Owing to the aim of reducing air pollution and local auto accidents, cars will be banned this summer from New York City’s Central Park — after more than a century of free use — the city’s mayor Bill de Blasio has announced. So, to say that a different way, New York City’s Central Park will
Five of the world’s largest oil companies are now in the process of being sued by New York City for their “contributions to global warming,” Comptroller Scott Stringer has revealed. The companies in question are: Chevron, BP, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and ConocoPhillips — arguably the 5 top oil firms in the world that
The United States is now the only country in the world not committed to the carbon reduction goals announced in Paris at the COP21 climate change summit in 2015. But that doesn’t mean all Americans have abandoned the fight. At the COP23 climate conference in Bonn, Germany, last week, more than 100 people from the
UtilityDIVE reports transmission congestion in the western portion of New York is limiting the state’s ability to access hydropower during summer peaks, state regulators said last week. This resource is regarded as essential to meeting a 50% renewables target by 2030. “Inadequate transmission capability is causing transmission congestion in Western New York, which prevents renewable resources
Originally published on EdenKeeper.org Founded in 1979, the Christian Cultural Center (CCC) is the largest church in Brooklyn. With over 37,000 members in its congregation, the CCC is the largest evangelical church in the New York region and one of the largest independent churches in the US. Sitting on an 11-acre sun-drenched campus, the CCC
The New York Public Service Commission voted Monday on a 50% clean energy standard. Officials say this will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030, ensuring the state’s power mix is diverse and can attract billions in clean energy investments. New York’s Clean Energy Standard mandates the state obtains half its power from renewable sources
Con Edison and SunPower will team up to pilot a “virtual power plant” program by offering solar power systems with battery storage to more than 300 New York homeowners. In an announcement made this week, Con Edison, one of the United States’ largest investor-owned energy companies, will partner with SunPower, a world leading renewable energy
What were once regarded as standard revenue models for utilities are changing worldwide. Start with New York, where recent reforms to how utility revenues are structured under the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), may serve as a template for a new and diverse revenue model concerning 21st century power providers. Writing for UtilityDIVE, Gavin Bade
As reported by UtilityDIVE, a dozen New York lawmakers have introduced a bill aimed at codifying Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s climate change goals, including a 100% reduction in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. “This is, quite simply, one of the strongest, smartest, and most thoughtful pieces of climate legislation the public has
In a boost for clean energy, the US Department of Energy will provide funding for 24 American Indian and Alaska Native communities to deploy clean energy and energy efficiency projects. In today’s press announcement, the DOE outlined plans to invest over $9 million in 16 facility- and community-scale energy projects in 24 tribal communities. This represents a
Electric cars are much, much greener than gas cars (“gasmobiles,” as I like to call them). Even in the state with the dirtiest electricity grid (Colorado), electric cars charging from the grid have a miles per gallon equivalency of 34. The average new gasoline-powered compact car has a fuel economy rating of 28 mpg. (In the cleanest
I know, “unstealths” is used more for startups than for educational programs, but I thought unstealths sounded more interesting for this New York solar school program than the standard alternatives. The program, K-Solar, is part of the $1 billion NY-Sun Initiative. 40 school districts have registered for the program. They are home to ~200 schools.
