CT Green Scene

Westporters Take Stand on Global Warming

by Monique Bosch

Westport residents ignored torrential rain and headed for Compo beach at dawn Saturday, October 24th, to participate in the International Day of Climate Action. It marked the largest day of environmental action in history. Westport was only one in over 5,000 events that took place in 181 countries around the world. A sudden unexpected clearing of the skies rewarded those who braved the weather.

Local musicians serenaded the group over coffee and donuts as beach towels forming 3-5-0 were arranged on the sand.  The number, 350 parts per million (ppm), signifies the level scientists say is the safe upper limit of CO2 in the atmosphere. We are currently at 390 ppm.

As 350.org organizer Bill McKibben explained, we now have a tangible goal, a number to strive for. “This number is attainable, but it will take a global effort to get there,” he said. McKibben is an author, educator and environmentalist spearheading the effort to bring the world together to solve the climate crisis.

All around Connecticut: 350.ORG

by Heather Burns-DeMelo

It was difficult to ignore the collective buzz around the state Saturday, as groups of all sizes and compositions gathered together to express their creative vision and commitment to spreading the word that 350 ppm is the safe upper limit of CO2 in the atmosphere. Why is that the number? Click here to find out.

Politicians, world leaders, scientists and environmental groups will meet in Copenhagen in a mere six weeks to agree (we hope) on a climate policy that is clear, fair and binding. As it stands, 350 ppm is the number that is in the draft agreement. Today, our ppm is 386 and rising. This is a number we share with the entire planet -- that is, the United States, China, and Micronesia all must work together on a collective goal. It's no longer a case of pointing fingers or being able to seek out reprieve while others suffer: it's everyone's problem.

For many people, a random number that counts a gas we can't see is a bit of a stretch. But to thousands of people living and working in Connecticut, it represents the fact that climate change isn't just something we need to do something about in 25 or 50 years, it's something we must tackle TODAY. 

Thanks to all of you who submitted photos of your creative, bold and inspiring events. 

Shop Dava, New Haven

Photo: Coleen Campbell

 

Yale Forestry School students created this 350 Noah's ark from mostly
salvaged materials in front of Kroon Hall. Animals represented included
everything from the humble ant to the mighty giraffe to the beautiful
capybaras of South America and the polar bears made out of used Styrofoam
containers. Although 35 people are pictured here, the previous night, at
least 90 people turned up to help build the ark and the animals. We chose
this action in part because synagogues around the world happened to be
reading the Noah's Ark story in the Torah on Oct 24th, and in part because
climate change puts 15-37% of all known plant and animal species at the risk
of extinction by 2050. Photo: Grady O'Shaughnessy and Gabriel Mejias

 

Hundreds of people donning Bridgeport Sound Tigers/350.org t-shirts
walked onto the ice during the game's second intermission to make the
number in support of preserving this favorite winter sport.  Photo: Rick Stieglitz

"350.org activists brave rain and heavy winds on the historic New Haven Green to form a human 350, with the historic downtown churches and Yale College Old Campus in the background." Photo: Vladimir Jankovic, New Haven Independent. Background information: http://www.350.org/newhaven

 

David Bedell, Cristian Aldana, Natalie Johnson, Ted Hanser, Jane Weston, and Richard Duffee.
Ferguson Library, downtown Stamford. For more information, contact Hector Lopez lopez_hector_l@sbcglobal.net

 

Whole Foods Market, West Hartford

 A giant 350 on the roof of the Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University was part of a larger project entitled "The Bird's Eye View," which built a network of similar installations, globally. Photo credit goes to the Fairfield Fire Department, who got up on a truck ladder to get our "bird's eye view" shot, and Fairfield U students who put the installation together. For more information, click here.

None Became Law

by Eileen Weber

Brendan Hanrahan thinks more should be done for the environment in Connecticut. He feels so strongly about it, CT EarthNet, an interactive, web-based network for environmental groups Hanrahan founded, has produced a summary of the 2009 legislation for environmental practices that were not passed this year. The summary also includes visualizations of the legislative session data such as issue heat maps, voting outcomes, and legislator similarity comparisons. The bills touched a variety of environmental topics from toxic chemicals to wetland management to energy efficiency and everything in between.

Thirty-six bills were presented about renewable, clean energy. None became law. Thirty-two bills were presented on various points of energy efficiency. None became law. With thirty-two bills on public transportation, only one became law. Out of the twenty-four bills presented for recycling and waste measures, two passed and became law.

And the list goes on. What this says, at least in Hanrahan’s eyes, is that Connecticut may give lip service to the environment. But when all is said and done, the state may actually fall a little short.

So are we just becoming a bit too complacent about the environment? Has “going green” become so mainstream that we’re not taking it as seriously as we should?

Reality Check

by Heather Burns-DeMelo

I started this blog two years ago when I was gripped by fear--the paralyzing sort that came as a result of being shaken awake by numbers spiking off charts in Al Gore's documentary.

