Essays by Frank J. Regan

RochesterEnvironment.com

Connecting the dots on Rochester area environmental Issues

The Genesee River flowing through Genesee Park. Photo by Frank J. Regan.

On the most crucial issue of our time—Is mankind achieving a sustainable environment?—I argue that the public, and even scientists, are missing the obvious truth about our environmental problems, believing mistakenly that there is room for compromise with Nature.

These essays are an attempt to connect the dots of our news and understand our Rochester-area environment in the world environmental context.

Earth Day: The Real Meaning A year doesn’t go by where there isn’t at least one article about the real meaning behind each approaching holiday. Meaning, every Christmas there’s a story about the true meaning of December 25th, something besides massive shopping. Or, the Fourth of July, which is about our country’s founding values, and not smuggling fireworks into a state that forbids them. Thanksgiving is about giving thanks, not really about terrorizing the turkey population. more...

Environment and the Media

Rochester area media needs to inform the public consistently about our environment, especially with thorough investigative reporting.

8/01/2011 - Debt crisis could jeopardize Free TV in Rochester; do we care? If you are still one of those luddites like me who can only get local Television by antenna (via the digital converter box, of course), there is the threat that that this free service that we have known ‘forever’ is going to be gone. The great wailing and gnashing of teeth has begun on local TV and from the sounds it, it’s pretty serious. Check this out: more...
4/15/2011 - The state of our media as Earth Day approaches My most salient reflection on Earth Day (just a few days away) is that Climate Change is the moral imperative for our generation. If we don’t move to stovepipe Climate Change news and information to the front pages of mainstream media, we jeopardize the next generation’s ability to have a clean, healthy environment. Climate Change is not just another special interest, though judging from the treatment it gets from mainstream media, it seems that way. Climate Change is the environment we now inhabit, where our atmosphere and oceans are heating up, where extreme weather events are normal, and a 1% increase in greenhouse gas since the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution is melting the arctic glaciers. It means day-by-day our atmosphere and water bodies are heating up far beyond the usual (pre-human) pace of climate change. We need know how Climate Change is affecting the ability of future generations to have a future. And that will require participation by everyone who shops, who works, who plays, and who breathes on this precarious planet. So, you’d think this would be what appears on the media that everyone sees and hears. But it isn’t. I’ve just come back from the FreePress.net’s National Conference for Media Reform (NCMR): “The NCMR is the biggest and best conference devoted to media, technology and democracy.” It was a great three-day conference on describing and overcoming the challenges for a free press in the wake of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the assault on public funding for Public Broadcasting, and the threat against net neutrality. In case you haven’t noticed, there is a crisis in our media and our First Amendment: more...
Why your pet is bad for our Rochester, NY environment I am aware that questioning our love affair with our pets borders on heresy, but someone has to mention this particular unsustainable character trait in our species. Even here in Rochester, NY, our preoccupation with pets in the face of truly important matters like Climate Change and other environmental issues must be addressed. It’s not that pets are especially damaging to our environment; it’s that there are so many of them, eating so much food that could go to humans who really need food, and stealing our attention, our energy, and our economy from that which really matters. “Americans spend an astonishing $41 billion a year on their furry friends” The Pet Economy (2007) BusinessWeek For all their companionship, our pets don’t teach us much at all about our environment. When wildlife becomes domesticated they serve our needs and get removed from their role in our environment. You aren’t going to learn what role canines play in our environment by having Fido fetch your Frisbee. more...
Why football is bad for our Rochester, NY environment Last Sunday evening, in Rochester, NY and around the country, lots of folks were glued to their media attending to a popular pastime, football. I mean a lot of folks. What if all those people with all that money put football and other expensive sports on the back-burner and focused their incredible intelligence and energy on solving our desperate environmental issues? Rochester, NY has a litany of environmental issues that need to be address as Climate Change changes our area, but the public is out for half-time, absorbed in super-bowls and endless replays of things that don’t matter. I’m not against sports; I even played a lot of high school football—badly, I might add. Though a bit violent for a body that hasn’t finished growing, sports for kids does build character, a sense of responsibility, good health, physical and mental skills that are good for a lifetime. And though I don’t ‘get’ professional sports (most players don’t even live, or ever have lived, in the community they are playing for,) I’m not against it. What I question is the scale and the incredible amount of time and mental energy consumed by such a large proportion of our population on something that essentially doesn’t matter. Who wins the super bowl doesn’t feed the hungry, cure cancer, or save our environment. It’s just a game and like candy for kids, it’s probably OK within limits. more...
Our environment shouldn’t be a political football - Rochester Environmental News | Examiner.com If it is possible to stand back from politics as it is presently practiced in the US today, just for a moment, doesn’t seem absurd for our environment to be tossed around our political arena as if it were the domain of one party and not the other? Think about this without your blood boiling at the sound of ‘environment.’ Doesn’t it seem very odd that the environment is viewed so unsustainably? Today, it’s like two groups fighting over the control of a ship on the high seas and one group just couldn’t care less how much fuel the ship needs to reach land, or whether it’s seaworthy and about to go down? How did our environment, which which we need to survive, become the special interest of one political party and a liability for another? Haven’t we gone ‘round the bend on our environment? GOP Victory May Be Defeat For Climate Change Policy The more carbon that gets released into the atmosphere, the higher the average temperature rises. That's a scientific fact. Human activities, such as driving, flying, building and even turning on the lights, are the biggest contributor to the release of carbon. That too, is a fact. And yet the majority of Republicans running for House and Senate seats this year disagree. (October 23, 2010) NPR more...
Environmental news around Rochester and around the world I had a great time when I attended the recent UN Journalist Conference on Environmental sustainability on Monday, October 4th, 2010. Mayor Duffy spoke about our beautiful New York State and the recent sale of Hemlock and Candice lakes. We heard from environmental reporters from all over: Autigua & Barbuda; Russia; Togo; Bahrain; Uzbekistan; Zambia; Bosnia & Herzegovina; Haiti; and Mozambique. The conference was sponsored by those wonderful folks at United Nations Association of Rochester. What I got from the conference: Disinterest in by the public on environmental concerns seems to be drearily widespread. Other stuff gets front-page coverage on the world stage—sports, movie star scandals, highway accidents, and political squabbling—just like here in the US. more...
Social networking the environment Many of you may not remember a world without the Internet. Now social networking has revolutionized the net—a communications medium that has already radically changed how we interact. Books, newspapers, and maybe even websites may become passé. Spreading the news will never be the same. And while social networking is probably responsible for an incredible increase in environmental awareness, it is not a replacement for environmental journalism. It may actually increase the marginalization (putting it on the backburner) of environmental issues. My concern over the popular platforms -- that easily allow its members to throw lots of information (texting, photo sharing, forwarding news links, audio, video, anything digital actually) at each other -- includes several issues. First, too few corporations mediate too many individual’s ability to communicate. You create an environmental group, for example, but no one can join unless they are a part of the platform. Or, the platform goes down and everyone is silenced. Or, the programming goes awry and heaven knows what happens to your personal stuff. Maybe those corporations won’t like what you’re saying. more...
Our environment, Net Neutrality, and us idiots Whether or not you have been following the Net Neutrality issue, this raging controversy could have a profound effect on your life. The state of the free, unfettered environmental information network that the Internet has delivered to the public for the past decade might be in jeopardy if Net Neutrality is compromised by a new ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Congress. Here’s the situation: “In recent weeks, top officials from the Federal Communications Commission have held closed-door meetings to negotiate with the country’s biggest communications companies and online service providers on how the Internet should be regulated.” –8/05/2010 “The Net Neutrality Spat Explained” ProPublica I don’t mean to imply that the Internet is a rigorous medium or that environmentalism on the net hasn’t been messy. It has. Everyone with a computer and Internet connection has been able to write a report, give an opinion, argue a position, investigate a story, and respond to every little fact or observation about our environment since the Internet went public. No posted thought seems to have been denied access (in the US anyway). That is a good thing, though it would be more helpful if more reason and less hysterics pervaded this world-wide conversation. more...
Will the Internet save the news? There are those who believe that our news media is experiencing a colossal breakdown. Consolidations of the major media empires and the loss of revenue due to massive reductions in advertising revenues, which fueled the news media since the early 1800’s, is tearing down the financial structure that gave us competitive and investigative journalism. The main proponents of this view, Bob McChesney and John Nichols, spell out the problem in their new book: “The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again.” more...
Glut of bear sightings around Rochester, NY Rochester, NY’s local media is falling all over itself reporting on the whereabouts of bears in our vicinity. One pops up in Pittsford, another (maybe the same one), appears in Irondequoit. Everyday there seems to be a new sighting: they look for them here; they look for them there, those darn illusive black bears. I shouldn’t joke. The American black bear (Ursus americanus) once common to our area has been making a comeback. And because they are potentially dangerous, the public should be aware of them. To learn about the black bear, and what to do in case you come across one, go here Black Bear - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). But it seems to me that if we were really serious about black bear sightings, we (government, media, a business) would hire a team of students, place monitors on the bears, and track them. This would provide jobs for students and increase public safety. And we’d learn a lot about living with wild bears. more...
The future of investigating reporting on our environment: We came across this story about how in the present media crisis the prospect for investigative reporting might shake out: 'Newsonomics' Predicts The Future Of The Media : NPR more...
We’re Going Blind Trying to negotiate the world as your sight gets worse does not make life easier. Rather, it becomes more difficult because you often miss critical warning signs. That’s worth keeping in mind as this week’s news illuminates a further decline in the public’s ability to ‘see’ the world around them. Story #1. Supreme Court Voids Campaign Spending Curbs - BusinessWeek.com- msnbc.com “A divided court strikes down decades-old restrictions on corporate campaign spending, 5-4, reversing two of its precedents and freeing companies to advertise” Although there has always been a disproportionate advantage for large corporations to self-servingly frame issues before public via the media, lately it has become more blatant and dire. Relying on corporations, who own most mainstream media, to report on environmental malfeasance is putting the fox in the henhouse. more...
Kill Your TV! When you're in a hole, stop digging: Stop listening to the same media that misinformed you about the Iraq War and the dangers of Global Warming! Why do most Americans say they are concerned about the environment (at least in some polls), but don't vote for candidates with strong environmental records. Why do we continue to living our destructive, non-sustainable way of life (the United States has only a fraction of the world's population and uses 25% of the fossil fuels) despite all the evidence that it going to be a terrific cost to future generations? Is it because Americans are especially selfish or dense? I don't think so. I think the answer to most of our environmental problems is that we really don't get it; we don't understand the depth of our environmental problems because most of us are still trying to inform ourselves about the world in the same old way that led us to the state we are in--our environment on the brink of disaster. (By the way, if you think this last statement is an exaggeration, it's an indication that your listening to the same deluding media.) more..
Thoughtful Feedback Seemingly, online media has opened itself to a plethora of mindless ranting by those without even a crazy ideology to spur them on. I speak of feedback on online news sites that are unmonitored and unfiltered so any nutcase with a computer, an Internet connection, and only a modicum of sense is allowed to write responses to local news stories online. You know what I’m talking about: follow any online article that offers reader’s responses and you’ve probably long since avoided those parts of the articles because it’s a vast wasteland of craven lunacy. This is a tragedy because the medium where we get our news is moving to the Internet where interaction between the media and its readers is critical and will add greatly to our Democracy. more...
Environmental groups pick up where the media falls down The public is more aware of the importance of environmental issues because environmental groups are helping to connect the dots. Left to their own, the media only publishes environmental stories when something happens that their editors think will grab the public’s attention and bring in more money. more...
A Question: Mainstream Media and Climate Change News Recently, I’ve come across on the Internet environmental scene speculations that the mainstream media refuses to connect ‘extreme’ weather events like the increase flooding in the West, Hurricane Katrina, droughts around the world, to Global Warming. Global Warming does predict that there will be more extreme weather events, including not so much more hurricanes (for example) as most intense hurricanes when they occur. more...
Media Responsibility As I live and Breathe: Just when you think the media has become so Objective in their reporting that somehow they think they can stand outside of our environment and simply report on the decline of our environment, you read a story like this. Major Kudos for News 8/FOX Rochester. The movement is growing. The pubic and even the media is realizing that we cannot stand aside while that which keeps us alive, our environment, is in serious jeopardy - just check out some of these Rochester Environmental Issues. Hopefully, more and more mainstream media will recognize their innate responsibility as our informers, who have been protected with a special privilege under the US Bill of Rights, to inform us on the state of our environment—so that we may have the information we need to make informed choices about that which matters most. more...
Media Priorities Hannah Montana made it to Rochester during an almost blizzard and out again. I don’t know who Hannah Montana is, but I’m glad she made it safely to and from Rochester. I know this because the local news was saturated with this topic all weekend. I could not find, however, a story about the climate talks in Bali, where the US dragged its feet on coming to an agreement with the rest of the world on curbing Global Warming gases. more...
Stop Big Media & Stop Global Warming In just five days, the Federal Communications Commission plans to open the floodgates of further media consolidation across America. If FCC Chairman Kevin Martin gets his way, your community will be inundated with even more mass-produced celebrity gossip and infotainment, and less local reporting and quality journalism: more of the the junk news that is making us sick. more...
About changing your media I believe in this day, when mainstream, corporate media blurs and spins important environmental information that we need to survive because of their specific ideologies and their shareholder’s economic interests, we have to change our media. We have to change how we get our media and the sources we use to inform us of what’s going on. If the media we are accustomed to has mislead us or chooses on an unsound basis which stores we shall listen to and which they want us to ignore, then we have to change. There’s no shortage of new and old media out there. And by “out there,” one of the main conduits for finding out what exactly is going on in our environment is too surf around the Internet for trusted news sources, which can come from other countries, other industries, other groups—voices that don’t appear on our television or radios (Or, maybe they do, but we could not reach them except for the power of the Internet). more...

