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Tag: climate change

New York should not delay climate goals | Guest Opinion

New York state is at a crossroads regarding our response to change. What’s at stake is whether or not we will be part of a responsible team of states and nations leading the world to a more sustainable and less catastrophic future. The people of want the state to lead, as expressed in the (CLCPA), passed in 2019. The CLCPA set a goal of reducing fossil fuel emissions 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. This is the same time frame adopted by 10 other states and Washington, D.C., along with key U.S. allies France, Germany, the UK, Japan, Australia and Canada.

But now, some state leaders, including Rochester CEO Bob Duffy, state Sen. Pam Helming, and Gov. Kathy Hochul herself, argue the state should abandon that leadership role, citing concerns about energy reliability and affordability. They’d like New York to hold off on its commitment to electrify new buildings and reconsider its timeline for emission reductions. That would be a terrible mistake.

All three officials base their reliability concerns on two recent New York Independent Systems Operator (NYISO) reports, which discuss grid issues that could arise due to retirements of aging generators, transmission system deficiencies, and increasing demand, especially from large load projects, like data centers. Neither report recommends backing off on the state’s climate goals, nor do they single out new building electrification as a major problem. They call for action in the near term to address these concerns, through energy efficiency improvements, transmission upgrades, demand management, energy storage, and new power generation. This is consistent with NYS’s CLCPA-required Climate Scoping Plan, which requires full exploration of zero-emission solutions when grid reliability issues are raised. While some of the NYISO-recommended measures are already in the works, we could be doing much more at both the state and local levels, if we prioritize.

What’s missing in recent discussions of grid reliability is an acknowledgement that there is no easy button in energy and climate decisions. Every pathway is accompanied by threats to energy availability and economic stability. Allowing unfettered expansion of data centers and cryptocurrency mining will no doubt strain our grid and pocketbooks. Continued unchecked burning of fossil fuels and consequent planetary warming will bring more severe storms and wildfires, which already cause the large majority of power outages nationwide.

also threatens New York with increased heat waves, droughts, and air alerts, putting our food and health systems in danger, not to mention the integrity of key economic and recreational resources, such as Adirondack forests, the Finger Lakes, and Lake Ontario. Climate action decisions must consider affordability and reliability issues, but delaying progress poses these same risks, plus a whole lot more!

Decades have gone by since we first learned about human-caused climate change. Meanwhile, emissions continue to climb worldwide, and we’re now approaching key global temperature redlines. Enacting effective policy has been extremely difficult partly because the fossil fuel industry continues to frame the debate. It should be noted that here in New York, lobbying by the fossil fuel industry has climbed substantially since the CLCPA passed.

These realities may underlie Gov. Hochul’s reluctance to implement her administration’s most impactful climate strategy, a Cap, Trade, and Invest (CTI) Program, despite its potential affordability and reliability benefits. CTI involves setting emission limits and then auctioning off emission allowances to large emitters, thus incentivizing actions throughout the economy to burn less fossil fuels. Revenue generated from the sale of these allowances would be used to provide a dividend to households statewide, additional relief based on household income and regional energy costs, and funding for projects that expand clean energy and further reduce emissions. A study by an independent government research institute recently found that this program would pose no net cost — or a financial gain — to low-income households earning less than $200,000/year. Indeed, prominent among the organizations who successfully sued the state for not enacting Cap, Trade and Invest were several groups with a primary focus on economic justice. If this policy would hurt low-income New Yorkers, these organizations would have sued the state for implementing it, not for hindering it!

With its protections for low-income households and steady funding for zero-emission technologies, CTI would stimulate economic activity while reducing emissions and strengthening the grid. California’s CTI program has already achieved these kinds of results, having raised and invested over $33 billion and greatly reduced the need for energy conservation alerts.

Delaying action is both harmful and misguided. Every time someone purchases a gas furnace or gasoline-powered vehicle, or a developer constructs a new building, or a local government approves a project based on an expectation that fossil fuels are going to remain available indefinitely, regardless of their environmental cost, that’s another missed opportunity, a new burden to our future efforts, and a step closer to more severe climate change.

