THE PLANET IS BURNING - SO WHY IS GOVERNOR HOCHUL CUTTING DOWN TREES?
Wagner Park, Battery Park City 2022 before Gov. Hochul’s resiliency project
Wagner Park, Battery Park City 2023 after Gov.Hochul’s resiliency plan went through
This is a question that is leaving many of us in New York State and New York City perplexed.
Every Summer it gets hotter and hotter and every year the median temperature is warmer and warmer. When the rain comes – it comes in gigantic bursts, flooding our homes and streets and places of business. Our number one natural resource to protect us from flooding, overheating and to regulate CO2 and give us much needed clean air is being chopped down at record speeds – all in the name of resiliency.
Governor Hochul says she is pro renewable energy and that we needed to make these changes yesterday. Her speeches want you to think she has this all under control. Trust her. This seems to be the current battle cry of all our political leaders who have dragged their feet for too long when it comes to making the big changes, we most certainly need.
But they are not the right changes. It would have done us all a lot of good if Hochul and her fellow politicians in all parties learned a little more on how to have a climate neutral planet, than force feed us with the quickest, biggest solution (with little research on long term effectiveness) to the detriment of our neighborhoods, health and even climate.
Governor Hochul came out with her big green roll out September of 2022, just in time for the election, announcing New York State will commit to be carbon neutral by 2040. This is an updated version of previous Governor Cuomo’s 2008 plan. One of these big solutions is to create solar “farms” upstate.
While solar farms sound like a good idea in the short term, their long-term help is questionable. Climate-wise and humanity-wise they are excruciatingly horrible. In case you missed it, the hunger for mining for minerals used to make solar panels, electric vehicles, cell phones, laptops, etc. is insatiable now. Seventy-five percent of the cobalt the world uses is sourced mainly in Africa in the DRC. Cobalt is a mineral no solar panel, electric car, battery or wind turbine can do without. But DRC is also home to starving, impoverished people with US companies more than willing to take advantage of them. Photos of toddlers joining their families in mining for it have surfaced all over the news. And yet no one stops the madness let alone our elected officials.
Cobalt is toxic. It harms the eyes, skin, organs and causes cancer. If the harsh mining conditions with zero care for human life does not kill these peoples, the cobalt surely will. I highly recommend reading or looking into the work of Siddharth Kara, Author of “Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives”.
Solar, wind and electric vehicles will not save us. They have many issues. The average lifespan of a solar panel is 25 years and into the trash it goes. They are not easily recycled and contain hazardous materials that will overwhelm an already overwhelmed and inefficient recycling system. The solutions we have simply will not take us to where we need to be, nor will they serve us in the long run in the way they are being rolled out.
In this incredibly detailed report on Governor Hochul’s plan “A greater reliance on solar and wind power, including offshore wind, presents a fundamental challenge.” https://www.nyiso.com/documents/20142/10773574/NYISO-Climate-Impact-Study-Phase-2-Report.pdf/209bc753-3f69-8ab9-37b5-eae3698b0ed1
Unpredictable weather is ironically one of the biggest challenges when it comes to renewable energy if you are willing to overlook the human slavery aspect.
Not every day is sunny and not every day is windy and with the ever-changing weather we simply cannot count on the sun and wind to power us on demand. So of course there would be batteries, a source of stored power. NYS would need 15,600 MW in additional batteries to keep us purring along as per the usual according to the NYISO study. How much is 15,600 MW? To put that into perspective, one of the world's largest solar-powered batteries is in Parrish, Florida. It is a 409-MW battery storage system and the size of 30 football fields. It takes approximately 7 acres of land to store 1 MW – that would be 109,200 acres for this additional battery space. And this is just an estimate.
So back to the cutting down of trees.
For Gov. Hochul to see her plan through, a lot of land is needed. NYS is fortunate to have some of the most fertile land in the United States and over 33,000 family-owned farms. Due to our weather conditions and less frequent droughts, we also have a nice growing season which could extend even longer with the climate warming. https://agriculture.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/05/2020-annual-report_0.pdf)
To create these battery and solar farms requires vast amounts of land and farmers who are tired of the hard work and low margins are happy to lease their land to the government for the same price of farming, with no hard labor required.
Sacrificing land that could sustain us for centuries to fulfill a campaign promise makes no sense, but like most Government plans there is very little thinking for the future. Not thinking it through is how we got ourselves in this mess in the first place.
As a small business owner who comes from 3 generations of farmers, I have seen firsthand the toll industrialized farming takes. My grandfather suffered from ill health due to stress and toxins from fertilizer that our family farm in Ohio succumbed to, when “regular” farming turned into big agriculture. Gone were the Christmas trees, sweet corn stand and donkey rides and in came soy beans and field corn, all to feed the growing livestock industry. Today my family has either sold the land or leased it out, working in more lucrative city jobs and trucking.
But this failure to nurture and care for those who tend to our land is also exactly why we are in this climate mess. The clearing of land for crops to feed large masses of animals who live in buildings and not grazing the land is 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.
Looking at this chart below from Frontiers Research Publishing https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.789499/full we can see the multilayered causes of Greenhouse Gases(GHG) – the cause of climate change. Agriculture is as much of a problem as energy when you look at the causes per industry.