Climate Change

The Rochester, NY area is not going dodge the Climate Change crisis, See how.

8/15/2011 - Moving towards a cooler planet in Rochester, NY When you consider that New York State’s goal for curbing Climate Change is “reducing GHG emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 (or 80 by 50),” you begin to appreciate the quiet drama in the NYS Climate Action Council’s report: ... I say ‘quiet drama’ because regardless of how ambitious our state government decides we the people should march our greenhouse gas (GHS) emissions back to normal ranges, it’s not going to happen without massive compliance by we the people. We the governed, we the proud and free, are not particularly fond of our government telling us what to do. Just note how effective stopping cell phone use while driving is working. Nada. So, how is something so incredibly life-altering as the massive collective action needed by the public to change our energy sources to renewables, increase energy efficiency of our buildings (which, in NYS accounts for 40% of GHS), and change our transportation habits (which account for 27% of GHS) going to happen? more...
Needed: Rochester, NY climate action plan site If you search awhile you can find the City of Rochester’s Climate Action Plan buried on this page: City of Rochester | City Adopts “Green” Resolution. But it’s not the full-fledged web site devoted exclusively to our city’s plan for adapting to Climate Change like they have for Chicago: more...
Hydrofracking in NYS through the lens of Climate Change Although our governments, politicians, business community, and even our environmentalists do not (or will not) connect the dots of hydrofracking with Climate Change they cannot be isolated from each other. Natural gas, however extracted, is a greenhouse gas (GHG) when burned and it must be addressed as such. Because of the scale of our energy issues, the scale of the gas to be extracted (some have referred to the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale boon as comparable to two Saudi Arabia’s worth of fossil fuels) and the scale of our Climate Change crisis, now is the time for the media and our government officials to connect natural gas with greenhouse gas emissions. The gravity of our accelerated Climate Change crisis, where there will be many likely changes to our region’s environment, compels us to view all environmental issues through the lens of Climate Change. This isn’t my expression; this is the language of the US Fish and Wildlife Service: more...
Oppressive heat this week will be the summer norm in Rochester, NY It’s worth your while to read the recommendations by the New York State Department of Health on measures to take during this heat wave. There are a lot to things to consider on a hot day. Just being able to tough them out while on the job like a bunch of heat heroes (which seems to be the focus of our local media) isn’t one of them. There are heat strokes, heat exhaustion, sunburn, and heat cramps to consider –not to mention searing the inside of you lungs because of ground-level ozone. Athletes have to ask themselves if it’s worth the risk to their lungs if they exercise hard in this kind of weather. This will be a more common alert in the future and probably more strident: more...
Rochester’s environment, hydrofracking, and the elephant A critical mass of local interest foreshadows some great debates in the Rochester, NY region on hydrofracking. Check the Rochester Environment.com Calendar for up and coming hydrofracking events. Rochester is not strictly speaking in the Marcellus Gas Shale. But Hemlock Lake is--where we get a lot of our drinking water. And, the Genesee River runs through it. Whatever your position, hydrofracking is a hot topic and getting hotter. In the upcoming months, you’re going to see many events cropping up about hydrofracking, including private showings and discussions of the film “Gasland.”
"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe?” Gasland: A film by Josh Fox Rochester area environmental groups and individuals are concerned about the possible health effects of ‘secret’ hydrofracking fluids. This presents a conundrum because we don’t know what chemicals are being used to blast through near-by shale deposits or in what amounts to determine local health. What would seem to be a reasonable request by a region’s community to find out what these potentially harmful chemicals are is in truth being treated as a suspicious attempt to crack industry’s special formulas and rob them of their livelihood. . more...
Rochester, NY: Why Rochesterians don’t believe in Climate Change Environmentalists, in their efforts to develop strategies that will work, entertain many notions about why most American don’t believe in Climate Change. Some say that it’s about denial: The dire consequences of Climate Change are so overwhelming that many Americans deal with it by not dealing with it. Go on a vacation, switch channels, or go see a new flick. The will not to believe. Others think Climate Change avoidance continues despite all evidence that it’s as true as gravity because of corporate influence peddling. This view is that the new ruling by the Supreme Court, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and the proliferation of corporate money in our politics rules. That’s pretty scary considering that corporations have only one true value—making sure that they make a profit for their shareholders. To get a sense of the gravity and preponderance of this pernicious influence in our alleged democracy check out: Citizens United vs FEC “The movie explores the history of the American corporation and corporate political spending, the appropriate roles of citizens and for-proﬁt corporations in a democracy and the toxic impact the Citizens United decision has already had on our political process. It ends with a call to amend the U.S. Constitution to conﬁrm that people—not corporations—make the decisions in a democracy.” The Story of Citizens United v. FEC: Why Democracy Only Works When People Are in Charge Then there’s a new study by the University of Michigan that suggests one’s political party affiliations are the greatest factor in whether or not you believe in Climate Change more...
How do we preserve and protect an environment in flux? In a way, it was relatively easy to be an environmentalist in the past. It was easy in the sense that you knew what to do: don’t pollute, don’t overdevelop; don’t feed the bears; don’t spread invasive species; certainly don’t eat endangered species; don’t drive a gas guzzler, and for goodness sakes don’t grab the most poisonous product on the shelf to kill a few insects. Do what you can to restore things to the way they were. But a monumental change in the way we understand our environment and the gravity and immediacy of Climate Change must cause traditional environmentalists to rethink about how to address today’s environmental issues. Environmentalists have always thought that protecting our environment was critical, but we couldn’t have known in the precise and specific ways this was true. A hundred years ago, environmentalists like John Muir wouldn’t have known about biodiversity, how manmade chemicals poisoned our bodies, or that that humanity had the capacity to actually warm the planet—though he did suspect that our growing mechanized world that was indifferent to Nature was not good. more...
State of the Union Address and Rochester, NY‘s environment Several prominent environmental writers noted President Obama’s neglect to mention the world-wide crisis of Climate Change in his State of the Union Address more...
Climate Change: Mom’s on the roof! The great issue for the media should be getting the message out to the public that our environment is in serious trouble. That is problematic because Climate Change and pollution don’t’ sell well, and they are out of the public’s comfort zone. However, as John Dewey said, “The media’s job is to interest the public in the public interest.” No matter that the more you learn about Climate Change the more troublesome it gets. Ignoring the inevitable repercussions of Climate Change is an irrational attitude towards a concrete danger. What I am sensing is that many who are trying to communicate about the looming Climate Change disaster are also preparing themselves for the inevitable—little or no action. That is because despite the vast accumulation of data and close observations behind this environmental issue, there is little public interest in addressing it. People just don’t want to hear about it. Few consider our environment and Climate Change when they vote, when they use energy, purchase goods, or think much about it at all. more...
Change Rochester’s environment 10/10/10 Climate Change is going to possibly change our Rochester, NY-area environment in all sorts of ways. I don’t mean possible in the sense that one thinks when buying a lottery ticket. It’s possible you might win a zillion dollars when you buy a lottery ticket for a buck at your local convenience store, but don’t count on it. I mean possible Climate Changes scenarios in our area in the sense that a meteorologist means when she says a Force Four hurricane is coming to town tomorrow and you might want to act on that. Here’s a litany of the possible changes I am writing about: more...
Strange Days Ahead Doesn’t it seem odd to you here in the Rochester, NY region to read about a critical indication of Climate Change in our area only being reported across the ocean at the BBC? “Climate change 'makes birds shrink' in North America” (3/12/2010). Along with a loony media in rapture over their invention called climategate, the public’s disinclination to focus on the most potentially disastrous environmental change of our age, and our irrational denial of the obvious fact that our planet is warming up, we have to search the globe to discover what changes will occur here. In the face of a real threat to our existence, strange days are indeed ahead: more warming, more denial. more...
Connecting the Green Dots The Copenhagen Climate Conference is over and almost everyone, including President Obama himself, admits failure: “I think that people are justified in being disappointed about the outcome in Copenhagen.” (Obama on Health Reform Politics, Copenhagen Climate Outcome, 12/23/09 PBS: Newshour) Consequently, depending on how you connect the dots of this historic event, you will tend to view Copenhagen as positive, negative, or not relevant to your life. ‘Green Dots’, or specific environmental events like say an oil spill or an attempt by 190 nations to come to an agreement on how to tackle climate change, can be connected in many ways in the public’s mind. I mean this in the sense that one has the inalienable right to view these events in any way they wish. Logic or using science as your model for framing arguments may not be your thing. more...
Earth-fixing Gadgets In the back of many modern minds there probably nestles the comforting conviction that science will get us out of our twenty-first century environmental mess. It must be so because despite all signs that world-wide pollution rages on, our climate changes, and our oceans are dying, we go happily along as if there were no tomorrow. Instead of making the hard ethical choices need to get six billion souls focused on our environment, we trust in technology. more...
Climate Change: Are We Off the Hook? It must be heartwarming for climate change skeptics that the recent climate email flare-up in the news (In e-mails, science of warming is hot debate - washingtonpost.com) seems to question the validity of the current Climate Crisis. Nothing dilutes action like doubt. For action, especially wholesale planetary action on curbing global warming gases might have a devastating effect on the status quo of those thriving in our present economy. And that possible scenario must create great apprehension in the hearts of those whose ideology and values seem threatened by an abrupt, massive movement towards a sustainable way of life. more...
Copenhagen Comes to Rochester! Except for our local institutions of higher learning, most Rochesterians seem to think that what’s going to happen (or not happen) in Copenhagen [UN Climate Change Conference, DEC 7-18] is about as important as last year’s bird nest. But, Copenhagen is coming to Rochester. It’s coming to Buffalo, Albany, NYC, Mexico City, Ireland, and Timbuktu. more...
Rochester’s 350.org Coverage Judging from the media response around the world, the 350.org event has been a hit: October 24 Press Release | 350.org “350.org To Stage Largest Day of Environmental Action in History | 5,242 Simultaneous Events on Climate in 181 Countries.” “Citizens, scientists and world leaders in 181 countries will take to nearby streets, mountains, parks, and reefs today to demand strong action on climate change, in what will be the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history. 5,242 rallies and creative demonstrations will take place, all of them centered on the number 350, to draw attention to 350 parts per million (ppm), which an overwhelming number of scientists now insist is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” more...
350 Why It Matters 350 Why It Matters “350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in ‘Parts Per Million’ in our atmosphere. 350 PPM—it's the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.” –from Understanding 350 | 350.org Several events are going on in Rochester this coming Saturday for the 350.org and we hope you will attend one. If enough people demonstrate in a positive way that they acknowledge the problem of Climate Change and are willing to make their voice heard, it might make a difference. It’s all on 350.org. more...
Climate change will hit home—it’s only a matter of how hard. The latest in climate forecasts for our region, NEW YORK is the report "Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment" by Union of Concerned Scientists. It reemphasizes and updates predictions of massive changes for our area due to climate change. There are other reports (“Forecast For New York” by Environmental Advocates of New York) and undoubtedly there will be more, for that is the direction things are going. more...

Transportation

How we get around the Rochester area now and in the future will have a profound affect on our environment

