Colin Beavan, sigh. No way possible to not use electricity. Let's start with the street lights in Crown Heights. Let's start with the water he used to do his laundry by hand. Let's start with the clothes he washed. He likely was compromised many times a day. Many times an hour. Easy to pretend you can make claims. Much, much harder to prove.
1
Having Travolta back on 86th Street in Bensonhurst to celebrate Saturday Night Fever, and to pitch his movie, Gotti was expected! But many of us natives got a kick out of Senator Golden's Proclamation!" Travolta helped put Brooklyn on the map again with music and fashion!" Nonsense! Brooklyn was always there, and Saturday Night Fever was only a reflection of what was already going on there for a number of years! Especially in Bay Ridge, where most of the Discotheque's were located! Specifically, the legendary, Penthouse, which the owners eventually called, Pastels!!!
1
I have read all the comments the first of which I read were in print 3 hours ago, so it is still early, but if every one of the proposed actions were to be taken they would not make any significant dent in American greenhouse gas emissions.
Only concerted state-wide adoption of non-fossil fuel technology can begin to make that dent. In my comment in print 11:45 EDT I offer one of the technologies that has been in use in my Swedish home city for 60 years. Linköping was the pioneer and in order to get the system up and running in the late 1950s it had to use fossil fuel. Now that plant, the Gärstad plant visible on E4 as two giant glass houses, is a major renewable-energy facility doing two major things:
1) Heating an entire city with a population about that of Burlington, VT, from which I am sending these comments.
2) Automatically separating domestic food waste (in tied green plastic bags) from the solid waste so that the food waste can be transformed into biogas used in the city buses.
There is another technology in use here in Vermont, as noted at a presentation by Bernie Sanders at Vermont Technical College, Randolph, last Saturday. That technology includes all forms of heat pump systems, with the biggest and best being Ground Source Geothermal Heat Pump technology (GSG)
Large-scale examples of GSG are at the Vietnam Memorial on I-89, Champlain College, Saint Michaels College, state offices in Bennington and very likely elsewhere.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Quaint but collectively will provide no New York State or national solution to the production of Greenhouse gases. The real New York story 2018 can be summarized in two reports:
March 28 - Solid waste incinerator proposal is revealed.
May 15 - Cuomo says no, would cause health and environmental damage.
Cuomo, the totally uninformed, has never read or been told a word about the decades long success of solid waste incineration in two key countries, Denmark and Sweden. Elisabeth Rosenthal provided the only competent reporting on this technology in a single article in 2010 or 2013. Since then the Times finds it easier to report on the politically harmless personal efforts of a few outliers.
The facts: Sweden and Denmark have the world's most advanced solid waste incinerators that accomplish the following:
1) Heat whole cities without doing environmental harm.
2) End the use of fossil fuels to heat or generate electricity.
3) End the use of municipal landfills (forbidden by law in SE)
4) End the costs of long distance transport of solid and bio wastes.
5) End the need to construct natural gas pipelines.
And, irony of ironies, just west of Donald Trump's Florida palace in West Palm Beach FL is the first such incinerator, designed and built by Babcock and Wilcox, Denmark.
pics at
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
2
@ myself LL / A personal note-Long ago as a young faculty member at the U of Rochester, I was introduced to a proposal to truck Rochester's solid waste to an incinerator to be built south of Rochester. The Monroe county chemist told me to opposed this. Knowing nothing about European technology, I did. His view was based on experience such as that I saw in Baltimore in 1975-76 when I was visiting researcher at the DOGEE department, JHU.
Over the following decades, American environmental groups were fiercely opposed to incineration, showing an undying love for the American landfill. Elisabeth Rosenthal noted this in her fine article and interviewed a Columbia engineering professor (emeritus) who described environmental group opposition to incineration as showing a level of knowledge like / unprintable /. Then in 1991-92 when a visiting researcher in Linköping SE I learned about incineration as the road to renewable energy and devoted a section of the 2d edition of my Environmental Geology to presenting what I had learned. Nobody was interested.
In 1996 we moved to Linköping where I have lived ever since, a city freed from dependence on fossil fuels except for transport. My home is heated by "fjärrvärme" (distance heating, district heating, an English language misnomer). My other home in Göteborg is heated by air-air heat pump.
