Blog Posts by Subject: Environmentalism

This coming Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day and so this weekend is a great time to participate in Earth Day volunteer projects.

Green Medicine of the Year: Healing Plants

Going outside for a spring stroll? Watch where you step! That dandelion you're walking on has a distinguished medicinal history dating back centuries. Why not increase your appreciation of nature by learning about the amazing healing properties of plants and how many of our medicines, such as aspirin, originated from plants.

Ever since I was young, spurred on by my Recycling Queen aunt, my brother and I become very conscious of recycling and our global footprints. I started recycling papers, cans, bottles and reusing anything that could possibly be reused. I bought natural cotton clothing and started shopping at the Goodwill. I do not buy overpackaged products or waste water or electricity. Below are some earth-friendly libraries and museums that I found.

The Green Jobs Training Program is a collaboration between Queens Botanical Garden and La Guardia Community College with support from the Port Authority of NY & NJ.

The Green Jobs Training Program introduces participants to the principles of sustainability and provides the necessary skills to work for companies that have or want to develop a green focus.

This is your chance to get the skills you need to apply for a job in:

Are you 24 or over and looking for a career in the green advanced manufacturing industry?

Green Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (GAMC), a partnership between New York City College of Technology’s Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology and Industrial Design and the Business and Industry Training Center, is responsive to workforce education needs of NYC’s revitalized manufacturing sector. The program rallies resources and stakeholders from the public and private sectors, economic and workforce development agencies, unions and CBOs to help individuals navigate a career path through cutting edge technology education while contributing to the 

“The writer cannot be a mere storyteller; he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils. He or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.”

Nigerian environmentalist, author, and television producer Ken Saro-Wiwa lived and died by the words above. Born on October 10, 1941, Kenule “Ken” Beeson Saro Wiwa was an Ogoni (an ethnic minority in Nigeria). Ogoniland, located in the Niger Delta, is rich in oil that has been looted by the petroleum industry — with the explicit consent of the Nigerian government — for decades. As a result, the Niger Delta is listed as one 

Greenery and flowers, birds singing and warmer temperatures ... it's a perfect time to venture outside into the nearest natural spot to find respite. New York City's parks and natural spaces provide enjoyment for millions of people and habitats for plants and animals, some of them rare or endangered.

When you think of New York City images, the first thing that comes to mind might be a bit different than the scenery in the photo below. 

The first Earth Day was proclaimed on April 22, 1970 by one of its principal founders, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Already frustrated by the attitudes of big business, Senator Nelson, as the chairman of the White House Conference on Small Business, wisely noted that "the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around." He became greatly influenced by John McConnell, a grassroots organizer from San Francisco and Harvard graduate student, Denis Hayes. He asked the latter to organize nationwide events on college and public school campuses that would bring awareness to the environmental crises facing the world. As a 

The first time I saw the film Koyaanisqatsi I was a college student rambling around on an aimless Saturday night. A campus hall was screening it for free, so I ducked inside, my curiosity piqued.  I remember thinking, “Koyaanisqatsi? What does that mean?” With an “oh well” shrug, I settled into one of the classroom’s half-desk chairs as the lights dimmed to black. When the film ended and the lights shone, I was changed.

In the smoldering heat of summer, one of my greatest pleasures has been to find reprieve in New York City’s lush and thriving community gardens. For all the grandeur of the city’s more widely celebrated green spaces like Central Park and Prospect Park, there are hundreds of small-scale urban oases nestled in formerly decrepit lots across the five boroughs.

The mountains are rolling and green, hawks glide on invisible wind currents, endlessly circling gracefully above. On occasion a bald eagle soars powerfully across the sky; deer are a common sight along the river’s edge. The Delaware River is the dividing line between Pennsylvania and New York in this area. The river winds circuitously as it makes its way south to the coastal waters far below. The slow moving water of the Delaware creates a mirror image of the mountains and sky above. The Delaware River is clear and provides a magical window to the life and terrain below its sparkling surface. Rocks that fit in the palm of your hand share the underwater space with rocks the size of 

When I was a kid my grandpa smoked a pipe.  He would give me the cleaned out tobacco boxes to use as pencil boxes for school.  There was never any question of which box belonged to me.  I have to wonder, are kids allowed to use boxes advertising tobacco products at school today?  School administrators take note, I never became a smoker, but I did learn the value of repurposing and recycling.

The Brown Pelican (Pelcanus Occidentalis) is described on many web sites as one of seven or eight species of pelicans with a wing span over 7 feet...

If the answer is not so green, perhaps you might think about coming by the Harlem Branch Library on June 1st at 5:30 pm to get some helpful tips from Kellie Madden of Harlem Lofts. 

If you like to make stuff, chances are that when Earth Day arrives each year "green" handicrafts come to mind.  Perhaps you make new items from materials that others would consider wornout or trash; or maybe you seek out all-natural materials for your crafts.  If crafting of this kind  interests you, you might want to look back in time at how crafters from decades past approached "green" crafting. 

Forty years of Earth Days... and each year we are encouraged to do something green. How are you doing with that? I've made a few changes—am making fewer copies, reusing paper, recycling lots of stuff. And today I shall eschew plastic bottles: it's just that superb NYC tap water for me. 

Yesterday...

...and today!

OK, so this is the thing about which just about all Staten Islanders, no matter what their background or politics, have over the years been least proud. The Fresh Kills Landfill (or as we used to call it, “the dump,”) closed on March 22, 2001, certainly in part as a reward from then mayor Rudy Giuliani to Staten Island for its political support.

The dump opened up in 1948 and was supposed to be temporary. It grew to be by most accounts the largest garbage dump in the world.

I had the pleasure(?!) of growing up about two blocks away from one section of the dump. I can remember before it was there. It was a salt marsh