Active Transportation attitudes in Rochester, NY There is a transformation occurring on active transportation (mostly walking and bicycling) attitudes in the Rochester, NY region, but we’re still waiting for the tipping point. The tipping point will occur when both vehicle drivers and active transportation folks actually share the road, and obtain ‘complete streets’: Many in our region want active transportation to happen: I believe, as chair of the Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club’s Transportation Committee, that we here in Rochester can pass the tipping point and have active transportation become a major component of our transportation options. You can get a whiff of that movement from this report: We have an incredible amount of trails that help close the distance between streets and destinations, making it easier and safer to walk and bike to important destinations. We have bicycle groups, enthusiasts, universities, public health departments, and transportation authorities who all want to make our citizens healthier and reduce the negative effects of our present transportation system. A major government report emphasizes the importance of this matter: more...
Rochester's Bicycle Plan, why bother? - There’s still time (until August 31st) to comment on the Rochester Bicycling Master Plan: “While the plan will provide conceptual design and inventory work with respect to on-street bike lanes, it will also consider shared lane markings (sharrows), bicycle boulevards, bicycle parking, commuter facilities (e.g. showers, lockers), bicycle sharing, and more. ” But why bother, especially if you don’t have a bike, wouldn’t bike on our streets even if you did, and wish those who do bicycle would lend an air of predictability to their bicycling behavior? Before I bury my lead, let me say you should comment because bicycling as an alternative transportation is the transportation mode most likely to be acted upon by those who decide on such things in our region. I could quote a lot of boring statistics about how bicycling is healthier for you and better for our environment than driving your greenhouse-gas-emitting vehicle. But this you can probably figure out without a lot of supporting data. Data and reason are not the problems with changing our transportation behavior, motivation is. more...
Rochester bicycle boulevard ride a success Bicycle Boulevard demonstration ride in Rochester, NY Upper Monroe neighborhood Frank J. Regan On Sunday, May 23 at 1 PM in Cobbs Hill Park, over forty bicyclists began a bicycle boulevard demonstration ride through the Upper Monroe neighborhood in Rochester, New York. They were not racers, or members of a single bicycling club, or recruits for a charity ride. They were just ordinary folks finding out what a bicycle boulevard would look and feel like in our area. (May 29. 2010) Rochester Latest Breaking News by Trusted Local Experts
Bicycle Friendly Rochester - There are those who believe that Transportation in Rochester could be a bicycle friendly community as Copenhagen. That would be something to behold. Check out: Streetfilms | Copenhagen’s Climate-Friendly, Bike-Friendly Streets "Tens of thousands of people from nearly every nation on earth have descended on Copenhagen this month for the UN climate summit. As the delegates try to piece together a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they're also absorbing lessons from one of the world's leading cities in sustainable transportation. In Copenhagen, fully 37 percent of commute trips are made by bike, and mode share among city residents alone is even higher. "
Walk? Walking for bipeds was “the cat’s pajamas” for four millions years. That is, putting humanity’s one hairy foot before another got us around just fine. Then, within a relatively short period of time, our species took to climbing on other animals’ backs, floating stuff on water, then the wheel, which brought on carts, trains, and then we took to the skies. But mostly, since the horseless carriage, autos get us around. In fact, the car culture so dictates transportation in the United States that few of us, even when the distance is short, walk. more...
Complete Streets An integral part of any communities Transportation efforts must be the concept of Complete Streets so that the best and most efficient use of our streets can be made for pedestrians, bicyclers, and anyone who wants to get around. Complete Streets The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams. more...
How Walkable is Rochester, NY? Walking is a great way to get around and it's Transportation. Take your own survey and find out how Walkable Rochester is: Walkability Checklist --from Partnership for a Walkable America The Partnership for a Walkable America (PWA) is a national coalition working to improve the conditions for walking in America and to increase the number of Americans who walk regularly. The members are national governmental agencies and non-profit organizations concerned about three main areas: Health, Safety and the Environment. more...
Getting Up to Snuff on High Speed Rail: National Public Radio has offered a great series on High Speed Raid across the country. Because this mode of transportation may be coming to our area, because of the Obama’s desire to help communities with jobs and help our environment, this series of programs is especially useful. It’s not all happy talk. Getting High Speed Raid is complicated and involves many aspects, but other communities have done it. Learn from them. Check it out: On The Fast Track? The Obama administration is pushing the development of high-speed-rail lines, claiming that ultrafast trains would ease traffic, help the environment and boost the economy. Critics question those claims — and say the United States has a long way to go to catch up with other countries' rail travel. NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR more...
Help biking in Rochester, help our area's environment Increasing bicycling for the Rochester, NY area will reduce air pollution, positively affect your health, decrease traffic on our streets and give you a chance to smell our roses and see our sites. Check out this site and help out getting more bike to more people. R Community Bikes: Rochester, New York "R Community Bikes is a grassroots, 501(c)3 organization that collects and repairs used bicycles for distribution, free of charge, to Rochester, NY's most needy children and adults. Our mission is meeting the basic transportation needs of those in the community who depend on bikes for recreation as well as for transport to work, school, rehabilitation programs, and training sessions. more...
Get There By Bike - Get the Map. Bike to work, to that festival, that trail, or just about anywhere you want to go in Rochester by using the map: Genesee Transportation Council - TIP Greater Rochester Area Bicycling Map Now Available | The Greater Rochester Area Bicycling Map, prepared by the Genesee Transportation Council utilizing road ratings provided by volunteer members of the Rochester Bicycling Club, is now available. The ratings represent the opinions of experienced bicyclists on the rideability of major roads based on existing road conditions and features such as pavement width and quality, traffic volumes, presence and type of shoulders, and posted speed limits. more...
New Transportation idea in Rochester This could change Rochester's concept of Transportation, check it out: Rochester Greenway The Rochester Greenway "A revolutionary all-weather alternative energy transitway for bikes, e-vehicles, joggers, and skaters connecting RIT, U of R, and MCC, downtown Rochester. Three Opportunities, One Big Idea." more...
Limited Transportation Choices Few things strike more dread in the American heart than being told that our choices are going to be limited. We are an “in the Pursuit of Happiness” kind of people. The day after President Obama was elected many gun owners feared that their right to bear arms was going to be compromised and acted accordingly. "Everybody was scared he was going to take the ammo away or he was going to tax it out of sight on the prices," Dury says. "So people started stocking up, buying half a lifetime to a lifetime supply of ammo all at one time." Apr-07-2009, “All Things Considered” more...
Getting Around Tomorrow A recent poll in Rochester on high-speed rail (3/20/09 Rochester Business Journal ) showed Rochesterians favoring this flashy mode of travel. Proponents say it will create jobs, reduced air pollution, and get us around more quickly. There are other ideas floating around town as federal dollars float in, including funds to develop hydrogen fuel. Realistically, most if not all that fed money will be used for fixing and updating our highway infrastructure. Road construction and bridge repair are shovel-ready; already in regional budgets, and they are going to create immediate jobs. For the time being, traveling around Rochester will not leap suddenly into the breath-taking fictional world of the Jetsons. more...
It Ain’t Over ‘Till It’s Over: Rochester and Monroe County receive a coveted “Honorable Mention” Bicycle Friendly Award and it shows our community cares about people getting around our city safely on non-polluting transportation. Hopefully, winning this award, which brings together the efforts of the City of Rochester, the County of Monroe, the NYS Department of Transportation, The Genesee Transportation Council, and the Rochester Bicycling Club and others to improve our streets for an environmentally safe mode of transportation. more...

