support them?

VOTE. We voters can vote. We can encourage those who are 16 (who turned 16 by November 3, 2018 and will be 18 by November 3, 2020) to register to vote. PLEDGE TO VOTE encourages high school peer-to-peer voter registration.

VOICE. We can voice our support of #FridaysForFuture, #ClimateStrike, #ClimateCrisis with friends, letters to the editor, joining in. We can follow #GretaThunberg, #AlexandriaVillaseñor and others, and get involved in the social discussion. We can talk about climate change, the climate crisis, and solutions.

VISION. We can empower ourselves with a positive vision for the future, and enact solutions. We have just eleven years to reduce GHGs — greenhouse gas emissions — by 40%. There are solutions that involve personal choice, community action, and local/state/national policy that avoid carbon emissions and multiply carbon sequestration. There are solutions. That is why I’m excited about helping start Drawdown East End at the Southampton Library. Our mission statement, still in formation, is something like this: Inspiring, initiating and advancing local solutions from Drawdown: 100 solutions to reverse global warming, that bring about cascading economic, health and security benefits.

Our steering committee is meeting every Monday morning at the Rogers Memorial Library. Soon we will have a program in place for the public to drop in, learn and take action. Meanwhile, you can check out Paul Hawken’s inspiring, meticulously researched compendium Drawdown mapping the best practices and technologies already working to roll back global greenhouse gas emissions within 30 years.

MAY 24

1.6 MILLION

125 COUNTRIES

On Friday May 24 you can join us as we stand in front of Southampton Town Hall in solidarity with #FridaysForFuture and the millions of young people world-wide who are sacrificing their education to pressure town, state, national and international elected-officials to change our policies to meet the Paris Climate agreement goals ie. no more than 1.5*C (2.7*F) increase in global temperature, which would start to bring our polluted atmosphere back to healthy, balanced below 300ppm levels, as it was in the 1960s.

We support students striking privately at home, in front of government buildings, joining a #FridaysForFuture rally and, as the student-leaders themselves advocate: Strike at school on a Friday. Don’t skip class. Ask teachers and principals to dedicate part of the day to the strike on a Friday to learn or do something about climate change.

I think it’s only fair that we pass along to the 15 year olds of today a world with the carbon content we breathed at their age. Don’t you? For me that was about 315ppm.

Mary Morgan

drawdowneastend@gmail.com

Oil Giant Takes Climate Change Seriously

David Posnett — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 22:24:19 +0000

This is hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=D1BOWxFMT5Q

And this is serious:

BY STEVEN MUFSON, The Washington Post, March 5th

The chief economist of one of the world’s biggest oil companies is urging other companies to take climate change seriously — and sooner rather than later.

If not, it might be bad for business.

That’s the warning from BP’s Spencer Dale, who made the rounds in Washington last week explaining the business case for finding a solution for the warming planet.

“All the climate arguments are real, urgent and important,” Dale said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Despite working for one of the world’s biggest producers of fossil fuels, Dale said the longer the world waits to address rising emissions, the more “draconian” the changes in the global economy will have to be.

“How do I run a business, how do I make a business plan if I know that the path I’m on is unstable?” Dale asked.

For a multinational energy firm operating in dozens of countries, that could mean having to scrap assets, Dale said.

The provocative economist spent more than a decade working for the Bank of England before joining the oil giant. At the end of February, Dale led the publication of BP’s annual energy outlook, which is widely anticipated among energy industry followers.

At the center of the report’s most likely scenario for the future is the tension between the pressing need to slash carbon emissions and the growing demand for energy as the global population grows and seeks better livelihoods.

The best way to deal with that, Dale said, is to boost the energy efficiency of buildings and other systems.

Still, in all of BP’s scenarios, oil would still be widely used in 2040. The amount could vary from 80 million barrels a day to 130 million barrels a day — a huge gap. Yet even the low-end scenario would require trillions of dollars of investment just in petroleum over the next 20 years.

