Results tagged “globalwarming”

According to CBS News, data from a British team of explorers suggests "the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, and that much of the decrease will happen within 10 years." The Catlin Arctic Survey was working with the World Wildlife Fund, and the WWF warns, "Such a loss of Arctic sea ice cover has recently been assessed to set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself...This could lead to flooding affecting one-quarter of the world's population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions from massive carbon pools and extreme global weather changes."

    

Yes Men co-founder Andy Bichlbaum was arrested this morning while demonstrating one of the group's post-apocalyptic SurvivaBalls, described as "a self-contained living system—truly, a gated community for one. If you have a SurvivaBall, even if everyone else is dying, at least you can weather all storms." A spokesperson tells us that Bichlbaum was at Stuy Cove Park, just north of East 20th Street on the East River, wearing a SurvivaBall along with twenty others similarly ensconced. There were about 40 spectators, and so the NYPD, acting on NYC's unconstitutional parade permit law, arrived to break up the citizens' peaceful assembly.

Get your florescent bulbs and reusable shopping bags ready, because Climate Week NYC is here! Though the summit on climate change taking place at the UN is looking to disappoint, plenty of New Yorkers are doing their part to bring awareness to this global crisis. Events like the Oxfam's Human Wake Up Call and beach cleaning initiatives began over the weekend, and every day this week is filled with lectures, rallies and projects inspiring people to do their part. Treehugger has a list of some of the noteworthy events.

With President Obama in L'Aquila, Italy for the G8 Summit, three Greenpeace activists unfurled a banner on Mount Rushmore, next to Abraham Lincoln's likeness. The Washington Post reports, "The banner showed President Obama's face -- Greenpeace said it was an unfinished portrait, implying that Obama's legacy was in question -- and the words 'America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming.'" And soon after, the three climbers and other Greenepace activists were arrested.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a bill "intended to address global warming and transform the way the nation produces and uses energy," the NY Times reports. However, it was not an easy victory for President Obama: Forty-four Democrats voted against it, while eight Republicans voted for it, with the final vote at 219-212. In his weekly address, Obama noted that the bill will "finally create a set of incentives that will spark a clean energy transformation in our economy...spur the development of low carbon sources of energy - everything from wind, solar, and geothermal power to safer nuclear energy and cleaner coal....new energy savings. And most importantly, it will make possible the creation of millions of new jobs." However, the bill now heads to the Senate, where, the Washington Post warns, "passing climate legislation could prove more difficult."

The Bloomberg-appointed Panel on Climate Change released its final report yesterday, predicting that annual temperatures will rise between 4 and 7.5 degrees over the next century, while heat waves, damaging rain, and coastal flooding will become increasingly regular occurrences. Here's a look at what the city may very well look like as heavy flooding becomes more frequent.

           

Earlier today thrillseeker/activist Alain Robert scaled the NY Times Building in order to draw attention to the Global Warming threat. He reportedly climbed 52 floors, to the roof, before being detained by police around 12:30 p.m. He did so without the aid of any climbing instruments (except his shoes) and sans the safety of a parachute strapped to his back.

First devastating weather patterns and destroyed coral reefs, then lousy harvests and global food shortages, now this: soaring beer prices. In an increasingly warmer world, precious, life-sustaining beer is becoming a luxury item. The past year has seen a drought in Australia, flooding in Germany, hailstorms in the Pacific Northwest, and lower crop yields throughout Europe – all resulting in a dramatic spike in the cost of grains and hops.

The MTA will observe Earth Day (April 22nd) by stocking MetroCard vending machines with five million limited-edition green MetroCards. The cards aren’t “green” in the eco-friendly sense – they’re still not made from recycled material – they’re just, you know, green colored. So they’ve got that going for them. Oh, and some environmental factoids will be printed on the back.

