Meet up with Sustainable Tompkins at Green Fest August 5-7, 2011 at Alfred University in Alfred, NY. On Saturday August 6th, from 4-5 pm, join Gay Nicholson for her workshop: Finger Lakes Energy Challenge: Taking Responsibility for Our Fossil Fuel Consumption. Most of the folks showing concern about gas drilling are also interested in living more sustainably – but how do we prove it? How can we demonstrate that we “walk our talk” when it comes to opposing drilling for natural gas? This presentation will showcase Sustainable Tompkins’s Finger Lakes Energy Challenge, an online platform to demonstrate your commitment to reducing fossil fuel consumption (and give you the tools to do so). Read the rest of this entry »
Posts tagged climate change
Finger Lakes Climate Fund supported by Cornell conference
May 26th
Our Finger Lakes Climate Fund got a big boost this month when LeChase Construction of Rochester volunteered to offset all of the travel-related emissions from a Cornell conference on energy and university facility management. This contribution will go a long way toward helping a local family become more energy secure. Grants from the Finger Lakes Climate Fund are awarded to families below the median income to help them go forward with energy improvements that will save them money and reduce their emissions. As the summer travel season approaches, we urge everyone to take responsibility for their carbon emissions — and help others in our community while you are at it! Read the rest of this entry »
GreenNotes
May 7th
An occasional feature of the Sustainable Tompkins Community Blog
By Richard W. Franke, Board Member, Sustainable Tompkins
By Richard W. Franke, Board Member, Sustainable Tompkins
Lester Brown’s recent (2011) book, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, contains a number of unexpected “facts” (observations?). I selected a few of them: how many surprised you? Don’t believe him? You can download the entire book free here. Click here for his online documentation of everything he claims below.
- The actual cost of gasoline in the United States is $15 per gallon
- In 2009 the number of cars in the US declined for the first time in a century (except for WWII period when cars were not produced)
- China now has 459 “cancer villages”
- Between 1994 and 1999 China’s Gobi Desert grew by an area equal to half the state of Pennsylvania
- If the Greenland ice sheet melts entirely, sea level could rise 23 feet; if the West Antarctic Ice sheet breaks up, seal level would rise another 16 feet
- Of the one million Hurricane Katrina refugees from New Orleans, 300,000 did not return to their homes
- The summer 2010 heat wave in Russia was the most intense in 130 years of record keeping; the wheat harvest shrank from 100 million tons to 60 million tons
- 90% of the original forests of the Indus River Basin are gone
- Pakistan has 185 million people living on an area equal to 8% of the US land area
- From 1950 to the present, per person income worldwide increased 4 times while the world economy grew 10 times Read the rest of this entry »
The Truth About Energy Security
Apr 11th
By Gay Nicholson, Ph.D., President of Sustainable Tompkins
The theme of our recent Energy Fair was community energy security. Real energy security.
Most of us associate “energy security” with fossil fuel industry lobbyists who try to convince Americans that we will be more secure if we stop relying on imports of foreign oil and just let them expand drilling offshore or in the rural lands of America.
But is that really a plan that will make us more secure? Consider this:
Energy efficiency has never polluted the Gulf of Mexico or slimed the shores of Alaska.
Solar panels never gave a child asthma or blew off a mountain top.
Wind turbines have never threatened millions with cancer-causing radiation.
Energy conservation has never polluted drinking water supplies or destroyed a rural landscape.
We’ll never be really secure if we continue to base our economy and our way of life on fossil energy. We know it’s a tightening noose with constantly rising prices and amplifying environmental damages. Read the rest of this entry »
Energy Fair and Pledge-In for Finger Lakes Energy Challenge
Mar 24th
April 6, 2011 - 6:30-9:00 pm
Womens Community Building Auditorium, 100 W. Seneca St., Ithaca, NY
Don’t miss the Energy Fair on April 6 where we’ll explore the math behind eS = mc2 !
True energy security is the result of motivated community cooperation to reduce our dependence on risky fossil fuels.
Every citizen has an important and necessary role in phasing out wasteful energy consumption and investing in efficiency and local self-renewing energy sources. Energy is tied into almost everything we do. Together we can make sure our families are secure and our economy resilient. Together we can transform the energy marketplace and support our growing number of green collar workers. Sustainable Tompkins and its partners are proud to host you and your family for an evening devoted to community energy security. Download the Energy Fair poster and share widely! Read the rest of this entry »
Encore for Beaming Bioneers
Nov 12th
Finger Lakes Bioneers will be offering a repeat performance of this year’s keynote speakers from the Bioneers “headwaters” conference in California last month. For those who missed Breakfast with the Bioneers at Cinemapolis during this year’s We Make Our Future conference, we will be showing these videos of presentations by leading thinkers and activists such as James Hansen, Jane Goodall, and Mallika Dutt on Tuesday evenings from 7-9 pm, starting November 16 and ending December 21, at the Sustainable Tompkins office at 109 S. Albany St. Seating is limited to 15 and will be offered on a first come, first served basis. Read the rest of this entry »
Bioneers Part I
Sep 30th
Tompkins Weekly – September 27, 2010
By Hilary Lambert, Nick Vaczek and Danielle Klock
There is nothing like the curative of seeking knowledge and taking actions ourselves. Rugged independence is an American tradition, after all. Read the rest of this entry »
Climate Fund Launched
May 13th
Tompkins Weekly – May 3, 2010
By Kitty Gifford
Businesses, organizations, schools and individuals are able to offset their carbon emissions by purchasing carbon offsets from the newly created Finger Lakes Climate Fund. Read the rest of this entry »
Finger Lakes Climate Fund Launched!
Feb 10th
Finger Lakes Climate Fund makes its debut!! Listen in to WHCU radio interview with Gay Nicholson on this new local carbon offset program.
