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Can the DEC Compensate for a Weak EPA?
The confirmation of Scott Pruitt to head up the federal Environmental Protection Agency has left many people who are concerned about the future of our water and air quality, and the safety of our public lands and waterways, wondering whether we are on our way back to the bad old days of the 20th century, when pollution could sometimes be fatal. In NYC alone, smog pollution was responsible for more than 150 deaths in November of 1966.
While leaded gasoline and coal fired power plants within the city limits are now things of the past, some of the things of the past are still with us. NYC is home to three major toxic sites that have been identified as priorities by EPA and designated as Superfund sites: the Newtown Creek in Long Island City, the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn and the Radium Chemical Company in Woodside, Queens, where the world's largest cache of Radium-226, a known carcinogen, is stored. Newtown Creek is considered by some the most polluted waterway in the US- the result of more than 150 years of industrialization.
Without strong leadership and funding, those sites may never be cleaned up by the Feds. So Governor Cuomo is looking into the possibility of having the state's Department of Environmental Conservation step in to pick up the slack. In the past, DEC has had to defer the worst environmental sites to the EPA. Increasing DEC’s power would allow it to act on the larger problem sites, as well as more sites simultaneously.
You can read more about this from the NY League of Conservation Voters website here.
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Spring Sale- 10% Off Sustainable Schools Memberships!
Join the Solar One Green Design Lab Sustainbale Schools Network! SSN membership provides teachers with the entire GDL curriculum – Energy, Materials Science, Water, Food, and Air Quality – and program services including: video tutorials, technical assistance for teachers and sustainability project support!
Single teacher memberships are normally $250 but are now $225. And whole school memberships, normally $1,000, are now $900.
To learn more about the programs offered by Green Design Lab, including hands-on workshops for students and professional development for teachers visit thegreendesignlab.org.
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Watch Tamar Rogoff's Enter The Faun on the BS World Channel March 28
Solar One Founding Artistic Director Tamar Rogoff has, for the past few years, been working intensely on a documentary about her work making a ballet performance with a performer coping with cerebral palsy. This groundbreaking work has attracted the attention of Oliver Sachs before his passing, as well as the Harvard Medical School, and allowed actor Gregg Mozgala, who had no previous professional dance experience, to learn to use hois body in miraculous ways he never thought possible.
On Tuesday March 28, PBS will be screening the documentary, which can be viewed localled on the World Channel (please check listings for time and channel number). The unlikely collaboration between a veteran choreographer and a young actor with cerebral palsy delivers astonishing proof that each and every body is capable of miraculous transformation.
The film is also available for purchase here.
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