Energy

How we get and use energy has a profound effect on our environment

Energy options and the big lie Do we really have no “workable alternatives” to coal, oil, and nuclear power for our energy needs”? While the tragedy of nuclear power rages on in Japan, the media and our politicians are avoiding the recent catastrophes from each of the major power sources. Three of the world’s chief sources of large-scale energy production — coal, oil and nuclear power — have all experienced eye-popping accidents in just the past year. The Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion in West Virginia, the Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the unfolding nuclear crisis in Japan have dramatized the dangers of conventional power generation at a time when the world has no workable alternatives able to operate at sufficient scale. (March 13, 2011) “U.S. Nuclear Industry Faces New Uncertainty” New York Times This dependency on coal, oil, and nuclear power, though widely held as gospel, it is merely an assumption—not a fact. There are other major workable alternatives to coal and oil: renewable energy from wind, solar, and wave power with battery backup and conservation thrown into the mix. more...
Caving in: Is the minority ruling against renewable energy for Rochester, NY? Why, when 68% of Monroe County voters approve of off-shore wind power in Lake Ontario, does the Monroe County legislature oppose it? Majority of Monroe County legislators oppose state's wind farm plan "The New York Power Authority continues to consider proposals to build offshore wind turbines, but a majority of Monroe County legislators have now gone on record opposing the idea. The Power Authority, an independent arm of state government, solicited proposals in 2009 from the private sector to build one or more wind farms in the near-shore waters of Lake Ontario or Lake Erie. Five proposals were submitted last June, and authority officials have been studying them since then. Officials have refused to reveal any information about the proposals.” (January 19, 2011) Democrat and Chronicle Is it politics? Is it the media’s inability to frame this renewable option to the public coherently? Has the fossil fuel industry effectively prodded the government to not act in its own (and their constituents’) best interest? Are our Monroe County Legislature and the media caving into a small number of shoreline communities who happened to have an unfair (location, location, location) advantage on this matter? more...
Energy Warning This news item each year always amazes me: a four-minute siren test in case of a nuclear plant accident. It amazes me because one doesn’t hear a peep from the public on what this siren means. (It means that a very dangerous energy source that requires iodine pills for radiation leaks so your thyroid gland doesn’t get cooked, and the haunting spectacle of an accident and fallout that could last years, decades, or maybe more could occur.) more...
Your decision to go nuclear The best way to stop terrorists from infiltrating our nuclear plants is not to have nuclear power plants in the first place. Although it is commendable that NY Senator Schumer is taking action to make sure our nuclear plants stay safe from those people intent on harming us, the public should take a closer look at the tiger whose tail they have latched onto as a major energy source. SCHUMER: NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION TO MAKE CRITICAL SECURITY IMPROVEMENS AT NUCLEAR PLANTS NATION-WIDE; IMPROVEMENS COME AFTER AUDIT COMPLETED AT SCHUMER'S REQUEST [sic] This is an issue for the Rochester, NY region: “Nuclear power plants across the nation, including Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in Wayne County, need to improve security procedures to prevent possible terrorist infiltration, according to an audit by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The audit was requested in March after it was discovered that suspected al-Qaeda member Sharif Mobley had worked in New Jersey nuclear power plants for six years before he was arrested in Yemen in early March with other suspected al-Qaeda members.” (October 5, 2010) Ginna, other nuclear power plants need to improve security | Democrat and Chronicle | more..
Wind or natural gas for Rochester’s energy, there’s a difference In the Rochester, NY region today, we have two major energy choices before us. Do we allow off-shore wind projects to go forward? Do we allow drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Gas Shale? Granted, these choices are not mutually exclusive; we can deny both, accept both, or accept one and not the other. However, how we make these choices will greatly affect our future. more...
Rochester’s hands across the sand A recent demonstration at Charlotte Beach against the BP Oil Spill was well covered by the local media, as far they went that is. (July 3, 2010) Rochester News, Restaurants, more by Top Local Experts
Rochester’s energy solutions, connecting the dots At the risk of pushing everyone’s buttons, you’d think the disastrous BP oil spill, the din over drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Gas Shale, a couple of recent nuclear power issues, and the energy bill stalled in Congress, would galvanize the local press and the public to seriously consider wind power for some of our energy needs. (Check here for the above stories: Rochester Environmental News ). But the New York State Power Authority’s Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project (GLOW) isn’t getting much attention. more...
Should you let your pickup drink biofuels? Rochester Environmental News Examiner My Bio · Articles To keep your pickup healthy and running smoothly, it requires some sort of fluid that burns. I’m not a mechanic, but I’m guessing that the brewski you love won’t work so well in your vehicle. Gasoline works... Keep Reading » (June 5, 2010) Rochester News, Restaurants, more by Top Local Experts [more on Energy in our aera]
Forced Energy Choices Are natural gas and nuclear power going to be our energy future? They probably will be, but not because they are our best energy solutions. Despite all the controversy about how we should power our existence as our population grows and our planet warms up, at the end of the day we’ll be scared into bad energy solutions. Our best energy solutions are conservation and renewable energy sources like wind and solar. They could compete for our baseload energy needs if our government subsidized, stimulated, and greased the political wheels for battery storage research like our government does for nuclear, oil, and gas production. If we approached our future energy needs according to the most prudent solutions for our precarious future—climate change, pollution, and health concerns—we could have a bright future for everyone. more...
If Your Grid Is Dirty If you are getting your power from a dirty electric grid, you are using dirty power. In other words, if your electric lamp is plugged into a system that is powered somewhere along your power line with a power generator that pollutes or emits greenhouse gases into our atmosphere (or otherwise harms our environment), your lamp is using dirty power. (Presently, we New Yorkers get 18% of our power from coal; 17% from hydroelectric, 1% wind, 1% biomass, 1% solar, 1% solid waste, 12% oil, 29% nuclear, and 22% natural gas.) more...
Gassing the News A good example of how dysfunctional our present media is on our environment, specifically on natural gas drilling, can be made by a point-by-point comparison of National Public Radio’s (NPR) three-part series on natural gas and recent coverage by ProPublica on the same subject: more...
Energy A Moral Iissue: As we turn on our lights, run our air conditioners, and charge our gadgets we do so mostly by burning coal. Coal pollutes and adds dramatically to manmade global warming. So, when we decide not to conserve electricity or not to allow a renewable energy source near our home, we condemn many to the hazards of mountain top removal. That wind turbine won’t be in our backyard, but that blasted mountain top which tailing will pollute that wants and disfigure the lands will be in somebody else’s backyard. Morally, though, we all live in the coal fields because we use the power of coal and won’t allow a better power source to run our lives. more...
Sacrificing Beauty In their efforts to preserve the aesthetics of their community under the looming threat of renewable energy, the folks over at Cleveland’s city council may be ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater.’ In their haste to get in front of the potential problems a new energy infrastructure might entail, they maybe be crippling our ability to keep our way of life. OK, that’s a bit strong, but let me go on. Ostensibly, Cleveland city council wants to make sure that their new wind farms don’t become a ‘visual nuisance’ or ‘unsafe.’ They think, and I quote the reporter: “…civic beauty should not be sacrificed on the altar of sustainability.” (April 15, 2009) Cleveland proposes ordinance to regulate aesthetics and safety of wind turbines - Arts - Cleveland.com In truth, they may be merely trying to stop a form of energy they just don’t like. more...

