Thurs Sept 18,7-8:30pm — Screening of “Groundswell Rising” in Rye, NY. Discussion featuring the filmmakers will follow the film and will also include local and regional update and action steps. $5 suggested donation. 260 Stuyvesant Avenue, Rye, New York 10580 • 914-967-6080
For other Hudson Valley Climate Justice Events: Between now and September 21, there are almost daily events going on to focus our community conversation on climate justice issues in the Hudson Valley, and connect the dots between these local concerns and the September 21 March. Check out the entire event calendar here: peoplesclimate.org/hudsonvalley/events/
Kingston, New York, September 4, 2014 — This week, a fleet of full-scale paper boats is continuing a voyage down the Hudson River, charting a course from upstate New York to New York City in a convergence of art and activism to coincide with the meeting of world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit. Tomorrow evening, the fleet will stop in Kingston for a riverfront party for climate justice, where representatives will make themselves available for interviews with press.
WHAT:SeaChange: We All Live Downstream is a participatory voyage down the Hudson River in small boats made of paper to navigate climate change, call for action to stem it, and engage communities in claiming the water as a commons. The boats will stop in Hudson for a riverfront party for climate justice, with boats built by the Hudson Sloop Club Campers from Kite’s Nest, music, puppet shows, and games.
EVENTS:
5:30 – 9:00: Sign-UP for the Kingston, Saugerties, Woodstock bus to the People’s Climate March on Sunday September 21st 2014 in New York City, $24 round-trip! Checks accepted, credit cards online!
5:30 – 6:00: SeaChange Crew arrives in Paper Boats with a welcome-in by the Rosendale Improvement Association Brass Band and Social Club; music and dance.
6:00 – 7:00: The Cantestoria: A participatory based gorilla theater speaking about the People’s Climate March and the local effects on Kingston, New York. A participatory performance through art, song, and rhythm.
Potluck: Bring food and drinks to share with others and with the SeaChange Crew, meet your local community members at the docks near the maritime museum, for more information contact Daniel. J. Helmer at (845) 235-6528 or e-mail:
7:00 – 8:00: Sea Shanty songs with the Kingston Sea Shanty Singers, a sing-along participatory Sea Shanty celebration for the river and presentations with the SeaChange members on Crude Oil, Tarsands, meeting the crew and discovering their personal stories and opportunities to connect, plug-in locally, regionally, nationally and continue the just-transition!
8:00 – 9:00: Information on the United Nations Climate Summit, Local busing and transportation to the People’s Climate March and general information, where, when, why? on the People’s Climate March on Sunday, September 21st, 2014, New York City. Come join us, all are welcome!
WHO:SeaChange is an initiative of the Brooklyn-based boatbuilding collective Mare Liberum and the global climate change activism network 350.org. They will be joined by local groups and businesses like Kite’s Nest, Hudson Sloop Club, and Jane’s Ice Cream. Representatives from the SeaChange voyage will be available to speak with press.
WHEN & WHERE:The party will take place tomorrow, September 5, from 5:30 pm to 9pm at the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, New York.
VISUALS:A fleet of paper boats with signs and banners; a large crowd gathered for live music and puppet shows.
SeaChange: We All Live Downstream engages with local residents along the Hudson, stopping in 13 towns along a 160-mile path over two weeks, to lift up stories of community resistance to proposed fossil fuel infrastructure while building local resilience for the effects of human-caused climate change. The voyage will culminate in a circumnavigation of the island of Manhattan, and a Boat Bloc on the East River in support of the People’s Climate March. SeaChangeechoes the need to remain afloat despite rising sea levels, and the role of art in finding solutions that build community out of the global climate crisis.
INVITATION:Come one! Come All! The journey down the Hudson is here! Paddle for Climate and Climate Justice. The SeaChange team invites all to not only participate on the land-based events but also to come on the water!
You may join in at any point along the way down the river; paddle and be seafaring journeyers, bring your boat, your kayak, canoe or paddleboard: all are invited to take the journey, be it for a moment or a span of days, or even all the way to the lovely New York, New York, landing in Manhattan on the 14th of September to welcome the UN Climate Summit delegates and journey to the People’s Climate March on September 21st!
Bring your boat or a friend, or both, make a journey for your part in speaking for Climate, People and Planet.
For more information please contact Daniel J. Helmer at: or call at (845) 235-6528.
In September, world leaders are coming to New York City for a UN summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution.
With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we’ll take a stand to bend the course of history. We’ll take to the streets to demand the world we know is within our reach: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities.
To change everything, we need everyone on board. Sunday, September 21 in New York City. Join us.
Esopus solar array makes enough electricity to make town energy independent
By William J. Kemble at the Daily Freeman
ESOPUS >> Town Board members on have approved a memorandum of agreement with Central Hudson on terms that will let a planned 1 megawatt solar array put enough electricity into the grid to make the municipality energy independent.
