Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, February 14, 2008
New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg takes Global Warming seriously. He sees Global Warming as the same kind of threat as terrorism, only on a slower scale.
Bloomberg has a plan to create “the first environmentally sustainable 21st-century city” with 127 ways to attain that goal in 25 years.
Last year Mayor Bloomberg outlined his plaNYC which is far- reaching and visionary to say the least. There is no doubt this man is serious about what he sees as a real threat to not just NYC but the entire planet. Some would say Bloomberg has gone beyond serious and planted himself firmly on the loony toon side of the ledger sheets.
Cultivating mussels to suck pollution out of the rivers, platforms over rail yards and highways to create land for housing seem futurama like, yet somehow they make sense. NYC’s population is expected to grow by 1 million more residents by 2030. Creating room for more housing is definitely going to be a challenge. But an even larger challenge will be keeping future leaders of the city and the state on board with his plan. As Bloomberg says, “If we don’t act now, when?”
On the more conservative side of the ledger plaNYC proposals include ‘congestion pricing” which would charge people who drive cars below 86th street a fee which he believes would not only reduce congestion, but raise funds to complete more public transportation projects.
Earlier this week Mayor Bloomberg addressed the United Nations and announced his long term plan to reduce the city’s use of tropical hardwoods. The city purchases more than $1 million each year of tropical hardwoods. These types of woods are resistant to rot and are very durable. Bloomberg explained tropical deforestation, “accounts for some 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emission.”
Last fall Bloomberg, along with New York Restoration Project Founder Bette Midler, planted the first of what will be 1 Million new trees that will be planted in New York. The two planted a Carolina Silverbell tree in the Bronx.
The tree project is part of PlaNYC effort to increase the city’s urban forest by 20% in the next 10 years.
Mayor Bloomberg pointed out that local officials in every large city on the earth are the closest to the people and the problems they face. “And it’s why the mayors of many of the world’s largest cities have joined forces to fight climate change in the ‘C-40′ organization, whose conference it was New York’s privilege to host last May.”
The Mayor reminded those in attendance at the UN that even though the government, at a national level, has yet to approve the Kyoto Protocol, “more than 700 cities in the United States, representing more than 80 million Americans, have pledged to meet its goals.”
Read the entire text of the Mayor’s speech to the UN as delivered.
Opening Photo Thanks: Spencer T Tucker
Mayor Bloomberg delivers remarks at the “Addressing Climate Change: The United Nations at Work” Conference. February 11, 2008.
Second Photo Thanks: Edward Reed
Mayor Bloomberg and New York Restoration Project (NYRP) Founder Bette Midler today launched the Million Trees NYC initiative to plant and care for one million trees throughout the five boroughs in the next decade. October 09, 2007
Labels: Bette Midler, Climate Change, Global Warming, Michael Bloomberg, New York City, United Nations
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Welcome to the Capitol of the World! Mayor Bloomberg’s New York City.
