Saturday, October 1, 2016
World on Your Plate: 13th Annual Conference on Food & Sustainable Living
13TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON FOOD
AND SUSTAINABLE LIVING
DAEMEN COLLEGE WICK CENTER
OCT. 7 (EVENING) & OCT. 8 (ALL DAY), 2016
Friday, October 7th 2016
5:00 - Registration (outside social room)
5:30 - Light Dinner
6:00 - Panel: "Farm-to-Market: Issues and Challenges"
(15 min break)
7:15 Round table - NY Organic Action Plan with NOFA-NY
5:00 - Registration (outside social room)
5:30 - Light Dinner
6:00 - Panel: "Farm-to-Market: Issues and Challenges"
(15 min break)
7:15 Round table - NY Organic Action Plan with NOFA-NY
Saturday, October 8th 2016
8:30 - registration (Coffee & breakfast items)
8:30 - Vendors (set-up at 8 am)
9:00 - Welcome and Introductions
9:15 - Matthew Goldfarb (Fruition Seeds) "Resilient Seeds in a Changing Climate"
10:45 to 11:45 - Workshop Session I (9 workshops offered—see website)
12:00 to 1:00 Workshop Session II (10 workshops offered—see website)
1:15 to 2:15 - Organic Vegetarian Lunch
2:30 - Frances Moore Lappe (Small Planet Institute), "The Solution is on Your Plate"
8:30 - registration (Coffee & breakfast items)
8:30 - Vendors (set-up at 8 am)
9:00 - Welcome and Introductions
9:15 - Matthew Goldfarb (Fruition Seeds) "Resilient Seeds in a Changing Climate"
10:45 to 11:45 - Workshop Session I (9 workshops offered—see website)
12:00 to 1:00 Workshop Session II (10 workshops offered—see website)
1:15 to 2:15 - Organic Vegetarian Lunch
2:30 - Frances Moore Lappe (Small Planet Institute), "The Solution is on Your Plate"
3:30 – Book-signing, raffle/auctions
4:00 to 5:00 - Celebration (music, cider/wine & cheese)
4:00 to 5:00 - Celebration (music, cider/wine & cheese)
$35 at the door or $30 for preregistration, $10 Friday only.
Students with ID & preregistration are free. Scholarships are available.
For information &/or to register: www.worldonyourplate.org.
To register directly through EventBrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/
Questions/comments/
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Rally & Press Conference: Stop the Fracked Gas Pipeline
Northern Access 2016 Pipeline
Press Conference and Rally
Friday 4:00 pm in Wheatfield, NY
PLEASE JOIN US!
RALLY & PRESS CONFERENCE IN WHEATFIELD
2251 Liberty Drive, Wheatfield, NY
Friday, September 30, 2016 at 4:00 PM
We will gather at the proposed site of the dehydration station to show Western NY stands together to say NO to National Fuel’s proposed Northern Access Pipeline
We have worked for months to connect the pieces of National Fuel’s proposed Northern Access 2016 Pipeline scattered throughout Western NY. We have found residents in Pendleton and Wheatfield spending endless hours and energy to protect their neighborhoods and families from the dangers of compressor and dehydration stations. We have found residents in Elma unaware of the significant expansion of a compressor just feet away from their homes.
All along the the 97 miles of pipeline are stories of farmers and landowners being threatened by National Fuel with eminent domain proceedings. We see grave threats to our precious waterways all through the beautiful landscape of WNY as this project would cross 180 streams and 270 wetlands before the fracked gas makes its way under the Niagara River and into Canada.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE AS DECISIONS COULD BE MADE THIS FALL WE NEED YOU!
IT IS TIME TO STAND TOGETHER, SUPPORT EACH OTHER AND SAY:
We will come together to call on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Governor Cuomo, and the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation to say NO to this project. This project is solely for the profit of National Fuel. There is no need and necessity for this project that warrants endangering our communities, our precious water, air and natural environment.