The agreement was discussed during a meeting Monday, when Supervisor John Coutant said the documents described the accounts that would be credited when generating electricity from the transfer station on Floyd Ackert Road.
“This is used to put the calculations together for the last round of communications with (installation contractors) Sun Edison of California,” he said. “Next will be coming the contracts for us to review and take to the attorney about the actual installation project itself, which I expect to happen in the next couple or three weeks.”
The contract with Sun Edison is expected to call for construction of a 5,200-panel solar array on 4.5 acres.
Esopus currently has 62 percent of electric costs for Town Hall paid through an 80 kilowatt solar array installed four years ago on Town Hall property. Town officials now hope to have a system that will offset the cost of electricity used by the Highway Department, Water and Sewer Department, and street lights.
“(Consultant Randolph Horner) came in and took every one of the Central Hudson accounts that we pay and got the numbers off them,” said Coutant.
The project is estimated to cost $3 million but paid for by a developer who is reimbursed based on the cost of electricity before ultimately turning ownership of the system over to the town. Horner said the town is expected to become the first municipality in the state that generates has much electricity as it uses.
Horner last month said Sun Edison has been approved for $700,000 in grant funding through the New York State Energy Research Development Authority.
“The (U.S) Environmental Protection Agency has a program … advocating for using closed landfills and old industrial sites called brownfields to site solar where the land can’t be used for anything else,” he said.
“They have in hand that subsidy to apply,” Horner said. “It’s been awarded and assigned … to put with their financing to make a $3 million system work.”
For more information on this sotry read the full Daily Freeman article here.
The Tivoli Solar Energy Conference September 9, 2014 – 7 PM – Tivoli Village Hall
Tired of seeing your energy bills go up with no end in sight?
Learn how you can save money, save energy, lower your electric bill AND help to preserve the environment.
On September 9th the Green Committee for the Village of Tivoli will be hosting a solar energy conference. There will be presentations from solar energy providers in the area and information on how you can receive energy grants from NY State. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions. Refreshments will be served. Free to all.
For more information see the event listing in Chronogram.
New York’s highest court has ruled towns have the right to ban fracking. The seventy-nine towns with bans in place no longer have to worry about being sued. Town boards that once feared expensive lawsuits are now free to take action—and pro-fracking municipal officials who have used lawsuit concerns as an excuse for inaction now stand exposed. Some towns are already moving to adopt new bans—and you can be sure that citizens all across the state will be showing up at town meetings and demanding protective ordinances.
In its decision, the Court of Appeals found that the state legislature has the right to pass a law that would invalidate local bans, but that seems unlikely in the current political climate. The big question is, what does the ruling mean for towns without bans? Well, that depends on who’s elected governor this fall. There is widespread concern that if Governor Cuomo is reelected he will use the Court of Appeals decision to open New York to fracking while claiming he’s respecting “the will of the people”—communities that want fracking can have it, and communities that don’t can ban it. Zephyr Teachout, who is challenging Cuomo in the Democratic primary, is calling for a statewide ban, as is Green party candidate Howie Hawkins. The Republican candidate, Rob Astorino, has promised to frack New York on his first day in office.
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Demand a statewide ban now, before the elections, while we have maximum political leverage.
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS
Last week, the World Council of Churches, which represents 345 churches with a total of 590 million members, announced that it would no longer invest in fossil-fuel corporations and urged its member churches to follow suit. This is just the latest sign that faith communities are preparing to play a major role in combating climate change. In recent weeks, the Union Theological Seminary and Philadelphia-area Friends (Quakers) also announced they were shedding fossil-fuel investments.
Faith leaders have also begun to speak out on environmental issues with the same moral fervor that is usually used to address human rights. In April, The Guardian published an op ed by South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu calling for an “apartheid style boycott” of the fossil fuel industry. Tutu wrote “people of conscience need to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change.” And Pope Francis has also signaled that stewardship of the planet is likely to be one of his signal issues as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Speaking at an Italian university, he termed the ruthless exploitation of the environment “our sin,” and called sustainable development “one of the greatest challenges of our time.”
THE SOLUTIONS GRASSROOTS TOUR
Josh Fox, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning director of Gasland and Gasland 2 is back with The Solutions Grassroots Tour, an interactive multimedia event designed to encourage communities to adopt renewable energy strategies. Catskill Citizens is proud to cosponsor the first performance workshop at 3:30 PM on Sunday, July 27th, at the Delaware Youth Center in Callicoon, NY.
A second performance is set for 7:00 PM on Tuesday July 29th at the Hunt Union Ballroom at SUNY Oneonta. A national tour will get underway later his year.
This information gathered and re-posted from Catskill Citizens For Clean Energy. For in-depth and up to date information on Fracking resistance in NY and the Castskills visit them at www.CatskillCitizens.org
