Category Archives: Water

All, Education, Energy, Environment, Health, Protection, Water

Environment NJ Endorses Candidates with Champion Green Track Records

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Here’s a note from ENJ’s director

Environment New Jersey is endorsing Sen. Bob Gordon and Assemblywoman Connie Wagner for re-election this fall. In fact, defending their seats is one of our top priorities in this election.
Here’s a few reasons why:

Clean Water: Both Sen. Gordon and Assemblywoman Wagner are leading the fight to keep our water supply safe from toxic chemicals used by companies who are fracking for natural gas.

Open Space: Sen. Gordon and Assemblywoman Wagner have consistently opposed developer-led efforts to weaken environmental protections for forests, wetlands and other critical open spaces.

Clean Air and Clean Energy: Sen. Gordon and Assemblywoman Wagner are fighting to save the anti-pollution program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which cuts power plant pollution and promotes clean energy.

Come Tuesday, Nov. 8, I hope you’ll help defend New Jersey’s environment by casting a green ballot for Bob Gordon and Assemblywoman Wagner.

Thanks, as always, for making it all possible.

Sincerely,
Dena Mottola Jaborska
Environment New Jersey Executive Director

Launches Campaign to Mobilize Green Vote in 5 Districts
Environment New Jersey today announced its full slate of endorsements for state legislative elections this year. Receiving the group’s endorsements are: Assemblyman McKeon (D27), Assemblywoman Jasey (D27), Senator Gordon (D38), Assemblywoman Wagner (D38), Senator Greenstein (D14), Assemblyman Benson (D14), Senator Whelan (D2), Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D18), and Assemblyman Barnes (D18).

“These leaders are environmental champions in the legislature. They have consistently fought for clean air and water, open space and clean energy and we need their continued leadership now more than ever,” said Dena Mottola Jaborska, executive director of Environment New Jersey.

She continued, “The leadership provided by these elected officials could not come at a more critical time with the environment facing an unprecedented number of threats. New Jersey needs legislators in Trenton who will side with the people over the polluters.”

These endorsements reflect the importance of the environment in this year’s elections. The group will conduct voter mobilization efforts targeted at their members in these five targeted districts. The group is working to recruit volunteers from among its 60,000 active members and supporters statewide.

Volunteers are being asked to join Environment New Jersey’s staff in its plan to mobilize the green vote in these districts, and organizers will contact every Environment New Jersey member in these districts via e-mail and phone-banking. Follow-up phone banks will be held on October 30, and November 5th, 6th, and 7th in Trenton, South Orange, Highland Park and Fair Lawn to help get out the vote for these environmental leaders.

Governor Christie has announced plans to entirely end the RGGI program in New Jersey, to weaken our clean energy goals, and to adopt an environmental loophole policy.

In the last two year, these leaders have advanced a number of environmental protections and fought a number of rollbacks to pollution-busting programs. They include a clean fertilizer bill that protects waterways statewide from pollution, a ban on fracking, and the establishment of a ground-breaking off-shore wind financial incentive program.
“In the past two years, these leaders have helped put in place some of the strongest clean water and clean energy policies in the nation, ensuring New Jersey continues to lead the way on strong environmental protection,” said Mottola Jaborska.

Those endorsed are also working to oppose the NJDEP environmental loophole bill (known as the waiver rule), to defend the RGGI program which cuts pollution from power plants, and are backing legislation to strengthen the state’s clean energy standard and protect its funding.

“Voters who care about the environment must not sit this election out. Environment New Jersey will be making sure environmentally-minded voters in these key districts know just how critical their vote really is this year. We’ll be educating them about the issues that hang in the balance, and why we need these legislators to be re-elected, so they can continue to fight for strong environmental protections,” said Mottola Jaborska.

Assemblyman John McKeon (D27) represents sections of Essex and Morris County. He is the Chair of the Assembly Environment Committee and was a prime sponsor for a package of bills to protect Barnegat Bay, most notable a key bill to set strict pollution limits for the Bay which was conditionally vetoed by the Governor. The Assemblyman was the leading prime sponsor of legislation to defend the RGGI program in the state which was vetoed by the Governor in August. He was a prime sponsor of a groundbreaking bill that establishes financing for wind energy off New Jersey’s coasts and has recently introduced new legislation to expand the state’s renewable energy standard (to 30%) and set a mandatory state policy that would cut energy demand by 20%. The Assemblyman has consistently worked against and voted against bills that would weaken environmental protections, including one that would allow the NJDEP to make substantial changes without taking public comment.

