North Country Earth Action
Statement from the Solid Waste Advisory Board of Manhattan
Consumer demand drives Greenhouse Gas Emissions which cause global temperatures to rise. Small increases in global temperatures cause sea levels to rise, crops to fail and excessive rain and drought. By 2030 climate changes will cause Manhattan and other parts of NYC to flood every five years rather than every 500 years. We will see the effects of sea level rise even locally on the Hudson River.
For every pound a consumer throws away there's 70 pounds of upstream waste (defined as mining, logging, refining, manufacturing and transportation that occurs between these steps before consumption). This part of the consumer process is approximately 50% of all GHG (Greenhouse Gas Emissions).
Zero Waste systems can reduce the generation of goods through increased re use, recycling and composting rates.
We need to decrease consumer demands for good, packaging and foods, and we need to increase re use, re pair re cycling and composting..
BUT we also need strong legislation (in NYS there is a fight for Extended Producer Responsibility legislation which did NOT pass the 2022 NYS Assembly...Senator Englebright has the best proposal out there though it falls short of a really effective protective policy. Any Green new Deal or climate mitigation legislation must include funding for Zero Waste programs that reduce the totality of carbon impacts from consumer demand for products, foo and the assoicated pacakagin. Half of carbon emissions can be reduced by Zero Waste solutions.
Consumer demand drives Greenhouse Gas Emissions which cause global temperatures to rise. Small increases in global temperatures cause sea levels to rise, crops to fail and excessive rain and drought. By 2030 climate changes will cause Manhattan and other parts of NYC to flood every five years rather than every 500 years. We will see the effects of sea level rise even locally on the Hudson River.
For every pound a consumer throws away there's 70 pounds of upstream waste (defined as mining, logging, refining, manufacturing and transportation that occurs between these steps before consumption). This part of the consumer process is approximately 50% of all GHG (Greenhouse Gas Emissions).
Zero Waste systems can reduce the generation of goods through increased re use, recycling and composting rates.
We need to decrease consumer demands for good, packaging and foods, and we need to increase re use, re pair re cycling and composting..
BUT we also need strong legislation (in NYS there is a fight for Extended Producer Responsibility legislation which did NOT pass the 2022 NYS Assembly...Senator Englebright has the best proposal out there though it falls short of a really effective protective policy. Any Green new Deal or climate mitigation legislation must include funding for Zero Waste programs that reduce the totality of carbon impacts from consumer demand for products, foo and the assoicated pacakagin. Half of carbon emissions can be reduced by Zero Waste solutions.
Questioning: the idea that GROWTH and technology can decarbonize our way out of this emergency.
Questioning: when renewables themselves and an economic system which sacrifices the natural world and its living beings for profit over survival contribute to warming
Nevertheless what can individuals do while challenging the political industrial power structure?
A Letter to the Editor by Earth Action Squad member Diane Collins April 29,2021
"Less Is Best"
What if “Less is Best” becomes a rallying cry for those of us concerned about the climate crisis and life on our planet? What if hundreds, no thousands of us locally can help by changing choices? We know that climate overheating is happening and that it’s one of the biggest threats humanity has ever faced. We know that carbon pollution (our carbon footprint) from industrial and human lifestyle activity is irreversible and stays in our atmosphere for thousands of years creating a thick blanket that traps heat and causes stronger hurricanes, bigger fires, more frequent flooding and the extinction of thousands of species.
Here are a few mitigating “Less is Best” choices:
1. LESS CONSUMPTION
We are constantly distracted and barraged to buy new stuff. The carbon footprint for storing mined data about our preferences, packaging, shipping, and returning what we buy cannot be overestimated. We can curb carbon by only buying essentials.
2. LESS WASTE
The cost of burning and burying what we throw away adds to carbon pollution. Local reuse, repair and recycle initiatives give us other options. Backyard food-scrap and yard waste compositing is an easy one.
3. LESS MEAT EATING
A United Nations climate change report describes plant-based diets as a major opportunity for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Raising livestock on lands that could grow trees that remove carbon dioxide from the air Is precious loss.
4. LESS DEPENDENCY ON FOSSIL FUELS
Less driving and lower thermostat settings are simple choice examples. Another is making calls to our legislators in support of federal climate action.
We can be converted, one resistant mind at a time, that the earth is in peril and that we can choose “Less is Best” steps to help save it.
Diane Collins
Glens Falls
CHALLENGES to BE ANNOUNCED:
plant based diets
creating backyard gardens
planting trees
re use repair computers, phones, dont buy new
divestment and purchase power
The issue is no longer how many people the planet can sustain but how many she can endure-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d19x_eu1-ug interview with Michael Moore's Planet of the Humans filmmaker
Can "Convenience Behavior" change?
"Less Is Best" A Letter to the Post Star Editor April 29, 2021 by Earth Action Squad member Diane Collins:
What if “Less is Best” becomes a rallying cry for those of us concerned about the climate crisis and life on our planet? What if hundreds, no thousands of us locally can help by changing choices? We know that climate overheating is happening and that it’s one of the biggest threats humanity has ever faced. We know that carbon pollution (our carbon footprint) from industrial and human lifestyle activity is irreversible and stays in our atmosphere for thousands of years creating a thick blanket that traps heat and causes stronger hurricanes, bigger fires, more frequent flooding and the extinction of thousands of species.
Here are a few mitigating “Less is Best” choices:
1. LESS CONSUMPTION
We are constantly distracted and barraged to buy new stuff. The carbon footprint for storing mined data about our preferences, packaging, shipping, and returning what we buy cannot be overestimated. We can curb carbon by only buying essentials.
2. LESS WASTE
The cost of burning and burying what we throw away adds to carbon pollution. Local reuse, repair and recycle initiatives give us other options. Backyard food-scrap and yard waste compositing is an easy one.
3. LESS MEAT EATING
A United Nations climate change report describes plant-based diets as a major opportunity for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Raising livestock on lands that could grow trees that remove carbon dioxide from the air Is precious loss.
4. LESS DEPENDENCY ON FOSSIL FUELS
Less driving and lower thermostat settings are simple choice examples. Another is making calls to our legislators in support of federal climate action.
We can be converted, one resistant mind at a time, that the earth is in peril and that we can choose “Less is Best” steps to help save it.
Diane Collins
Glens Falls
In terms of tons of CO2 equivalent per year the following is what it would represent:
- Having one less child saves 58.6 tons
- living car free saves 2.4 tons
- avoiding 1 transatlantic roundtrip flight per year: 1.6 tons
- upgrading light bulbs:. 10 tons
- hanging out to dry clothes:. 21
- washing clothes in cold water:. 25 tons
- replace typical car with hybrid:. 52 tons
- switch electric car to car free: 1.15 tons
- eat a plant based diet:. 82 tons
- buy green energy: 1.47 tons (Mike Ewall)