The following post is from our advertiser, Campaign for New York's Future.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Amboy Rd. in Staten Island, another bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a scaffolding collapse on Grand Concourse and 149th St. in the Bronx.
• A building slated for destruction on Governors Island will become a lab for the FDNY to examine the dynamics of high-rise fires and how best to defeat them. Fire crews from cities around the country will be on hand to observe.
• Someone crunched the numbers and found that The New York Times Fashion Magazine is almost as white as the arctic in February, pre-global warming. The 55% of New Yorkers who aren't white are probably not the targeted demographic the Times Fashion Mag is looking for anyway.
• A New York Presbyterian Hospital official in charge of the Women, Infants, and Children program--which was designed to provide food for impoverished women and children--is accused of siphoning off a few hundred thousand dollars for vacations and comfortable living.
• City Councilman Eric Gioia is running a "carbon neutral" campaign for public advocate, that involves the use of more emails than flyers, the purchase of carbon offsets, and the use of hybrid vehicles.
• The International House of Pancakes downtown Brooklyn location is doing so well that plans are in the works for locations in Bed-Stuy, East New York, and Williamsburg.
• The family of a 25-year-old, who allegedly had his jaw broken by an EMT, is suing the city for $2 million. They accuse the EMT of punching the young man in the face after the patient accidentally drooled on him as he was giving him oxygen.
• Summertime probably seems far off today, but the organizers of the Movies With a View program are looking for submissions of short films to be shown before features in July and August amidst the moonlit shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge.

At this point, it's hard to tell whether Ed Begley, Jr. is more famous for his decades of acting or his decades of environmentalism. Sure, he's logged over 200 appearances on stage, film and television, including his Emmy-winning breakout role on St. Elsewhere and his priceless turn on Arrested Development. But his funniest performance is arguably his self-effacing cameo as a hardcore green activist in the classic 1999 Simpsons episode "Homer to the Max", in which he's shown driving a nonpolluting go-cart powered by his "own sense of self-satisfaction." Off screen, he's embraced this role of ardent environmentalist with an infectious positivity and seemingly tireless commitment to reducing his own impact on an increasingly injured ecosystem. The many green improvements to his largely solar powered, energy efficient home have been documented in the amusing and informative reality show Living With Ed, and now a newly published book offers a wide range of changes readers can implement to make their lifestyles more sustainable. Called Living Like Ed, it's as inspiring as it is handy, and Begley will be at the Strand bookstore at 7pm tonight for a reading and book signing organized by Environmental Defense.

Explaining why global warming needs to be stopped in an urgent way, Mayor Bloomberg said, "Terrorists kill people. Weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill an enormous amount of people. [But] global warming in the long term has the potential to kill everybody...This really is just as lethal. It's just the results are something we will face long term."

Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Office of Emergency Management have announced 10 winners in the contest to design temporary housing for the thousands of New Yorkers who might be displaced in the event of a catastrophe, like a direct hit from a Category 3 hurricane. The 117 submissions from 30 countries had to create quickly assembled housing for 38,000 families from Prospect Shore, a fictional neighborhood set along a mile of the New York City coastline.

FOOD: Trestle on Tenth, the “homey joins hearty” Swiss-inflected restaurant that takes its name from its proximity to the High Line and the avenue where it’s found, kicks off a special five-night series called “metzgete.” The Swiss tradition loosely translates to “butchers affair” and arises from the practice of salvaging every scrap of pig after the winter slaughter – “especially those parts that would or could not be dried, smoked or pickled for later consumption.” The $24 Trestle plate will include everything from braised belly to homemade bratwurst to liver and blood sausages. – John Del Signore

A tipster sends over what they describe as "a really rad clip of downtown Manhattan totally flooded, under what looks like 25 feet of water." We think it's more scary than it is rad...scarier than a fictional monster attacking New York. The real fear of what could be our future is shown below in what's part of Six Degrees Could Change the World which "explores the potential impacts of global warming degree-by-degree—through six degrees over the next hundred years."

Mayor Bloomberg continued his whirlwind tour through Asia yesterday with a stop in Bali, Indonesia to talk to United Nations officials about the global effects of climate change. This is after a foray to China, that brought to mind Ed Koch's Beijing inspiration for bike paths in NYC to The New York Times' Clyde Haberman. Like NYC, Bali was the victim of a devastating terrorist attack that killed and injured hundreds of people.

Senator Barack Obama might be back in Iowa on the campaign trail, but New Yorkers are still buzzing over his coffee - and bacon and eggs and toast - klatsch with Mayor Bloomberg on Friday morning. The meeting was supposedly caught Senator Hillary Clinton off guard - and not just because it was two blocks away from her midtown offices. Bloomberg's press secretary Stu Loeser said Bloomberg wanted to talk national policy with Obama,...

