[note-- info below re: great http://www.350.org forum tomorrow w/Melissa Everett, Betsy Blair, et. al.!]
Join Pete Seeger for our Second Annual 350.org Rally for a Green New Deal this Sat. Oct. 24th (International Day of Climate Action)-- along with speakers Ned Sullivan, Ex. Dir. of Scenic Hudson,
Tara Sullivan, Ex. Dir. of Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Ex. Dir. Jeff Rumpf, Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies President Bill Schlesinger, Eban Goodstein (Bard Center for Environmental Policy Director), Rev. Gail Burger, Rabbi Paul Golomb!
We'll all be gathering first at noon Saturday at the Holy Light Pentecostal Church at 33 South Clover St. in Poughkeepsie-- then walking over to be on the Walkway on the Hudson by 2 pm!...(or close to that)...
Speakers will also include City of Poughkeepsie Common Councilmembers Gwen Johnson and Penny Lewis, and Ann Perry and Mae Parker-Harris, Amy Christie and Maribel Pregnall of Rhinebeck and Arlington High School Environmental Clubs-- and Natalie Narotzky of the Bard Environmental Collective also mobilizing on this-- along with folksingers Pat Lamanna and Chris Ruhe, Dutchess County Young Democrats President Ira Margulies, and Fred Doneit of Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting...
Community organizers involved mobilizing folks for this include Lia Harris and Kim Notin (and Raphael) of the Cary Institute, Doris Kelly, Lydia Wright, Chris Kelly, Vane Lashua, Jeff, Ethan, and Isabel Romano, David Gideon, Lynn Paraskeva, Susan Brooks, Finn Shanahan, Sam Kogon, Sara Marie Meyer, Nico Fesser, Kaelan Dietrich, Will Fox, Nick Hoynes-- thanx tons to you all!...
[I got two of my carbon-cutting, green jobs resolutions passed in our County Legislature with wide bipartisan margins to create a new nonprofit-- and put together a team of the best and brightest to make it happen--the Independent Dutchess Energy Alliance (see http://www.CambridgeEnergyAlliance.org ; http://www.LIGreenHomes.com )-- in spite of local papers completely and totally ignoring this...now-- 'tis time to make Town of Babylon's fab Long Island Green Homes program reality here; Sun. Times here:
"Green, Greener in Suburban Towns" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/science/earth/11green.html .]
Scroll down a bit for new resolution from yours truly submitted last Thurs. to our Co. Leg. offices-- to send strong message to D.C. to support Bill McKibben's green-job goals @ http://www.350.org ...
We need YOU all to email all 25 of us now at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us-- make sure that 350 resolution a bit below at least is allowed to be on agenda for Nov. Co. Leg. Committee Day agenda!...
Anyone else catch recent front-page PoJo headline-- unemployment locally 2x 2007 rate!...
[and-- let us know if we can list YOU as a speaker (even briefly) for our 350 event w/Pete this Sat.]
Pass it on....
Joel
242-3571/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
p.s. Check out http://www.StopTrashingtheClimate.org if you haven't already; don't forget-- going towards zero-waste is another crucial way to fight global warming, climate change-- and create green jobs on local level-- and see http://www.CARMA.org -- fact is that our county incinerator in Poughkeepsie spews out 3700 tons of carbon emissions annually!...
[there is a better way, folks-- sign on to http://www.petitiononline.com/zeroyes -- and pass along to all!]
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From the DEC's Emilie Hauser (eehauser@gmail.com)-- of League of Women Voters of Mid-Hudson....
[note-- you can RSVP to this event on Facebook and also put the event on your site:
Community-Based Climate Change Strategies
At the Ulster BOCES at 175 Route 32 North, New Paltz, NY 12561
Tuesday, October 20, 7 pm
A program to help concerned citizens, environmental advocates and municipal officials work effectively with their local governmental bodies in addressing climate change will be held on October 20th at 7pm at Ulster BOCES in New Paltz. The League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Region is partnering with The Nature Conservancy, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Sustainable Hudson Valley, and others to present this informational forum.
Participants in The Nature Conservancy's Rising Waters Project will explain what is (or will be) happening here in our region as climate change continues. Other speakers will talk about cost-effective ways to work with local officials to address climate change right now as well as in the long-term. They will also discuss employment and economic development opportunities applicable to the mid-Hudson region that the climate change crisis presents.
The Climate Smart Communities program, a partnership of state and local governments whose goal is to combat climate change, will be highlighted. The program provides a comprehensive approach for communities to decrease energy use, incorporate climate protection and sustainability into land uses and economic development plans and take steps to adapt to climate change. Representatives of towns who are leading the way in taking action on climate change will make presentations, including a representative of the City of Kingston, where the Common Council passed a climate smart pledge on October 6. Additional guidance will be provided for those seeking more information and financial resources.
Among the confirmed speakers are Mark Lowery, the Climate Change Coordinator of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation; Betsy Blair of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve; Melissa Everett of Sustainable Hudson Valley; Julie Noble of the Conservation Advisory Council of City of Kingston; and Leo Wiegman of the Croton-on-Hudson.
This event is a lead-up to the international day of action on October 24, 2009, led by Bill McKibben's movement,
The October 20th event is free and open to all. Ulster BOCES is at 175 Route 32 North in New Paltz. Participants are asked to carpool. Ride share with others by using this service,
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF THE MID-HUDSON REGION
Post Office Box 3564
Kingston, New York 12402
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
October 8, 2009
CONTACT: Dare Thompson, Program Committee Co-Chair 845-236-3074
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[again-- your letters needed to countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us to get this on to Nov. agenda!]
