“The planet has been stuck for too long with governments doing nothing about the biggest problem we’ve ever faced: the climate crisis,” said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, the international climate campaign coordinating Moving Planet. “This is the day when people will get the earth moving, rolling towards the solutions we need.”

For this global day of climate action Sustainable Flatbush will focus on local solutions, by providing opportunities to learn and participate in a more sustainable future right here in our own neighborhood!

WHAT:
Moving Planet Sustainable Flatbush

WHERE:
Church Avenue Communal Garden at the Flatbush Reformed Church
East 21st Street and Kenmore Terrace, Brooklyn (map)

WHEN:
Saturday, September 24th 2011, 11am – 3pm

This event will take place rain or shine! If it’s raining hard we will keep the outdoor portions very brief and move inside the church house building (located in the center of the property).

Come join us, as we:

Kady and the composters (photo by Jocelyn Cohen)

Bump up the Compost!
Jump into hands-on education with Master Composter Kady Ferguson. We’ll collect and shred leaves (“browns”) for our 3-bin system, harvest finished compost, and add mulch to the garden beds. Learn how YOU can compost at home or here at our community compost site!

WHY COMPOST? Composting reduces waste by recycling organic matter that would otherwise be  considered garbage (food scraps, yard trimmings, etc.) into a nutrient-rich soil amendment through natural decomposition. That means fewer methane-producing landfills, fewer pollution-spewing garbage trucks, and more locally-generated rich fertilizer for NYC community gardens!

Blue Wood Aster (photo by Flatbush Gardener)

Go Native… native plants, that is!

Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener) will lead a tour of our native plant garden, explain the benefits of gardening with native species, and teach us how to identify native plants (and distinguish them from weeds).

WHY NATIVE PLANTS? Native plants provide food and shelter for birds, butterflies, and other desirable wildlife, even in urban settings. Native plants save water and energy (including your energy!). Because they have adapted to local conditions, once established they are hardy and require no additional watering or maintenance. That means no need for fossil-fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides!

SunBike! (photo by Keka Marzagão)

Show Renewable Energy in Action with the SunBike!

The Sustainable Flatbush SunBike is a mobile off-grid solar energy system that travels around on a cargo bike. We use it to provide power for outdoor events and activities – from street fairs to garden work days! The SunBike shows that clean, renewable energy can be a reality right now.

WHY SOLAR?
Renewable energy sources are a crucial tool in the fight against climate change. In New York City, solar could potentially provide 49.7% of the current estimated daytime peak demand and about 14% of the city’s total annual electricity use (NY Times). That means a significant reduction in NYC’s greenhouse gas emissions!

Spring Celebration potluck (photo by Keka Marzagã

Finish the day with a Potluck lunch!
Bring something tasty to share. Potlucks are a great way to meet your neighbors and build a resilient community.

WHY A POTLUCK?
It’s fun!

We will also have a photo and graphic display including information about 350.org and Sustainable Flatbush’s work, and an exhibit of climate-themed photos by Diane Lent.

About 350.org
350.org is an international climate campaign named after the safe upper concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million. Right now, the atmosphere contains 392 ppm of CO2. Scientists say immediate action is necessary to address the crisis.

While everyone at the conference was vocally pro-clean energy, what seemed to divide us and create tension was what we were against. I spent most of my time with the group raising awareness of hydrofracture gas drilling, and we saw great results. That being said, we were surprised at how many attendees of this conference – involved, like-minded students – had no idea what hydrofracking was. They were involved in anti-coal action. Or they were involved in anti-nuclear action. Or they were only in DC and at PowerShift for a march to protest the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Or they were anti-capitalist. Or they were anti-government. Or they were anti-biomass. We were all a little too wrapped up in our own crusades to talk about what we agreed on.

The most poignant phrasing of this issue – of why it’s important – came from Josh Fox, director of Gasland. During Saturday’s plenary, he took the stage to remind the audience to beware of resource-extraction companies who would try to paint a picture in which anti-coal activists and anti-gas activists are enemies, not allies. That they would try to use our divisions to break us down, to make us believe that we were weaker and more beleaguered than we actually are. And that we can’t let them do that.

While we all have our particular focuses, PowerShift inspired me as an individual to look more closely into that issue – the idea that small differences in our community can be drawn as yawning chasms of disagreement by our opponents to make us appear petty, or ill-organized, or unprepared. As in every other situation we face today, sowers of discord will create false disagreements and conflicts to deflect attention away from their own wrongdoing, and we cannot let that happen. I met a lot of very good people at the conference, and I think we did good work, and that we have  more good work to do. I hope that we can remember just how much we’re on the same team.

Sustainable Flatbush is proud to announce a partnership with Con Edison to build the SunBike, a mobile solar electric system that gets around in a retrofitted cargo bike.  The SunBike will be able to provide enough energy to power a small sound system and lighting for up to two hours without access to sunlight, and do so much more.