Concerned Western NY residents
Wheatfield Action Team
Pendleton Action Team
WECAP
Sierra Club Niagara Group Contact: niagarasierra@gmail.com
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
TALK: Tribes Take Action Against Pipeline Project to Protect Their Water and Sacred Land
Agnes Williams, Coordinator at Indigenous Women's Initiative, will speak about the 200 tribes that have united to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Annual Awards Dinner to Honor Local Environmental Leaders and Feature President of National Sierra Club - Open to Public
Special Event ~ Please join us!
2016 Sierra Club Niagara Group
Annual Awards Dinner
Saturday, October 15, 2016, at 6 pm
Temple Beth Zion (auditorium), 805 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo [Map]
With Special Guest Speaker
Aaron Mair, President, National Sierra Club
Aaron is from Schenectady, NY, and is an epidemiological-spatial analyst with the New
York State Department of Health. His background and experience includes more than three decades of environmental activism and over 25 years as a Sierra Club volunteer leader where he has worked diligently for environmental justice.
York State Department of Health. His background and experience includes more than three decades of environmental activism and over 25 years as a Sierra Club volunteer leader where he has worked diligently for environmental justice.
The program honors local Environmental Leaders in government and
labor including Paul Dyster (Niagara Falls Mayor), Thomas DeSantis
(Senior Planner of Niagara Falls), Bob Baxter (Niagara Heritage
Partnership), Todd Hobler (VP of 1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers United
East) and Debora Hayes (Area Director of the Communication Workers of
America).
We are offering a multi-course buffet dinner with cash bar. We have two ticket prices: $45 for those who can afford to support our fundraising efforts, and $25 for those who are students or on a fixed income. More dinner details here.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
We Need to Stop Dangerous Global Warming
By David Kowalski
Excess greenhouse gas in the atmosphere caused by burning fossil fuels - coal, oil, or natural gas - is now resulting in dangerous global warming. Fifteen of the sixteen warmest years have occurred since the year 2000. 2014 set a new record and 2015 topped it. 2016 is on track for even more extreme warming, with January through June showing record-breaking global temperatures (NASA graph, below).
Burning fossil fuels emits carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas that traps heat and is raising Earth’s temperature. Human-caused CO2 levels in the atmosphere are now about 40% greater than the highest levels detected in Nature in the past 650,000 years (NASA graph with annotations by D.K., below).
We are now in uncharted territory. Human activity, specifically the burning of fossil fuels, is generating more CO2 gas than Nature can absorb from the atmosphere.
The persistent accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, which began with the Industrial Revolution, is raising the temperature of our planet. This is certainly cause for alarm, since rising global temperatures are impacting weather patterns, driving climate change and having dire consequences.
It’s Getting HOT in Here!
Nowhere is the fingerprint of climate change more evident than with extreme heat.
This year, summer got it's hottest start ever in three states: California, New Mexico and Arizona. Over 30 million people were under heat warnings or advisories. Record-shattering temperatures of 109° occurred in Los Angeles and 122° in Palm Springs. Tragically, on June 20th, six people died outdoors in 118° heat in Arizona. Between 600 and 1,500 heat-related deaths occur in an average summer in the U.S.
Heat waves last for days and are deadly. Severe heat waves in Europe in 2003 and Russia in 2010 resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. In 2015, thousands died in heat waves that occurred in India and Pakistan. A Chicago heat wave with temperatures up to 104° killed nearly 750 people in 1995. A California heat wave with temperatures as high as 119° caused up to 450 deaths in 2006.
A combination of heat and humidity (the Heat Index) that makes it feel like it’s 105° or hotter is termed a ‘danger day’. Warming temperatures are about to push U.S. cities into a new mode where danger days happen regularly. By 2030, 84 cities with nearly one-third of the U.S. population are projected to deal with at least 20 danger days annually if carbon emissions continue unabated. In the South, Miami is projected to have 126 danger days by 2030.
