NY Climate Tech: July 18 to July 24
NY Climate Tech: July 18 to July 24
A solar tour in LIC, Green work and drinks in Brooklyn, art and the UN in Manhattan, and everyone's favorite Superfund site
Hi all,
Start this week off with a Tuesday with a solar tour with NYC Accelerator at the Greenwich in Long Island City. On Wednesday, head to Brooklyn for a coworking event with Women and Climate, then swing by Green Drinks Brooklyn at the Estuary in Brooklyn Bridge Park. If you’re in a more creative mood, check out the Art and Environment talk with artists Tatiana Arocha & Sarah Cameron Sunde at the Winter Garden in Brookfield Place. On Thursday, join with the United Nation Association of New York & the NYC Fair Trade Coalition for their summer soirée. Wrap up the week on Saturday with a trip to this week’s featured Superfund site, the Gowanus Canal, where Gowanus Dredgers presents the premier of Fire Ecologies, a unique musical and visual experience that explores American landscapes through the lens of climate change.
Cheers,
Alec and Sonam
Hot Take: CSI Gowanus
Guardians of the Gowanus! Photo by Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club
Last weekend I had the pleasure of becoming an amateur hydrologist, piloting an underwater drone down into the depths of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn (you certainly wouldn’t find me swimming down in that Superfund site, so this was the next best thing!). Celebrating City of Water Day with the Waterfront Alliance, the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, I got to go deep - literally and figuratively - into the storied history of one of New York City’s major watersheds.
Gowanus Watermark Walk, City of Water Day, 2022. Photos by Sonam Velani and Yan Sim
My guide: the indomitable Eymund Diegal, an immigrant from South Africa whose encyclopedic knowledge of the canal makes the rest of us look weak (check out his hyperlocal TedX Gowanus talk!). A decade ago he started Creek Scene Investigation, or CSI: Gowanus - a name Eymund chose to pique the interest of his 12-yr old daughter Amara. Her friends were deputized as “CSI Agents,” of course.
“The Gowanus Canal is a crime scene,” Eymund said. “If you know you’ve got a crime, you have to ask what caused it.”
The early years of development along the Gowanus Canal. Map by Eymund Diegal.
The culprits: the industrial grit of New York. For over 150 years, tanneries, flour mills, coal yards, oil refineries, and industrial plants lined the Gowanus Canal. By the early 1900s, the canal was the busiest commercial canal in the US, transporting six million tons of cargo annually. All the brownstone of ‘Brownstone Brooklyn’? You guessed it, it made its way to the borough through the canal. The beauty above ground meant that the toxic sludge, raw sewage, and industrial waste went below ground - down to the lowest point of the watershed, down into the muddy waters of the Gowanus Canal.
Eymund is an environmental planner whose forensics are unmatched - he’s used everything from helium balloons to underwater drones to centuries-old engravings to map the history of the Gowanus Canal watershed, and what it means for the future of climate resilient planning in NYC. The sleuthing: finding the biggest trees since they constantly need water and often sit directly atop local springs; locating government owned property such as schools, public housing, or parks – often the least valuable land atop subterranean marshes prone to flooding; and my personal favorite: a former basin landfill at First Street full of industrial relics like the circuit boards of the 20th century.
Eymund fills up a balloon with helium, carrying cameras that photograph the Gowanus watershed from above. Photo by Dave Sanders.
Over the years, the CSI Agents have helped Eymund rediscover the many waterways that fed the 1.8 mile long Gowanus Canal - these are now buried under basements and streets and remind local residents of their existence during heavy downpours. The influx of stormwater causes the sewer network to exceed its capacity, and the combined sewer overflows full of stormwater runoff, raw sewage, industrial pollutants, and much else are still discharged into the Gowanus Canal.
With a newly minted Gowanus rezoning poised to bring 8,200 new market-rate and subsidized apartments to the area and the EPA Superfund site cleanup well underway, the neighborhood will be lined with green infrastructure including a sponge park all along the canal to absorb rainwater, swale trails along all side streets, and active rain gardens with herbaceous plants. It’s a work in progress, but the animals are already out and about - with mummy fish, blue crabs, and eastern oysters already claiming their real estate (this is New York, after all).
Gowanus Canal Sponge Park. Photo by Hill West Architects.
All this is happening in your backyard! Become a citizen scientist and go on your very own CSI adventures with the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club - boats, paddles, and clean(er) waters included!