Environmental Health

These essays attempt to show how our health is related to our environmental health.

Is Our Local Environment Collapsing? One of the great environmental concepts of our time is the realization that environmental collapse can occur so slowly that you would hardly notice it. Unless, of course, you are looking for it. We should appreciate that in this fast-paced world, where mankind has mostly developed it to his liking, because we are more likely to forget (or not even notice) important milestones along the way to environmental degradation. If we allow only our picture of today’s environment to define our definition of a healthy environment, we could be missing important clues about the true direction our environmental is sliding. Saturday, I attended a talk by Dr. Jared Diamond at Monroe Community College about environmental collapse. Mostly, Diamond talked about the collapse of the Easter Island society after it endured for 800 years. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Long ago Easter Island had a thriving human culture and a vast forest. Then, the last tree was chopped down in 1880. Then, the culture collapsed to a population of one hundred people. Now, the Easter Island plight is a metaphor for the delicate fragility of Earth itself and how we might be destroying it piecemeal like the Easter Islanders. more...
Green Warning Signs Recently, we’ve noticed several signs that our environment is undergoing dramatic changes. Some of the most salient signs are the mercury-ridden fish in all of our streams, the collapse of the Copenhagen Climate talks, the release of methane gases from the Arctic Ocean, and a great resistance to greener transportation and energy. In that vein, the auto show I attended recently revealed little interest or efforts in adapting our vehicles to the reality that the automobile and its infrastructure greatly affect the health of our environment. I thought after all that talk about electric cars and fuel efficiency I’d see a new day at the shows. But there were the same old sexy cars and trucks—except now they cost more, still had lousy gas efficiency ratings, and have far more driver-distracting gadgets than ever before. more...
Reverting to a State of Green During these Extraordinary Times, where climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and our oceans are making human sustainability questionable, we must ask, how do we determine what constitutes Sustainability? But first, what is Sustainability and why is it so important? “For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources…” (Wikipedia). In other words, we have to get Sustainability right, or the system that keeps us alive breaks down. You have to be alive to have ‘wellbeing.’ We tend to assume that all those actively involved in monitoring our environment—official entities whose purpose is to monitor and maintain our environment, scientists, environmentalists, and the media—have at the very least a good idea of what a healthy environment looks like. Yet, I’m not so convinced that they do. more...
The State of Rochester’s Environment 2009 Summing up the year in a variety of ways (best films, biggest stories, funniest incidents, most tragic, etc.) has become such a tradition in the media at the end of the year that we expect it. It’s fashionable. (Not that this sort of thing is necessary, for has anyone actually forgotten the rotten economy and all the awful wars?) So as long as we are counting our chickens this New Year anyways, why not have a wrap-up about something useful, like the state of our environment? This kind of rundown does matter. We won’t have any more ‘best films’ or ‘most awkward moments’ for the year if our environment crashes. more...
Pandemic Flu, Getting Ready We want to applaud Monroe County's getting out in front on the possible pandemic issue in our area. It may turn out to be a mild flu season this years, but it would be irresponsible not to be prepared otherwise. Think seriously of using a hand sanitizer before you hand get near your face and check out all warnings, cautions, and information from this site: Public Health | Monroe County, NY Pandemic Flu | "Bird Flu. Pandemic Flu. These terms - confusing as they can be - are seemingly in the news daily. more...
Healthy Debate Missing amidst the uproar on health care reform at the town meetings and the bug-eyed hysteria encouraged by our media is the link between our health care system and public health. Death panels, pulling the plug on our loved ones, socialism, deficits (mostly ignored during the war of choice), and even some cogent arguments that don’t embarrass us in the eyes of the world have been rung through the wringer that is called our media. It’s all as clear as mud, but politically the issues over health care reform are clear: defeating the present party on this ‘hot’ button issue offers new life to a party in search of a victory—any victory. more...
Global Health Don't forget you personally have a stake in the Climate Change Bill coming up: Climate Fight: EPA Sends Global Warming Finding to White House | Congress might be a long way from passing legislation to fight climate change, but the Obama administration appears one step closer to creating its own regime for controlling greenhouse gases. more...
Where's that pollution? A report (37 pages) that should be on your reading list this week is the new report by the International Joint Commission because it's about "programs to abate, control and prevent pollution from municipal sources entering the Great Lakes System.” The report’s object: The objective was to survey existing programs aimed at controlling surface-water pollution and to provide an overview of the current situation." more...
The Loss of Rochester’s Biodiversity The United Nations has declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a wake-up call because we know that biodiversity around the world is crashing, which is why our age is sometime referred to as either the Holocene Extinction or the Sixth Great Extinction. However, unlike the other five mass extinction events (caused by asteroids, volcanoes, or global warming), this one is human caused. more...

Great Lakes

The Rochester Region is located at the Southern rim of Lake Ontario making the entire environment of our area dependant on the health of the Great Lakes.

