January 2022 Calendar of Events
Happy New Year! Kick off the year by exploring something new: Create you dream landscape on a small budget, hit the Repair Cafe, or lobby for Renewable Heat Now! Explore the full January Calendar of Events here.
“Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain: The Promise and the Peril” – Thursday, Jan. 13th @ 7pm
Save the date! Join the League of Women Voters of Tompkins County online Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 7pm to learn from speaker Irene Weiser, Coordinator of Fossil Free Tompkins. Come learn the basics of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, how the energy appetite of some forms threatens to derail achievement of NYS climate goals, and possible directions forward. Weiser has spent 10 years working toward local and state energy policies that will bring an affordable, equitable transition to renewable energy. She was elected to three terms as council member in the Town of Caroline, serving from 2012 to 2020. Co-Sponsored by: Campaign for Renewable Energy, Fossil Free Tompkins, People for a Healthy Environment, and Sustainable Tompkins.
The crypto line is open! Call before the end of the year!
Thanks to Food and Water Watch, there is now a line dedicated to Proof of Work Cryptocurrency. Please call (866) 942-5138 to be connected to Governor Hochul and ask her to: Put a pause on PoW crypto until the human health and environmental aspects can be studied. Have her DEC reject the Greenidge and Fortistar permits. If you tweet, please retweet this tweet which is a message to Governor Hochul. For more info on this issue, read this article.
It’s time to change NYS’ recycling system!
Recycling has a big problem and consumer brand owners need to be a part of the solution! Please consider supporting NYS S.1185A, an Extended Producer Responsibility bill for Consumer Packaging and Printed Paper. How you can support this bill: Please let your State Assembly Member know you support this bill! Use this easy tool to find your assembly member – When you find them, click the Contact button to see their phone number and a form where you can leave a comment. Contact your local government officials and indicate it is time to fix our states recycling system. If you don’t know who that is, use this page to find your county’s website.
Help save public land on Cayuga Lake!
After nearly 100 years as an incredible waterfront recreational property, Camp Barton is in danger of being sold and subdivided! Please help us stop this process! We saved the Bell Station property from development on the East side of Cayuga Lake now it’s time to save Camp Barton on the West side. What you can do: Please add your name to the petition: “Governor Kathy Hochul: Save Camp Barton!” Please include your personal connection to Camp Barton in the comments section – if you have one. Share it with your networks! We need to get thousands of signatures ASAP to get the attention of our Governor.
Vote for Sustainable Tompkins!
Partners for Change highlights organizations that share GreenStar’s commitment to sustainable agriculture/organic food, environmental protection/stewardship, hunger and social justice issues, local food system, co-ops, and the well being and education of the community regarding these topics. If you are a GreenStar Co-op member, from December 14th – 28th, you can vote through your member portal here to select your top 10 choices among local nonprofits to participate in next year’s Partners for Change program. We humbly ask that you vote for Sustainable Tompkins!
December Calendar of Events
Have you visited our calendar of events lately? This month, stop by the CAP-a-Palooza Art Sale, donate to a food pantry, or help out on a community orchard! See the full calendar here.
We need you to help fend off dirty crypto plants in NYS!
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are “mined” in energy-intensive operations — power plants burn fossil fuels to meet the massive electricity needs of cryptocurrency creation and transactions. And right now, cryptocurrency-mining operators are trying to fire up some of New York’s dirtiest retired power plants. We should be doing everything we can to move New York off fossil fuels; we can’t afford to repower dirty fracked gas power plants. And especially not for cryptocurrency. We can stop this, but we need the Legislature to place a moratorium on these energy-intensive operations now. As we look ahead to the start of the legislative session, now is the time to let your state legislators know that they must prioritize stopping cryptocurrency mining using the energy-intensive “proof of work” method of authentication.
Crypto & Climate Impacts webinar this Saturday, Dec. 11th
System Change Not Climate Change is hosting a Free Virtual Webinar on Proof of Work crypto (commonly used in Bitcoin) on Saturday, December 11th at 1:00 pm EST (11:00 am PST). Register here for the Zoom to engage with the speakers or watch live on their Facebook page. Can’t make it? The webinar will be posted later on their YouTube channel. What the frack is cryptocurrency, anyway? Should we embrace it or eschew it? Join us for a critical evaluation with cartographer Karen Edelstein, independent journalist and scholar Maura Stephens, and Seneca Lake Guardian Yvonne Taylor, who will enlighten us about who loves it, what it is, when and where it may be coming, why it’s growing so spectacularly, and how it impacts climate — and our own lives. They’ll share how communities worldwide are organizing to fight siting of CO2-belching cryptocurrency mines in their midst.
Gov. Hochul announces agreement to protect pristine Cayuga Lake waterfront property
Governor Kathy Hochul announced a land purchase agreement has been reached between the Finger Lakes Land Trust and New York State Electric & Gas Corp. for the 470-Acre Bell Station, the largest privately-owned undeveloped lake shoreline in the Finger Lakes. Governor Hochul in September announced that NYSEG had canceled the auction of land known as Bell Station with 3,400 feet of pristine shoreline on the east side of Cayuga Lake in Tompkins County, and that three state agencies would facilitate permanent protection of this parcel and maximize public access.
Stop Hughes Energy’s proposed waste plant
Hughes Energy Group is proposing a disastrous waste-to-fuel facility at the edge of our forever-wild Catskills forests—and uphill from the drinking water of 9 million+ New Yorkers. We need your help to fight it off! Here’s what you can do…
URGENT: Tell Governor Hochul to veto dangerous bill
A dangerous bill (The Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (AB2591)) promoting a false solution to our climate crisis is on its way to Governor Hochul’s desk for her signature. Can you please take a minute right now to call the Governor and urge her to veto Assembly Bill A2591A (aka LECCLA)?
Help us tell the DEC – No More Dirty Crypto!
The period to submit comments to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) on the climate busting air emissions at the proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining plant, Greenidge Generation, closes on November 19th. Please submit a comment to the NYSDEC by the November 19th deadline. Here is a sample letter you can submit. You can also make a call to Governor Hochul to express your concerns via this hotline: 866-942-5138. Thank you for your support!
Tell the Biden Administration: More Plastic is not the answer!
On Tuesday, October 26, 2021, at 1:00pm, fenceline and environmental justice groups from around the country will be joining together on a livestream to call on President Biden and his Administration to stop issuing permits for new and expanding petrochemical facilities – and we’re hoping for broad, movement-wide support in this ask. Here’s how you can help…
Let’s rally for clean air & water!
With less than a month before voting starts, Environmental Advocates NY will be bringing together local elected officials and environmental advocates to rally in support of the state constitutional amendment that will be on your ballot (as Proposal #2) this fall that will give all New Yorkers a right to clean air, clean water, and a healthful environment. Come by to learn more about environmental rights and help spread the word about this important tool to ensure New York’s air, water, and environment are clean and healthy for generations to come!