Last week something rare and extraordinarily positive occurred on American television. Fortunately, through YouTube and 350.org, the rest of the world got to see it too. “Something positive?” a critic questions. “If climate change is as bad as you tree-hugger people claim it is, how can anything about it be positive?” The phenomenon tends to
When the hydraulic fracturing measure passed the Los Angeles City Council today, several tweeters posted photos of this meeting (source of the above: Walker Foley on twitter). The City Council of Los Angeles, second-most populous metro in the United States, voted 10-0 today to prohibit hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other “unconventional” deep-underground drilling methods to produce
Climate scientists have been predicting more intense seasonal temperature variations and storms for several years now and recent winter ice storms in the deep south of the US, as well as ‘super storm’ Sandy, seem to lend much credence to this forecasting. And although this past hurricane season was less than spectacular — discounting Sandy,
If you’ve ever wondered about the composition of the electricity delivered to your home (most of us have no clue), there’s one quick and easy way to find out. The EPA’s ‘Power Profiler’ tool has apparently been around for at least 2 years, but I only discovered it recently. Although the data used to generate
In what is being hailed as a “landmark ruling” a federal judge in California has ruled (on April 8, 2013) that federal authorities at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) broke the law when they leased government-controlled land to oil and natural gas drilling companies without proper environmental oversight and assessment of the risks of
New York state could be powered entirely by renewable energy within the near future, a new study from Stanford University has found. Wind, solar, and water power could provide all of the energy used by the electric grid, industry, all forms of transportation, and heating/cooling. The research found that such a switchover would provide substantial
New research on trees in the continental United States has found that new spring leaves might start to bud up to 17 days earlier in the coming century then they did prior to the current anthropogenic climate change. The research is behind a new study by Princeton University researchers who used a new model that
The folks over at HouseTrip, which is a holiday rental site, have taken their expertise and created an infographic showing the top greenest cities in the world. These eco-friendly cites were judged on everything from tree planting to water usage. Six cities where selected, including; London, New York, Vancouver, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Stockholm. Among the
The wacky weather continues no matter where you live, apparently, with New York City residents baffled by the arrival of two tornadoes on Saturday, the first touching down near Breezy Point, a Queens neighbourhood, and the second in Brooklyn. Saturday was a day of severe weather across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic as a powerful cold
I’m sure that if gastropods (snails and their ilk; word mean “stomach-foot”) could speak, they’d have a few words of protest over this exploitation of their enzymes… but one snail at least has been ‘harvested’ — for its energy output — without being harmed, say the experimenters. Recently, researchers (Halámková et al) reported in the
In a time when the climate and environment of our planet is constantly in mind for many of the world’s people, there are groups that are being pro-active in their efforts to help make our way of life sustainable. These groups exist to bring together like-minded thinkers on environment topics of all kinds and there
October 8, 2011 Seattle Washington – Signs of the Times
Saturday’s ‘Occupy Seattle’ rally (“general assembly”) at Westlake Plaza and march on City Hall went off without too many hitches and just two arrests at its near conclusion. I estimate the crowd at its peak to be between 3 and 4000.
The Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York nearly a month ago has spread like so much GMO crop pollen, with ‘Occupy ________’ (fill in city of your choice) rallies and protests spreading around the country.
No single message has crystallized yet, although there is such a wide base of anger and resentment that one should not be puzzled at this. Currently, the still somewhat leader-less movement seems to be morphing into simply an “occupy everything” movement.
I don’t think this was planned, certainly not by the #occupywallstreet folks, but a big civilian protest on Wall Street mimicking social-media-fueled protests in Egypt and Iran and the Obama administration are both working to make the richest 1% of the country contribute more to society this weekend.
Of course, the Fat Cats aren’t fond of either effort.
This stunningly beautiful HDR image of the remnants of Hurricane Irene was taken in New York by Jose Sepulveda.
Hurricane Irene has spent its force, entering New York as a downgraded Tropical Storm, and left many residents and experts breathing a sigh of relief over a storm that they thought could have been much, much worse.
Over the past few days Hurricane Irene has been making landfall off the Eastern Coast of America, in North Carolina and Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. The whole time, scientists from various institutions across the country have been monitoring, tracking, and investigating the hurricane.
Vertical farming, as a concept, has been around for years, but it’s being put into practice and showing results in South Korea…
Hogweed — heard of it? It’s a tall plant with “flower clusters the size of umbrellas” and it oozes toxic sap that can cause blisters and even blindness, not fun stuff.
Mark Ruffalo is probably the most outspoken Hollywood star opposing hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) for natural gas. But he has gotten quite a few big name Hollywood stars on his side and fighting it now, including Ethan Hawke, Zoe Saldana, Amy Ryan, Nadia Dajani, and Josh Charles.
