Putting Out the Planetary Fire

The climate crisis is upon us. The upcoming summer is expected to be brutal with dangerous heatwaves, severe drought across the country, wildfires, and extreme storms. We know the solution to the climate crisis is to stop burning fossil fuels, yet, despite his commitment to divest from fossil fuels in 2020, Comptroller DiNapoli continues to invest heavily in Exxon, Shell, Chevron and other Big Oil...

More than one hundred New Yorkers were at the Capitol on Wednesday April 13 calling for a three-year moratorium on new data-center development while the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) complete comprehensive reports evaluating the industry’s current and projected effects on electricity rates, energy use, water resources, air quality, greenhous...

On Monday May 11, several hundred people attended Beyond Plastic’s lobby day and rally. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act – known as PRRIA – would require producers of single use packaging to reduce the amount by 30% over 12 years and ban 13 toxic chemicals from packaging. The bill has twice passed the Senate but the Assembly Speaker has refused to let it come up for a vote...

On Monday May 11, several hundred people attended Beyond Plastic’s lobby day and rally. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act – known as PRRIA – would require producers of single-use packaging to reduce the amount by 30% over 12 years and ban 13 toxic chemicals from packaging. The bill has twice passed the Senate but the Assembly Speaker has refused to let it come up for a vote...

Environmental groups and Alaskan tribes sued the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency for unlawfully repealing the endangerment finding and motor vehicle emissions standards. The EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding is the scientific determination that greenhouse gas pollution harms public health and welfare.. The rollback ignores established science and removes critical safeguards at...

NYPIRG is conducting a statewide bus tour to highlight the energy waste of AI data centers, which require a tremendous amount of energy, zapping electricity from the public grid. These energy hogs could lead to rising air pollution, industrial use of local clean water, and skyrocketing utility bills. Legislation calling for a moratorium on such data centers has been introduced. A data center is be...

The EcoAction Committee of the Green Party of the United States held its annual Earth Day to May Day webinar on Monday April 13. Speakers were Jill Stein, the recent Green Presidential candidate, and Michael Johnson, Democracy Campaign Manager for Third Act. The event highlights the interconnection of issues such as climate change, economic inequality, war, racial injustice, immigrant rights, and...

Climate activists were back at the State Capitol on April 21, with 19 being arrested after they compared Governor Hochul to Donald Trump due to her efforts to gut the CLCPA, the state’s climate law. We hear from Pete Sikora of NY Communities for Change; Eleanor from Germany; Cornell Professor Bob Howarth; and, Santosh Nandabalan from NYCC.

On Monday, May 11, Beyond Plastics is organizing a lobby day and rally at the Capitol to support the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA). National Organizing Director Alexis Goldsmith talks with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine. PRRIA applies Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to packaging, requiring manufacturers and distributors to manage the waste from the pro...

On Tuesday, May 5, Climate Defiance organized a last-minute protest against Governor Hochul’s push to gut the climate law. While the Chair of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee says that a budget deal has been struck, no official details have yet been released. It is understood that lawmakers have agreed to push back by several years the deadline to issue regulations to reduce greenhouse gas em...

While Governor Hochul on May 7 announced that there was a deal on the budget, legislative leaders disagreed, saying only that they were close. Still, some details have emerged about the status of the Governor’s apparently successful push to weaken the requirements of the state’s climate law (CLCPA). Stephen Edel, Executive Director of NY Renews, talks with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

In recent months Governor Hochul has indicated that she wants to weaken the state’s climate law (CLCPA). The state is not on track to meet the goals for using renewable energy for electricity or cutting greenhouse gas emissions. She claims that the world has changed since the climate law was adopted, including the impact of COVID. Her administration last week issued a 3 page memo citing significan...

The EcoAction committee of the Green Party of the US will hold an open discussion on Monday March 9 at 8 PM ET about its ecosocialist Green New Deal proposal, which it first promoted in 2010, and how to push the GND in the current political climate. At the NYS Capitol. Governor Hochul is making a major push to weaken the state’s climate law and goals. Howie Hawkins, the initial author in the US of...