Buffalo is projected to have fewer danger days (6) by 2030, but the number will increase to 15 by 2050 if carbon emissions continue unabated. By 2030, Buffalo is projected to have 38 ‘extreme caution’ days, when the heat index tops 90°. The latter days are the greatest threat to children and the elderly, who are more sensitive to the heat, and to those in residences without air conditioning.
Cutting carbon emissions worldwide is vital to reducing the risk of heat-related death and illness.
Drought, Flooding, Wildfires and Extreme Weather
Higher temperatures increase the amount of moisture that evaporates from land and water, and have contributed to drought in some areas. At the same time, increased water vapor in the atmosphere caused by the elevated warming has resulted in heavy downpours in other areas.
Extreme events linked to global warming and predicted earlier by climate scientists are in fact occurring now around the world and here at home: unprecedented drought in California, destructive downpours and historic flooding in Texas and West Virginia, more intense hurricanes like Sandy in New York, and raging wildfires in the Southwest U.S. and in Canada.
Drought, flooding and excess heat threaten human health and safety. Such events can also cause crop destruction, food insecurity and human conflicts, threatening our ability to sustain life on this planet.
Ocean Warming, Ice Melting, and Sea-level Rise
Oceans, which cover 70% of our planet, are absorbing 93% of the excess heat of global warming. Hot ocean waters are bleaching and killing coral reefs, disrupting ecosystems that harbor fish, an important food source. Continued warming of oceans will increase melting of polar ice sheets, cause extensive sea level rise and flood coastal cities, including New York City and Miami. This would be catastrophic -- displacing large populations, causing unrest and costing trillions of dollars. Low-lying island nations face the threat of being swallowed by rising seas.
What Can YOU Do?
There is no doubt that global warming and climate change are happening now. We all need to take action locally to help end human-caused global warming.
It is essential that we push our governments at national, state and local levels adopt measures to prevent the worst impacts of global warming. Bold energy policies with mandates and timelines are urgently needed to shift to clean, renewable energy, increase energy efficiency, and cut carbon emissions that cause global warming.
Let your elected officials know that ending global warming pollution by transitioning to clean, renewable energy also presents real opportunities. It will not only stabilize the climate and energy prices, but also lead to good-paying jobs, healthier communities and a more just society.
And don't forget to Vote! Vote for candidates who seek to protect People and the Planet.
Get more informed and involved with activists in the Sierra Club Niagara Group through monthly Executive Committee meetings, presentations/discussions at a Writers Group, and a Climate & Energy Committee meeting (Email: NiagaraSierra@gmail.com)
Join one of the groups affiliated with the Climate Justice Coalition of Western New York, including faith groups, labor unions, social/economic justice groups, Working Families Party and others. For more information, Email ClimateJusticeBuffalo@gmail.com.
Request a presentation on Environmental Stewardship, Climate Change and Clean Energy Solutions for your group. Email ClimateJusticeBuffalo@gmail.com
Excess greenhouse gas in the atmosphere caused by burning fossil fuels - coal, oil, or natural gas - is now resulting in dangerous global warming. Fifteen of the sixteen warmest years have occurred since the year 2000. 2014 set a new record and 2015 topped it. 2016 is on track for even more extreme warming, with January through June showing record-breaking global temperatures (NASA graph, below).
[Click image to enlarge]
[Click image to enlarge]
The persistent accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, which began with the Industrial Revolution, is raising the temperature of our planet. This is certainly cause for alarm, since rising global temperatures are impacting weather patterns, driving climate change and having dire consequences.
It’s Getting HOT in Here!
Nowhere is the fingerprint of climate change more evident than with extreme heat.
This year, summer got it's hottest start ever in three states: California, New Mexico and Arizona. Over 30 million people were under heat warnings or advisories. Record-shattering temperatures of 109° occurred in Los Angeles and 122° in Palm Springs. Tragically, on June 20th, six people died outdoors in 118° heat in Arizona. Between 600 and 1,500 heat-related deaths occur in an average summer in the U.S.