Indeed, history shows how hard it has been for societies to move from one form of power production to another, Dale said. Previous energy transitions have taken about four or five decades, he said.

It took almost 45 years, for example, for oil to go from 1 percent of world energy in the late 1800s to 10 percent. It took natural gas more than half a century to catch on.

Renewables will penetrate the global energy system faster than any fuel in history, Dale said, going from 1 percent to 10 percent in just 15 years.

But BP’s analysis suggests that is not fast enough to stem the growth of climate-warming emissions. Even though new renewable energy will satisfy about half of the new energy demand, carbon dioxide emissions are likely to increase by about 10 percent instead of falling sharply as needed to stem climate change.

Overall, global energy demand probably will grow by around a third by 2040, slower than the previous 20 years but still enough to make it difficult to lower greenhouse gas emissions as needed.

Around 80 percent of that increase in demand will come from the developing world, yet a substantial proportion — two-thirds — of the world’s population will still consume low amounts of energy 21 years from now.

BP has said it wants the federal government to take action, having endorsed a $40-a-ton nationwide tax. But that doesn’t mean the company always supports carbon taxes in practice. BP spent more than any other company last year to defeat a carbon-fee ballot initiative in the state of Washington that the company said was “poorly designed.” The proposal ultimately fell short with voters in November.

Spring is Looking Up. March 15 #FridaysForFuture, April 4-23 #DrawdownEcoChallenge

David Posnett — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 22:46:40 +0000

Climate March, Washington DC, April 2017

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Students at the Climate March in Washington, DC, April 2017

March 15th. The Ides of March, notable to the ancient Romans for settling debts, as a holy day when sheep were sacrificed, and of course, a day to beware, as a seer warned Julius Cesar.

What is this year’s prophecy?

Does it appear in hastags? #FridaysForFuture, #ClimateStrike, #SchoolStrike4Climate, #WhateverItTakes.

Or on twitter? “The youth are rising and they want their future back” wrote a GreenPeace campaigner. Or in the forecasting of 16 year old Greta Thunberg, “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.”

Read all about it, and listen to some very articulate kids, all ages, talk about why they are protesting by skipping school in Playing hooky to save the climate: why students are going on strike, Greta Thunberg’s #FridaysforFuture movement has inspired kids in dozens of countries to demand action on climate change by Umair Irfan of VOX. https://www.vox.com/2019/2/21/18233206/greta-thunberg-student-school-strike-climate-change

I am pleased, thrilled really, that students are transforming into climate activists, organizing with social media, putting skin in the game, so to speak, demonstrating their commitment and facing possible school (and parental?) punishment — spotlighting the urgent need for us to all act now.

I hope to encourage parents of school children to say what Greta’s mom and dad said to her a year ago when she started waving her protest sign in front of the Swedish parliament on Fridays: as your parents we don’t approve of your skipping school to protest, it is illegal, and against school rules, but we won’t stop you. (They, in fact, as a family, have made healthy carbon-free changes in their food, land-use, energy and transportation choices.)

The school strike has been debated in our Drawdown East End meetings, causing near arguments. As of now our Friday workshops at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton have ended. But we continue to organize around ways we can use Paul Hawken’s Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming as a framework to promote the most effective, suitable, and economically beneficial opportunities for our communities and our families.

I admit, I’m a bit nervous thinking that the first public thing we do, what we might become known for, is advocating school strikes, rather than our in-the-works mission statement: igniting, inspiring and assisting our communities in taking action on climate change, with its cascading economic, health, and security benefits.

So I asked “shouldn’t we get some parents on board if we’re going to go public and advocate this?” “We can’t wait! The whole point is no one is listening, but they will listen to the kids” came the cry back at me.

