Tag: <span>new york city</span>

Flooded with Possibilities: Deciding New York City’s Fate with Sea Level Rise

It’s the year 2100, and a little boy named John wakes up to the sound of rain. The water rages down on his family’s roof, leaving his bedroom window’s view of Lower Manhattan blurry. John is only 10 years old, but he starts to worry about what the rain means. …

Temperatures are Rising in New York, and Policy is Playing Catchup

  Summers in New York City are unbeatable. They’re also unbearably hot, and, due to climate change, they’re getting hotter every year. An 80ºF day is characterized by the smell of hot garbage in the morning, sweltering heat during the day, and relentlessly muggy nights. In a city full of …

Does Resilience Include Retreat? Semantics of Climate Change for Coastal Communities

You’ve probably heard that climate change causes the oceans to rise. And maybe you’ve heard the follow-up statistic, which is that shorelines are rising 1 inch every 7-8 years. To most people this doesn’t seem like much, but this seemingly small figure translates to thousands of miles of coastlines being …

The Murky Ethics and Complicated Environmental Claims of Big Hydro

As ongoing global reliance on fossil fuels continues to accelerate climate change, urgency and interest in transitioning to renewable energy sources is  increasing. A 2019 survey from the Pew Research Center found that most Americans believe the United States should prioritize expanding renewable energy sources over the continued use of …

Pies for Flies

When I say composting, what’s the first word that comes to your mind? Is it soil? food? dirt? worms? It’s almost definitely not flies–but maybe that’ll change soon. Using the foundation I built in my first year at Bard’s Center of Environmental Policy through classes in food policy, systems, and …

Being a good leader means being a good listener

The NYC Compost Project, created by the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) in 1993, works to rebuild NYC’s soils by providing New Yorkers with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to make and use compost locally. NYC Compost Project programs are implemented by DSNY-funded teams at seven host organizations, …

The Core of the Big Apple: Making the Most of NYC’s Organics Program–by Allie Gumas

Everybody eats. Everybody also accumulates some amount of food waste. Growing up, and well throughout my undergraduate career I thought like this: If you lived in a city, that food waste ended up in the trash can under your sink. At some point, the bag was tied up and tossed …

Stocks and Flows: Navigating NYC Water Policy

Over the course of my internship at the New York City Council, I’ve been able to spend some time at City Hall and at the 22nd district office of Chairman Constantinides. I even had the chance to attend a public hearing on proposed energy efficiency laws in Council Chambers at City …

One Man’s Waste Is Another Man’s Food

NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) My internship is with DSNY, in the Office of the Commissioner, and my position is largely focused around one event in particular, the NYC Food Waste Fair. Under NYC’s Zero Waste Initiative to contribute zero waste to landfills by 2030, the city has been steadily …

Greening NYC’s Waterfront: Urban Environmentalism at its Finest

An important component of being an environmentalist is helping people connect with nature who are otherwise not keen about the ecological beauty in and near their surroundings. Particularly in urban settings, residents can easily fall out of touch with the natural environment that is often sparsely preserved in densely populated …