January 2025
Sustainable Warwick Minutes
January 15, 2025
Meeting chair: Michael Helme
We began the meeting with a photo montage from the wide range of activities SW held throughout 2024. The photos are also compiled here for your viewing pleasure.
Committee Updates
Sustainable World Book Club: In December, the club read After World, by Debbie Urbanski. The book is a dystopian novel, with some commentary on sustainability, but it was a description of human history winding down among great environmental decline, and this history was written by an AI bot.
January’s title was H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald. Everyone liked this book about a woman who describes training a goshawk while examining the line between humans and animals, grief and obsession. Book Club will next meet on February 11 to discuss The Deluge, by Stephen Markley. BookClub@sustainablewarwick.org
Climate and Energy Committee: This group has conducted a survey on using heat pumps for home heating and cooling, and will be sponsoring a Heat Pump seminar (register here) at the Albert Wisner Public Library on February 4th, from 6:30 to 7:45 PM. (Note that the Library is heated and cooled with ground-source heat pumps.) The seminar will include an overview by Bill Makofske and a Q&A with technicians from two local companies and other local heat pump owners. After the seminar, the committee will publish a new web page or article on heat pumps. The next topic they will cover will be EVs. cleanenergy@sustainablewarwick.org
SW Pollinator Pathway - This committee meets the 2nd Tuesday of every month at Mountain Lake Park, removing invasive plants and preparing to cultivate native plants.
We will hold a winter seed sowing workshop at Mountain Lake Park (46 Bowen Rd, Warwick) from 1 to 3 p.m. on January 25, 2025. The workshop will be held in the Main Lodge and will be guided by Pam Golben, lead educator at the Mamakating Environmental Education Center, and Soňa Mason, professional land restorationist. The workshop is free, but a $10 donation is suggested to support future plant purchases. Advance registration is encouraged. pollinators@sustainablewarwick.org
Compost Committee - We’re pleased to report that this committee has had fruitful discussions with the owners of Goodmaker Acres, a regenerative agricultural farm, located in Edenville. The owners, Jason Schuler and Morganne Frazier, have agreed to receive year-round food scraps to be composted on-site. Details will be publicized once the specifics have been finalized. Note, this program will run in addition to the Farmers’ Market collection held seasonally from May - November. garden@sustainablewarwick.org
Green Calendar: Melissa Shaw-Smith and Christy Erfer are planning to run the Green Calendar for March thru June this year.
Gibraltar Rock: The Orange County Land Trust is reaching out to local groups for support of a new community forest. The site is near Amity, off County Route 1. SW representatives met with them and advocated for prohibiting ATVs, more parking spaces and finding ways to improve plant life in the understory, such as using fencing to keep the deer out.
Upcoming Community Event of Interest
Warwick Cares, the Village of Warwick and the Community Center will hold a Winter Wiggle at Mountain Lake Park on Saturday, January 25th from 4:30 to 7:30 PM.
Review of Environmental Action in New York State
The latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory for New York shows we are making little progress in reducing our emissions.
Governor Hochul signed the Climate Change Superfund Act late last month. This bill requires companies that sell and profit from fossil fuels to pay $3 billion/year for 25 years to help New York cover some of the costs associated with the environmental damages caused by climate change. It is designed in a way that will prevent those companies from singling out New Yorkers to cover their costs.
It’s unclear whether New York’s Cap and Invest proposal will move forward later this year or at all. We reviewed a study from Research For the Future that showed it would increase prices for fossil fuels in New York, but at the same time lower- and middle-income New Yorkers would receive dividends from the program that, on average, would more than offset the price increases they would face. Moreover, it would make it easier for New Yorkers to adopt lower emission alternatives. Please consider contacting Gov Hochul to thank her for signing the Climate Change Superfund Act and encourage her to move quickly on New York Cap and Invest.
Stay warm and see you soon!