Political support for climate action is strong. Recent polling found that over two-thirds of Monroe County residents support the state’s climate goals. And statewide, the constitutional amendment protecting our air, water, and passed with broad support. We owe it to ourselves and our future to show some resolve and implement the climate strategies we’ve developed with built-in affordability benefits and funding for reliability improvements. No more delays! It’s time for leadership.

Bill Maier is a member of Rochester’s chapter of Citizen’s Climate Lobby and volunteer for Color Fairport Green’s 40×30 committee. This letter was also signed by members of Color Your Community Green groups from Fairport, Penfield, Pittsford, and Irondequoit. Color Your Community Green is an initiative of the .

Finger Lakes towns included in latest NY EV charger expansion efforts

New York has allotted $4.85 million for installation of electric vehicle charters across the state, part of the Municipal Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Infrastructure Grants program.

Funding is aimed to advance clean , expand availability of chargers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The program is administered by the state Department of Environmental Conservation () and prioritizes clean transportations in communities most affected by and change, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.

Included is a variable match requirement based on a municipality’s median household income and whether the ZEV infrastructure is located in a disadvantaged community.

“Our continued investments in electric vehicle infrastructure encourages more drivers to switch to electric, reducing pollution and emissions across the state and improving the health and well-being of our residents and communities,” Hochul said in a news release.

• $24,380 to the village of Oakfield for four Level 2 charging ports.

• $309,100 to Ontario County for 14 Level 2 charging ports and two DCFC pedestals.

• $222,250 to the village of Palmyra for two DCFC pedestals.

• $148,500 to the village of Warsaw for one DCFC pedestal.

• $238,900 to the village of Waterloo for 12 Level 2 charging ports.

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Guest opinion: Processes, not incentives – what we need to address climate change now

Amit Batabyal, Arthur J. Gosnell professor of economics in the Rochester Institute of Technology
Batabyal

The phenomenon that we now call change refers to long-term changes in temperatures and weather patterns. Although, in principle, these changes can be natural, the scientific consensus today is that human activities have been the principal driver of since at least the early 100s.

The specific human activities that have exacerbated the climate change problem have everything to do with burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Specifically, the problem when we burn fossil fuels is that this activity gives rise to emissions of such as and methane. These emissions act like a blanket that wraps planet Earth and thereby traps the sun’s heat and raises the surface temperature.

To address this problem, which is certainly the most salient environmental problem that confronts humans today, we have generally been thinking inside the box. This means that our efforts have largely been focused on creating incentives and setting policies to get people and firms to reduce and ideally eliminate their use of fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy sources. A good example of such a policy is the provision of tax breaks to those who switch from gasoline powered to . In this regard, California recently announced that by 2035, the state would ban the sales of new gasoline powered cars and light trucks. The hope here is that such an act will provide a forceful nudge to state residents to drive more electric vehicles that typically have no tailpipe emissions. If, in addition, this act also encourages research on batteries then so much the better.

The problem with this “inside the box” thinking is that even though it makes sense at the national level, and certainly at the level of the entire planet, we have been doing too little and at too slow a pace. In the meantime, we increasingly hear and see stories of record high temperatures in the American west, devastating floods in Sydney, Australia, unbearable heatwaves in New Delhi, India, and dramatically high rainfall leading to widespread flooding in Pakistan.

So, it’s time to think outside the box. This means thinking seriously about geoengineering or climate engineering. This kind of engineering embraces two types of technologies: carbon dioxide removal and, most interestingly, sunlight reflection methods.

Carbon dioxide removal technologies denote processes, such as direct air capture, that seek to address a key cause of climate change by lowering atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. However, as Cornell researcher Doug MacMartin has noted in recently published research, current strategies for carbon dioxide removal are either not at scale or are too expensive to meaningfully reduce the 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted by humans each year.

This brings us to solar radiation modification which is a potentially valuable climate change mitigation strategy. The technology here involves injecting sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere so that more sunlight bounces off the Earth’s atmosphere instead of being absorbed by the “blanket covered” earth. The key point is that sunlight reflection methods, including stratospheric aerosol injection, can offset the effects of climate change by cooling planet earth.