Once you have lived with those you wonder why anyone would heat with fossil fuel - period.
My gmail at my blog see comment above
1
Regarding canceling junk mail - I requested that at a my post office and was told it was not possible - if you could provide additional information on how to cancel junk mail it would be greatly appreciated.
You need to contact the individual catalogue companies and charities and tell them to stop sending you mail.
Has anybody done an analysis on how much additional CO2 and other exhaust is produced in NYC alone thanks to the proliferation of Uber, Lyft and others? Some traffic analysis suggests that increased use of these "ride-sharing services" has significantly increased congestion and, simultaneously, decreased subway ridership, so they are having an impact; does anybody know how big it is?
4
I am surprised to see no suggestion about:
1. Reducing ecommerce/delivery.
The huge growth in ordering "stuff" has resulted in more vehicles/pollution/traffic congestion and paper/cardboard/packing waste.
The elderly and disabled need delivery - but especially in walkable Manhattan, it is depressing that so many people no longer walk to local stores but instead get delivery.
2. Reducing Uber use.
Uber's big SUVs have flooded NYC - creating traffic, pollution plus egregious to see one person in a big SUV.
5
"But even among the most eco-friendly, some people have taken reducing their footprint to the next level."
A very simple fix, among the others mentioned, is to put all your electronics onto power strips and turn the rocker to "off" when you're not using something. When there's no electricity going into your television set, your stereo components, your computers, your microwave -- anything that has a clock, a timer, a remote control, that's really "on" when you're not using it -- you'll save a lot of electricity.
If I watch television once a week, or listen to my stereo every so often, why should either be using up electricity 24/7?
And of course, another thing: Do not muddle with the seasons. No reason to jack up the heat to 75 degrees in winter and turn the air conditioner to 60 in summer.
1
Some good ideas here, but “food miles” is a pleasingly intuitive idea… that is quite wrong. Picking just the first Google result:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/mar/23/food.ethicalliving
It is damaging in two ways. First, producing food locally often requires much more energy than producing it efficiently elsewhere, even allowing for transport. Think about it this way: there’s a reason all those Catskills farms were abandoned and allowed to return to forest once the prairies were opened up: you simply cannot produce anything like the same number of calories per hectare. Now think about that on a global scale. (And while at it, think about feeding the UN’s estimate of a planetary population of 9 billion without chopping down rainforests and draining wetlands.)
Second, many of us who try to be thoughtful about the environment do so in the context of trying to be thoughtful about other societies, including poorer ones. Buying less of cash crops they are able to produce more efficiently actively harms them directly through income, indirectly because poor people are much more likely to be ravaged by the effects of climate change than rich people, and lastly if we are concerned about migration, reducing their income is a perverse way to encourage people to try and make a go of it where they are.
For those who do want to be thoughtful about the environment, “food miles” is up there with a rejection of nuclear power as well-intentioned but wrong thinking.
2
Here's one they should mention in every one of these articles:
If your local regulations allow you to pick which company provides your electricity, pick one who generates renewable power, or at least provides the cleanest available in the region.
The choice is not for the utility who delivers the energy, it's for the source provider. Given the reality of how the grid works, your actual electrons will come from a variety of sources. But the company I buy from is buying renewable (almost entirely wind, here in the Midwest) equivalent to every kilowatt-hour of power they deliver to their customers. This produces demand for renewable energy and is a quick, easy action you only need to make once.
I don't know if NY allows this, but relatives in NJ have picked the same provider I did in Chicago. This isn't an ad, so I'm not naming companies.
3
I'm curious how Mr Beavan bakes his bread with no environmental impact.
3
Yes, that didn't make sense to me, either. Zero impact probably helps sell books, but just being alive means some environmental impact. That being said, simple ways to reduce impact such as bringing my own bag to the supermarket, Trader Joe's etc. were really easy to incorporate into my daily routine, and don't require me even stepping out of my comfort zone.
1
Because he says so. So there.
2
PAM: Oh, my shampoo. Yeah, it is Pantene, I got a free sample in with my junk mail.
KRAMER (talks rapidly in an attempt to keep up with Newman): Well, there really is no junk-mail...well, everybody wants to get a check or a birthday card, but...