WHEREAS, 350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere, and
WHEREAS, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Dutchess County and Region 3 of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, because of the man-made impacts of global warming, right here in the Northeast winter temperatures have increased four degrees since 1970, causing less snow in winter for example, but more weather extremes, and
WHEREAS, Sustainable Hudson Valley Chair David Dell, cofounder of the Independent Dutchess Energy Alliance, has crunched the numbers and determined that literally one billion dollars in savings on electric bills and thousands of new green jobs created are possible over the next ten years for Dutchess County homeowners and businesses if we make sure that all who need energy-efficiency retrofits get them, while drastically reducing carbon emissions locally to approach 350 ppm CO2 target as soon as possible, and
WHEREAS, communities across the country have embraced the model of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Babylon in Long Island, cutting carbon emissions by making energy-efficiency retrofits much more readily available to local homeowners, creating green jobs and saving millions for local residents on electric bills, including Bedford, NY, Boulder, CO, and Berkeley, CA, and
WHEREAS, accelerating arctic warming and other early climate impacts have led scientists to conclude that we are already above the safe zone at our current 390ppm, and that unless we are able to rapidly return to 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt, and
WHEREAS, for all of human history until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained 275 parts per million of carbon dioxide; parts per million is simply a way of measuring the concentration of different gases, and means the ratio of the number of carbon dioxide molecules per million other molecules in the atmosphere; 275 ppm CO2 is a useful amount- without some CO2 and other greenhouse gases that trap heat in our atmosphere, our planet would be too cold for humans to inhabit, and
WHEREAS, beginning in the 18th century, humans began to burn coal and gas and oil to produce energy and goods; the amount of carbon in the atmosphere began to rise, at first slowly and now more quickly; many of the activities we do every day like turning the lights on, cooking food, or heating or cooling our homes rely on energy sources like coal and oil that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere; we're taking millions of years worth of carbon, stored beneath the earth as fossil fuels, and releasing it into the atmosphere; by now, the planet has 390 parts per million CO2 - and this number is rising by about 2 parts per million every year, and
WHEREAS, glaciers everywhere are melting and disappearing fast, and they are a source of drinking water for hundreds of millions of people; mosquitoes, who like a warmer world, are spreading into lots of new places, and bringing malaria and dengue fever with them; drought is becoming much more common, making food harder to grow in many places, and
WHEREAS, sea levels have begun to rise, and scientists warn that they could go up as much as several meters this century; if that happens, many of the world's cities, island nations, and farmland will be underwater; the oceans are growing more acidic because of the CO2 they are absorbing, which makes it harder for animals like corals and clams to build and maintain their shells and skeletons; coral reefs could start dissolving at an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 450-500 ppm; these impacts are combining to exacerbate conflicts and security issues in already resource-strapped regions, and
WHEREAS, the Arctic is sending us perhaps the clearest message that climate change is occurring much more rapidly than scientists previously thought; in the summer of 2007, sea ice was roughly 39% below the summer average for 1979-2000, a loss of area equal to nearly five United Kingdoms; many scientists now believe the Arctic will be completely ice free in the summertime between 2011 and 2015, some 80 years ahead of what scientists had predicted just a few years ago, and
WHEREAS, propelled by the news of these accelerating impacts, some of the world's leading climate scientists have now revised the highest safe level of CO2 to 350 parts per million; that's the last number you need to know, and the most important. It's the safety zone for planet earth, and
WHEREAS, as James Hansen of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the first scientist to warn about global warming more than two decades ago, wrote recently, "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm," and
WHEREAS, that will be a hard task, but not impossible; we need to stop taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into the air; above all, that means we need to stop burning so much coal, and start using solar and wind energy and other such sources of renewable energy, and
WHEREAS, if we do this, then the earth's soils and forests will slowly cycle some of that extra carbon out of the atmosphere, and eventually CO2 concentrations will return to a safe level; by decreasing use of other fossil fuels, and improving agricultural and forestry practices around the world, scientists believe we could get back to 350 by mid-century, but the longer we remain in the danger zone (above 350) the more likely that we will see disastrous and irreversible climate impacts, and
WHEREAS, every year since 1992, the United Nations hosts a two-week long conference for world leaders to meet and discuss what to do to about the global threat of climate change, and
WHEREAS, in December of 2009, this meeting will be in Copenhagen, Denmark; there, delegates, non-governmental organizations, and businesses from every nation will meet to finalize a new global climate change agreement; it is crucial that decision-makers at this meeting understand and are held accountable to crafting policy that is informed by the most recent science, and
WHEREAS, at the last UN climate negotiations in Poland at the end of 2008, the 350 target began to attract more endorsers as new scientific reports and evidence of early impacts made it clear that we are already above the safe level for CO2; in his annual speech, Nobel laureate Al Gore told delegates to the most recent climate negotiating session that we must now 'toughen our goal' to 350 ppm, and therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature endorses the goal of going back down to 350 ppm carbon dioxide as soon as possible to cut carbon emissions, create green jobs, and save on electric bills for local residents, and requests that New York State and the United States do this as well, and be it further
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to President Barack Obama, our congressional representatives, Governor David Paterson, and local state legislators.
How was it?
ReplyDeleteare there pictures?
if so did you send them into 350.org?