Making Clean Energy A Reality

A rendering of the Sustainable Flatbush SunBike

A Vital Learning Tool

SF Intern Mark Miretsky and Energy Solutions Project Manager Jocelyn Cohen with our 10-watt charger at Park(ing) Day 2009

The SunBike and You

The SunBike will be a visible presence on the streets of Flatbush starting next summer, at schools, street fairs, on sidewalks at “charging events” under the sponsorship of local businesses, and beyond.  So if you’re walking down the street and you hear a little jingle, it just might be the SunBike coming your way, offering you clean and free power to fuel your day, and showing the way to our clean energy future.

Thanks to ConEd for their generous support of this project!

During the event we will clean up the church grounds, which by next year will be transformed into a simple and beautiful garden and greenspace for the community to enjoy! The cleanup will be followed by a potluck meal where everyone can meet, eat, chat, and hear what’s been going on in the garden.

This event was organized as part of 350.org‘s Global Work Party day to celebrate climate change solutions. From their website:

“On 10/10/10, in every corner of the globe, we will implement solutions to the climate crisis. From solar panels to community gardens, wind turbines to bike workshops, we’ll start to change our world from the bottom up. At all of these events, we’ll take a moment to shoot a group photo with a call to action for our political leaders. We’ll tell them ‘We’re getting to work–what about you?’ “

Please visit our event page at 350.org to learn more and RSVP. For more information, contact Sustainable Flatbush at info[at]sustainableflatbush[dot]org, or call us at 718.208-0575. See you there!

Green Jobs for America

You know, as opposed to the Fake Economy that is now falling down around us like a house of cards.

Found in my email box today, from the Working Families Party:

… The reason investors poured so much money into real estate speculation and opaque financial instruments is the lack of investment opportunities elsewhere. In the long run, the only way we can have a vibrant economy without financial bubbles and crises is if the government takes the lead in creating major new opportunities for investment. In the 19th century that meant railroads and canals, in the 1930s it meant the public works programs of the New Deal, in the 1950s it meant the federal highway system. Today it means a crash program to respond to the challenge of climate change with massive public and private investment in green jobs and alternative energy. Without a commitment to to rebuilding the real economy, this bailout is just addressing the symptoms and not the underlying disease.

This line of thinking about where our economic future lies has been expressed by voices ranging from Thomas Friedman to Lester Brown to the AFL-CIO. Perhaps it’s simple-minded of me to say so, but I’d like to see our financial system based on products that actually exist, and see people get paid for working instead of for getting fired (after destroying other people’s lives and livelihoods). Is that too much to ask?

This speech by then-Lieutenant Governor David Paterson is from last year’s Step It Up rally. Love how he refers to global warming deniers as “fossils”!!

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s New York City News Service has asked us to find out how you feel about global warming.

In addition to being posted on their web-based wire service, survey results may be picked up by local print-based publications. Please respond in the comments, with whatever degree of anonymity you prefer; all replies will be forwarded.

2007 SECOND WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD
Northern Hemisphere Temperature Highest Ever

Frances C. Moore

With the record for 2007 now complete, it is clear that temperatures around the world are continuing their upward climb. The global average in 2007 was 14.73 degrees Celsius (58.5 degrees Fahrenheit) — the second warmest year on record, only 0.03 degrees Celsius behind the 2005 maximum. January 2007 was the hottest January ever measured, a full 0.23 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous record. August was also a record for that month, and September was the second warmest September recorded.

Looking at the northern hemisphere alone, 2007 temperatures averaged 15.04 degrees Celsius (59.1 degrees Fahrenheit) — easily the hottest year in the northern half of the globe since the record began in 1880, and more than a degree warmer than the 1951–80 average…

(Entire text available here. Data available here. Index of Earth Policy Institute resources related to Temperature and Climate here.)

The way this month has gone, including last night’s failed Nor’Easter (see Brooklyn Junction’s proposed temporary — we hope! — ban on the term), 2008 may prove to be the new hottest January. While it is difficult to imagine how this trend can be reversed and what we as individuals can do, the aforementioned Earth Policy Institute offers direction based on their vision of a sustainable economy. What’s the weather got to do with the economy? “Eco-Economy Indicators are the twelve trends the Earth Policy Institute tracks to measure progress in building an eco-economy. Taking the earth’s temperature tells us about the relative health of the planet.” (Well, yes!) The EPI website has videos, podcasts, and a library of articles with the appropriate mix of urgency, guarded optimism, and concrete suggestions:

The Earth’s capacity to support the economy continues to deteriorate. The gap between what we need to do to arrest the deterioration of the Earth and what we are doing continues to widen… Somehow we have to turn the tide. The purpose of the Earth Policy Institute is to provide a vision of what an environmentally sustainable economy will look like and a plan for how to get from here to there.

Highly recommended.