It was as if a bucket of ice cold water was splashed in my face, and I felt in my bones that every day I was selling my children a lie.  A lie that our society can be run on fossil fuel indefinitely and without negative impact. A lie that they will always have clean water to drink and enough to spray on their children on hot summer days. A lie that the mattress and pillow they sleep on at night is safe to breathe. A lie that the food on the super market shelves is healthy and safe to eat.

All lies.

So, I've kept my nose so close to the grind stone that many days I'm afraid to look up. For when I do, what I see around me threatens the sense of hope I've worked so hard to instill and foster and grow in myself and those around me. Why hope? Because hope fuels courage and fights despair. It creates a space for creativity, innovation and compassion to blossom. And those, we need in spades.

In Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming, Barbara Kingsolver writes, "We abolished slavery, we granted universal suffrage. We have done hard things before. Each time it took a terrible fight between people who could not imagine changing the rules.  If we run out of hope at the end of the day, we'll rise in the morning and put it on again with our shoes. Hope is the only reason we won't burn what's left of the ship and go down with it. If somebody says, "Your money or your life," you can say, "Life." And mean it."

Now that's perspective.

Next Move Is Rell's On Bill To Block Ash Dump

The Hartford Courant
By ALAINE GRIFFIN
June 18, 2009

FRANKLIN--Opponents of a plan to create an ash dump in Franklin are closely watching Gov. M. Jodi Rell's office this week, hoping she will sign legislation that blocks the project.

The Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority says its plan to dump ash from its trash incinerators at the Franklin site is safe. But a group of residents have fought the project, taking their battle to the Capitol. Both the House and the Senate this session passed legislation barring the CRRA from buying land in either Windham or Franklin for an ash dump.

Rell spokesman Adam Liegeot said Wednesday that the governor has until Tuesday to act on the measure.

In a letter to Rell this week, Sen. Edith G. Prague, D-Columbia, said a veto by the governor "would show complete disregard for the well-being of those it would harm the most." An ash dump in Franklin would destroy "pristine" land there and pollute residents' drinking water, the letter states. Also signing the letter were Reps. Kevin Ryan, D- Montville, and Susan Johnson, D-Windham.

The letter follows recent allegations by environmentalists that the CRRA is using "last-minute scare tactics" to push for a veto, telling municipalities the legislation would mean the state would lose its ability to site landfills, forcing towns and cities to pay more to ship ash outside Connecticut.

For Worst Perfomance by a Recycling Committee

by Elizabeth G. Howard

So I live in Stratford, a smallish town of 50,000, here in our fair state, New England. Since I am not from this part of the country, I have discovered a curious quirk of the New English people -- they take political landscaping to an entirely different level than anywhere else I have ever lived.

In Connecticut there is no real county government, and the State government is mostly ignored. Instead, there are 169 “municipalities” that all have their own way of doing things. Actually, that is putting it lightly. Town governments in Connecticut are more like rivals on "Survivor", where the shared dialect across townline is usually "F--- you! We're the REAL Daughters of the Revolution and we're preserving our individual, municipal rights, even if we have to use canning jars and vinegar!"

For example, in the case of road maintenance, for example, the municipalities, in total, have 17,115 road miles that they are required to maintain… 4.5 times the number that the State maintains. As a result, the sheer cost of road maintenance (hmmm, every town has their own rules, storage sheds, equipment, crews, etc.) is enormous.

As far as I can see, the only thing consistent across the municipalities is enforced by the State law requiring that a very bored looking police officer be on every roadwork site, either sitting in his squad car reading a Harlequin Romance, or chatting with one or more of the otherwise-idle workers about the imminent threat of terrorism in Haddam Neck.

So, fast forward to this week, when I started to research the RECYCLING PROGRAM in Stratford...

Our first green president?

 

by Barry Katz

In five days we will inaugurate our first African American president. It's momentous. It's historic. And it's about time.

Back in the early days of the primary campaign some black leaders raised the question, is Obama black enough. My only question is this - is he green enough.

I think he just may be. I sure hope so. I have watched with pleasure and relief at the science/climate/energy/environment team he has put in place and each appointment raised my level of optimism. Could Barack Obama really be our first green president?

We are faced with an historic opportunity. At no other time would it have been possible to get Congress to approve the kind of spending that could really jump-start the new clean green economy we so desperately need. Only a financial melt-down of current proportions can shake that kind of money from the tree.

It will take bold action and a lot of very smart decisions to make this work, and I'm waiting with bated breath to see if Obama and his team can pull it off. Back in December I wrote a post for my blog, The Future is Green entitled "What we need now" in which I suggested that this administration should be judged primarily on the extent to which the next four to eight years is devoted to energy and climate policy. In my mind, nothing else matters. Nothing else matters because everything else hinges on this.

I'll be watching.

The Winner’s Cup Is Green

by Eileen Weber

For the month of January, three towns in Fairfield County are having a little friendly competition to see which one is the most energy conscious. According to an article dated January 2nd in The Hour, Westport, Wilton, and Weston have taken up the “Green Cup Challenge” initiated by the Wilton Energy Commission and sponsored by Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P). The point of the competition, which will end on January 31st, is to raise awareness of exactly how environmentally conscious their communities are.