Food & Water Watch has released a letter that makes a compelling, urgent case for a nationwide moratorium on the construction of new AI-driven data centers. In New York, more than 100 community and faith groups signed on to a letter calling for a three-year moratorium. Eric Weltman, senior organizer for Food and Water Watch, talks to Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

New York’s largest student-led climate action, TREEage, held its 5th annual Youth Day of Action on March 17th at the Capitol, in partnership with NY Renews, Invest in Our New York, Make the Road NY, and others. An estimated 1000 attended to tell Governor Hochul to maintain hard-fought mandates under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, and address additional, timely, pressing issue...

200 national, state, local groups and representatives from 6 Indigenous Nations have sent a letter to Governor Hochul demanding that she drop her plans to build 5 gigawatts of new nuclear power in the state. The advocates’ letter was signed by more than 200 groups including Food & Water Watch, Alliance for a Green Economy, NY Renews (a coalition of 400+ organizations), NIRS, Citizen Action, NY...

On Wednesday March 25th 500 climate activists came to the State Capitol to urge state lawmakers not to give in to Governor Hochul’s push to gut the state’s climate law. We hear from Anne Rabe of the Alliance for a Nuclear Free NY; Greg Schwedock; Ethan Gormley of Citizen Action; Kim Fraczek of the Sane Energy Project; Molly Ornati of 350 Brooklyn; John Seakwood of Third Act Upstate; Alex Beauchamp...

Ecological resistance begins with a hard truth: the biosphere is being destroyed by systems that know exactly how to absorb moral outrage. You can march, sign, lobby, and testify, and still wake the next morning to another forest cut, another river poisoned, another species pushed closer to silence. Some feel more direct action is needed, Pike talks with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine,, inc...

Climate activist and author Bill McKibben spoke at the Media Sanctuary on Friday April 3 to share his hope for our future in “Here Comes the Sun,” a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future. McKibben talks with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine about the positive developments with solar energy; the war for oil with Iran and Venezuela; the...

Environmental Advocates NY and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center released a new report today about New York’s ongoing efforts to remove harmful lead service lines. The report recommends more funding and fewer hurdles in the statewide push to get the lead out. Rob Hayes of EA talks with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

A New York State judge has ruled that the State is violating its climate law (CLCPA) and it can not delay just because it is complicated. Citizen Action, PUSH Buffalo, Sierra Club, and We ACT sued since the state was 18 months late in issuing regulations on how it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Caroline Chen of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest talks with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Moha...

On Friday, Nov. 7, Gov. Hochul announced her approval of a 17-mile underwater natural gas pipeline near New York City and an agreement that allows Greenidge Generation to continue using fracked gas to power its Bitcoin mining operation on Seneca Lake for the next five years. Both reversed previous decisions that the projects conflicted with the state’s climate law. Yvonne Taylor of Seneca Lake Gua...

On Friday November 7, Governor Hochul made two critical decisions that appalled climate activists: approving the NESE (Northeast Supply Enhancement Extension) fracked gas pipeline under the NYC Harbor; and approving a 5 year air permit for the Greenidge Frack Gas Cryptocurrency facility at Seneca Lake. Both reversed prior decisions denying the permits. Eric Weltman of Food and Water Watch discusse...

Governor Hochul capped off a week of startling reversals on climate action by agreeing to delay the start of the All-Electric Buildings Act. The law requires all new buildings of six stories or less to be all electric (no gas or other fossil fuels) starting January 1, 2026. Liz Moran of Earth Justice discusses the issue with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Friday, November 14, was another Global Climate Strike by Fridays For Future, the international student climate group started by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Earlier in the week, the 30th COP began in Brazil on the tenth anniversary of the Paris Climate Accords. In the Capital District, several dozen protestors gathered outside Governor Hochul’s 2nd-floor office in the State Capitol. We first...