I’m thinking of Greta who gave a TED-talk last year recounting when she was 11: she stopped eating, lost weight, sunk into depression, was unable to attend school, after she learned about irreversible global warming and saw nothing being done, only denial. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, she now only speaks about critical issues, climate is #1, and in black-and-white terms. Thus “we can’t change the world by playing by the rules, the rules have to be changed.” Could this be a foretelling?

What I love about the discussions we’ve been having at Drawdown East End is they are so positive, impact-driven and can-do. We are learning through Drawdown about the best practices and technologies that are already working to substitute, conserve and even sequester CO2 emissions. The 100 top solutions are offered as an invitation to build, innovate and effect our change to a renewable energy future with cleaner air, better health, more involved communities, and a humming economy.

For Greta and her #SchoolStrike4Climate I’ll be positive and impact-driven, too. I will enthusiastically support #FridaysForFuture. And I will also ask:

Why not march to change your school into a climate-ready school through culture and curriculum?

Why not pledge to do something every day, personally, with your family, friends, school, community to reverse global warming?

Why not petition your school to implement a Drawdown curriculum? drawdown.org

Here are some great resources:

1) Climate Change Connection What Your School Can Do https://climatechangeconnection.org/resources/climate-friendly-schools/what-to-do/

2) The EPA’s What You Can Do at School https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climatechange/what-you-can-do-school_.html

3) UNESCO’s Getting climate-ready: a guide for schools on climate action https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000246740

Maybe you have a resource or best practice you’d like to share?

And, finally, April 4th-23rd. A free, fun, friendly challenge to join — individually, with friends, as a family, as a class, as a school.

The 21-day international Drawdown EcoChallenge is a free competition and educational program focusing on carbon reduction actions we can all take. It starts April 4 and already over 2,000 people on 400+ teams have signed up.

We invite you to join our local team, Drawdown East End.

To register: https://drawdown.ecochallenge.org/teams/drawdown-east-end

For more information on Drawdown East End contact: DrawdownEastEnd@gmail.com

Happy Valentine’s Day, Dear Earth, #LoveOurPlanetNotPollution

David Posnett — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 19:04:37 +0000

Some of us have been meeting at the Southampton library to discuss ways we can scale up existing efforts that draw down carbon from the atmosphere, based on the top 100 solutions outlined in the New York Times bestseller Drawdown: the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming.

The book’s 100 best practices and technologies measure and model ways we are already substituting fossil fuels with renewable clean energy, being more efficient, conserving, and even sequestering CO2 emissions. It is a matter of scale. The science reveals if we scale up our best practices, big-time, we can roll back greenhouse gas emissions — reverse the buildup of CO2 — reverse global warming by 2050.

There is much laughter at the meetings, and sometimes I tear up. So, we can actually cut the gloom and doom, and see our reality as an invitation to build, innovate and effect change? A pathway for creativity, an opportunity for an economy humming with innovation, for a renewable energy future with cleaner air, better health, more involved communities?

I share this 3 minute video, a positive hi-tech and low-tech overview.

Reading Drawdown I was surprised to learn that top solutions (#3 and #4) have to do with food —what we eat, what we throw away, where we buy our food. Individually, in our families, and as a community, we can make choices that have huge impacts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

Food waste alone is big (#3), generating 4.4 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year (8% of GHG emissions). Food waste from farm to fork generates emissions at every stage. We Americans throw out 1/3 of our food. If 50% of food waste is reduced by 2050, 26.2 gigaton emissions could be avoided, also avoiding deforestation needed for additional farmland. How? Willful food waste dominates at the consumer level. So then, eat what you buy, make delicious “leftover” soups, buy “ugly” produce, enjoy kitchen creativity — all big CO2 reducers and money savers. I can do that.

On a community level, buying locally and encouraging markets and restaurants to reallocate unpurchased food for reuse by farmers, entrepreneurs, food banks, even business or community composting efforts will reduce GHG. Can’t we do that?

