environment | Solar One

Just in Time for Earth Day, NY-Sun Initiative Expansion Is Approved

by Dinaon 04/21/2022 in Community Solar, environment, environmental justice, Green Building, Green Collar Jobs, NYSERDA, Photovoltaics, Renewables, Solar Power, Sustainability, Technology

Governor Kathy Hochul announced a new framework for New York State to increase its distributed solar capacity to 10 gigawatts by 2030- enough to power 700,000 homes. NYSERDA and the Public Service Commission have created a new roadmap to show how these numbers can be achieved, making the NY-Sun Initiative one of the largest and most inclusive programs of its kind in the US.

“The existential fight against climate change demands historic investments in renewable energy to bring us closer to a brighter, greener future,” Governor Hochul said. “This roadmap to expand the NY-Sun initiative into a nation-leading blueprint for the development of distributed solar meets the moment to supercharge our economy and advance our climate goals.”

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Latest IPCC Report: The Time to Act Is Now

by Dinaon 04/07/2022 in Economy, environment, Global Warming, Paris Climate Accord, Politics

On April 4th, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, and the message was clear: If governments and industry act now-right now!-mitigating some of the effects from global warming is still possible. But we are drawing ever nearer to the point when even that won’t be possible, and humanity will be set on a chaotic and dangerous course.

“We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make now can secure a livable future. We have the tools and know-how required to limit warming,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “I am encouraged by climate action being taken in many countries. There are policies, regulations and market instruments that are proving effective. If these are scaled up and applied more widely and equitably, they can support deep emissions reductions and stimulate innovation.”

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“Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow”

by Dinaon 03/23/2022 in environment, environmental justice, Global Warming, Sustainability

March is Women’s History Month, March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day, and the theme for 2022 is the quote above: “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. Globally, women and girls, especially those in marginalized and impoverished communities, are feeling the effects of climate change more directly and profoundly than others. Since women are most often responsible for tending to domestic issues like food and water procurement, cooking and nutrition, collecting fuel sources and maintaining gardens, when climate disaster strikes their communities, these necessary tasks become more difficult and time consuming, leaving women farther behind in terms of education, resources and decision-making power.

At the same time, because women feel these impacts so strongly, they often respond to these challenges by becoming leaders in their communities, spearheading the fight to maintain those communities and rally their neighbors to come up with innovative solutions to address these dire problems.

Furthermore, those who do have the opportunity to advance their educations and develop professionally often dedicate their careers to supporting those who lack those opportunities, sometimes in the communities where they grew up. At the Columbia Climate School and in the broader Columbia University community, women are leading the way in the fields of climate science and adaptation, and working to promote equity, sustainability and resilience around the world.

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North America’s First Free Black Settlement

by Dinaon 02/10/2022 in environment, environmental justice, New York City, Racial Justice

February is Black History Month in the US and Canada, and one historical fact that was brought to our attention by FABNYC and the Village Preservation Society is that the very first community of free Black people in North America was established in lower Manhattan beginning in 1643, more than 200 years before the Emancipation Proclamation outlawed slavery in all US states.

To see exactly where the settlement was, you can check out the Village Preservation Society’s Civil Rights & Justice Map here. Based on the research of historian Christopher Moore, the settlement was made up of individual landholdings bequeathed to former slaves of the Dutch West India Company, as a “reward” for years of loyal servitude. Of course, this was not a purely altruistic act; the settlements conveniently served as a buffer zone between the colonial invaders and the indigenous groups they displaced. Sound familiar?

Even though the English subsequently outlawed the settlements when they took over from the Dutch in 1664, demoting the settlers from free persons to “legal aliens” who were not permitted to be landowners, some biographical information about the free Black settlers is still available, as well as the exact boundaries, sizes and locations of their individual properties.

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Five Black Environmentalists to Celebrate

by Dinaon 02/10/2022 in environment, environmental justice, Racial Justice

The environmental movement, much like the feminist movement, has a tendency to whitewash the contributions of people of color and Black people in particular. The words “climate activist” probably brings up names like Richard Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and Bill McKibben for a lot of folks, yet the contributions of Black activists working on climate and environmental justice issues can’t be emphasized enough. So here is a list of five Black leaders we can all learn from and admire:

Wangari Maathai
The first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, the late Dr. Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental and political activist. After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degress in the US, she returned to Kenya and was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree, from the University of Nairobi.

She founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, overseeing the planting of 51 million trees and training more than 30,000 women in forestry, food processing and bee-keeping and more to support their families while protecting the natural; resources of their communities.

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The End Is Near for Gas Power in New Buildings in NYC

by Dinaon 01/26/2022 in environment, environmental justice, Global Warming, Green Building, Housing, Legislation, New York City, Pollution, Sustainability, Technology

Ravenswood Plant In December, NYC became the largest city in the country to agree to phase out the use of fossil fuels in all new buildings. The New York City Council has passed a bill prohibiting natural gas hookups in new buildings, beginning next year.

NYC’s largest source of carbon emissions is from buildings- at 27%, more than double the amount that building emissions account for in other places (13% in the US as a whole), more than transportation, waste or any other category.

Appliances that run on gas — stoves, furnaces, boilers, and water heaters — also come at another cost. When natural gas combusts indoors, a mix of particulate matter, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, and volatile organic compounds is released — air pollutants that have harmful effects on respiratory and cardiovascular health. Gas-fueled appliances are also frequent emitters of methane, a more impactful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

With the new bill, New Yorkers can expect to see some changes by the end of 2023, when developers of new buildings under seven stories won’t be allowed to put in natural gas-powered stoves, boilers, or water heaters. Instead, these buildings will use electricity, relying on a mix of technologies like heat pumps and induction stoves to replace gas and oil.

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