The Atlantic Chapter’s Population Committee has received a grant from Sierra Club National’s Activist Network to offer an essay contest for high school juniors and seniors in New York, challenging them to write essays on the topic:
Are There Limits to Growth? Population, Consumption and the Environment.
The winner will earn $500 (second place, $200; third place, $100) and we hope to publish the winning essay.
by Larry Beahan
Solyndra, the failed solar panel manufacturer, is a name that fossil fuel and nuclear energy enthusiasts have kept in the headlines. The Obama administration lost $500 million by guaranteeing Solyndra’s loans as part of the $700 billion, 2009 stimulus package.
Solyndra and Solyndra-like projects must stay in the spotlight because supporting clean renewable energy is exactly the direction we must follow if we are to survive the triple threat of climate change, dependence on foreign fuel and the pollution of our air, lands and waters.
by Bob Ciesielski
In early June, 2012, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), at the urging of Governor Cuomo, established a solar feed-in-tariff. LIPA agreed to purchase solar power at the rate of 22 cents per kilowatt hour under 20-year contracts. Within six weeks, the top tier of the demonstration project dealing with large projects was oversubscribed.
by Lisa DiCaprio
How can we power the world with renewable energy? Mark Z. Jacobson, a distinguished environmental engineer, addressed this question recently, with great specificity, in a presentation at The New School in New York City.
by Moisha Blechman
For much of last year, the “fiscal cliff” was the big media story. It forced everyone to focus on the economics of government. But banking, budgets and money themselves are abstractions.
This is not true of the laws of nature. They are absolute. Ignoring them, as we did in 2012, puts us in grave danger. We have been very dangerously distracted by the fiscal cliff, which is orders of magnitude less important than the “climate cliff.”
By Roger Downs
An open Letter to Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg
Dear Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg:
The annual election for the Club’s Board of Directors is now underway. Those eligible to vote in the national Sierra Club election will receive in the mail (or by Internet if you chose the electronic delivery option) your national Sierra Club ballot. This will include information on the candidates and where you can find additional information on the Club’s website.
by Richard Heinberg
For the past three or four years, media sources in the U.S. trumpeted the “game-changing” new stream of natural gas coming from tight shale deposits produced with the technologies of horizontal drilling and hydrofracturing.
So much gas surged from wells in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania that the U.S. Department of Energy, presidential candidates, and the companies working in these plays all agreed: America can look forward to 100 years of cheap, abundant gas!
This Presidents Day, show President Obama the climate movement isn’t going away.
From families along the East Coast, hit by monster storms and fires, to drought-stricken farmers in the Midwest, millions of Americans are already feeling the disastrous effects of the climate crisis in their own lives.
Click to learn how you can get more involved with the Sierra Club through actions in your area, upcoming outings, and calls to action!
