Here’s what we’re reading this week:
Green Tips: Harvesting Your Garden: Earlier this year, we published a series of Green Tips that covered how to establish and maintain a garden. Now that the growing season is coming to a close for certain varieties, we’re rounding out the series with tips on how to harvest your garden.
Researching and Fighting Harmful Algal Blooms in New York: Harmful algal blooms have been on the rise in bodies of water—arriving earlier in the year, sticking around later, and blooming more severely. New York State is taking the threat of HABs very seriously and has been working to both better understand the causes of HABs and develop better techniques for combating them.
NYC Neglects Key Climate Initiatives: Earlier this year, NYLCVEF released the NYC Climate Action Tracker, a tool for the public, elected officials, and others to see how the City has made environmental progress since Mayor de Blasio launched OneNYC in 2015. Sadly, the economic impact of COVID-19 has led New York City to delay or abandon key aspects of its plan to fight climate change.
News Roundup:
We joined Rep. Kathleen Rice to call on the U.S. Department of the Interior to clear the way for offshore wind energy in the NY Bight which is a swath of ocean that extends from Cape May, NJ to Mountuak Point on Eastern Long Island.Clean energy creates green jobs and green jobs are local jobs. The wind energy areas in the NY Bight represent an untapped potential for Long Island to lead on climate action and aid our economic recovery. (Long Beach Patch)
Americans are living through concurrent disasters. In California, more than 200,000 people were under evacuation orders due to wildfires, and millions are breathing smoky air. On the Gulf Coast, people weathered a tropical storm at the beginning of the week. Two days later, about half a million were ordered to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Laura. We're six months into a global pandemic, and the Earth is on track to have one of its hottest years on record. A climate scientist says if our collective future were a movie, this week would be the trailer. (NPR)
The U.S. Senate Democratic Special Committee on the Climate Crisis released the Case For Climate Action report which shows how investments in infrastructure and bold policy solutions like a clean fuels standard can bring green jobs and a clean energy economy. (The Hill)
New York state agencies issued the latest GreenNY Report on their sustainability practices which shows that state buildings are becoming more energy efficient. They are no longer using any bottled water, they’re using 60% less paper, they’re recycling at a rate of 66%, and their buildings generate 10 million kWh of solar energy. (Press Release)
In an op-ed on behalf of the Play Fair coalition that NYLCV is a founding member of, Roxanne Delgado of the Natural Areas Conservancy writes that New York City should stop systematically underfunding parks in order to improve our environment and preserve valuable green spaces. (City Limits)
Hornell Common Council approved an $83,352 grant to connect the Shawmut Trail with the Finger Lakes Trail. (Hornell Evening Tribune)
Sincerely,
New York League of Conservation Voters
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