Assemblywoman Jasey (D27) also represents sections of Essex and Morris County. She has also consistently opposed environmental deregulation bills and was a prime sponsor along with Assemblyman McKeon of a bill to set strict pollution limits to clean up Barnegat Bay. She also co-sponsored the bill to defend the RGGI program.

Senator Gordon (D38) was the leading prime sponsor of the fracking ban bill that passed this June and was conditionally vetoed by the Governor. He was a co-sponsor of a bill to set strict pollution limits for Barnegat Bay and has consistently opposed bills that would weaken environmental protection including one that would allow the NJDEP to make substantial changes without taking public comment.

Assemblywoman Wagner (D38) was the leading prime sponsor of the fracking ban bill that passed this June and was conditionally vetoed by the Governor and she was a co-sponsor of the clean fertilizer bill. She co-sponsored the groundbreaking bill that establishes financing for wind energy off our coasts and she has consistently opposed bills that would weaken environmental protection including one that would allow the NJDEP to make substantial changes without taking public comment.
Senator Greenstein (D14) was a prime sponsor of the fracking ban bill that passed this June and was conditionally vetoed by the Governor and she is also a prime sponsor of new legislation to expand the state’s renewable energy standard (to 30%) and set a mandatory statewide policy to cut energy demand by 20%. Senator Greenstein has consistently opposed bills that would weaken environmental standards and has one of the best environmental voting records in the Legislature.

Assemblyman Benson (D14) was a co-sponsor of the fracking ban bill that passed this June and was conditionally vetoed by the Governor and he was a co-sponsor of the bill to save the RGGI program that the Legislature passed this June before being vetoed by the Governor.

Senator Whelan (D2) has been a leading voice of opposition against the Governor’s plan to leave the RGGI program and the Governor’s Energy Master Plan. He co-sponsored both the ground- breaking bill that established financing for wind energy off our coasts and the fracking ban bill that passed this June and was conditionally vetoed by the Governor.

Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D18) has been a leading voice of opposition against the Governor’s attempts to deregulate environmental protection and consistently has voted against environmental rollback bills in the Legislature. She has recently introduced a resolution opposing the NJDEP waiver rule, and she also co-sponsored the fracking ban bill that passed this June and was conditionally vetoed by the Governor.

Assemblyman Barnes (D18) was a prime sponsor of the Save RGGI bill that passed this June and was vetoed by the Governor. He consistently co-sponsors and supports key environmental legislation, including the fracking ban bill, the clean fertilizer bill, and the bill that would have set strict pollution limits for Barnegat Bay.

All, Energy, Environment, Protection, Water

Green Drinks Host Sally Gellert Is Arrested Protesting Oil Pipeline

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Sally writes

I was arrested on Friday, 2 September, and it was deeply meaningful – and I hope, will contribute to the defeat of this monument to fossil-fuel addiction. The charge was “failure to obey a legal order”, and it is an infraction, not even a misdemeanor. Basically, the equivalent of a traffic ticket, as the trainers [seasoned activists who prepared protesters for getting arrested] explained it. The service at All Souls [Unitarian Church] may have been cancelled, but there were protests every day at the White House. There may not have been arrests, as diverting park police from hurricane-related duties would not have been a good idea for many reasons, but nobody [none of the protesters] took the day off.

A question: was 15 people really the largest delegation from any single denomination? That seems surprising to me, even as it seems a pretty poor showing for a religious group [Unitarian] that prides itself on its history of social action and commitment to social justice. I challenge us to do better in the 2.5 months that we have remaining in which to influence the president: for the pipeline to be built, he must sign a permit declaring that [the pipeline] is in the national interest. That would mean approving a pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico [where the oil would be refined and then sold to the highest bidder, domestic or foreign]. [On its way it would cross] the Ogallala aquifer, which provides drinking water for millions of people and irrigation for most of our agriculture; [it] would be fed by a technology that removes 2 tons of soil and uses 4-5 barrels of water for every barrel of oil [produced], and [the pipeline would produce] only 3 times the amount of energy expended. By comparison, conventional oil produces 100 times the energy [invested to produce it]. I cannot see how this can be in the interest of anything but profit [to the producers at the expense of extensive exploitation of and damage to natural resources].