This is totally awesome. The ridiculousness of this guy getting a ticket for not riding in the bike lane is made obvious when he decides to then ALWAYS ride in the bike lane, film it, and show the world who should really be getting the tickets.
Other than the 50+ stories we covered in the past week, here are 15 more green stories I thought were worth a share:
Brooklyn Grange (one of the farms featured in the video above) is reportedly the largest rooftop farm and it recently rolled into its second growing season. The organic urban farm, believe it or not, is located in Brooklyn, NY (funny coincidence with the name, eh?). The farm sits on top of a 6-story 1919 warehouse and is 40,000 square feet in size. It was built by Bromley Caldari Architects.
Some of the top clean energy, clean transport, and green living stories of the last day or so: Clean Energy China’s Green Economy Leadership “China sees green as the future engine of its economy. Although currently the world’s leading greenhouse gas emitter, China is serious about slowing greenhouse gas emissions and using renewable energy.” Green Jobs, Good
Ranking U.S. stadiums according to “the depth and breadth” of their green initiatives, national home solar company SunRun recently came up with a top 10 list of the greenest stadiums. Cowboys Stadium, where the Super Bowl is about to be played, came in at number 5. From the planning stages, when the Dallas Cowboys intended
If you’re in the New York area, you may be interested to know that Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise (a ship) will be in New York City from February 4-11. It is rolling in as part of Greenpeace’s East Coast Coal Free Future Tour. Check it out if you have the time. via Greenpeace USA. Related Stories:
It is pretty clear that the environment and all those in the U.S. trying to protect it are going to be facing a full court press when the 2011 Congress moves in. As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently said, “if they think it’s bad now, wait till next year.” The New York Times has
I’ve mentioned the great health benefits of bicycling on here a number of times. With the health benefits being so clear, you’d think more health professionals would be pushing for better biking infrastructure… Well, a number of them are starting to. Check out this email/news release I received from NYC transportation advocacy organization Transportation Alternatives:
Bike theft and vandalism has been a bit of an issue for the world’s biggest bike-sharing program, Vélib in Paris, which has been, nonetheless, extremely successful and dwarfs U.S. bike-sharing programs (so far). But recent research on the matter has found basically nothing to worry about concerning bike-sharing theft and vandalism in the U.S. and
As the former executive director of an organization promoting bicycling for transportation purposes (as well as walking, mass transit, and sustainable development), I can tell you that one of the biggest problems bicyclists face, in most cities across the United States, is uninformed and hostile police. New York City is apparently no exception. Hostile and illegal
Hydraulic fracking is bad news. Fracking, if you haven’t heard of it, is a means of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open
[UPDATED: Sept. 27, 2013; see addendum at bottom] In the spirit of both Halloween and Environmental Awareness, I hereby offer thirteen environmental horror stories of anthropogenic origin. I have chosen to narrow my sample field to the post World War II time period. I have also excluded nuclear weapons tests and chemical weapons usage (such
Following up on global warming news of the week (one of the biggest environmental problems), here is some uplifting green tech and green living news from this week.
And the global warming news keeps coming…. What else could you expect? Think this July is ridiculously hot? It may be relative to the past, but relative to the future it looks like it will be quite normal or even cooler than normal (unless we turn things around fast).
Heatwaves like the one that hit the northeast of America in July are likely to be more commonplace in the future. A new study from climate scientists at The City College of New York (CCNY) suggests that densely built urban environments like Manhattan are likely to suffer more frequent and more intense heatwaves in the
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/fgT-QfcjXw4&hl=pl_PL&fs=1] Here is this week’s “greencast” or screencast of great green news from around the internet (that we didn’t already cover). Enjoy the video above via YouTube or in high definition on screenr. By the way, if you happen to notice the sound of pedestrians, cyclists or streetcars in the background, it is because I
Continuing on with our 7 Green Bloggers Series, this edition is on some top green bloggers’ favorite nature destinations. The specific question I asked: “What is your favorite nature destination? (Has to be someplace you’ve been. Can be anything from a national park to your backyard to ‘the ocean’.)” Nobody said their backyard, but I did get