Research on climate engineering is very new and we are nowhere close to knowing all the impacts, both positive and negative, of employing the technologies suggested by this line of research. Although policies based on thinking “inside the box” can continue to be used, we are now at a stage in our fight against climate change where we need to seriously consider augmenting our traditional policy toolkit with approaches that hold promise but about which there is also some uncertainty. Expanding our set of policy instruments cannot make us worse off because we always have the option of not using a policy if it turns out that the use of this policy will not make our planet more livable for the present and future generations.

Batabyal is the Arthur J. Gosnell professor of economics and the Interim Head of the Department of Sustainability, both at RIT, but these views are his own.

Rural youth to help strengthen climate-related readiness

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded three partner organizations nearly $450,000 to fund a program that will help rural youth strengthen their communities’ readiness for -related challenges.

The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, the at and the Alliance for Climate Education received the funding in support of their project Empowering Rural Youth for Community Climate Resilience in State.

The three-year collaboration will support leadership opportunities for rural youth as they work with community partners and municipalities on climate resilience best practices and planning. The project also will increase awareness of the state’s program and ongoing climate research, officials said.

“ is here and we are seeing this manifested in degradation to Finger Lakes water quality from warmer surface water temperatures, more extreme precipitation events and higher frequencies of harmful algal blooms,” said FLI Director Lisa Cleckner.

Project partners are building on the success of the movement, which began in 2019 at the Wild Center to empower students to take climate action. The positive impact of the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit inspired the inaugural Finger Lakes Youth Climate Summit in 2017. The Finger Lakes Youth Climate Summit has served more than 350 high school students from the region since its creation with funding from sponsors Siemens and the Wyckoff Family Foundation.

“Young people are extremely motivated to be part of the solution to climate change,” said FLI’s Associate Director for Educational Programs Nadia Harvieux. “We are very excited about the NOAA-supported opportunities these new initiatives will provide youth in the Finger Lakes region, Adirondacks and beyond.”

[email protected] / 585-653-4021
Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

On Earth Day, majority of New Yorkers concerned about pollution, climate change

Nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers say they are very concerned about water , air pollution and deforestation, a new Research Institute (SCRI) survey shows.

More than half of the respondents to the Earth Day poll said they are very concerned about .

“New Yorkers, by over two-to-one, believe policies designed to protect the environment are more likely to help rather than hurt the economy,” said SCRI Director . “Just under 60 percent say that we are at the point of no return and if our government, businesses and population don’t actively address the threats to our environment, we will do irreparable damage to our planet.”

In nearly every category, more female respondents said they were very concerned about pollution and climate-changing factors. Sixty-nine percent of female respondents said they were very concerned about water pollution, compared with 58 percent of male respondents. Some 62 percent of female respondents said they were very concerned about climate change, compared with 51 percent of males. And 54 percent of women said they were very concerned about waste disposal, compared with 44 percent of men.

While 70 percent of New Yorkers very often recycle waste including paper, cardboard and plastic and 69 percent very often use reusable bags, fewer than half very often conserve electricity by lessening use, try to conserve water or use reusable beverage containers. Majorities engage in each of those conservation measures at least sometimes, and a majority at least sometimes also cut back on the amount of computer paper that they use, and use forms of that could include public transportation, carpooling, walking or biking in order to reduce auto emissions.

“While Democrats overwhelmingly support pro-environmental policies, believe those policies will spur economic activity and think failing to protect the environment will lead to irreversible harm, disagree,” Levy said. “Not only does a majority of Republicans think that pro-environmental policies will hurt the economy, but nearly two-thirds despite supporting efforts to protect clean water and air, say that we’re doing as much as we should and doing too much is too expensive for us and our nation.”

When it comes to environmental policies, Levy added, majorities of New Yorkers support making our cities more pedestrian-friendly, promoting the widespread use of electric cars, having produce 100 percent of its electricity with zero emissions by 2040 and the U.S. rejoining the Paris Climate Accords.

“A small majority even supports encouraging New Yorkers to move toward a more plant-based diet,” Levy noted.

A new poll shows that four in 10 Americans consider themselves environmentalists. That is down considerably from the 78 percent who called themselves environmentalists in 1991. A decline has been seen across the board from Republicans, Democrats and independents, the poll found, and today 50 percent of Democrats, 44 percent of independents and 24 percent of Republicans think of themselves that way.

