The article by Jay Burney was originally published in The Buffalo News on December 02, 2012. The author is founder of GreenWatch and the Learning Sustainability Campaign. Click here to visit GreenWatch on Facebook.
For decades, denial has been a river running through Washington, Albany, Buffalo and probably through your house. Harris polls conducted between 2007 and last year indicate Americans’ belief in climate change has dropped from 71 percent to 44 percent.
Today, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and an election campaign that ignored climate change, we face an onrushing economic, cultural and environmental reality that will shape our future. If, for whatever reason, you don’t want to call it climate change, then call it something else. Call it a “situation,” because whatever you call it, we have a situation.
The question is: Are we in a position in Western New York to address and mitigate the potential consequences of climate change? Do we have a sustainable future? The answer is: Maybe.
During his election victory speech, President Obama said, “We don’t want our children to live in an America … that is threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”
It’s about time. Now he and other policymakers, including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, are raising climate issues, understanding that if we do not, we face a precipitous decline in our future opportunities. This includes the potential for disasters like Hurricane Sandy, which made many of our friends and families refugees – without shelter, food, power, heat and water. Imagine the consequences of a storm-caused, prolonged, deep winter power outage in Western New York.
Since the Clinton White House sent Dr. Peter Sousounis here in 2000 to release the initial Regional Climate Assessment (Great Lakes), we have witnessed escalating global and regional change, including warmer winters and extreme weather events.
Sousounis said at that 2000 event held in the Statler, “We can predict increasing average temperatures, changing lake levels and extremes in weather conditions in the coming decades.”
Last spring, NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies Director Dr. James Hansen, initially a climate skeptic, declared: “Now we can go beyond global and regional predictions because we have actual evidence that climate change has arrived, and is worse than we thought it would be.”
This is all eye-opening.
What our region does in the coming months and years regarding climate change will help to characterize the future of our community. This is a collective responsibility. We have to educate ourselves and invest in personal, neighborhood and regional strategies that address our future. It must be a wide-ranging discussion that affects virtually every aspect of our lives. This will determine our ability to survive as a species. It is about you and me. We can make a difference.
For decades, denial has been a river running through Washington, Albany, Buffalo and probably through your house. Harris polls conducted between 2007 and last year indicate Americans’ belief in climate change has dropped from 71 percent to 44 percent.
Today, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and an election campaign that ignored climate change, we face an onrushing economic, cultural and environmental reality that will shape our future. If, for whatever reason, you don’t want to call it climate change, then call it something else. Call it a “situation,” because whatever you call it, we have a situation.
The question is: Are we in a position in Western New York to address and mitigate the potential consequences of climate change? Do we have a sustainable future? The answer is: Maybe.
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by Rebekah Williams
on July 04, 2012
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
Energy Independence That Is!
Imagine you install solar panels on your roof that generate enough power to meet your family's energy needs each month. You wouldn't have to pay anymore electric bills!
Now imagine your solar panels not only provide enough energy to power your home, but they also generate enough surplus energy to provide electricity for other families in your community. Your solar panels could help free the rest of Western New York from dependence on fossil fuels such as gas, coal, oil and problems associated with using fossil fuels.
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by Sierra Club Niagara Group
on March 21, 2012
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PRESS RELEASE
SIERRA CLUB IN NIAGARA PROPOSES A WIN-WIN STRATEGY FOR JOBS AND CLEAN ENERGY
Photo Credit: Bob Knoer, The Knoer Group
Buffalo, NY – The Sierra Club / Niagara Group is releasing CLEAN / FIT, a report that outlines how New York State can create jobs while shifting to renewable energy. This report describes how a FIT, or Feed-in-Tariff, has worked across the world to generate alternative CLEAN energy and at the same time, provide viable jobs. The FIT, already being considered in Long Island, could work here in Western New York.
The paper was prepared for the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club. Members of the Sierra Club / Niagara Group, Lynda Schneekloth, Chair, Bill Nowak, report author, and John Shinn, United Steel Workers, Regional Director for District 4 will be present to talk about the paper and answer questions.
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by David Kowalski
on February 10, 2011
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Reprinted with permission from Re-ENERGIZE BUFFALO for "All things GREEN: Energy, Environment, Economy and Jobs."
A Policy to Repower the Nation with Clean Energy
No policy has helped other countries expand their renewable sources of electricity more than the CLEAN contract, also known as a feed-in tariff or FIT. Transparency, certainty and longevity of the contract forms the basis for its widespread acceptance, and its success in developing wind and solar power in other countries and a few states.
A CLEAN contract makes Clean Local Energy Accessible Now. The policy allows renewable energy project owners to sell their electricity to utilities at a predetermined, fixed price for a long period of time. Clean energy providers are paid a price for their electricity that covers the cost of the generation. It makes clean energy investment a smarter choice for homeowners, utilities, and developers of renewable energy projects.
The CLEAN contract helps overcome upfront cost barriers to investment by making renewable energy projects more easy to finance. The contract offers a standardized process for new projects, minimizing uncertainty for developers and confusion for homeowners. It reduces risk and lowers the costs of getting things built. The CLEAN contract makes it easier to run businesses, build projects, and give consumers what they want.
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