By Sonam Velani
Events this Week:
Events this Month:
For the Early Birds:
☀️ NYC Summer of Solar Rooftop Tour
When: Tue, July 19, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
Where: The Greenwich, 48-50 38th Street, Long Island City, NY, 11101
Considering solar for your building? Join us for a rooftop solar tour to learn if solar is the right fit for your building.With financial and tax incentives at an all-time high and Local Law 97 compliance deadlines coming up, there’s never been a better time to install solar panels on your building’s roof. Join NYC Accelerator at The Greenwich for a rooftop solar tour to: 1) Learn how The Greenwich has benefited from going solar 2) Get a hands-on tour of solar energy systems 3) Hear how NYC Accelerator can help you get solar, every step of the way.
👩🔧 Women and Climate NYC Coworking
When: Wed, July 20, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EDT
Where: WeWork, 1 Dock 72 Way, Brooklyn, NY 11205
We are excited to host our first Women & Climate Coworking Day to get to know each other better, facilitate meetings between our members, get all of us together for one day, and have a fun yet productive day! We will be hosted by WeWork Dock 72, which is in the Brooklyn Navy Yard area - if you haven’t been, the views are absolutely worth it!
🥂 Green Drinks Brooklyn
When: Wed, July 20, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Where: Estuary Brasserie & Bar, 159 Bridge Park Drive, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Is your work related to the environment or sustainability? Are you interested in sustainability or environmental issues. Do you want to meet some like minded folks and share your thoughts and passion. Come down to Estuary at ONE15 Brooklyn Marina for Happy Hour drinks. We'll have a few folks introduce themselves and their work.
Get a group together and grab dinner at the community table afterwards
Ramon Cruz, Sierra Club, environmental nonprofit
Ed Kearns, First Street Foundation, making climate risk accessible, easy to understand and actionable for individuals, governments, and industry.
Lily Turner, Urban Strong, green roofs and living walls
🖼 Art & the Environment: Artist Talk: Tatiana Arocha & Sarah Cameron Sunde
When: Wed, July 20, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Where: Winter Garden, 230 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10281
Join us for an engaging conversation with New York City-based artists Tatiana Arocha and Sarah Cameron Sunde who will discuss their environmentally inspired projects presented at Brookfield Place. The discussion will be moderated by Kendal Henry, who has thirty years of experience curating exhibitions, specializing in public art projects across the globe, including Tatiana’s artwork at Brookfield Place. The panel will explore the ways each artist incorporate elements of earth and water in their practice to call attention to society’s complex relationship with and impact on the environment.
👗 Sustainable Summer Soiree
When: Thu, July 21, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Where: The Hugh at 601 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
The Sustainable Summer Soiree hosted by the United Nation Association of New York & the NYC Fair Trade Coalition, will bring together fashion, food, & Fair Trade. Held at The Hugh, on 53rd Street & Lexington Ave, this event is bringing together stakeholders throughout the supply chain. The party starts at 6pm with NYC Fair Trade Coalition members showcasing their products from around the world. Come reconnect with old friends and make new connections as we renew our commitment to moving the sustainable fashion industry forward.
This event was inspired by UNA-NY’s previous Summer Soirees which had to be put on hold since 2019. We invite designers, suppliers, retailers, certifiers, and fair trade advocates to join us in bringing back this summer favorite with a sustainable twist.
🔥 Unheard-of + The Gowanus Dredgers Present: Fire Ecologies
When: Sat, July 23, 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
Where: Gowanus Dredgers Bunker, 2 19th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11232
Join Unheard-of Ensemble and the Gowanus Dredgers for the paddle-in New York premiere of full-length version of Fire Ecologies, a unique musical and visual experience that explores American landscapes through the lens of climate change. Yes, it’s literally on the Gowanus Canal!
Composer Christopher Stark and multimedia artist Zlatko Ćosić embarked on a journey across the United States capturing audio and video for this multimedia experience. The work incorporates images of the 2020 California wildfires along with imagery from Chris's trip across Montana, Oregon, and California as well as parts of Colorado. Zlatko has gathered footage from the American heartland surrounding Missouri as well as long form explorations of nature surrounding St. Louis. In addition to Fire Ecologies, the ensemble will open the program with Cassie Wieland’s to live in static with the in-person premiere of projections by Xuan created in 2020.
Join the Fun!
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