Environmentalists differ most from non-environmentalists in the level of concern about global warming and climate change, the poll found, with 63 percent of environmentalists and 29 percent of non-environmentalists worrying “a great deal” about the issue.

Some 70 percent of environmentalists say the U.S. is doing too little to protect the environment, compared with 46 percent of non-environmentalists. Nearly three-quarters of environmentalists think the effects of global warming already have begun to happen, while 50 percent of non-environmentalists feel the same way.

In a separate poll, Gallup found that roughly 70 percent of U.S. workers say that a company’s environmental record matters to some degree in whether or not they would take a job with that company. Nearly one-quarter of those say it is a major factor in their decision to work for a company.

U.S. workers who identify as Democrats are the subgroup most likely to say a company’s environmental record is a major factor in taking a job. Women also are a bit more inclined than men to prioritize environmental records when looking for work.

“If Americans become more likely to perceive climate change as a pressing issue, employers who do not have a strong record on protecting the environment may have a harder time finding employees,” Gallup’s researchers noted.

In a recent ranking of the nation’s “most sustainable cities,” , a startup lawn care service with locations here and in dozens of locations nationwide, ranked Rochester sixth, behind San Francisco, Boston, Sacramento, Calif., Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

Key factors in Rochester’s high rating include:
• Third in the number of incentives and policies supporting renewables and energy efficiency
• Seventh for its alternative-fuel stations per 100,000 residents
• 29th for its median air quality index where a lower value equates to better quality
• 28th in its share of workers who walk, bike, carpool, or ride public to work
• Sixth for its farmers markets per 100,000 residents

Lawnstarter ranked 200 of the nation’s largest cities for the “Most Sustainable Cities in the U.S.”

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Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

Nalgene commits to greener production, extends product line

Nalgene Outdoor's Sustain line of water bottles comes in 32 choices. (provided)
Outdoor’s Sustain line of comes in 32 choices. (provided)

Nalgene Outdoor, the maker of reusable water bottles, has committed to significantly increasing its manufacturing with recycled materials. By the end of 2021, Nalgene will strive to convert all production of its reusable water bottles to Tritan Renew material, a revolutionary resin made from 50 percent .

Nalgene, a division of Inc., is located in Fairport. The company kicked off the initiative in August 2020 when it led the industry in adopting the groundbreaking properties of Tritan Renew material in the launch of its Nalgene Sustain bottle, the first and only reusable bottle on the market made from recycled materials that is durable, reliable, BPA-free, and dishwasher safe.

This week Nalgene introduced a broad extension to the Sustain line with the introduction of more sizes and styles in its first wave to convert production fully to Tritan Renew material by the end of 2021. The Sustain line has grown to 32 product choices. Consumers also can create a custom design for a Sustain bottle using the Nalgene Customizer for $25.

“When Nalgene created the reusable water bottle category more than 70 years ago, the brand was a pioneer in sustainability, and we remain as committed to sustainability today as we were then,” said Nalgene Outdoor General Manager Elissa McGee. “We’ve never wavered in producing our bottles in the USA to reduce our carbon footprint; and our decision to be the first to adopt and today to extend the use of recycled materials in the production of Nalgene bottles is another bold step to continuously increase the eco-benefits of Nalgene hydration gear.”

Company officials note that choosing a Nalgene reusable water bottle, especially a Nalgene Sustain bottle made from certified recycled material or the equivalent of eight single-use bottles, significantly multiplies the benefits of offsetting fossil fuels and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Founded in 1949 as a manufacturer of the first plastic pipette holder, Nalgene soon expanded its product line to include state-of-the-art polyethylene labware under the Nalgene brand. By the mid-1970s, outdoor enthusiasts had discovered the taste and odor-resistant, leak-proof and rugged properties of the company’s selection of plastic containers. In response to this emerging demand, Nalgene Outdoor Products was formed.

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Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

Nearly $20 million available to electrify transit, school buses

New York state will offer a series of initiatives to increase the number of electric buses statewide as part of its efforts to mitigate and boost access to clean in underserved communities. The effort includes more than $16 million in incentives for the expansion of electric bus usage among public transportation authorities and $2.5 million for school bus operators to purchase cleaner forms of transportation.