Where's that pollution? A report (37 pages) that should be on your reading list this week is the new report by the International Joint Commission because it's about "programs to abate, control and prevent pollution from municipal sources entering the Great Lakes System.” The report’s object: The objective was to survey existing programs aimed at controlling surface-water pollution and to provide an overview of the current situation." And, he current situation is not pretty. Not only is one of the largest fresh water systems in the world, which is in and is our backyard, being compromised, the municipal sewage overflow, which is integral to our environmental health (a point that doesn’t usually get high prominence in mainstream media because they don’t know how to quantify it) is also affecting the fishing and tourist industries—which do get a high profile in our mainstream media. Anyway, if you don’t have time to read this report, you should see that your congress person does. International Joint Commission - News room IJC Releases 14th Biennial Report WINDSOR, Ontario - The International Joint Commission today released its Fourteenth Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality. Under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (Article VII), the International Joint Commission reports to the federal, state and provincial governments biennially concerning its findings on their progress toward achieving the Agreement’s general and specific objectives. The Commission’s report, which is released to the public, is also to assess the effectiveness of programs and other measures undertaken pursuant to the Agreement
Green Isolationism Isolationists, most notably George Washington in his farewell address “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible,” believe that one’s territory can be contained, one’s sovereignty sustained by removing oneself from the rest. And while it was probably wise council for a young nation to stay out of ‘political connections’ as we built our new nation, isolationism of any kind really is not possible in today’s world. Isolation is only an illusion, especially in our environment. Connections are the rule. A sand storm in Africa gives Central American’s asthma. more...
Bad Beaches Beach conditions are not simply a natural phenomenon that is something we are born to suffer and beyond our control. In most cases, it’s probably manmade pollution—from bad agricultural practices, storm water runoffs, industrial pollution, etc. Our beaches get worse and like the boiling frog metaphor we accustom ourselves to worsening beaches over the years until public bathing with be a thing of the past. That isn’t simply sad, that’s us shooting ourselves in the foot by allowing ourselves to do this to our environment. - Get the Beach Report: NRDC: Testing the Waters 2009 "A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches | more...
How are Great Lakes Fish Doing? Important Canadian report about eating fish in the Great Lakes--things are not improving: Up to the Gills: 2009 Update on Pollution in Great Lakes Fish "This report examines fish consumption advisories in the Great Lakes between 2005 and 2009. Up to the Gills finds that levels of toxic chemicals in Great Lakes fish are alarmingly high, and are not improving. The major chemical contaminants that cause consumption advisories for Great Lakes fish include mercury, PCBs, pesticides, dioxins and furans. Health effects of these chemicals include damage more...
Watching Fish A recent reading of local environmental news finds several interesting studies about the present state of our fish life. Things appear to be going well or not so well. For example, our Great Lakes fish populations are either doing swimmingly as noted in the New York Statewide Angler Survey 2007 - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (although, given the frequent fish eating advisories, maybe that’s not entirely true) or not so swimmingly: “No sign of threat: Don't expect gov't to issue warning of dangerous fishing,” June 26, 09 NY Daily News). Another report about our regional fish population indicates that fish are not doing so well: Up to the Gills: 2009 Update on Pollution in Great Lakes Fish which states “that levels of toxic chemicals in Great Lakes fish are alarmingly high, and are not improving.” And, as if eating fish were not enough of a worry, even playing on beach sand (Study: Digging in sand can increase health problems -- Newsday.com ) may be problematical. Not to mention, “The State of the Lakes: Still a Bummer” - Healthy Lakes - Healthy Lives “A new report by the US and Canadian Environmental Agencies finds that the Great Lakes ecosystem continues on a rapid decline due to toxic pollution and invasive species and poor sewage management.” Learn more at State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference | Great Lakes | US EPA more...
Global Warming and Great Lakes Among other environmental markers in our area, the Great Lakes will be affected by Climate Change in our area. Learning about the effects, instead of trying to ignore them (for this is science, not a radical belief system) will help us understand how we might curb the effects and learn to live with the potential changes: more...
Great lakes Pollution Health Link Study CDC As a follow up on the alleged “blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states” –from Great Lakes Danger Zones? The Center For Public Integrity Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest there’s a updated report out of Detroit: Great Lakes pollution, health link denied “No definitive link can be made between industrial pollution in the Great Lakes region and human health concerns, according to a revised version of a controversial federal study released Wednesday.” more...
Great Lakes pollution, health link denied "Revised federal study contradicts draft report that found high rates of problems. Jim Lynch / The Detroit News No definitive link can be made between industrial pollution in the Great Lakes region and human health concerns, according to a revised version of a controversial federal study released Wednesday. The new version contradicts an early draft that was released in mid-March by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed areas around 13 former hazardous waste sites in Michigan had higher incidence rates for health problems, including infant mortality, low birth weight, premature birth, heart disease and several forms of cancer." FJR: So, Has this story gone away? Environmental Cover-up? This story highlights the importance of our environment, the role the Internet now plays in environmental media, and why we need critical information to assess the state of our environment. If it takes a whistle blower, another country, and a citizen public watch group for us to find out what damage our way of life is having on our support system, then we need to take charge of the information we need to have a sustainable society. We don’t need cover-ups, special interests, suppression of critical health information. We need to know, free and without cost, all that pertains to our getting enough information to make wise decisions about our environment. more...

Green Business

Our Rochester area business are getting greener and why it matters

Green Jobs right out of the box Green jobs are the new hot jobs. Opportunities for employment are opening up as a paradigm shift in the job market develops. You can get a sense of the dramatic shift in thinking about green jobs by reading how businesses are getting it: Amazon.com: Good to Green: Managing Business Risks and… Where recently only environmental engineer (janitor) opportunities populated the job boards, now you see: building retrofitting, renewable energy generation, alternative transportation , energy efficiency, green construction, energy trading, energy and carbon capture and storage, environment protection, agriculture and forestry, green manufacturing, recycling and waste reduction, and governmental and regulatory administration. more...
Green Business As Usual Depending on your point of view, the Recession is either chugging along nicely (though cruelly) or it’s showing signs of a cascading collapse. Meaning, the banks we bailed out last year are thriving and many businesses are holding on, but job loss is dreadful. “The pace of layoffs has slowed sharply in recent months, but businesses still cut 85,000 net jobs in December, the Labor Department said.” (U.S. job loss report is blow to still-fragile recovery 1/09/10- washingtonpost.com) All these job losses make you wonder how we are going to recover our economy. Who is going to buy all that stuff from businesses if most of us are broke, can’t get loans, and are losing our houses? We could ask the rich (who horde a wildly disproportional share of the wealth in our country) to go out and spend more money. But, how many sneakers can even a rich person wear? more...
Our Environment and Our Jobs: What we don't know and what we want to know. What we know is that our environment and our economy (most critical our local economy) are in trouble. We know that the previous presidential administration was dismissive of our environmental problems and didn’t quite believe in anthropogenic climate change. We know that the present Obama administration ‘get’s it’ on our environment and intends to both right our environment and our economy.
Find that Green Job in Rochester, NY. First, Full Disclosure: I have a personal stake in finding a green job. I'm looking for a worthwhile part-time green job and I am willing to share anything I can find out about this until I get and green job and well after I find one. I want everyone who is out of a job to find a green job. Help yourself, help a friend, help our environment. So, find a Green Job in Rochester, NY area: Green Business Jobs Rochester, NY environmental jobs Rochester RochesterEnvironment.com - Green Jobs - This is merely a laundry list of possible job search sites that might lead you to a green job. I have not vetted these sites, except to check them for a green job (and I haven’t found one) so I cannot say if one is better than another. more...
Green Jobs for the common folks? Lots of the federal stimulus money coming to our state. How much is going to green jobs to make our environment more sustainable? The figures are coming in and it’s clear, our government is inordinately fond of highways. more...
The Recovery | Green Jobs This just in from NYS. Good service to subscribe to if your interested in the road ahead for the formulation of green jobs. more...
Green Jobs – We’re Hearing Things... You can discuss all day long about what a ‘green job’ is and some have (Green Jobs - A GLOBE-Net Perspective), but mostly it’s an occupation that employs while making our way of life sustainable. Let’s not get too ivory tower about this notion as people are desperately looking for job now and, as a concept in progress, it matters little if today’s blue collar job, with a little retro-fitting, becomes tomorrow’s green job. Bigger changes to the job market are coming. more...
Green Jobs: Position Yourself! Much of the news and information about green jobs (still) seems like hype: Lots of cheerleading, but few actual green ‘shovel-ready’ work opportunities. As one who has been following this thread myself for some time, it does seem like a highly inflated exuberance over an employment market that has yet to be. But, I believe ‘seems’ is the operative word here. more...
Get Green Training for that Green Job Increasingly, there are more online resources for job training, teacher training for their students, and a variety of services for all sectors of the new job market. It gets complicated because there is no simple answer to the question: “Where are the green jobs in our area and how to I get them.” more...
Green Grants Ok, there’s probably no grants specifically labeled ‘green.’ And admittedly, there’s not anything particularly new or fresh about the field of grant writing worth noting: It still involves long hours of research, tedious and meticulous fact checking, and (at least from the grant writer’s side) it’s a crap shoot. more...
Could we be the new Green Leaders? Could our region be leading the way to clean up Brownfields and creating sites for renewable Energy? Green Shoots from Brown Fields: Scientific American Uncle Sam looks to eliminate the biggest hurdle to expanding renewable energy--the need for suitable sites to place commercial-scale wind and solar farms--by reusing hundreds of old mines, landfills and industrial sites When the Bethlehem Steel mill in Lackawanna, N.Y., finally shut its doors for good eight years ago, it took away thousands of jobs and left behind a polluted and unsightly mess. Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American more...

