Students of the New York Harbor School’s Professional Diving and Vessel Operations Programs work together to create a billion oyster reef and monitor how it impacts the harbor. The school’s ambitious 1 Billion Oyster Project goal is to introduce 1 billion oysters into New York Harbor, where they will clean the water and create much needed habitat for the restoration of harbor health and a variety of aquatic species.
The program is also going to give huge numbers of students an appreciation for the water that surrounds their city and prepare many for specialized careers that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. Aquatic Program Director Pete Malinowski, explains:
The port employs 300,000 people and only 12% of them went to public school in New York City, so there’s a fundamental disconnect between young people in the city and the water.
The school is situated on Governor’s Island, but Wall Street Journal producer Jeff Bush visited the teams on the water, at the site of an oyster reef they are monitoring. The school’s Co-Founder and President, Murray Fisher, told Bush that as each adult oyster, “filters a gallon of water an hour,” with a billion oysters, “the standing volume of water in New York Harbor could be filtered every 3 days.”
Mark Kurlansky’s book The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell tells about the rise and fall of New York Harbor’s health in relationship to the oyster. According to Kurlansky, all we needed to do to sustain the health of New York Harbor was, continue throwing discarded oyster shells back into the water – because the breakdown of their shells will feed the growth of living oysters. Maybe we’ll be smarter this time around, taking our cue from the success of communities like Olympia, WA.
Maliownski teaches that being a keystone species, oysters “grow on top of each other and build their own habitat.” Oysters attach to each other to create large reefs which in turn, become environments for other species of aquatic life. “In NY Harbor they were the backbone of aquatic life,” Malinowski remarks.
Hopefully, the time is coming soon when they will be again.
August Environment & Climate Justice Green Drinks Paterson Area
27 August 2015 at 12 noon
Sultan Restaurant
429 Crooks Ave, Paterson, New Jersey 07011
Everyone is welcome 🙂 and there’s never a meeting charge.
Mayor informaciĂłn – More information: ejgreendrinks.org | 201-477-8711
ABOUT GREEN DRINKS
Green Drinks are gatherings where we discuss Environmental Justice, climate change and sustainable living issues in English and Spanish!
A lot of knowledge is shared around the table each month along with tasty food and good conversation. Come spend a couple interesting hours with the friendliest bunch of EJ nuts you’ll ever meet.
Please support our host venue by eating or drinking something while we chat.
AUGUST DISCUSSION AGENDA
Brunch for the Bees – what are we eating and drinking that bees pollinate? What foods and drink don’t need pollinators?
Delta incinerator company is trying to locate facility in Paterson. It needs to be stopped.
The Wei Family is setting up a community garden. How can you help?
Buying a home or property in Paterson as a community collective initiative to Occupy the City
Pres. Obama’s Clean Power Plan
ORGANIZERS
Kimi Wei, Ivan Gomez Wei, Ariel Lopez Wei, Joseph Dunsay and Sally Gellert
SEPT 2015 NJECJ GREEN DRINKS SCHEDULE
Newark cancelled this month due to Labor Day
Hackensack WED 16 SEPT 7-9 PM
Paterson date TBA (more at http://ejgreendrinks.org/)
ABOUT GREEN DRINKS
Green Drinks are gatherings where we discuss Environmental Justice, climate change and sustainable living issues in English and Spanish! A lot of knowledge is shared around the table each month along with tasty food and good conversation. Come spend a couple interesting hours with the friendliest bunch of EJ nuts you’ll ever meet. All are welcome.
Please support our host venue by eating or drinking something while we chat.
AUGUST DISCUSSION AGENDA
Brunch for the Bees – what are we eating and drinking that bees pollinate? And what foods and drink don’t need them?
A company is trying to locate a waste and sewage sludge in Paterson. It needs to be stopped.
The Wei Family is starting up a community garden in Paterson. How can you help?
A collective is forming to buy a Paterson home or property as a community based initiative to Occupy the City.