“Electrifying and school buses at scale is an important step in our fight against change and is essential in helping us reach our ambitious goals to create a greener state,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement last week. “Through these initiatives, bus operators will now have the support and resources they need to modernize their fleets, reduce emissions and ensure underserved communities have cleaner public transit options as we work to further reduce our carbon footprint.”

Under the , $16.4 million in funding will be made available to five of the largest public transit operators in the state, including the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority, to facilitate their fleets’ transition towards 100 percent zero-emission fleets by 2035, a goal Cuomo announced in his 2020 State of the State Address.

Through the program, purchasers of new, zero-emissions all-electric transit buses are eligible to have 100 percent of the incremental vehicle cost covered on the condition that the buses are housed at bus depots or operate on routes located within a half-mile of a disadvantaged community.

The funding builds on the NYTVIP expansion announced early last year. Combined, the five transit operators run more than 1,300 buses.

To provide further support, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority () and the New York Power Authority (NYPA) have reached an agreement that includes more than $1 million in funding for a new program to help the five upstate and suburban transit operators develop plans to convert to all-electric transit buses.

“By working with regional transit and school bus fleet operators we are removing dirty, polluting vehicles from our roadways and helping communities eliminate the health and environmental risks from carbon emissions,” said Doreen Harris, acting president and CEO of NYSERDA and Climate Action Council co-chair. “Investing in all-electric buses and offering transit authorities technical assistance shows the serious commitment that we are making under Gov. Cuomo’s plan to provide access to options for all New Yorkers.”

Another $2.5 million also is available through the NYTVIP to school bus operators statewide to support the purchase of cleaner, less polluting buses. Funding will help cover up to 100 percent of incremental costs for all-electric school buses operating near a disadvantaged community. The program reduces the cost to purchase new, clean electric or alternative-fueled buses through point of sale rebates offered through a qualified vendor.

On . 23, the state Office of General Services issued a Request for Information seeking details from manufacturers and dealers about electric and hybrid transit buses currently available in the marketplace. Responses to the RFI, which are due by Jan. 21, will be used to develop a solicitation for electric and hybrid buses with the goal of providing transit authorities with options for purchasing green vehicles for their fleets.

“One of the most impactful strategies to help bridge New York’s nation-leading greenhouse gas emissions goals is through strategic investments in high-quality, high-frequency public transportation services,” said state Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez. “Electrification of public transportation fleets will build upon the more than 17 million metric tons annually of greenhouse gas emissions that these systems help to avoid.”

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Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

Local, statewide groups call on governors to adopt transportation climate initiative

Dozens of groups, including one local nonprofit, are part of a 200-organization push to urge Northeast and Mid-Atlantic governors to move on an “ambitious and equitable” and initiative.

The largest and most diverse collection of health, community, business, transportation and environmental groups this week made an appeal to governors in more than a dozen states in the Northeast to back a Transportation and Climate Initiative they say would help erase the “deeply inequitable” aspects of the current transportation system in the region.

The 200-group letter calls for states to adopt a TCI program that achieves more reliable and accessible mass ; more clean , cars and trucks, and charging infrastructure; more walkable and bikeable communities; less congestion and ; and increased investments in projects that connect everyone, including those in underserved urban, suburban and rural areas through:

  • A strong carbon pollution cap, requiring a minimum 25 percent reduction in transportation carbon pollution over the next decade;
  • A commitment to prioritize and dedicate significant program spending to address the needs of overburdened and underserved communities;
  • Equity advisory bodies that would be representative of each state’s overburdened and underserved communities and have clear decision-making roles;
  • Commitments to achieve emissions reductions in overburdened communities and full transparency and reporting on program spending and emissions and equity outcomes; and
  • Commitment to strong labor and workforce development standards and a just transition.

The letter notes that in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, the transportation sector is the top culprit in the current climate crisis.

“We cannot avoid the worst impacts of unless we adopt and implement policies to substantially reduce transportation pollution,” the letter states. “If we do not act quickly and comprehensively, climate change will dramatically destabilize American society.”

climate-solutions-accelerator-logoLocally, of the Genesee-Finger Lakes Region joined numerous larger organizations such as the League of Women Voters of New York State, the Southern Environmental Law Center and U.S. PIRG in seeking adoption of a TCI program memorandum of understanding and a commitment to work with stakeholders and provide meaningful opportunities for community input and review regionally and within each state.

