Teens Organize Rally In Fair Haven For ​“Climate Emergency” Declaration

This is the single most critical issue today. We can't count on the fossil fuel industry to act because we know they have been lying an concealing their research since the 1970s.
I truly fear for the young people who will experience the looming disasters from climate catastrophe.

It's nice to see students involved in important issues. They should already know :
The air is so much cleaner now than it was in the 50's ,60's and 70's. Back then the landscape in Connecticut was filled with belching smokestacks filling the sky with thick gritty pollution that smelled so bad you could taste it. Rivers were filled with hot spewing toxic chemical pollutants that poisoned and killed all fish and nearby wildlife.
It took decades for our environment to clean up and for fish to return to waterways like the Naugatuck River.
Thanks to early environmental groups and diligent lawmakers the damage from the industrial boom after WW2 was reversed.
Last year America was the only major country to actually decrease it's carbon emissions. A trend that's going on for 10 years now. The latest decline is due in part to increased use of natural gas in place of coal usage.
Pretty much all of the major countries that signed the Paris Climate Accord actually increased their carbon emmisions in spite of their public policies rhetoric.
As long as China opens a new coal plant every week and India continues to use 1950's technology nothing America does now can possibly offset the world-wide pollution from these countries.
The good news is that since 2002 more than 50% of the Earth's population has been raised out of poverty due to fossil fuels. Right now bringing electricity and clean water to millions of people in abject poverty is more important to these countries than any other factors.
Hopefully they will at some point refine their technology to reverse environmental damage like we have.
Notice that you never see "Green" protests in third world counties.
They're too busy looking for their next meal or cup of drinkable water or even medicine to treat sickness from poor hygienic conditions.
These students are fortunate to return to their air-conditioned homes with running water and full refrigerators.
Of course made possible by the evil fossil fuel industry.

@ Barking up the right tree:

Think anyone would listen to your reasonable points? Or are they too busy being restlessly angry about some cause they know very little about?

The latest "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" do nothing nonsense. Any real engineers in that group who might actually come up with a real so called clean energy system not just wailing and shouting over an electronic bull horn about "The End is Near." Exxon/Mobil is probably ions ahead developing renewable energy sources I doubt it will be found in Enviormental Studies program, having Amazon using Yankee Clippers is not a solution If the fossil fuel industry is greedy they have been matched by the extortionate's in the green "movement" The Paris Agreement should be filed under Teapot Dome, The S&L scandal and Junk Bonds.

My goodness, the fossil fuel supporters are out today. You know their slogan: never let facts get in the way of a good grouch!

In fact, we can have economic growth and save the planet at the same time. For example: India is now investing more in solar than coal, and the solar bids are cheap:

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20052019/india-solar-investment-coal-modi-election-renewable-energy-future

These kids are great, the future will be better when they replace the old grumps.

I stand behind these young millennials wanting a better tomorrow. I've been trying to make the case for Greening New Haven for well over a year. It's the second part of a thesis I submitted to city leadership on why & how to start clean energy.

Low income families, as well as middle income families, along with infrastructure are at the greatest risk. You can read the New Haven Green Deal here that the Independent graciously is hosting the download. It is my gift to New Haven

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/upload/2019/05/Tom/Combined_Afforable_Housing_and_Green_Energy.pdf

You can reach me at [email protected]

Take care & be well.

@Esbey
Any geologist will tell you that the next major Ice Age will cover the East Coast with a 5 mile deep ice pack that will eliminate most human life on this continent for over 10,000 years.
Reading about science rather than talking about it may actually increase your knowledge base.
Good luck saving the planet with your solar panels and destructive, undependable wind mills.

I too support the younger generation becoming involved in issues that impact them. Unfortunately, environmental groups and politicians have led them to believe that climate change is more important then addressing poverty, crime, violence, immigration issues, and other real life current problems. As a society we are taking away vast amounts of funding and resources from other more critical societal ills. Ask anyone in the low income communities these protesters are hoping will join them. These students certainly don't appear to come from such communities.
We cant ignore climate change, but we cant put it ahead of things that are seriously harming us today and cant afford to have funding reallocated away from them as politicians divvy up the pie.

Esbey: Where in your link does it say the solar bids were cheap? The article also says that India is continuing to build coal plants, and will likely continue to increase its coal consumption for years to come. I know in South Africa, which has far more sun than India, coal is considered far cheaper than solar, and the country is not moving to solar because it wants to keep electric costs low for its many low-income residents. In Connecticut, we have some of the highest electric costs due to renewable engird requirements. Wallingford and Norwich have much lower electric rates in part because they are exempt from the renewable requirement.
Barking: Yes, I remember the smell of New Haven and Naugatuck in the 1960's. Things are far better today, and fracking has brought us bountiful supplies of natural gas, which is now not only cleaner than oil and coal, but much cleaner as well. Nonetheless, we could still build windmills on Long Wharf, Sachem's Head, and the hills above Lake Quonnipaug. Denmark, Belgium, and Portugal have lots of windmills.

@1644
Unfortunately (as you know) one of the problems with wind mills is that local residents often have the " not in my backyard " attitude.
Many don't want their views of the ocean filled with windmills.
There should be somewhere they can be put to generate usable electricity.
Research I've read states that another problem is that they kill large amounts of birds. Also I've read that where these windmills are used people complain about the noise they make.
Hey I'm for anything that can actually work and is cost effective.
We probably need many different sources of energy including nuclear power but people are going to complain about whatever we use no matter what we end up doing.
Of course that won't stop them from driving cars,cranking up the furnace or air-conditioning,using their refridgerators , using jets for travel , enjoying their cell phones ...
Most people don't really understand
that some of the more radical plans would mean sacrificing most modern creature comforts.
That crazy new green deal would cost home owners about $70,000 the first year and then about $40,000 per year for many years.
I'm sure we can agree that some middle ground that puts everything in perspective would be a reasonable goal.
https://cei.org/content/study-green-new-deal-would-cost-households-five-states-more-70k-first-year-implementation

Barking: I know some of the first windmills were positioned in windy canyons/passes used by lots of birds, and the result was slaughter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Pass_wind_farm
The current generation of windmills seem to turn much more slowly, and are often by or off the shore so catch shore winds rather than bottlenecks like Altamonte. I suspect the bird kill numbers are pretty low. I, also, don't recall any great noise from windmills, but was probably always a fair distance away from them. I would like, however, to see the response of these students to the siting of windmills in the places I mentioned. :) I think Texas has more windmills than anyone.

@1644
Using windmills off shore sounds reasonable to me. I wonder why officials in CT haven't utilized the newer and safer (for birds) windmills.
Granted they probably can't generate enough electricity to power a city like NH but every little bit helps.