October 2022
Wednesday October 26, 2022
Meeting chair: Michael Helme
Presentation
Green the Grid and Electrify Everything: Cal Trumann of New Yorkers for Clean Power gave an excellent presentation. Here’s a link to a recording of Jen Metzger delivering a fuller version of the same presentation. For our purposes, Cal excluded the part of this presentation about the climate crisis.
Cal talked about the Climate Act and its targets, the main sources of greenhouse gasses, how to transition away from greenhouse gasses, and ways to support these initiatives on all levels. The goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 and to move to 70% renewable energy by 2040. To get there, we must: (1) make all energy use more efficient; (2) implement beneficial electrification by converting from using fossil fuels to electricity; and (3) build a grid that runs on renewable energy. Thus the title of the presentation: “Green The Grid and Electrify Everything.” Cal talked about the ‘culprits’ as in where most emissions come from, namely buildings, transportation and electricity generation. Efficiency in all categories can be improved by initiatives like energy audits and work like insulating buildings and homes, and converting to things like Energy Star electrical appliances and light bulbs. Examples of beneficial electrification include converting gas and oil furnaces to heat pumps, and adopting electric cars and school buses.
The grid itself needs to be upgraded, because while upstate NY is already mostly on renewable energy, downstate NY gets a very small percentage of its electricity from renewable sources. Currently, the connections within the grid don’t allow for transmission from upstate to downstate, so plans for new renewable energy installations – especially huge wind farms off the coast of Long Island – will help to overcome this issue.
SW is grateful to Cal for a very interesting presentation. If you weren’t able to attend, check out the presentation link above.
Reminders
Proposition One: Please spread the word about Proposition One which will be on the ballot for the mid-term elections. Voters can flip their ballots over and vote “Yes” on Proposition 1, the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022. This is a bond proposition that will start funding implementation of New York’s climate law. Early voting started on Saturday, October 29, 2022; Warwick Town Hall is our local polling location for early voting.
Project Drawdown Video Discussion:Sustainable Warwick will moderate a discussion of Climate Solutions 101 on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, at Albert Wisner Public Library. Participants are asked to watch videos #1-5 prior to this event; we'll watch Video #6 together, then discuss the series and review ways to take action. Project Drawdown has compiled the world’s most comprehensive plan for addressing climate issues and reaching “‘drawdown’—the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline." Their Climate Solutions 101 video series is an informative, inspiring and thought provoking introduction to their work. Register in advance by calling the library help desk ((845) 986-1047, ext. 3) or by signing up online: albertwisnerlibrary.org/content/climate-solutions-101. The event is open to both teens and adults. Email Sustainable Warwick (steeringcommittee@sustainablewarwick.org) with questions.
Updates
Mark your calendar: We’ve been holding SW meetings on the fourth Wednesday of the month, but because this conflicts with Thanksgiving, the November meeting will be on November 16th (the third Wednesday in November).
Holiday Gathering: Plans are underway for an in-person gathering in lieu of our December meeting.
Shade Tree Commission: SW is in initial talks to work with the Warwick Shade Tree Commission. Among other planned events, early next year SW will do fundraising on a matching grant basis to help plant more trees.
Food-Scraps-to-Compost: Roger Moss reported that the new initiative at the Warwick Farmers Market to collect food scraps for composting has been very successful. Last weekend approximately 25 five-gallon buckets of compostables were collected from residents, farm stand operators and local restaurants. We are working on plans for the winter when there is an indoors farmers market in Pine Island as well as on plans for building the project further next year. Please contact Roger if you are interested in helping with this project. (rmmediacom@gmail.com)
The Community Garden had another great year. A new arrival this year was the first big harvest from the pawpaw trees, which provided quite a crop!
Zoom Garden Plot has concluded for the year, but a great season of videos is available on our website.
Book Club: Christina reported that the last Book Club meeting was very successful with a discussion of the Bill McKibben book, “The Flag, the Cross and the Station Wagon,” which gently points out that those of us over 60s are to blame for the current climate crisis, so we are the ones who should be working to improve this. The book for the November 8th book club meeting is “The Worth of Water.” Go to the Book Club page for more information.
Are you using the Recycle Coach app? It is really useful for answering local questions about recycling. SW will be sponsoring a webinar featuring Ermin Siljkovic, Orange County Recycling Coordinator, in early February.
Minutes by Christina Thomas