“A TCI cap-and-invest program alone will not solve these problems, and it cannot and must not be our only response,” the letter states. “A well-designed TCI program, however, with strong safeguards and guarantees will move us forward by investing billions of job-creating dollars in clean and equitable transportation. Those investments combined with a legally binding limit on transportation carbon pollution will hold the oil industry accountable.”

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Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

Climate change coalition rebrands

climate-solutions-accelerator-logoThe has rebranded as of the Genesee-Finger Lakes Region. The organization also unveiled a new logo and a new website.

The regional advocacy organization was founded in 2014. The rebranding is the culmination of strategic planning undertaken to advance the accelerator’s mission to create a healthier, more equitable and environmentally sustainable community by catalyzing local efforts to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and address the effects of .

“Our new name better articulates who we are what we do and where we do it,” said Executive Director in a statement. “Climate Solutions Accelerator reflects our focus on mobilizing effective climate action among governments, organizations and citizens across our nine-county region; it highlights the urgency of the climate crisis that drives our work and our community’s ability to quickly implement systemic solutions.”

McHugh-Grifa added that the new name will allow the organization to engage a broader and more diverse range of collaborative partners in order to expedite the region’s transition to a clean energy economy.

“We’re thrilled to share it publicly and get right back to work,” she said.

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Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

Companies changing logos in support of climate fight

 

Rochester People’s Coalition is trying to go viral like the Ice Bucket Challenge did, but with melting instead of freezing.

RMSC changed its logo to call attention to climate change.
changed its logo to call attention to .

And instead of curing a disease, the group is aiming to cure the planet of climate change by educating people and businesses about steps they can take to help.

RPCC, with the help of a lot of legwork from , launched its campaign on Thursday, with about 10 business and organization partners participating. Each agreed to change its logo for a time to represent the melting caused by global warming, and to challenge other entities to do the same.

The idea is to not only call attention to climate change but also to what can be done about it, namely to “Go All Electric.”  The theory is that because 91 percent of the electricity generated in New York comes from nuclear, water, wind or solar power already, switching from fossil fuel for heating or transportation to electricity cuts down on carbon production.

“Where our emissions come from is the heating of our buildings and transportation. Both of those lend themselves to electrification,” said , executive director of RPCC. “Go All Electric is an idea we want to be planting in everyone’s mind.”

McHugh-Grifa said that while most people agree that the earth’s atmosphere is heating up, they often don’t know what to do to fight that potentially cataclysmic phenomenon. Many folks haven’t heard of or don’t understand what a heat pump is, for example, she said, referencing a heating system that pulls heat out of your house in the summer and draws it from the warmer earth in the winter. It saves both money and energy costs.

“The heating and cooling systems — that is going to be slower to come along than ,” McHugh-Grifa said. But the group is focusing on one step at a time, starting with asking companies to change the appearance of their logos online temporarily.

With the help of Partners + Napier, the logos are being remade to look as if they’re melting in the heat of the sun.

“For companies, their logo is sacred,” McHugh-Grifa said. “I think it is a big ask for businesses to do this. But protecting our planet is absolutely worth it.”

Apparently a cadre of companies and institutions agree.

The Rochester Museum and Science Center, along with its Cumming Nature Center, has signed on to be two of the initial #LogoWarming participants.

“It’s a lovely, beautiful way to get something out there,” said RMSC President and CEO .

Hillary Olson
Hillary Olson

A museum of science is an ideal organization to be involved, she said, because its job is to share science without bias.

“We can be a community convenor for everyone, all belief systems,” Olson said. “Museums are a trusted source of information. There’s so much that’s been politicized about this issue unnecessarily. It’s an issue of science and it’s an issue of what we can do … using our brains and human ingenuity.”

The #LogoWarming campaign seems to fit right in with companies that have already made environmental issues a priority. The museum, for instance, has changed its parking lot to porous material and commissioned an art piece that both collects rainwater runoff and educates people about water issues.

Similarly, and Patricia Sunwoo, a married couple who own Hemp It Up, decided to go into the hemp products business because of their environmental concerns, said Brickman.  “Hemp can replace cotton in just about any use,” he said, but with less negative environmental impact. It can also be used to make paper, negating the need to cut down trees, which are necessary to help trap .

