Author: Michael Duttweiler

Thanks to the efforts of many residents, organizations, and our governor and representatives in NYS, the Bell Station land will not be auctioned. Instead it looks as if the Finger Lakes Land Trust, working with the DEC, will be able to save the land for public rather than private use.

Community Choice Aggregation Update: September 1, 2021 from Rod Howe (Town of Ithaca), Gay Nicholson (Sustainable Tompkins) and Luis Aguirre-Torres (City of Ithaca) The Park Foundation awarded the “Community Choice Aggregation in Tompkins County: Developing a Path Forward” proposal $50,000 (as opposed to the $72,000 request). This news along with the following additional inputs led to a series of summer...

An excellent article on the Greenidge plant (southeast of Rochester)and bitcoins.  The processing of bitcoin transactions is very energy intensive and is done at this plant  “behind the meter” to avoid the regulations that cover normal power plants.  It is useful to read the whole article to get a feeling for how bad this is with regard to the use...

Janet Yellen has analyzed the economic impact that climate change will have and has called it and “existential threat” to financial markets.  This may mean that more economists will face up to the need to take it seriously and not simply put it into the category of “externalities”.  Here is her statement: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/31/yellen-climate-change-fsoc-478769

Below is a link for a Utube video from Grandmothers 4 a Green New Deal.It is excellent and focuses on issues concerning environmental justice as well as a giving a general discussion of climate change and the Green New Deal.Grandmothers4AGreenNewDeal.org

The following link is for a very interesting article from the NY Times on using intensive grazing in ways that build healthy soils while sequestering carbon.  A number of our local farmers are using this type of grazing and are very enthusiastic. This is part of the efforts being made on regenerative agriculture techniques. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/climate/regenerative-grazing-cattle-climate.html

December 16, 2020 Largest Wildlife Crossing in USAt the link below you will find a wonderful picture of and information on a land bridge, which connects San Antonio’s Phil Hardberger Park across a six-lane highway. It opened Friday afternoon for people and animals. The project took ten years and the bridge is now the largest completed wildlife crossing of its kind...

December 9, 2020 New York State’s $226 Billion Pension Fund Moves to Divest from Riskiest Oil and Gas CompaniesBig news today! New York State just became the largest pension fund in the world to take comprehensive climate action, including fossil fuel divestment. The $226 billion state pension fund will review and divest from the riskiest oil and gas companies within 4...