Pres. Obama’s Clean Power Plan
TO JOIN GREEN EVENTS MAILING LIST visit http://j.mp/joingd
SEPT 2015 NJECJ GREEN DRINKS SCHEDULE
(More info at http://ejgreendrinks.org)
Newark cancelled due to Labor Day 7-9 PM
Hackensack this month on WED 16 SEPT 7-9 PM
Paterson DATE TBA (Check this page)
ORGANIZERS
Kimi Wei, Ivan Gomez Wei, Ari Lopez Wei, Joseph Dunsay and Sally Gellert
Credit: Pinelands swans bobanddusty.comThe Pinelands Preservation Alliance advises that on August 4th the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced the launch of a public access plan for the state’s largest tract of land, Wharton State Forest (125,000 acres). Wharton State Forest is located in the heart of the Pinelands National Reserve and covers much of Burlington County and parts of Camden and Atlantic County.
A detailed official map of the roads and features of Wharton State Forest was never available to the public before now. The public access plan and map will allow the state to better protect Wharton State Forest by designating certain areas for non-motorized recreation only. See the online map or look for printed maps and brochures at historic Batsto Village and the Atsion Recreation Area.
Over the years more and more roads have been unintentionally created due to illegal off-roading through the state forest. The Motorized Access Plan delineates the 225 miles of sand and unimproved roads intended for motor vehicle use while leaving other access areas for emergency vehicles, wildlife, and low-impact recreation. The MAP achieves balance and provides a guide to users of the state forest so visitors can identify safe areas to drive, bike, walk and boat.
Support DEP’s Motorized Access Plan to limit Pinelands ORV damage
Credit: Pine Barrens Under Siege websiteWharton State Forest has sustained a great deal of damage from Off Road Vehicles (ORVs), and the damage has hindered fire suppression efforts and search and rescue due to impassable roadways. Enforcement of illegal off-roading activities has been difficult without a map clearly designating areas for motorized vehicle use and areas where motorized vehicles are prohibited.
The Pinelands Preservation Alliance supports the DEP’s Motorized Access Plan to protect the natural resources and recreational opportunities in Wharton State Forest. Learn more about ORV damage on their website, including news coverage by NBC10 about the plan and an interactive map of damage done in the Pinelands by irresponsible off road vehicle use.
Take Action Today
Please let your legislators know that you support this Motorized Access Plan by calling or emailing them today. It is very important that they hear from you and that they support this effort by the NJ DEP to better protect New Jersey’s natural resources and encourage all types of recreation in Wharton State Forest.
I know it seems crazy, but the way some our favorite foods are grown and manufactured is doing fantastic harm to our world. Conflict palm oil is one product that harms the environment and is widely used in mass produced baked goods including crackers and GirlScout cookies … so the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is putting together a coalition of leaders who will learn to lead a movement to protect rainforests, the ecosystems they are home to, the air they clean and orangutans. Maybe you’d like to sign on.
CONFLICT PALM OIL: Are your cookies causing orangutan extinction?
We may not be able to see it, but Conflict Palm Oil has become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. It is found in roughly half the packaged products sold in US grocery stores, including favorite snack foods like ice cream, cookies, crackers, chocolate products, cereals, doughnuts and potato chips. In fact, palm oil is likely present in some form in nearly every room of your home.
Demand for palm oil is skyrocketing worldwide. The recent spike in use by the US snack food industry is due in large part to Conflict Palm Oil being used as a replacement for controversial trans fats. The oil is extracted from the fruit of oil palms native to Africa, now grown primarily in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Conflict Palm Oil production is now one of the world’s leading causes of rainforest destruction. Unchecked expansion is pushing new plantations deep into the heart of some of the world’s most culturally and biologically diverse ecosystems. Irreplaceable wildlife species like the Sumatran Rhino, Sumatran Elephant and the Sumatran and Borneo orangutan are being driven to the brink of extinction.
But Conflict Palm Oil is not only a local problem. The clearing of rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands for new plantations is releasing globally significant carbon pollution, making Conflict Palm Oil a major driver of human induced climate change.
If this issue concerns you, maybe you’d like join RAN’s Palm Oil Action Team and learn how to take the lead in stopping rainforest destruction by the snack food industry.
