nothin City Issues Climate Change “Call To Action” | New Haven Independent

City Issues Climate Change Call To Action”

CHRIS HEITMANN PHOTO

West Rock Ave., 2012 flash flood.

Giovanni Zinn did his part to start helping cut New Haven’s carbon emissions 55 percent by 2030 — by not handing out copies of a new 41-page plan to cut New Haven’s carbon emissions 55 percent by 2030.

Zinn, the city engineer, did not hand out that report Thursday afternoon at a City Hall press conference.

Instead he and other officials spoke about the new report, which calls on everyone in town — from government agencies to community groups to citizens making everyday waste decisions — to do work together to reach that 2030 goal in order to combat climate change. Zinn’s office worked for years with activists and environmental groups to put together the plan.

Paul Bass Photo

Common Ground student Ihsan Abdussabur offers spoken-word enviro-riffs.

The report is called the City of New Haven Climate & Sustainability Framework. It lays out six strategies for cutting emissions.

Strategy number 4 involves sustainable materials management.” Including no longer producing over 500,000 annual tons of waste, which threatens the environment and public health by generating 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

Zinn decided not to print out the report to distribute at the press conference, in order to avoid adding to that pile of waste, he said. The city posted the report on its website. (You can read it in full here.)

When the paper mill creates the paper, that uses energy,” Zinn explained. Printing it requires energy and resources. Getting rid of it requires energy.”

He and Mayor Toni Harp emphasized at the press conference that climate change is real,” with dramatic effects just beginning to hit New Haven with more superstorms, flooding, and rising sea levels. The city has had six floods in the last five years, including one conventional flood and two flash floods in May and June of 2014. Superstorm Sandy in 2012 cost the city well over $3 million to clean up.

Climate change poses a grim risk now. It is not some ill-defined future threat,” Mayor Harp said. She called the report a call to action” for the whole community. It challenges us all to think about how we can minimize our impact” on the environment, Zinn added. (The 55 percent goal is based on 2001 emission levels.)

The event also featured a plug to participate in the annual Rock To Rock mass bicycle ride on April 28, both to have a good time at a big community event and to boost grassroots environmental action. In its first nine years, the event has raised almost $1 million for 30 local environmental groups, according to organizer Joel Tolman.

Waste Not

Under Zinn’s direction, the city has already begun extensive measures to save energy and respond to climate change, from installing solar roofs and bioswales around town to creating new inundation maps” and buying 130 4,000-pound bulk bags” to create temporary barriers at flood-prone areas.

The new plan calls for stepping up those efforts at City Hall while enlisting the public to do its part, by, for instance:

• Promoting renewable energy programs, like a current Solarize” campaign; hiring a city energy expert; running more municipal operations on clean power sources; promoting community solar collectives; pushing the state to consider enacting a carbon fee”; and exploring the use of microgrids.

• Passing laws to require more efficient energy and water consumption in new buildings; continuing upgrades of city buildings; creating an energy scorecard” for rental properties; creating a city revolving fund for energy-efficient projects.

• Continuing building cycling and pedestrian corridors, rolling out the planned citywide bike share program, finishing up that years-long study about how to update CT Transit routes and improving bus service, increasing car sharing.

• Taxing plastic bags and straws and water bottles; requiring city events to follow Zero Waste” design guidelines; charging households a variable trash pick-up rate depending on how much waste they generate (“Pay-As-You-Throw”); recycling or reusing felled trees and building debris after disasters; creating citywide composting; enforcing a city ordnance banning city vendors from using styrofoam; holding more hazardous waste and electronics collections events; and recycling a lot more than New Haven does now. New Haven recycled 29 percent of its waste in 2014, compared to a statewide 35 percent rate.

Voluntarily” banning pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers; planting more trees; incentivizing” green infrastructure on both public and private property and updating zoning stormwater rules to increase the retention volume capture” and promote vegetation-based infiltration systems.” 

• Wasting less food in city schools, connecting neighbors more to community gardens and urban farms, expanding gardening programs in schools.

What a Wonderful World?

A highlight of the press conference was the recitation of a climate changed-themed spoken-word piece by Common Ground High School student Ihsan Abdussabur.

The text follows; you can watch him recite it at the 14:11 mark in the above Facebook Live video of the full press conference.

What a wonderful world
The sky is falling!
You can call me Chicken Little.
Because I’m paranoid
About the world we all live in.
I stand here with poetry, but independently
But please don’t belittle me
Already everyone laughs at this piece of
New Haven, Ct GMO free, fried chicken
But on a big mission.
To help save the world
Which is sending out warnings
In the shape of clear stop signs
That are falling from the sky!
The sky is falling!

I know it seems okay
But there’s way more problems
That people don’t want to be seen
I know it’s confusing when
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
That was formed here
Just to try and make the earth conform to our needs
So much greed a large portion of humanity
Seems to have.
It’s unfortunate how people can be untouched
With the environment that they are literally put in
And still have the head decision
To make certain actions even up to today.
The sky is falling!

Cause I can’t comprehend why the head of the EPA
Authorized a movement in the USA
On destroying Alaska’s Bristol Bay
By allowing Pebble Partnership to operate gold mining
Getting rid of a perfect natural untouched oasis
For fish that we benefit from
Without any crazy consequences.
The sky is falling
 — It just bothers me since!
Trump dumped censorship on researchers and scientist
And with their evidence reporting signs
Of bad habits that corporations keep performing
Like the gold digging
And like 45 said, Beautiful clean coal” mining

It’s confusing seeing problems
With such a beautiful sight…
Cause I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world?
The sky is falling
I know it’s confusing
To see how amazing the world can look

And it still is beautiful.
But if you think we’re not in some type of crisis
And the government is solving it
Then you the fool.
Obama said where the first generation
To feel the impact of climate change
And the last ones to do something about it
Caring for our planet should be our civic duty
The well being of the planet
Shouldn’t be too confusing in our politics
There’s simple things that we can do
To bring awareness
Like ride your bike from rock to rock
Planting trees from block to block
Even police others with recycling call yourself cop to cop
And doing small local things make an impact there no lie
Especially when
The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They’re really saying I love you

I swear I see hot air balloons on top of West Rock
I see the rooftops of buildings uptown here
I mean downtown
Filled with trees and plants making some type of
Rooftop forest
As we move upward in how environmentally friendly
We can be.
Before our country’s government
Decides for it to be the end of the world
 — ya see?

I see more solar panels on top of diagonal building and street light
Absorbing the energy from the sun
That shines on, as a sustainable smile
I see windmills spinning
Having green energy for this country
We need to be showing how to take environmental action
When the government decides not to believe in problems
That is happening to everyone.

Because it seems when we say let’s fix things
They say no
I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
I see children connecting with the earth
Before there asked to save it.
A yellow brick road to sustainability let’s pave it
Paint it green instead
Make it out of recycle
I don’t know
Let’s choose the people that do know
So let this city not only set the example
But let’s lead by example
We don’t have ample time

And not let it be too late
Let’s make this an actual New Haven
While not referring back to 1638

We need to be setting the example
Of how green we can be
In this red white and blue
I see not only trees of green, but a new green haven
And don’t get me wrong that’s what I’m seeing
When I look out these windows
But there’s a whole world outside these windows
Let’s open up our indigos
And spread love not only to the people
But to the earth as well
Until I can look at us as a precious pearl
Without the sky falling
I can think to myself what a wonderful world

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