NEWMAN (frantic): ...it takes just as much man-power to deliver it as their precious little greeting cards...
KRAMER: Newman! <Elbows him through the books. Newman falls over.>
1
Methane gas from cows is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. I would suggest eating less meat and more vegetables.
8
DYING FOR A SPACE
Drivers know
They're in paradise
When they see parking spots
Before their eyes.
3
Yesterday's article was so beautifully done, so accessible on , and will probably be on my short list of examples as I plan that January "reader/fan submission" for a local coverage Pulitzer [they do allow that, though there's a submission fee to keep it serious, and some fan submissions have actually won; "Sunday in the Park with George" is a famous example of a fan submission that won]. But today's is a mood-brightener; even the "And Finally" celebrates a life lived so fully while it mourns; a great balance to yesterday's, which still haunts.
2
For NYC’ers: take the stairs (within reason of course). Unless disabled there’s no reason to use an elevator for any floor that’s 3 or below.
3
Added benefit: it's a good aerobic and strength exercise, especially when walking up the stairs! Plus, it's free - no gym membership required!
How about a link for a catalog cancelling service? I use one - I think it’s called catalog choice? Otherwise - save the catalogs, sit down with your phone and a cup of tea - half an hour is all it takes. And poof! Pounds and pounds of paper are gone!
6
Mashing up just two of the highlights in a highlight-filled morning!
“Make it work for you. Want to exercise more? Sign up for a bike-sharing program like CitiBike. Worried about your diet? Try to eat more like a vegetarian.”
“John Travolta is returning to Brooklyn. Streets will be closed around Lenny’s Pizza “
Tune of “Stayin' Alive” (this number just seems to be everywhere lately)
Oh, you can tell by how quick I scarf my slice
I'm a Brooklyn guy, one won’t suffice
But as boys grow into men
We know food burned faster way back then
I say that’s all right, yes it's okay
The answer’s in “New York Today”
For when the diet takes a hike
Just click the link for CitiBike
People in Manhattan or on the Isle of Staten
Can be sharing a bike, sharing a bike
People out in Queens or up in the Bronx it means
You could be sharing a bike, sharing a bike
Ah ah ah ah, sharing a bike, sharing a bike
Ah ah ah ah, sharing a bike!
10
My God, Freddie, is there no end to your brilliance? Fitting new lyrics to “Stayin’ Alive” is genius! Thank you!
1
Make your coffee at home. 25 billion styrofoam coffee cups are tossed in the trash every year and that’s just in the US.
16
My elderly mother received a minimum of ten catalogues a week. After her death I phoned each company. Some reps said it could take up to 3 months to process the request. Nevertheless, my father no longer has to trash Lillian Vernon, Acorn, Lands’ End, etc.
1
Or BYOC - bring your own cup, have one in the office, bring one to places that allow you to use your own. Really wish Starbucks & Co. would give users who bring their own cup a discount - let it be 10 cents, but that'd show they really mean it when they claim to be "ecologically friendly ".
With that, maybe we can shame some places and chains into doing the right thing?
4
Regarding being greener: what is meant by cancelling your junk mail? I've tried, and the post office says they can't. Someone has mailed that to you, so they deliver it.
3
This recalls this NY Times story from a few months ago. Maybe this could be turned into a revenue-raising service for your junk mail to be hoarded by your carrier rather than delivered!!!
‘Overwhelmed’ Postal Carrier Hoarded 17,000 Pieces of Mail, Officials Say
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/21/nyregion/undelivered-mail-hoarded.html
For me, I'd miss the hard copy office supplies catalogs (like Office Depot, Office Max, and especially the fun shopping U-Line for music recording supplies), though. For those, the online version just never does it; the print shows me items I could buy in bulk that I never think to search out and tend to pay retail for at CVS or Duane Reade. And some of the Broadway flyers have stunning photos, even if today's idea of "discounts" mean $95 plus service charge. I wouldn't trust a post office Hoarding Service run by cicivl service folk with 99% job security to make the effort to still send the few I want. :)
3
It's not the post office's business to cancel your junk mail for you.
Contact each of the catalogues or charities you don't want and tell them to stop.
2
My problem is with weekly flyers that come in the mail. We get dozens every Tuesday.