Heat waves last for days and are deadly. Severe heat waves in Europe in 2003 and Russia in 2010 resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. In 2015, thousands died in heat waves that occurred in India and Pakistan. A Chicago heat wave with temperatures up to 104° killed nearly 750 people in 1995. A California heat wave with temperatures as high as 119° caused up to 450 deaths in 2006.
A combination of heat and humidity (the Heat Index) that makes it feel like it’s 105° or hotter is termed a ‘danger day’. Warming temperatures are about to push U.S. cities into a new mode where danger days happen regularly. By 2030, 84 cities with nearly one-third of the U.S. population are projected to deal with at least 20 danger days annually if carbon emissions continue unabated. In the South, Miami is projected to have 126 danger days by 2030.
Buffalo is projected to have fewer danger days (6) by 2030, but the number will increase to 15 by 2050 if carbon emissions continue unabated. By 2030, Buffalo is projected to have 38 ‘extreme caution’ days, when the heat index tops 90°. The latter days are the greatest threat to children and the elderly, who are more sensitive to the heat, and to those in residences without air conditioning.
Cutting carbon emissions worldwide is vital to reducing the risk of heat-related death and illness.
Drought, Flooding, Wildfires and Extreme Weather
Higher temperatures increase the amount of moisture that evaporates from land and water, and have contributed to drought in some areas. At the same time, increased water vapor in the atmosphere caused by the elevated warming has resulted in heavy downpours in other areas.
Extreme events linked to global warming and predicted earlier by climate scientists are in fact occurring now around the world and here at home: unprecedented drought in California, destructive downpours and historic flooding in Texas and West Virginia, more intense hurricanes like Sandy in New York, and raging wildfires in the Southwest U.S. and in Canada.
Drought, flooding and excess heat threaten human health and safety. Such events can also cause crop destruction, food insecurity and human conflicts, threatening our ability to sustain life on this planet.
Ocean Warming, Ice Melting, and Sea-level Rise
Oceans, which cover 70% of our planet, are absorbing 93% of the excess heat of global warming. Hot ocean waters are bleaching and killing coral reefs, disrupting ecosystems that harbor fish, an important food source. Continued warming of oceans will increase melting of polar ice sheets, cause extensive sea level rise and flood coastal cities, including New York City and Miami. This would be catastrophic -- displacing large populations, causing unrest and costing trillions of dollars. Low-lying island nations face the threat of being swallowed by rising seas.
What Can YOU Do?
There is no doubt that global warming and climate change are happening now. We all need to take action locally to help end human-caused global warming.
It is essential that we push our governments at national, state and local levels adopt measures to prevent the worst impacts of global warming. Bold energy policies with mandates and timelines are urgently needed to shift to clean, renewable energy, increase energy efficiency, and cut carbon emissions that cause global warming.
Let your elected officials know that ending global warming pollution by transitioning to clean, renewable energy also presents real opportunities. It will not only stabilize the climate and energy prices, but also lead to good-paying jobs, healthier communities and a more just society.
And don't forget to Vote! Vote for candidates who seek to protect People and the Planet.
Get more informed and involved with activists in the Sierra Club Niagara Group through monthly Executive Committee meetings, presentations/discussions at a Writers Group, and a Climate & Energy Committee meeting (Email: NiagaraSierra@gmail.com)
Join one of the groups affiliated with the Climate Justice Coalition of Western New York, including faith groups, labor unions, social/economic justice groups, Working Families Party and others. For more information, Email ClimateJusticeBuffalo@gmail.com.
Request a presentation on Environmental Stewardship, Climate Change and Clean Energy Solutions for your group. Email ClimateJusticeBuffalo@gmail.com
Sharp Contrast on Climate and Energy in Presidential Campaign
GOP and Democratic Platforms Highlight Stark Differences on Energy and Climate
While Republicans embrace fossil fuels, Democrats push for climate action. But do party platforms influence policy?
By Phil McKenna | Inside Climate News | Jul 26, 2016
If there was any lingering confusion on how America's two major political parties differ over climate and energy policy, platforms released by the Republican and Democratic Parties during this month's national conventions made their often polar-opposite views exceedingly clear.