Ever wonder how you can fight deforestation, human rights abuses, child and forced labor, and the extinction of iconic species like the orangutan in YOUR community? RAN's Palm Oil Action Team organizes in their communities and online, around the world, to pressure the biggest corporations on the world to cut Conflict Palm Oil. The Snack Food 20 corporations would hate it – and we would love it – if you joined the Palm Oil Action Team. Check out the video of some of our local leaders, then get involved at http://a.ran.org/a2N
On Tuesday August 11 from 1-3PM please join Newark residents, the Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) and allies at a peaceful rally and protest outside of Seton Hall Law School (1109 Raymond Blvd, Newark, NJ) where the Board of Public Utilities will be hosting a public hearing to review the NJ State Energy Master Plan created in 2011, which is in the process of being updated. Some community activists will wish to attend the hearing and possibly, to comment – which is an activity rallying protestors wholeheartedly endorse.
The Sierra Club comments,
The Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is putting together the 2015 Energy Master Plan (EMP) which will help determine where we get our energy from in New Jersey. The plan decides New Jersey’s priorities for clean AND dirty energy and can also set limits on how much energy we waste.
Compelling statements from environmental justice (EJ) and environmental groups were made before the 2011 plan was adopted. But community voices were ignored, with operation of existing dirty fossil fuel and incinerators not only continuing unabated, but expanding. A new 655 megawatt natural gas plant was situated in Newark’s already heavily polluted Ironbound neighborhood; and several other dirty fuel facilities were located around the state.
Let’s not allow community demands for clean energy to lose impetus because New Jersey state has recently opted to label as “clean energy” both nuclear energy and fracked natural gas – which are anything but … are also dangerous to the environment and cause health issues too.
Since the facilitators of public hearings do not listen to the community anyway, the EJ community is taking their objections, concerns and demand for real solutions to the street and demanding JUSTICE across the board, including: Energy Justice, Environmental Justice, Climate Justice. Stefan Ali of the ICC writes,
The last time there were public hearings on the Energy Plan, industry was allowed to speak first and concerned residents spoke at the end when the media had left. We want to make our voices heard by protesting and rallying.
The August 11 action will not be about standing around listening to an endless roster of speakers. Instead, there will be activities, performances, music and some fun street puppets as well. Please join in and support #actonclimate!
Please email or phone Molly Greenberg at 973.817.7013 x217 or 218 for additional information.
Should you wish to comment on the New Jersey Energy Master Plan 2015 and the state’s energy future, you can do so in person or electronically. Here are your options:
Comment in person at one of the three public hearings taking place on August 11, 13 and 17; or
Submit a public comment electronically through the Sierra Club’s website. Please feel free to edit any information which already appears in the Sierra Club’s form by adding to it or you can entirely replace their wording with your own.
Send your comment directly to the State of NJ. Written public comments on updates to the 2011 Energy Master Plan can be submitted by close of business on Wednesday, August 24, 2015 to EMPupdate@bpu.state.nj.us
Unlike many global commodity crops, cocoa is predominantly grown on smallholder farms, and sometimes the child labor abuse happens when a young family member is put to work for free instead of hiring a paid employee. And while that might seem relatively benign—and not all that different from how farm labor is treated in the United States—there are stories like Letiefesso’s, where children are trafficked into working in the industry, and others where children are doing highly risky labor.
As such, there’s a shifting definition for child labor that changes with age and the work being conducted. Children between five and 11 cannot work at all under International Labor Organization standards; children between 12 and 14 can do up to 14 hours of light work a week; the maximum number of hours climbs to 43 per week for kids between 15 and 17. Then there are the “worst forms of child labor,” the hazardous and forced-labor scenarios, which are disallowed for children of any age.
Until brutal and dangerous child labor can be put behind global civil society, Blackmore suggests actions which can help by creating more demand for ethically produced chocolate:
Look for single-origin or “bean-to-bar” chocolate, or chocolate bearing a label that promises ethical (and third-party-verified) production.
“A Handful of Seeds” publication on seed saving and seed study for educators, a 91 page full color illustrated guide with lessons linked to California Educational Standards, practical information on seed saving in the school garden, seed history and lore. By the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center School Garden Program.
Please add to this list by sharing a resource you know in a comment.