Wildlife

Essays on why we must pay attention to our wildlife and how it still relates to our local environment

Bat News: One of the many reasons why I believe our present mainstream media are mostly dysfunctional concerns this story about a major decline in bats in our area. Seems to the press that bats aren’t too popular and won’t bring in the big bucks the media wants. So, connecting the dots about the major role bats play in our local environment (controlling insects, providing food for the predators we do like, etc.) and getting in the public’s face about this issue is not there. We should care about this issue because it is a rapid change in our environment that may have grave consequences. It has nothing to do about what the press might think the public cares about bats. more..
Sharing A Vision What we gain vicariously from the keen vision of an eagle or the ultrasonic sight of a bat is but a glimpse of our world through the superior senses of other animals. Our surroundings become something more when we take the time and have the imagination to see our environment through their eyes. From mimicking the ultraviolet landscape that a honeybee sees, we know that a field of flowers presents a much larger and more dynamic color spectrum than the one we see. Creatures like our pet dogs can smell a world that reveals the past in dropped spores and a present more aromatically vibrant and enlightening than the one we can detect. Even the air around us becomes more extraordinary when we look at it from the miniatures’ viewpoint. For a fly, our atmosphere it is more viscous than the one we know. It is like an ocean of water where the mosquitoes and bees above us swim more than fly. Speaking of the ocean, a whale more massive than any dinosaur that ever lived is an agile acrobat and sender of distant messages we cannot hear. more...
The Coyote in Situ: Coyotes are surviving well within and outside our suburbs here in New York State. They are like those other creatures that have 'learned' to exist amongst us intolerant humans and sustain themselves: the raccoon, crow, pigeon, sparrows and (of course) insects. But, none of those creatures are as misaligned as the coyote (except, perhaps, the crows in Auburn, New York) so as so to spark a return to the killing contests of old. more...
Are Coyotes Too Close - Or Are We? This article “Coyotes Too Close” 3/09/07 by WHEC-TV—Rochester, NY is representative of a badly constructed article by the major media in our area about environmental issues in the Rochester area. Foremost, it assumes that coyotes are bad, which only continues the irrational discussion (and thus policy) on the role of the coyote in our area. No other North American animal has more misinformation perpetuated about it than the Eastern Coyote. Just the sight of a coyote gives most people an adrenalin rush that makes them think they have to 'do something' about the presence of this animal. more...

Invasive Species Discussions

Join in discussions about what can and should be done about invasive species in our area.

The Asian Carp is coming! That’s the big environmental story around the Great Lakes region this week. Even the local press has caught the news appeal of a bizarre foreign species that might radically change the Great Lakes’ ecology. Because of its size and reproductive capacity, it may scarf up all those little plants and animals that live at the bottom of the five Great Lakes, which, the present ecology depends on. More intriguing to the media are those riveting photos of speeding boaters smacking into these large creatures, which freak every time they hear motorboat noise and leap into the air. I say ‘might’ because no one can prove that if the Asian Carp makes it way up the Mississippi and into the Great Lakes, they will proliferate and eat everything in site. Though, given their past rap sheet, it’s a good bet they will. more...
Green Isolationism Isolationists, most notably George Washington in his farewell address “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible,” believe that one’s territory can be contained, one’s sovereignty sustained by removing oneself from the rest. And while it was probably wise council for a young nation to stay out of ‘political connections’ as we built our new nation, isolationism of any kind really is not possible in today’s world. Isolation is only an illusion, especially in our environment. Connections are the rule. A sand storm in Africa gives Central American’s asthma. more...
Solving Invasive Problems This story about VHS describes perfectly how difficult it is going to be to curb the problem of invasive species and disease in the Great Lakes because ultimately without public support all the regulations and laws in the world won’t stop this kind of disease spread. more...
Hope for a Messy World One would think that the days of a monolithic weltanschauung are over, where singular views of religion, culture, ideas, even prejudices, once ruled. Now, it’s not only unfashionable, but positively Neanderthal to be continually captivated by a single view of life. Makes you look stodgy. Yet, I tenaciously hold (despite many discussions to the contrary) that Nature rules. Moreover, it will do so even in Rochester. This seems to be an unpopular single-mindedness because in this Recession the “World is Flat” view means keep changing or you’ll get run over by new ideas, new economic models, and especially the Internet. The prevailing thinking seems to be: in this modern world, you had better streamline your operation. Better just paint yourself green and not go the whole hog. And, quite frankly, harping on environmental issues bores and annoys a lot of people—though given the wholesale consequences of environmental collapse (Think Easter Island in that chapter in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared M. Diamond) not obsessing on our environment at this moment in history seems foolhardy. more...

Air Quality

The Rochester, NY region oftentimes scores lowly in the various air quality assessments. Much can be done to improve the quality of our air.

Rochester’s failing air quality Ho Hum. The Rochester, NY area and Monroe County get another failing grade for ozone pollution, an ‘F’, from the American Lung Association’s “The State of the Air 2010 “. Here’s the skinny: “The State of the Air 2010 shows that the air quality in many places has improved, but that over 175 million people—roughly 58 percent—still suffer pollution levels that are too often dangerous to breathe. Unhealthy air remains a threat to the lives and health of millions of people in the United States, despite great progress. Even as the nation explores the complex challenges of global warming and energy, air pollution lingers as a widespread and dangerous reality.” It’s a yawner for most folks as it goes on year after year and no one is getting worked up about it. No marching in the streets. It barely gets local news coverage. Environmental news of this sort is like riding in a jet and feeling a sudden drop in altitude. You look around and no one else seems to be paying any attention, so it must be OK. Relax, take a deep breath. more...
How are Those New Environmental Laws Doing? If you have been following the Climate Change debates in Congress, you know well enough how hard it is to get any kind of environmental law passed. Besides dealing with economic hardships and compliance hurdles that have to be figured out when considering any new law, there are still large swaths of public officials who don’t even believe we have environmental problems, or looming catastrophes like Climate Change. “Global Warming is just a hoax” is continually piped by the uninformed ideologues, despite all evidence to the contrary. So, it’s no wonder that those who care about our environment and read the depressing litany of environmental disasters (oil spills, melting glaciers, water shortages) get excited when a few environmental laws do get passed. Hey, they may be a drop in the bucket for a planet headed towards environmental collapse, but at least there is forward movement. more...
Did Spitzer Let us Down on Acid Rain Too? Years ago RochesterEnvironment.com had a page especially devoted to Acid Rain, as it does now with other Rochester-area Environmental Issues. Slowly, however, the Acid Rain issue faded away from our local news and disappeared altogether. I took down the page irrationally thinking that if our media thought this environmental problem was over, it must be over. What was I thinking? Just when it looked liked we could solve a great big environmental problem, this story reared its ugly head from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week: more...
Sequestration, a Slam Dunk? Though building a new clean-coal power plant at the Huntley Station in the Town of Tonawanda (about an hour away by car) isn’t within the political purview of Monroe County, it is within our environmental sphere of influence. “Building a new clean-coal power plant at the site of the Huntley Station in the Town of Tonawanda would pump an estimated $133 million a year into the Erie County economy during its construction and a projected $94 million a year once the facility is running, a study to be released today found. (Nov 30, 07)” The Buffalo News: Business: Report lauds planned coal plant Meaning, that if does not go well with the large-scale use of Sequestration (a silver bullet solution hailed as the savior of coal power) we will probably reap some of the consequences here in Rochester, just as we do from the power plants out West. I believe that all that we do personally to curb Global Warming will be negated if we, or anyone within our planetary influence, burns large amounts of coal for energy. more...
Green Isolationism Isolationists, most notably George Washington in his farewell address “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible,” believe that one’s territory can be contained, one’s sovereignty sustained by removing oneself from the rest. And while it was probably wise council for a young nation to stay out of ‘political connections’ as we built our new nation, isolationism of any kind really is not possible in today’s world. Isolation is only an illusion, especially in our environment. Connections are the rule. A sand storm in Africa gives Central American’s asthma. more...

Recycling

These essays attempt to get at the concept of "Zero Waste" and why we shouldn't be creating any waste to have a healthy environment.