Composting, by the way, is the CO2-smart way to handle any food waste. From backyard bins to commercial operations, composting creates an incredibly valuable fertilizer. Allowing your organic waste to end up in a landfill, absent oxygen, produces the potent GHG methane (34x more powerful than CO2). Note: Copenhagen has not sent any organic waste to landfills in 25 years, reaping savings, fertilizer production and carbon mitigation. Can’t we do that too?

Perhaps the healthiest lifestyle change you can make is not-doing something — what I call the Fish+Farmstand Diet, or Once A Week Red Meat. Surprise: beef cattle are 1/5 of global emissions. Eating the Mediterranean diet, more fish, fruit, veggies, grains, will keep you from heart disease, stroke, diabetes and you will feel great. Source your red meat from silvopasture farms, which reduce methane emissions 10x more than treeless farms (storing carbon in the trees and soil and 0 fertilizer use). From enriching a pasture with trees for shade to grazing in relatively dense wooded areas, Cornell Extensions across the state are helping expand silvopasturing to economically benefit farmers — a win, win, win. Why not silvopasture here?

Finally, the big accelerator for drawing down carbon from the atmosphere, the top #1 solution, is a national effort. Rather than have government subsidize oil companies as we do now, a 2019 bi-partisan bill would provide an economic incentive to substitute fossil fuels with clean renewable energy. Wouldn’t that jump-start be terrific?

Updating here from a previous blog, the bill’s full name is H.R.763 – To create a Carbon Dividend Trust Fund for the American people in order to encourage market-driven innovation of clean energy technologies and market efficiencies which will reduce harmful pollution and leave a healthier, more stable and more prosperous nation for future generations. It is sponsored by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), and co-sponsored by Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) and 11 Democrats, including most recently Yvette Clarke of New York.

Carbon emissions would reduce 90% by 2050 exceeding the Paris Climate goals and the Clean Power plan. American households would receive monthly dividend checks increasing from $600, $1,400, and $2,600 for each household in the first, fourth, and ninth years of policy implementation. Yes, gas would go up 19 cents a gallon, and a Yale study found that seniors, lower and mid-income and small towns benefit the most financially. The bill is transparent, market-based, does not enlarge government, leaves energy decisions to individual choices, provides thousands of clean energy jobs, cleans the air, and gives us a dividend check, each month, for 30 years. A healthier you chooses how you spend it.

Interestingly, the Green New Deal does not include carbon pricing. As Josh Siegel of the Washington Examiner, noted in “Republican lawmakers face pressure to propose ‘Green New Deal’ alternative” this leaves an opening for Republicans like Mr. Rooney and other Floridians who have taken the lead in co-sponsoring carbon tax legislation.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/republican-lawmakers-face-pressure-to-propose-green-new-deal-alternative

More movement is taking place in Washington, as Madame Speaker Pelosi has reconstituted the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which she had created as speaker in 2007-2011.

H.R. 763 is a well-researched bi-partisan jump-start to reverse global warming and importantly gets our economy humming with innovation. The timing is good now to make it happen and Senators/Congressman needs to hear from you. Call. Write a post card. Write a letter to the editor.

More information on our local Drawdown East End effort to be posted soon!

Mary Foster Morgan

Co-Leader

Citizens Climate Lobby NYS – LI East

Greta Thunberg: 16-year-old star speaker in Davos

David Posnett — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 19:10:57 +0000

Take a look at a 16 year old lecturing the leaders of the world! Impressive.

Our house is on fire!

On TED!

On ScientistsWarning.Org?

Don’t Make Me Laugh

David Posnett — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:41:01 +0000

By Perry Gershon:

Lee Zeldin wants you to think he’s an environmentalist. He’s spending big bucks blasting that absurd idea across Long Island television.

Don’t make me laugh.

In his four years in Congress, Lee has voted against the environment over and over again. He’s taken tens of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industry to prop up his campaign.

It’s no wonder Lee opposed protecting the environment on 21 out of 22 votes.

Lee opposed seven bills on air quality protections.

He opposed protections for clean water 19 different times.