Obviously, coal, oil and gas are in all industries, which is why it would make the most sense to look for multiple solutions that cover the whole, and not just one solution for one industry.
In another chart from the EPA, I found GHG emissions have gone down from their peak in 2007. If this is true, why aren’t we taking that information and using it to reduce greenhouse gases even further?
I searched for the reasons for the decline and found everything from the recession of 2008 to an increase in renewable energy and lower coal consumption to be the cause for the decrease. I suspect it is a combination of all. Yet oddly there is no definitive answer. No one seems to know.
The 2021 increase in GHG, post pandemic, does have a source – transportation.
According to this report https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=52380# from the US Energy Information Administration, the increase in GHG 2020-21 was caused by all of us wanting to travel again.
“At the fuel level, petroleum and coal accounted for most of U.S. CO2 emissions increases from 2020 to 2021, rising by 181 MMmt (9%) and 126 MMmt (14%), respectively. The increase in petroleum emissions was largely a result of more travel demand. U.S. jet fuel emissions increased 27%, motor gasoline emissions increased 9%, and emissions from distillate fuel oil (which is primarily consumed as diesel) increased 6%.”
So if solar and wind aren’t the answers what is?
There are many ways to solve our climate crisis, but tearing down trees, clearing land and using toddlers to mine cobalt is not the answer.
If we are to learn anything from our colonizing ways, it is that suffering of others is not the answer to the survival of some.
Which leads me to why Hochul is cutting down trees in the name of resiliency.
Hochul like most politicians is in a long-term relationship with developers. Once a thriving, working class city, New York City hit the tipping point of rent being too high to make a margin and by the 1970s nearly all the manufacturers left, and the real estate boom began. It has not ended since, as all our Mayors and Governors and some city council members give them cart blanche. Development means more tax revenue and Gov Hochul is happy to give the go ahead and wrap it in a pretty package called resiliency to make us think the loss of trees, wildlife, clean water and air is worth it.
When we all know it isn’t.
Forests, soil and oceans are the top carbon captures we have in nature, with mature trees and fertile soil being top priority – it makes no sense whatsoever to cut these down or cover them with cement football fields holding batteries for our renewable future.
But money and power.
Politicians don’t have the integrity to sacrifice an election to do the right thing – when their successor may very well change it anyhow. So why should Hochul be the one? What are a few trees and hundreds of humans lives in the DRC when the immediate economy bump in construction and development will make an excellent campaign talking point.
The environment matters not to 99.9% of our political leaders and certainly not big industries. Most aren’t educated enough on climate solutions which are rooted in conservation. That means less. Less travel, less cars, less consumption, less manufacturing – this works. We saw it work in 2020. But they have us thinking we must have more, when less is something you and I would hardly notice.
In fact, I think we would be happier. Happier to have back our small Mom + Pop shops where we gathered and saw our neighbors, had a nice catch up and shared a laugh or two. Less would not mean less jobs, but better paying, high quality jobs that didn’t require paying people $8 an hour to work a 60-hour work week in a warehouse and to pee in a bucket. More means cheaper, faster, disposable. Less means higher quality, slower, value.
I wish I had the solution on how we could change the minds of those in charge. Right now, I am looking out my window at the once Wagner Park. A park that was teaming with multiple species of trees and plants and wildlife that my Battery Park City neighbors and I failed to save. Governor Hochul did not listen to our pleas, or the architectural plan created out of pocket that we submitted to her. A plan that would have saved the trees and plants and grasses AND provided flood safety, along with safety from the winds and rains. It would have been award-winning and an example for cities everywhere. Instead, she went with a big construction plan, created several years ago, that calls for clearing land and putting a big mound of cement in its place. Oh and retail shops too : )
Hochul’s resiliency plan for BPC will cost nearly a billion dollars when finished, her big developer and construction friends will fill their pockets, the unions will cast their support and when it fails to hold back the waters, they will surely blame the residents for holding them up. It is perfect for any politician.
We live on a planet that once had a perfect ecosystem and still does if we respect its limits. It was greed, money and power that is unique to us humans and until we stop growing economically and start growing consciously it will continue.
Climate change will not be fixed with solutions rooted in capitalism. And it certainly won’t come from the powers that be if it is the wealthy, elite running the show. Their status is built and maintained off this raping of our resources and repackaging them to us. Do you think any of them want to give up their power or money? Oh hell no. Power and money are the only thing they have to mask this dystopian world they have created.
As Doug E. Fresh says... “this type of shit happens every day”.
We continue to fight and shine the light on their bullshit until it changes.
Be well - Christine
Suggested Articles + books to learn more.
On using land upstate for “solar farms” and the fight https://therivernewsroom.com/backyard-battle-for-new-yorks-climate-future-shepherds-run-copake/
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara https://www.mcnallyjackson.com/book/9781250284303
The Importance of Trees in combatting climate change from the USDA forest service – oh the irony - https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/trees-are-climate-change-carbon-storage-heroes
“Less is More: How degrowth will save the world” by Jason Hickel https://www.amazon.com/Less-More-Degrowth-Will-World-ebook/dp/B085L9XSM1 out of print and only on amazon.
“Doughnut Economics” by Kate Raworth - https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/The economy we need to embrace for a more equal, just world and healthy planet.
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/what-will-happen-solar-panels-after-their-useful-lives-are-over
www.savewagner.com