Until trash magically disappears in Rochester, NY Let’s face it: A lot of folks won’t recycle unless it’s almost effortless. Sure, there are the dedicated folks who read all the instructions by the county and their communities and make sure all the right stuff gets to the right places. But you only have to look at the size of our landfills and the trash along our streets to see that far too many still march their old TV’s, computers, and you-name-it to the curb whenever the idea occurs to them. We are a long way from Zero Waste—which is the Holly Grail of sustainability. Zero waste is a philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. Any trash sent to landfills is minimal. Landfills, for all their salient convenience (throw all your stuff in a great big hole and forget about it), are not good for our environment. Meaning, landfills do not a sustainable environment make. What little methane gas we burn for energy from rotting biomass (about 20% if we are lucky and the rest goes into our atmosphere as a very potent greenhouse gas) is nothing compared to the mountains of stuff that cannot be reused as resources, but must be dug anew from our land. A landfill is simply a black hole for those who think that stuff disappears when we are done with it. Trust me, it doesn’t. In fact what we need is not a delusional disappearing act, we need a waste stream that is green all the way down—meaning some kind of universal waste stewardship standard to make sure waste gets treated properly and never contaminates. more...
Extended plastics recycling in Monroe County, now we want more Now that Monroe County has extended plastics recycling to include #3 -#7 plastics, we want more. It’s like that old joke about the kid whose uncle gives him an apple. The kid’s mother says, “Johnny, what do you say to your uncle? The kids says, “Peel it please.” It’s never enough. more...
Now recycling 3-7 plastics in Monroe County It’s official: As of June 1st Monroe County will recycle 3-7 plastics. It’s been a long time coming, but many who have worked hard to influence Monroe County’s recycling policy to include 3-7 plastics are very pleased with the announcement by Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks: more... (May 7, 2011)
When not to recycle - Rochester Environmental News | Examiner.com It might seem odd to suggest there are times when you should not recycle, but indeed there are times. Recycling those old electronic dinosaurs piling up in your attic or furniture way out of style should not be done hastily. Recycling is a dish best served serene: when you are ready to do it properly. Many folks pile years of old stuff into the attic thinking that one day they’ll get around to recycling it all. Out of sight, out of mind. But what usually happens is that instead of finding a time to recycle properly, crunch time comes and the stuff goes to the curb and eventually into the landfill. Like making funeral arrangements, grieving for the sudden loss of a loved one is not the best time to shop for caskets. You’re vulnerable to suggestions you might not be in a less stressful time in your life. more... (October 19, 2010) Frank J. Regan
Picking up for Rochester’s environment Your neighbors were out on our beaches during the annual International Coastal Clean Up Event in Monroe County, NY on Saturday, September 25th. Many beaches were a part of the event: Ontario Beach Park, Buckland Creek, Braddock Bay, Irondequoit Bay, Greece Ponds, Hamlin Beach State Park, Webster Park, Oatka Creek , and Payne Beach. I helped out with Durand Eastman Beach. It was a cloudy morning, a warm breeze wafting in from the north, the Lake Ontario waves a little choppy, just the kind of weather you’d imagine would be great for picking up trash on the beach. We got instructions on what to pick up, bags to put our trash in, gloves, something to drink and eat, and then we were off. Here’s a little history on the event: “We are a coalition of dedicated volunteers, businesses, and municipalities who continue to work to promote this truly grassroots, community-based event. For the 2008 Coastal Clean Up event, Monroe County's 18th annual event, there are a growing number of registered shoreline sites throughout all parts of Monroe County, NY. All registered shoreline sites throughout New York State can be viewed on the American Littoral Society's website.” International Coastal Clean Up Event in Monroe County, NY more...
Are regulations the best way to stop e-waste? Starting April 1, 2011, we will be less likely to see old TVs and other E-waste thrown out to the curb where they end up in landfills. There’s a new law in town: Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation “Beginning April 1, 2011, manufacturers of covered electronic equipment [those covered by the law] will be required to accept the following: computers, televisions (as well as cathode ray tubes), small scale servers, computer peripherals (monitors, electronic keyboards, electronic mice or similar pointing devices, facsimile machines, document scanners, printers), small electronic equipment (VCRs, digital video recorders, portable digital music players, DVD players, digital converter boxes, cable or satellite receivers, electronic or video game consoles)”. more...
Are we wasting food waste in the Rochester, NY region? Composting food waste instead of tossing it into a landfill is gaining momentum around the country as it offers a more sustainable treatment of this inevitable by-product. Note the New York Times devotes a full section on Compost News and a local entrepreneur thrives on making a business of it: “Vermi-Green capitalizes on happy worms” (6/06/2010 Democrat and Chronicle). Instead of letting food waste rot inside a plastic-lined landfill creating a modicum of energy by capturing some of the methane gas, a healthy compost program creates a nutrient-rich and toxin-free fertilizer—and business opportunities. (June 13, 2010) Rochester News, Restaurants, more by Top Local Experts
Getting beyond waste Waste is a human conceit: If we cannot find an immediate value for something, we toss it somewhere, bury it, or burn it. However, in Nature there is no such thing as waste. Everything has a role or it would not exist. Hopefully, as we move into the future, we’ll get over the notion of waste. We’ll consider Zero Waste, where everything we produced gets thought about ‘from cradle to cradle,’ from the moment we use a resource to create a product to the moment we are done with the product. Then we won’t be trashing our resources or littering the planet. more...
Don’t Soil the Nest Even a bird knows not to soil its nest. This message seems lost on us, as our nest (our planet) is filling up with our trash. Instead of properly disposing of it (as any bird would), we are living, drinking, eating, planting, and breathing our unmentionable waste products. According to Learner.org, “Every year, the United States generates approximately 230 million tons of ‘trash’--about 4.6 pounds per person per day.” more...
New Bottle Bill Regulation: Like the new regulations or not, there will be less plastic bottles littering our state and less going into our landfills because this sort of legislation works. It works simply because people may throw away what they perceive as trash, but they won’t throw away money. Many people scour our city streets for deposit-able bottle to supplement or have an income at all. more...
Don't Curb that old TV with New Digital TV Signal Change A preventable environmental problem can be avoided when the new TV signal changes, if you recycle your new TV. But, you don’t have to buy a new TV, get a digital converter coupon and stay with what you’ve got. June 12 TV signals change to digital and for those still using the antenna, instead of cable and satellites, your going to have to do something. That’s if you still watch TV. more...
The Bottle Bill Ban Battle This heralding by the media of environmentalists unhappy with the latest ban on the deposit law just passed strikes me as an odd way to look at the halt in the NYS bottle bill that was supposed to go into effect on June 1st, and an odd way to see environmental issues in general by the media. Because, of course, shouldn’t everyone be miffed that the battle to remove discarded bottles from our streets, urban forests, our roadways (you-name-it, bottles are everywhere) via a popular measure (most New Yorkers are for this bottle bill) has been squelched by a judge, bottling companies, some politicians, grocery and convenience stores? more...

Parks

These essays highlight the environmental aspects of our area's parks and why we should preserver their unique character--as the public's domain.

Closing our parks, tough environmental choices Friday, June 4th, 2010 The prospect of closing a quarter of our New York State parks looked ominous indeed as the Memorial Day weekend approached this year. But at the last... Keep Reading »
Plan for Washington Grove Park Monday, May 24th, 2010 Several residents who live near and around Rochester’s Washington Grove Park recently attended a meeting hosted by city officials, who presented... Keep Reading »

Brownfields

These essays highlight the importance of cleaning up and preventing Brownfields in the Rochester, NY region.

Litter Day for Rochester, NY’s environment A warm spell in February should be a day to get a glimpse of the spring to come, not a morbid revelation that we been throwing packaging and everything else out the window all winter long. Today (February 18, 2011) was a beautiful day to get out and walk in Rochester, NY. It was a warm, sunny break from the freezing cold winter we’ve been having—except for all the litter. In just a short walk around Rochester I experienced a world full of trash blowing about as if a very disdainful species were just leaving the place, impatient to get back to their own planet that their parents had just cleaned up for them. A thaw in the cold shouldn’t be “Litter Day” in Rochester. Litter accumulates in our environment by blocking our sewers and providing mock or poisonous food for creatures hungry from a long winter. It leaches poisons into our ground and, given the endless variety of harmful ingredients in all that garbage, wreaks havoc on what little of pristine nature there is left to us. more...
Why Godzilla is bad for our Rochester, NY environment Strange creatures in our region are evolving quickly to adapt to our toxic soups—those Brownfields and polluted waters we’ve been neglecting in our region for quite some time. Who knew, those Japanese weren’t kidding—Godzilla lives! Check out what’s happening in the Hudson River, just a few biomes away: “Most people think of evolution occurring gradually over thousands of years, but apparently no one told the Atlantic tomcod. In just 50 years or so, the Hudson River fish has evolved to become resistant to toxic PCBs that polluted the river, researchers reported Thursday. Their secret is a gene variant. " (February 17, 2011) Hudson River fish resists PCBs through gene variant | syracuse.com " “Monsters in our midst” make for great headlines for local environmental issues that don’t often get many headlines. That’s great because according to mainstream media, a planet that is slowly wasting away due to human pollution and other environmental issues is dull potatoes. Mutant species, though, arising from the gunk we once called rivers, is another kettle of fish. more...
Ubiquitous Pollution Within the last couple of weeks, I have posted numerous environmental articles on Brownfields—way more than normal. Speculating as to why there is a sudden interest in Brownfields in the local media, I thought of several possible factors: There’s a rash of Brownfields actually springing up; or, the media is clearing their desks of Brownfields related articles; or, because localized pollution events oftentimes show up randomly anyways; or, the media are becoming more attentive to what our policies towards recklessly releasing man-made chemicals into our environment has wrought. Possibly, because the United States does not have strict regulations on the chemicals used in our products or released into our environment (as the Europeans do) this irresponsible policy is catching up with us. more ...

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Rochester Issues

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Essays by Frank J. Regan

RochesterEnvironment.com

Connecting the dots on Rochester area environmental Issues

Rochester area media needs to inform the public consistently about our environment, especially with thorough investigative reporting.

The Rochester, NY area is not going dodge the Climate Change crisis, See how.

How we get around the Rochester area now and in the future will have a profound affect on our environment

How we get and use energy has a profound effect on our environment

These essays attempt to show how our health is related to our environmental health.

The Rochester Region is located at the Southern rim of Lake Ontario making the entire environment of our area dependant on the health of the Great Lakes.

Our Rochester area business are getting greener and why it matters

Essays on why we must pay attention to our wildlife and how it still relates to our local environment

Join in discussions about what can and should be done about invasive species in our area.

The Rochester, NY region oftentimes scores lowly in the various air quality assessments. Much can be done to improve the quality of our air.

These essays attempt to get at the concept of "Zero Waste" and why we shouldn't be creating any waste to have a healthy environment.

These essays highlight the environmental aspects of our area's parks and why we should preserver their unique character--as the public's domain.

These essays highlight the importance of cleaning up and preventing Brownfields in the Rochester, NY region.