He opposed protecting wildlife eight times.

And he continues to stand by a president who insists climate change is a Chinese hoax.

Get the idea? Lee Zeldin is no friend of the environment, of clear air and water, or protecting our planet for future generations.

Long Island voters have a clear choice in November.

I promise to work tirelessly to protect the environment – whether that be our clear air, clean water, clean energy production, or protecting wildlife.

Lee’s record is clear, and that’s just another reason why he has to go.

Donate $5 right now. Let’s show Zeldin we won’t stand for his hypocrisy on the environment.

Posts on R&R (since July 2018) related to Zeldin’s environmental record:

Zeldin’s Environmental Voting Record Goes from Bad to Worse

Posted on August 28, 2018 by D. Posnett MD

Lee Zeldin wants to Drill in the Ironwood Forest National Monument By Marc Rauch: Latest update: Zeldin’s Environmental Voting Record Goes from Bad to Worse in 2018 In the first 3 years of Lee Zeldin’s congressional term (2015-2017), he earned … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, Environment, EPA, Executive Order, GOP, National Parks & Monuments, Trump, Uncategorized, water quality, Zeldin | Tagged Environment, lee zeldin, voting record | 2 Comments | Edit

Zeldin’s War on the Environment

Posted on August 20, 2018 by D. Posnett MD

By Perry Gershon: (Source: https://www.facebook.com/pg/perry4congress/posts/?ref=page_internal) Lee Zeldin continues to support the Trump Administration’s destruction of our environmental protections. The new “plan” for coal represents one more example of the total disregard for the serious health effects of air pollution. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Air Pollution, Environment, Trump, Uncategorized, water quality, Zeldin | Tagged car emission, clean air, clean water, pollution | 2 Comments | Edit

Is Lee Zeldin Really “Good On The Environment”?

Posted on January 19, 2018 by francescarh

A slickly produced mailer from Lee Zeldin appeared in my mailbox this week. It touted our Congressman’s supposed record in “safeguarding our environment.” Mr. Zeldin has been very adept in pulling the wool over voters’ eyes about his actual environmental … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment | Edit

Zeldin Boasting about Environment Record?

Posted on January 2, 2018 by maidstonejewelry

Recently Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1), co-chair of the Long Island Sound Caucus and founding member of the “Congressional Estuary Caucus”, was joined by EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Regional Director Carrie Meek … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, Environment, EPA, Paris Climate Accord, Uncategorized, Zeldin | 4 Comments | Edit

More Bad Zeldin Environmental Votes

Posted on October 12, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

By Marc Rauch and Chelsea Estevez Since our last update in late August, fourteen bills impacting the environment have come before the House of Representatives. Lee Zeldin took the anti-environment position on 12 out of 14 of these recent bills. … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, Environment, EPA, Paris Climate Accord, Trump, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged environmental justice, EPA, fracking, methane, ocean, public land | Leave a comment | Edit

Complete Lee Zeldin Environmental Voting Record

Posted on July 2, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

A great resource! D Posnett Marc Rauch·Friday, June 23, 2017 Complete Lee Zeldin Environmental Voting Record (Last Updated 6/29/17) Introduction Linked here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19e5j3Z3xupufWNReLsO-P69eL316sJDLBbf8EZDFklg/edit?usp=sharing is an easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet summarizing Lee Zeldin’s complete environmental voting record in Congress. Purpose This spreadsheet … Continue reading →

Posted in Air Pollution, climate change, Environment, EPA, National Parks & Monuments, Offshore Drilling, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged energy, Environment, record, wind, Zeldin | 2 Comments | Edit

Lee Zeldin’s Duplicity on Environmental Issues

Posted on March 7, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

Marc Rauch, from Bellport, New York. had the following letter in the March 2, 2017 edition of the Long Island Advance: I was taken aback by Rep. Lee Zeldin’s “official positions” on protection of the environment, as reported last week … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged duplicity, Environment, pollution, Zeldin | 1 Comment | Edit

Zeldin & Environment?