Brickman and Sunwoo are professional violinists who also own another Park Avenue business adjacent to Hemp It up, called Bodymind Float Center. Both businesses will change their logos for the campaign.

“I hope that our melting logo will add to the din from scientists, activists and concerned citizens that screams ‘Climate change is real and the time to act is NOW!'” Brickman wrote in an email.

Other organizations that have signed on include Abundance Cooperative Market, Breathe Yoga, Brighton High School Climate Club, Computer Systems Asset Disposal, ROC Recycling Co., Stacy K Floral, Sweet and Cute, and SWBR.

Businesses interested in participating in the #LogoWarming challenge can learn more at the initiative’s website.
[email protected]/ (585-363-7275

 

Conservative’s talk will put free enterprise spin on climate change

When Republican Congressman presented legislation in 2009 that would create a tax to battle change, South Carolina voters thought he had gone rogue, or at least liberal.

And so Inglis lost his re-election bid in the subsequent Republican primary.

Bob Inglis
Bob Inglis

Today, though, Inglis believes and are more willing to listen to ideas on curbing if they come from people like them.

Inglis will be presenting a talk on “A Free Enterprise Solution to Climate Change” April 17 in Rochester. His talk is sponsored by an unlikely pairing: the Greater Rochester and the Rochester Regional Group of the .

Now the head of RepublicEN.org, a grassroots organization, the former U.S. representative spends his time promoting ways to address climate change in accordance with traditional conservative values.

“Free enterprise can fix climate change,” Inglis says in his TEDx Jacksonville talk. He is once again suggesting a carbon tax but in a way that doesn’t grow government and includes preventive steps so countries that continue to produce carbon emissions won’t have an upper hand.

The tax would not add revenue to government coffers, Inglis says, but will counter other taxes people must pay, resulting in a revenue-neutral tax. Meanwhile, he says, the tax would be added to imports made with carbon-generating energy.

In a recent phone interview, Inglis said, “As I see it, conservatives are people who believe in the salad bar of life. You can take what you want, but you’ve got to pay for what you take because otherwise, havoc arises,” Inglis said. “Climate change is that havoc.”

“There’s nothing more conservative than maintaining the purity of the earth,” he said.

The November 2018 midterm elections, when the Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives, have helped bring to Republicans and Conservatives “the awareness of if you want the majority back, you’ve got to win in suburban districts. And those suburban districts don’t want to hear you say climate change isn’t real,” Inglis said.

Beyond the political change of tide, times have really changed, Inglis said. The recession is over, there’s a growing environmental movement on the right, and “we’re feeling the effects of climate change and we’re beginning to notice,” he said.

“When grandpa is having chest pains, he will stick to the diet and regimen the cardiologist is recommending,” Inglis said.

It is essential to reach a bipartisan solution to climate change, Inglis said, because when the political pendulum swings, one party will scrub the gains that the other enforces unilaterally. He proposes appealing to the bottom line by including the hidden costs of in energy use.

Inglis supports “the creation of a transparent market price where all the costs are in all the fuels, including the biggest subsidy of all, which is the implicit subsidy that enables fossil fuels to pollute for free.”

He continues, “We have a problem with economics. It has an environmental consequence. If we fix the economics, the is going to take care of itself.”

And with economics favoring clean energy, Inglis said that’s when things get innovative.

“Then you have an energy revolution that’s sort of akin to the tech revolution we’ve had. It’s a tremendous opportunity to re-power our lives,” he said.

In his TED talk, Inglis admits he had opposed ‘s climate change policies without examining them too much because they came from a Democrat. Once his children became voters and suggested they wouldn’t vote for him if he didn’t become more environmentally friendly, Inglis took a second look at his stance and came around to much of what Gore was proposing, but with some conservative tweaks.

Inglis said he believes Republicans and Conservatives are willing to consider a similar leap if they hear the message coming from someone like themselves.

“We all learn from people who are like us and like us. We generally don’t learn from people who don’t like us and aren’t like us,” Inglis said.

Inglis’ talk will be at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center. Admission is free but a $10 donation and prior registration is suggested.

[email protected]/(585) 363-7275.