[signed] Sally Jane Gellert

Abuse of public trust, At Green Drinks, Environment, Health, New solutions, Protection, Water

Discussed at Green Drinks Hackensack on 9/12

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Marcellus Shale Fracking
Extracting gas from the Marcellus Shale deposit in Pennsylvania – country’s largest deposit – is still being promoted and it’s not good for us. Takes too much water from the region causing the water table to sink dramatically and it creates potable water pollution. Keep learning about fracking and advocating against it. Speak about it with family, friends and politicians.

Reality Climate Project on 9/14
Join the Reality Climate Project starting at 8pm EST on September 14.

24 Presenters. 24 Time Zones. 13 Languages. 1 Message. 24 Hours of Reality is a worldwide event to broadcast the reality of the climate crisis. It will consist of a new multimedia presentation created by Al Gore and delivered once per hour for 24 hours, representing every time zone around the globe.

Natural Resource Monetizing Equated With Public Good
Traditional government policy view the monetizing of natural resources as equivalent with the “public good”: that’s why business interests are able to get away with so much environmental destruction. But it isn’t very good to lack clear air and water, is it?

Investigate Scare Tactics Passed Along by Friends
Morty mentioned that he received a scare letter forwarded from a friend cautioning senior citizens that Medicare rates are going to be much higher in 2012 and even worse after that, so Morty called the Medicare office for verification. The customer service rep laughed when she heard his concern: 2012 Medicare rate figures don’t get released until October; and no one has even a slim idea about what the rates will look like in the years to come.

Real News v. Fox 5 Infotainment Propaganda
It’s important to realize that Fox News doesn’t deliver real news (informed people call it “infotainment“) and furthermore, it has a very apparent aim to create a state of constant panic in viewers; it will pull any dirty tactic possible to discredit individuals wishing to rationally debate ideas; and, Fox presents fabricated versions of history to bamboozle viewers into believing what it wishes them to believe. More info at Fox News Boycott and 14 Propaganda Techniques Fox ‘News’ Uses to Brainwash Americans.

Disneyworld: As Un-American As . . .?
Fox isn’t the only organization promoting buy-in to image over reality. What about Disneyworld? A National Geogrphic exposé unearths a lot of disturbing secrets about this “American Institution” which strangely, doesn’t exactly belong to America.

By the 1960s, all over America, suburbs were replacing old neighborhoods. Malls were driving Main Street out of business. There was hardly a new ranch home or split-level that didn’t have a TV antenna on the roof. Disney realized that in the coming decades shows like The Mickey Mouse Club, not climate and geology, would determine what the majority of Americans would consider a safe and enjoyable place to take a family vacation. That day, flying over central Florida, Disney decided that he, not reality, would define what constituted the Magic Kingdom in the minds and spending habits of millions of Americans in the years to come . . .

Disney’s new empire in central Florida would be marketed as Disney World. Its official name was, and remains, the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Thanks to a sweetheart deal with the state legislature, the lands Disney purchased were detached from the rest of Florida to form a Magic Kingdom, above and outside the law. Even now, Disney World’s rides are exempt from state safety inspections. Democratic process is excluded, too. Power remains in the hands of a board of supervisors composed of Disney allies. However much you pay for a time-share condo in Disney World, you cannot buy property outright, and therefore establish official residence, and therefore vote for the board. Celebration, Disney’s residential community themed to evoke pre-1940s small-town America, has a city hall but no actual municipal government.

Our Own Sally Get Arrested Protesting Alaska-Mexico Pipleline
I’ve saved the most exciting news for last. Green Drinks 3 co-host Sally Gellert, travelled to DC last week in order to get arrested along with 1200 plus other protesters including NASA’s James Hansen – who is speaking about the environment at Bergen Community College on 9/22.

Green Drinks Paterson/Clifton
Next week is Green Drinks Paterson/Clifton. We’ll be back with a report on what was discussed, or you can come out and help shape the conversation yourself.