Posted on February 19, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

My letter to editor of LI Advance was published this week- 2/16/2017 Voting to loosen standards on oil and gas industries Where is Congressman Zeldin on the environment? Two weeks ago I visited Congressman Zeldin’s office to talk with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Uncategorized | Tagged Environment, Zeldin | 5 Comments | Edit

Flip the House — Defeat Zeldin!

Posted on August 4, 2018 by amyturner2000

By Jacquelyn Gavron & Amy Turner, July 19, 2018 New York’s First Congressional District (NY-1), historically a swing district, is represented by Lee Zeldin (R). He was initially elected with Tea Party support and is an unwavering Trump loyalist with … Continue reading →

Posted in ACA, AHCA, economy, Environment, Guns, Health Care, Politics, Tax Reform, Uncategorized, Women, Zeldin | 3 Comments | Edit

Moral Obligation to send Zeldin packing

Posted on July 19, 2018 by D. Posnett MD

Published in the East Hampton Star – the July 10, 2018 To the Editor: Offered less than 10 days into our district’s 133-day congressional race, The Star’s advice to local Democrats (“First District Dilemma”) is not only premature, but also … Continue reading →

Posted in perry gershon, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged David Rattray, democratic, gershon, Star, turnout | Leave a comment | Edit

Dangerous Men

David Posnett — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 16:32:12 +0000

Bleached Staghorn Coral

By James Ewing (Watermill, NY)

“The GOP Republican party is the most dangerous organization in human history…dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organized human life on earth.”—Noam Chomsky, scholar, MIT.
What are these most dangerous men doing?
Oceans cover about 70% of earth’s surface and support all the planet’s living systems. They regulate weather, temperature, the food web, absorb atmospheric CO2 while producing half of the world’s oxygen. The ocean’s coral reefs maintain its resilience and viability.
In 2016 and 2017, greenhouse gas induced heating and acidification killed about half the corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef as well as many others around the world.
“So, you take out coral reefs and a third to a quarter of all species gets wiped out…that is ecological chaos, ecological collapse”, says John Vernon, world’s foremost expert on coral reefs. “We’ve got a mass extinction event looming,..more than an alarm bell,” says Veron. “It’s an air raid siren.”
And what are dangerous men doing? Driving our precious estate over a cliff and stepping on the gas.
The GOP party, White House and cabinet officials have essentially denied or ignored the existence of global warming. In 2008 the “No Climate Tax” pledge, signed by GOP’s Americans for Prosperity, declares economic growth shall always override environmental sustainability.
Dangerous men withdrew the nation from the Paris Climate accord which bound the globe together in efforts to halt global warming. GOP leadership were united in their praise.
Fossil fuels account for about 80 % of total climate warming emissions. What do dangerous men do?
Trump’s GOP republican party seeks to overhaul the Clean Power Plan which cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants yielding controls to less restrictive individual states and fast track emissions permitting processes by industry insiders. They repeal the Clean Air and Water Acts; ease restrictions on releasing mercury, arsenic, lead, and carbon monoxide into our air; weaken fuel economy standards; cancel restrictions on super-polluting “glider trucks”; oppose California’s electric car mandate; abandon methane limits on new oil and gas wells; revoke prohibitions on hydrofluorocarbons; expand oil production infrastructure, opening public lands to resource development; weaken the Well Control Rule and allow drilling in 25 of the 26 regions of the entire U.S. Outer Continental Shelf while immunizing extractive industries from compensatory damages; slash funding for renewable energy and efficiency research; remove scientists from advisory positions at the EPA…
“Coral (die-off) is driven by carbon dioxide, unless you stop pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it’ll go on. There’s no way around it, there’s no alternative… We can’t—as humans—can’t exist independently of the welfare of the planet.”—John Vernon. But is this what dangerous men are thinking? Really? Really?