♥ Construction has begun on a wind turbine farm off the coasts of New York and Rhode Island. (A personal wince: according to the Daily News article, the turbines will provide energy for, uh, East Hampton.)
♥ In a more equitable energy action (I mean, East Hampton??), NYC has enacted a law which, beginning in 2024, will in startlingly rapid steps ban the use of natural gas in buildings. Don’t know if big residential buildings like mine will be grandfathered in gas use. If we’re not, this will mean saying good-bye to my glamorous, expensive and lousy Italian gas range and hello to an induction cook surface. Which one friend who cooks a lot says is absolutely wonderful.
♥ Also in New York, the five borough presidents are ganging up to engineer planting a million new trees throughout the city. Around a quarter of a million would be along streets while the others would be in parks. Until last year, I didn’t realize that my street, West End Avenue, which has a lot of trees, is many degrees cooler in summer than less prosperous neighborhoods in the city, which have few trees. This got me angry.
As today’s New York Times notes:
Among their other benefits, trees absorb storm water and carbon dioxide and provide shade in summer and their density has a measurable effect on the surrounding air temperatures. City health department statistics indicate that 350 people in New York die each year because of heat-related causes…Exposure to nature has also been shown to reduce stress. During the worst parts of the pandemic, the city’s parks provided one of the few safe respites.
♥ At least one high school in New York City has introduced courses in solar panels, including installation of them.