Third Mondays at 6:30pm
Sultan Restaurant
429 Crooks Avenue, Clifton, NJ 07011
973-772-1995
Food and Drinks: Pay only for what you order
Parking: street parking
More info

Abuse of public trust, Food, Water

Black Gulf Fisherman – Struggling Mightily

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In his August 28 New York Times article, Trymaine Lee reports,

Way down in the delta, just south of the Belle Chasse Ferry at Beshel’s Marina here, black men with work-worn hands and several generations of fishing in their blood sat around on old milk crates, hoping for a piece of the oil cleanup action that seems to have bypassed their little stretch of the bayou.

Nearly all of them have taken BP’s courses on oil cleanup, but few said they had been called to work; their little skiffs remain moored and forlorn, tied side-by-side like wretched sardines.

“The little guy loses again,” one of them lamented.

There was Hurricane Katrina five years ago. And now the great spill.

But even before those two blows, the fishermen in Pointe a la Hache and other small, historically African-American fishing towns and villages that dot the east bank of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, have long had to fight hard for every dollar, every oyster and every opportunity they could drag out of the bayou.

The Huffington Post adds,

But ever since the BP oil spill back in 2010, their hauls have gotten lighter and their hopes and prayers a bit dimmer. The seafood industry and the livelihood of those who make their money off the side of boats is collapsing beneath them, fishermen said.

“We don’t have millions of dollars sitting in the bank where we can go do something else. We live and die on the seafood industry. This is our culture,” said Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association. “This is how we live.”

The oysters in many beds haven’t reproduced, he said. And early reports from shrimpers said the outlook for this season doesn’t look good, if today’s catch is any indication.

Encalade blames the 87-day oil spill in the Gulf and the dispersants used by BP to thin the oil caked on the water for blighting the sea life here.

“I don’t know where this concept of ‘Everything is alright and they are doing what they are supposed to do’ came from,” he said. “These people are suffering down here, and I don’t think they have the slightest idea of how these communities are surviving. But they’re doing it on the back of Catholic Charities, nonprofits and each other.”

Encalade said BP’s public relations machine kicked into high gear from the start of the disaster, but he and others in the Delta know all too well how devastating the spill has been.

New solutions, Urban, Water

Reports on World Water Week in Stockholm

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World Water Week opened in Stockholm on Monday August 22nd with calls for better urban water management to ensure food and water security. Around 2,500 experts from some 130 countries are attending the 21st edition of World Water Week in Stockholm. They are working on preparations for the United Nation’s conference on sustainable development set to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The group expects to publish a declaration at the end of this week (August 26).As the migration from rural areas continues, 830 million poor currently live in urban areas. Such rapid growth is straining natural resources and infrastructure. These areas often lack water and sanitation services which is a leading cause of mortality for both children and their mothers. Investments from governments and companies now will pay dividends later . . .

“More than ever we need new technologies and policy solutions…to compensate for water shortages hitting a growing number of the world’s inhabitants,” Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson, said in her opening address at the World Water Conference. “Increased access to clean water supplies and sanitation is an important catalytic force for development,” Carlsson said, insisting “the costs of not acting far exceed the costs of well-functioning, sustainable water resource management.”

To help shed some light on the issues, 2degrees streamed live webinars of the World Water Week sessions. Here is a summary of those sessions:

Read more . . .

All, Education, Events, Urban, Water

Green Drinks Newark Riverfront Tour now 10/16. Coming?

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The new, new date for this year’s tour is Sunday, October 16 from 12:00-3:30pm. August 28 was the day hurricane Irene hit New Jersey.

This event has been rescheduled to Sunday, August 28 from 12-3:30pm. Hope some of you will come out with us. The water’s fine!

Last year a bunch of Green Drinkers went out in pontoon boats to tour the Newark Riverfront area, and we’re doing it again. Tickets are $6. I hope we’ll get a nice group together again. Pontoon boats – and pilots – are on loan from the Hackensack River Keeper and they’re completely safe.

If you want to come, reach out to us on Twitter, email info at thiswebsite dot com or call Ivan at 201-688-0036.

Here are some pix from last year’s tour, which coincidentally, also took place on Aug 28. Originally, we were scheduled to go out this year on July 17 but the trip was moved due to an illness in our boat pilot’s family.