This photo taken May 5, 2014 shows the stacks of the Homer City Generating Station in Homer City, Pa. Three years ago, the operators of one of the nation’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants warned of “immediate and devastating” consequences from the Obama administration’s push to clean up pollution from coal. Faced with cutting sulfur dioxide pollution blowing into downwind states by 80 percent in less than a year, lawyers for EME Homer City Generation L.P. sued the Environmental Protection Agency to block the rule, saying it would cause a painful spike in electricity bills and grave harm to power producers like itself. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)On June 29 2015 in a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court remanded the first-ever national limits on mercury and other toxic air pollution spewed by power plants. The rules will save between 4,000 and 11,000 lives each year by substantially reducing pollution from the dirtiest plants. Although EPA demonstrated that the health and environmental benefits of the standards far outweigh the costs to the industry, the Court found EPA should have considered industry’s costs earlier in the process, when it determined whether these emissions were worth controlling at all.
The Court left the standards in place pending further consideration by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and the EPA. The majority of power plants are already in compliance with the standards, having met them without reported difficulty since April of this year. Because EPA has already evaluated the costs and benefits of the rule, the agency should be able to provide the cost analysis required by the Court in short order.
It is important to note that the Court did not reject the following key conclusions by EPA:
Power plants are far and away the worst industrial polluters
Controlling toxic emissions is both technologically and economically feasible
The resulting pollution reductions will yield between $37 billion and $90 billion in health benefits every year
The public will receive $3-$9 in health benefits for every $1 that the protections cost the power industry
One in 20 Americans is killed by air pollution, and coal-fired power plants are a big part of the problem. These plants are also the largest industrial source of toxic air pollution by far, responsible for 50 percent of total U.S. emissions of mercury, a potent neurotoxin particularly dangerous to children. Nearly 7 percent of all U.S. women of childbearing age — more than 4 million women — are exposed to mercury at levels harmful for fetal brain development. The standards will reduce mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants by 75 percent.
Earthjustice, on behalf of Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the NAACP, helped defend these health safeguards as respondent-intervenors.
Statement from Jacqui Patterson, Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program:
“Our report, Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People, found that the 6 million people living near power plants in America have a significantly lower average income than Americans nationwide, and a disproportionate number are people of color. The financial interests of corporate entities in maintaining the status quo should not trump protection of the health of these communities.”
Statement from Jon Mueller, Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Vice President for Litigation:
“The polluters fighting this battle are putting their profits ahead of the human health risks from mercury pollution. In the last 15 years, the number of states with advisories warning against consumption of locally-caught fish due to mercury contamination grew from forty states to all fifty, including those around the Chesapeake Bay. We also know that fish consumption advisories have limited utility as angling surveys tell us that local fishermen continue to eat contaminated fish or share fish with others despite the advisories. EPA has the power to protect these people and these waters, and it’s time for the agency to act.”
Statement from Joseph O. Minott, Executive Director and Chief Counsel of the Clean Air Council:
“The Council is disappointed by the Court’s decision not to uphold this rule, which would bring many of the country’s oldest and dirtiest power plants in line with modern standards and allow citizens to breathe cleaner, safer air. It is clear that the benefits to public health and the environment this rule would provide dwarf the costs of implementing it, no matter when in the determination those costs are considered. We hope EPA will work quickly to address the Court’s concerns and issue a revised rule that implements these protections.”
Statement from Lisa Garcia, Earthjustice’s Vice President of Litigation for Healthy Communities:
“The Supreme Court’s decision does not change the importance of EPA’s role in protecting our families and communities from toxic air pollution. The Court gave EPA the ability to finalize these critical public health protections once and for all. Now, EPA must act quickly. Thousands of lives are at stake. Further delay is not an option.”
NASA’s Goddard Institute has gathered data on various conditions that could be the cause of rising earth temperatures – but aren’t – as well as data on greenhouse gas emissions, which is the primary cause. Don’t take my word on it – see for yourself.
Students of the New York Harbor School’s Professional Diving and Vessel Operations Programs work together to create a billion oyster reef and monitor how it impacts the harbor. The school’s ambitious 1 Billion Oyster Project goal is to introduce 1 billion oysters into New York Harbor, where they will clean the water and create much needed habitat for the restoration of harbor health and a variety of aquatic species.
Mark Kurlansky’s book The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell tells about the rise and fall of New York Harbor’s health in relationship to the oyster. According to Kurlansky, all we needed to do to sustain the health of New York Harbor was, continue throwing discarded oyster shells back into the water – because the breakdown of their shells will feed the growth of living oysters. Maybe we’ll be smarter this time around, taking our cue from the success of communities like Olympia, WA.