The Wilton Energy Commission hosted an open meeting looking to kick start this initiative and a Wilton high school student came to the rescue. Shwetha Rahguraman along with fellow student Kathryn Saphire “took the bull by the horns” and got the ball rolling.

An 11-question survey was formed and sent out to homes and businesses. A few of the questions from the survey, which is also available online, were “Do you own vehicles that get over 30mpg?” and “Do more than a quarter of the lights in your household use compact fluorescent bulbs?”

Points are awarded to how these questions are answered. CL&P will judge the final responses and award a “green” cup to the winning town. As of today, there are 228 participants signed up to take part in the competition.

Mitchell Reichgut, a member of the energy commission, said it’s not about winning the cup. “All of us who are involved in it,” Reichgut was quoted in The Hour as saying, “really feel like it’s a really important project and an important issue.”

Lessons from a 6th Grader in Greenwich

Student writes her local newspaper with an important message for her town: Green Homes are Good for our Community

Staff Reports

To the editor:

As a sixth-grader at Eastern Middle School, I am concerned about the energy being carelessly wasted and the growing pollution around the town. To improve this, I support the modus operandi of "green building" and modifying homes to be more Earth friendly.

Increasing green homes will have remarkably positive effects.

The town's picturesque parks and landscapes are extremely valuable. The streets are lined with scenic houses and even some historical sites. If we don't put a stop to the constant release of fumes and greenhouse gases, the exquisite reputation of this community may collapse dramatically. Installing more energy-efficient and solar-powered homes will secure a prosperous and efficient status. Also, green homes are becoming quite luxurious, and such additions would be a notable avowal for Greenwich.

Standard houses have negative effects on the environment. Air pollution, water pollution, indoor pollution and stormwater runoff are all harmful to the Earth. Eco-friendly homes are designed for creating a healthy indoor air environment and adequate ventilation in a natural way, and use heavy insulation to reduce rising energy usage within the house.

These houses have very efficient appliances and construction. For instance, there are triple-pane windows, low-energy lighting, ground-source heat pumps, solar panels and de-chlorinating shower filters. These elements together guarantee a healthy lifestyle for the average Greenwich house.ecological house would be well adapted to the community and very beneficial to the economy. Those houses specialize in carefully making the best of all resources and avoiding waste. By switching to this type of houses, you're helping all parts of the world.

I've lived in Greenwich long enough to appreciate its outstanding reputation. I am certain that expanding the quantity of energy-efficient homes would be extremely advantageous to the economy, households and the dazzling image of Greenwich.

Eco-friendly homes are the way of a cleaner, greener future. So I urge the people of this town to use green building technology when building or renovating their homes.

Thank you for reading my letter.

Gianna DeMasi

Greenwich

Buyout Will Let Automakers off the (clean air) Hook!

Thanks to our friends at PACE for keeping us informed...

One of the most important issues concerning climate change is connected to the $34 billion bailout of the auto industry. You would think that giving them that much money should carry some conditions BUT one of most crucial ones is missing and that is to mandate the auto companies drop their lawsuits against three states of the thirteen (which includes Connecticut) who have passed a law (called "the Paveley Law") to adopt standards that would greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

So what can little ol' you DO? Thanks to the Law Offices of Matthew Pawa, it's as simple as filling in the blanks...

*NO PAVLEY-NO BAILOUT*!

Dear Congressman BLANK:

Thank you for telling the heads of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford last week that their lawsuits against state greenhouse gas laws are a "serious obstacle" to providing taxpayer loans to their companies. It is
now time to follow through on this statement. As a constituent, I am writing to demand that you */only /*vote "yes" on a Detroit bailout */IF/*the legislation includes a provision making clear that the federal
fuel economy law does not preempt the states' greenhouse gas laws.

I am outraged that Detroit may receive taxpayer money while continuing to push lawsuits against the states. These lawsuits seek to use the federal fuel economy law to strike down state greenhouse gas laws. Sixteen states have adopted or are in the process of adopting the "Pavley regulations," which would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. Half the nation's population lives in these sixteen states. The Pavley law is a vital step in the fight to reduce the U.S. contribution to global warming. And since GM, Chrysler and Ford have now said repeatedly that rescuing their businesses requires that they significantly improve fuel economy, then under the logic of their own lawsuits in which they argue that fuel economy improvements are the same thing as reductions in greenhouse gases, the Pavley law is good for Detroit and its workers, too.

As your constituent, I am fully expecting you to stand up and fight on global warming. While there are many good reasons to avoid the collapse of a major company at this moment of economic peril, it is unfathomable to me how Congress could fail to grasp this moment by requiring a simple act of good corporate citizenship as a condition of any bailout, i.e., no lawsuits against the states. I am expecting you to vote "NO" on any Detroit bailout that fails to protect our planet by stamping out the GM-Chrysler lawsuits against the states. Any "YES" vote MUST include a "Save Pavley" provision.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

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