Republicans would dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency as it currently exists and abolish the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the Obama administration's plan to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
Democrats called for a price on carbon, implementation of the Clean Power Plan, which was stayed by the Supreme Court in February, as well as other regulatory measures to reduce greenhouse gases, and prioritization of renewable energy over natural gas.
While platforms are more outline of party beliefs than binding policy, they nonetheless offer a picture of the widening gulf between the increasingly conservative Republican Party and a Democratic Party that has adopted many of the progressive policies championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Read more at Inside Climate News
Climate Change Divide Bursts to Forefront in Presidential Campaign
By CORAL DAVENPORT | New York Times | AUG. 1, 2016
WASHINGTON — During the 2012 race for president, the issue of climate change was nearly invisible. President Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, almost never spoke about it, and it did not come up during their debates. There was far more talk of ramping up oil and gas production than cutting emissions.
But this year, as Hillary Clinton thrusts climate change to the heart of her campaign, the issue is taking on a prominence it has never before had in a presidential general election.
In speeches, Mrs. Clinton regularly highlights her plan to combat global warming, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, praised her at the Democratic National Convention last week for putting it at “the center” of her foreign policy. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, her main rival in the primaries, spoke of the issue forcefully, saying that “this election is about climate change.” The party platform calls for a price — essentially a tax — on carbon pollution.
Mrs. Clinton’s opponent in the November election, Donald J. Trump, has gone further than any other Republican presidential nominee in opposing climate change policy. He often mocks the established science of human-caused climate change and dismisses it as a hoax. The Republican platform calls climate change policy “the triumph of extremism over common sense.”
The divide between the two parties over the issue is the widest it has been in the decades since it emerged as a public policy matter. That is all the more remarkable given that during the 2008 election, the Democratic and Republican positions on climate change were almost identical.
Read more at the New York Times
While Republicans embrace fossil fuels, Democrats push for climate action. But do party platforms influence policy?
By Phil McKenna | Inside Climate News | Jul 26, 2016
If there was any lingering confusion on how America's two major political parties differ over climate and energy policy, platforms released by the Republican and Democratic Parties during this month's national conventions made their often polar-opposite views exceedingly clear.
Republicans would dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency as it currently exists and abolish the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the Obama administration's plan to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
Democrats called for a price on carbon, implementation of the Clean Power Plan, which was stayed by the Supreme Court in February, as well as other regulatory measures to reduce greenhouse gases, and prioritization of renewable energy over natural gas.
While platforms are more outline of party beliefs than binding policy, they nonetheless offer a picture of the widening gulf between the increasingly conservative Republican Party and a Democratic Party that has adopted many of the progressive policies championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Read more at Inside Climate News
Climate Change Divide Bursts to Forefront in Presidential Campaign
By CORAL DAVENPORT | New York Times | AUG. 1, 2016
WASHINGTON — During the 2012 race for president, the issue of climate change was nearly invisible. President Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, almost never spoke about it, and it did not come up during their debates. There was far more talk of ramping up oil and gas production than cutting emissions.
But this year, as Hillary Clinton thrusts climate change to the heart of her campaign, the issue is taking on a prominence it has never before had in a presidential general election.
In speeches, Mrs. Clinton regularly highlights her plan to combat global warming, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, praised her at the Democratic National Convention last week for putting it at “the center” of her foreign policy. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, her main rival in the primaries, spoke of the issue forcefully, saying that “this election is about climate change.” The party platform calls for a price — essentially a tax — on carbon pollution.
Mrs. Clinton’s opponent in the November election, Donald J. Trump, has gone further than any other Republican presidential nominee in opposing climate change policy. He often mocks the established science of human-caused climate change and dismisses it as a hoax. The Republican platform calls climate change policy “the triumph of extremism over common sense.”
The divide between the two parties over the issue is the widest it has been in the decades since it emerged as a public policy matter. That is all the more remarkable given that during the 2008 election, the Democratic and Republican positions on climate change were almost identical.
Read more at the New York Times
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