Abuse of public trust, All, Urban, Water

BP’s Oil Spill Is All Cleaned Up Now, Right?

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Last night I argued with a friend who claimed that environmental damage is now under control in the United States, and offered the BP oil spill as evidence of how well environmental disasters are being handled, and their impact minimized. This is so not true, but it’s not enough to say so – it must be proven, so here are a few facts:

A post from the NY Times’ Green blog about the BP oil spill published on its anniversary in April shows that the associated problems have far from ended.

“Nearly 2,000 responders are actively working in the gulf to aid in the ongoing recovery efforts. We continue to hold BP and other responsible parties fully accountable for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused. We’re monitoring seafood to ensure its continued safety and implementing aggressive new reforms for offshore oil production in the gulf so that we can safely and responsibly expand development of our own energy resources. And E.P.A. Administrator Lisa Jackson is leading a task force to coordinate the long-term restoration effort based on input from local scientists, experts, and citizens.”

Law firm Beasley Allen publishes news on its website and has this to say about Dead Zones in the Gulf caused by the oil spill

Marine Biologists have issued a grim forecast for Gulf shrimpers and fishermen in the wake of the BP oil spill: the 2011 “Dead Zone” in the Gulf, they predict, will likely be the largest on record, choking some species of sea life and hindering others from properly migrating and developing. The implications of a super-size dead zone, estimated to grow as large as the size of Delaware and Maryland combined, could be huge . . .

While the BP oil spill isn’t directly responsible for the Mississippi River dead zone, the 200-million-plus gallons of oil and the millions of gallons of toxic chemical dispersants that BP dumped into the Gulf have caused a dead zone of their own. Scientists have found several square miles of Gulf sea bed blanketed by oil untouched by hungry microbes.

Pictures taken during submarine excursions to some of the oil-choked areas showed crabs, starfish, coral, tube worms, and other creatures smothered to death under thick blankets of oil. Highly toxic gases released from the well and noxious soot from the burning of oil on the surface have deepened the devastation. The effects of Corexit, the chemical dispersant used by BP to break the sludge into smaller particles, are still largely unknown and widely feared in the scientific community.

Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts’s 7th congressional district, adds these sobering thoughts: “Chris Jones, the brother of Gordon Jones, one of the 11 workers killed the night of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, delivered some of the most powerful and touching testimony I have seen in my 36 years in Congress.”

Congressman Markey also points out,

We now know BOPs (blowout preventers) don’t always work, even when they’re used correctly. We know the oil companies still don’t have full response capabilities, even if they’ve given their top hat a new coat of paint. And we know that the recommendations of the bipartisan spill commission haven’t been put in place.

Yet Republicans in Congress and the oil companies are still pushing for more drilling with less safety. This is the sort of willful ignorance and speed-over-safety mentality that led to the BP spill in the first place.

Other chilling reports showing that the effects of the BP oil spill are far from gone, can be found by googling “bp continues working in the gulf”.

I’d like to leave readers with hope for a better future: please keep in mind that current sweeping changes in ecology and climate are not natural occurrences – they are entirely due to man’s intervention. And, we are consuming much more of planetary resources than are available. The good news here is that as we are creating the problems, we can change our behaviour and begin to fix the world. As Jaime Cloud reminded my family recently, there’s “just enough time.”

New solutions, Water

Protei: swimming ocean clean-up robots

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My friend Guillermo Cerceau, who is interested in the health of oceans, is excited about a new technology project called Protei, being developed under Open Hardware Standard licensing in order to help the world, instead of for profit. Protei are swimming, remote-controlled robots which can be used in the ocean to clean up garbage and chemical spills. Protei’s inventors tell us this about their oil cleaning prototype:

Current oil spill skimming technology could only collect 3% of the DeepWater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The health of workers was exposed to cancerous toxic, the boats were expensive and pollutive to operate, they could not operate in bad weather (hurricane seaon) they could not operate at night or far away.

Protei is a technology currently in development that will provide
– Unmanned, no human exposed to toxic.
– Green and cheap, sailing upwind capturing oil downwind.
– Self-righting, rugged, can operate in hurricane time.
– Semi-autonomous : can swarm continuously and far away.

Protei exceeded their Kickstarter funding goal of $27,500 and now are working on a new prototype to clean up waste discarded in oceans.