Weather and climate are different things. The former refers to day-to-day changes in the atmosphere, while the latter is a result of longer-term variations. The two can often be out-of-sync, which is why Gothamist gets violently agitated when people, on an unseasonably cold day, say "how can there be global warming, it's cold today," with the self-satisfied chuckle that goes with being a complete tool. Tomorrow, however, weather and climate will be walking hand-in-hand. Climatological...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an attempted bank robbery on East 23rd St. in Manhattan, a pedestrian struck on 82nd St. and Central Park West in Manhattan, and a homicide on Grand Ave. in Brooklyn.
• The politics of succession in the world of Masters of the Universe. Changing places, changing times, unsurpassable ambition.
• Sometimes the old is new: when a garbage hauling-controlling family tells you to do something, you do it, or they'll burn your company down.
• Mayor Bloomberg is displeased with an audit that criticizes his predecessor for a golf course construction deal that led to millions being paid to a mobbed-up company moving dirt from one place to another.
• New York State is joining a multi-state lawsuit against the federal government over global warming issues.
• Stop-and-frisks by the NYPD were down 11% in the latest quarter that it reported to the City Council.
• A suit has been brought against New York State with the shocking allegation that perhaps indigent people aren't provided adequate legal defense.
• The 71-year-old woman dumped unconscious on the sidewalk in front of a bogus dentist's office died.

We’re probably not alone in the fact that we love wines from Burgundy but really can’t afford them. A great 1er (premiere) cru Gevrey Chambertain could cost us around $35 - $50, and while on special occasions they can be worth every cent, the reality is that we don’t get to have them as much as we like. But there is good news.

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing on 168th St. and Hillside Ave. in Queens, a sexual assault at Stanton and Attorney Sts. in Manhattan, and a missing child on Himrod St. in Brooklyn. Artist Eve Mosher is outlining in chalk the high water lines that floods will reach every four years by 2080 if global warming continues unabated. The project can be seen at her site highwaterline. Six-year-old Natalie Shea is now a...

Wired is asking if Diesel's latest ad campaign is evil or fun. The ads, which have been out for a few months now, show some major cities underwater as global warming takes over - and global warming chic becomes the latest trend! Wired decides:

In their exuberant outlandishness, the ads carve out a little mental space where it's possible for a few seconds to contemplate global warming without thinking about disease, disaster and the possibility that I'll spend my retirement years hiding from water bandits. I find that refreshing. Global Warming: Refreshing!

Developer Charles J. Urstadt, the man behind the creation of Battery Park City in the 1970s, is eager to duplicate the feat further north up the Hudson by creating an additional 40 to 50 acres of Manhattan real estate. How? Well, by depositing fill dredged from Lower New York Bay.

Did you know you can make a salad out of weeds you find in Central Park? Or that there are mushrooms you can gather for free that taste just like chicken? There's plenty that you can find and eat in the city's park system and The Wildman Steve Brill is just the guy to show you where and how. Gothamist sat down to chat with New York's best known naturalist about the evils of lawns, the effects of global warming, and where to find some delectable free fruit.

The Smashing Pumpkins have officially made their return. The comeback (yeah, we're gonna call it a comeback) appears to be met with little fanfare. The new album, Zeitgeist, came out Tuesday - and was met with a lack of good reviews. The cover art is what we're concerned about here though.

Rising sea levels caused by global warming are projected to increase the frequency and severity of damaging storm surges and flooding. Under the higher-emissions scenario what is now considered a once-in-a-century coastal flood in New York City is projected to occur at least twice as often by mid-century, and 10 times as often—once per decade on average—by late-century. With lower emissions, today’s 100-year flood is projected to occur once every 22 years on average by late-century.The report also details the impact of higher emissions on human health, fisheries, agriculture, forests, and more.

Since the only truly green event is the one that doesn't happen, Live Earth is certainly being met with some criticism - but either way it's going to cast some green over the world tomorrow. If you aren't heading over to the "New York" event yourself, NBC Universal will be bringing the concert to the world with a three-hour primetime special Saturday night on NBC, 18 hours of live coverage on Bravo, seven hours on CNBC and lot more over at the Sundance Channel, Universal HD, Telemundo and Mun2. More on how they prepped for the event, and how they learned from Live 8, here.

MUSIC: Tickets are still available for Daniel Johnston tonight. If you aren't familiar with the music of this Austinite, check out a little of what he has to offer from a recent appearance on the Henry Rollins Show (video here), or in the documentary "The Devil and Daniel Johnston," trailer below:

New York City could be considered the Big Green Apple for the rest of the week. Bill Clinton and Mayor Bloomberg are hosting an international climate summit this week, beginning today and running through Thursday. And as part of other environmentally friendly festivities, Matt Dillon was on hand for the issuance of a challenge from Yahoo! to see which U.S. city was the most green.