NY Climate Tech: October 10 - October 16

Celebrating Indigenous Communities, (Re)Discovering Our Urban Forests, and Cleaning Up Our Parks!

and

Oct 11, 2022

Hi all,

Today we’re celebrating Indigenous People’s Day, a homage to the ancestral peoples and communities that have called our country home for generations. Our Native tribes are masters at protecting and preserving our lands and we have much to learn from their ancient practices as we address the climate crisis head on. We hope you partake in these celebrations and lend your support not just today, but for generations to come…!

This week we celebrate Mother Earth, rightly so! Head to Central Park on Wednesday to learn about circular ecosystems, then grab some popcorn on Thursday and watch a film about Antarctica and the preservation of our ecosystems. This weekend head to Governors Island to learn about all 3,500(!) trees on the island and clean up a park in Brooklyn on Sunday. The more the merrier!

Cheers,
Alec and Sonam

Hot Take: Earth is Our Mother

Happy Indigenous People’s Day! Last year President Biden issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the second Monday in October a day to celebrate and honor the invaluable contributions and resilience of Native Americans.

Indigenous communities across the United States and globally have stewarded our planet and its ecosystems for millenia. Yet these lands have been forcibly taken from them for generations. Native tribes are experiencing environmental peril exacerbated by formal policies - first by white settlers and then by the US government - forcing them into some of the country’s most vulnerable lands. And now, climate change is quickly making that land uninhabitable, and Natives face the loss of home, yet again.

Through generations of close interactions with the environment, indigenous peoples protect 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. From building oyster reefs on New York’s Long Island shore to conserving some of the last redwood forests in California to halting oil drilling in Alaska’s arctic circle, the participation and knowledge of Indigenous tribes is key to bringing solutions to the climate crisis.

Fawn Sharp, former president of the Quinault Nation and president of the National Congress of American Indians. “The stakes are very, very high,” she said. Photo by Josué Rivas / The New York Times

Indigenous peoples and local communities have gained international recognition under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the establishment of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) in 2015 in Paris. The LCIPP aids in amplifying indigenous voices and facilitates their active and much-needed participation in the UN climate negotiations.

Indigenous demonstrators from numerous tribes step out at the head of the People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C. Photo by Stephanie Woodard / In These Times

This Indigenous People’s Day, we encourage you to take the time to learn about our local tribes (find yours here!) Join the effort to utilize the deep, generational knowledge indigenous tribes possess to develop diverse and sustainable communities:

Support Indigenous Activism: Indigenous tribes across the world have joined forces and established the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities. They work together to protect over 3.5 million square miles of land across the planet. You can support their 5 priorities: land rights, free prior and informed consent before any intervention into their territories, direct access to climate funding, protection of people from violence and prosecution, and the recognition of traditional knowledge in the fight to defend the planet.
Invest in Nature Based Solutions: Nature-based solutions - efforts like reforestation and ecosystem restoration - pay for themselves with a triple dividend, as they sequester carbon, boost biodiversity, and support human well-being. Nature-based solutions are estimated to have the potential to lift a billion people out of poverty, create 80 million jobs, add an additional $2.3 trillion of growth to the global economy, and also prevent $3.7 trillion of climate change damages. The stats don’t do it justice - green, bio-diverse ecosystems have existed for millenia and it’s our job to keep it that way.
Celebrate the Iconography of Native Peoples: You don’t know what you don’t see. Indigenous representation in media, politics, literature, and education is paramount to understanding and incorporating native traditions in our everyday lives. Some of my favorite films and books celebrating native communities: Dances with Wolves, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Gather, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown, or Black Elk Speaks, by John Gneisenau Neihardt. NY Climate Tech movie club, anyone?

The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us.....That which we put into the ground she returns to us. -Big Thunder Wabanaki, Algonquin

By Sonam Velani

🧪 Sustainability: Green Chemistry, Upcycling, Biodiversity, Social Progress

When: Wed, October 12, 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM

Where: Central Park Boathouse - Lake Room, Park Drive North, E 72nd St, New York, NY 10021

Join us at the Central Park Boathouse to have an enlightening discussion on Sustainability: Green Chemistry, Upcycling, Biodiversity, Social Progress, and Circularity. Our speakers will discuss sustainability trends, circular economies, green chemistry, biotech solutions, and more!

🏔 Antarctica: Ice and Sky - Being in the World Festival

When: Thu, October 13, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Where: Cowin Auditorium, Teachers College, Broadway and 120th Street, New York, NY 10027

Antarctica: Ice and Sky tells the story of French glaciologist Claude Lorius, who found his life’s calling at age 23 on a scientific expedition to the Antarctic and became one of the first scientists to call attention to anthropogenic climate change. Antarctica: Ice and Sky is an epic tale, in which science and adventure meet. The film assembles decades of dramatic archival footage of the early days of scientific exploration in sub-zero temperatures in the polar regions, including Lorius’s pioneering work to develop an ice corer that would eventually extract ice cores thousands of meters below the frozen surface to look hundreds of thousands of years back into the history of the climate. One of Lorius’s most significant discoveries—made when he placed some ancient ice in celebratory glasses of whiskey—was that the ice contained air from the era in which it was formed.

🌳 City of Forest Day on Governors Island

When: Sat, October 15, 9:30 AM – 2:00 PM

Where: Governors Island Play Area, Governors Island, New York, NY 11231

Effectively managing the collection of both historic and new trees on Governors Island is critical to creating a healthy, functioning, climate resilient ecosystem that will survive — and thrive — for years to come. Do your part to steward this invaluable resource through a volunteer project, and then learn more about the collection of 3,500 trees through an Island tree tour.

🚮 Women and Climate: North Brooklyn Compost Project at McGolrick Park

When: Sunday, Oct 16, 9:45 am - 11:45 am

Where: McGolrick Park

Volunteering is one of our favorite forms of climate action and hanging out with North Brooklyn Compost at McGolrick Park is a wonderful way to spend your Sunday morning while taking climate action! We’re looking for around 6 volunteers (a few more is ok too!) between 9:45am and 11:45am on Sunday Oct 16. We’ve arranged with the organizers to have Women and Climate volunteers take over those shifts, so come on out! We’ll greet composters, smash down some compost, hang out and meet new members, and maybe recruit some new ones too. We can head out for lunch/coffee and even do a little zero-waste shopping at Maison Jar! Sign up to volunteer here!

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We're excited to grow the Climate Tech community in cities across the globe - starting right here in our hometown of New York! 🗽 What started as an 8-person mid-pandemic outdoor dinner has since morphed into a 2,500+ strong and ever-growing group of rockstars trying to change the world. We're looking for volunteers to help us expand our programming into a full roster of community-wide meetups, subject-specific events, mentorship programs, site visits, and more. We aim to be a community resource - built for and by our community. Share your thoughts and we look forward to working with you!

NY Climate Tech: October 10 - October 16

Celebrating Indigenous Communities, (Re)Discovering Our Urban Forests, and Cleaning Up Our Parks!

Hot Take: Earth is Our Mother

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