Climate Check: Stories and Solutions

On today's episode, we're discussing Enbridge's proposal to expand the Algonquin Pipeline, also known as Project Maple. Our guest is Santosh Nandabalan. 

Santosh Nandabalan is a Senior Organizer at Food & Water Watch. Alongside working on state and federal legislation to tackle climate change, Santosh has years of experience managing coalitions and building out strategic campaigns to stop fossil fuel projects in New York and advancing clean water protections. His work includes organizing in New York City and the Hudson Valley, including stopping fracked gas infrastructure like the Danskammer and Gowanus powerplants and keeping radioactive waste out of the Hudson River. Prior to Food & Water Watch, Santosh was a union organizer at SEIU and graduated from Gettysburg College with a BA in Philosophy.

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On today’s episode, we’re discussing the New York Heat Act. Our guest is Lisa Marshall, Advocacy & Organizing Director of New Yorkers for Clean Power. 

Lisa’s long-standing interest in climate change began decades ago when she wrote her first high school research paper on global warming. It wasn’t until moving to NY’s Southern Tier and buying a home that was leased to a gas company, that she became directly involved in climate and energy advocacy. Since then, Lisa has been at the forefront of advocacy for building energy efficiency and heat pump adoption policy at the state level where she advocated effectively for bringing affordable, equitable building electrification to scale through education and outreach, messaging, lobbying, and building grassroots pressure on elected officials and state agencies.

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Eva is joined by Liat Olenick, co-founder of Climate Families NYC. Liat explains that young children can understand that climate pollution is bad and they love to solve problems. She describes how the youngest members of our society can participate in actions targeting the adults who can change the course of the climate crisis. It’s hard for people to ignore toddlers protesting outside their homes!

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Eva is joined by Tom Roderick author of the new book Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education. Tom discusses his vision for radical transformative climate justice education, currently lacking in our schools. He believes K-12 students need to envision a positive future, determine how they can help, and then get to work doing it, what Tom calls “active hope.”

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In our 19th episode of Climate Check: Stories and Solutions, Raine Manley tells the story of her journey from frustration to activism as she tackles plastic waste here in New York City. The outcome? NYC passed “Skip the Stuff," a law in NYC that requires restaurants and food delivery apps to leave out the single-use plastic from deliveries, unless the customer specifically asks for it. Find out how this was done!

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Eva is joined by Molly Morabito of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity. Molly discusses the demands by People vs Fossil Fuels for the Biden Administration to address the climate emergency. With a UN summit on Climate Change taking place in NYC in September, hear what actions you can take further PvFF’s agenda.

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Most New Yorkers don’t know that they’re footing the bill for expanding the dirty gas infrastructure that runs all across our state. The NY HEAT (the New York Home Energy and Affordable Transition) Act would end this practice along with several others that are allowing New York's utility companies to stay out of step with our climate goals.

Through legislation like NY HEAT, Meagan Burton, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice, crafts and defends legislation that provides an equitable offramp from gas and paves the way for clean, affordable heating for all.

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NYS Assembly Member Emily Gallagher is the sponsor of the All-Electric Building Act, legislation that would require all new buildings to forego fossil fuel heating and cooking systems in favor of electric. NYC passed similar legislation in 2021, but this bill would apply to the entire state. Eva and Emily discuss how this can become reality, and why it's a safer, greener, and less expensive way to build.

AM Gallagher’s Assembly page

For our December episode, Xaver Kandler, Campaigns Coordinator for NY Renews, walks us through the Climate, Jobs, and Justice Package — a series of proposed bills for 2023 that builds on New York State's historic Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).

These bills were developed by New York Renews, a broad coalition of hundreds of community groups and activists working with environmental and legal experts. The package would fund and implement the CLCPA, mitigate emissions, create thousands of permanent Green Energy jobs, and ensure justice to communities most hurt by our environmental degradation.

In February of 2021, the NYC City Council passed laws that will reshape Rikers, the island off the coast of Queens that is a penal colony built on landfill. These bills are part of a campaign called Renewable Rikers, and was years in the making by a coalition that crossed interests and focus areas.  

This week get to know our host Eva Dean, interviewed by our Comms & Marketing Specialist Brynn Fuller-Becker. 

"We don't think of the environment in NYC as being this natural wonder", states Pete Malinowski, the Executive Director of the Billion Oyster Project. In this episode we hear about the ways in which the city contains that wonder, and how Billion Oyster Project helps sustain that vision of a healthy, biodiverse New York Harbor with the power of education. Also in this episode: Pete shares his climate story, we chat about the role of education and equity in conservation, and learn just how oysters can help us with climate change. 

Learn more about our guest and the organizations mentioned below:

We're back from a winter break, and gearing up to bring you new episodes! In the meantime, here's a quick intro to the team and some insights from our work so far to hold you over until our next drop.

Featured in this episode:

In episode 2 of Climate Check, host Eva Dean chats with Ceci Pineda on how we can work with nature to combat climate change.  Ceci Pineda is the Executive Director of BK ROT, an organization that offers a youth and bike powered food waste collection and composting service. In this episode you will hear how composting helps counter increased storm surges, carbon dioxide, as well as cooling our streets by nourishing plants and trees.  Ceci shares how working with the land connects us with deep ancestral wisdom that nourishes social resilience and cohesion while facing the Climate Crisis.

Learn more about the resources mentioned in our episode:

In our premiere episode of Climate Check, we chat with Sara Gronim, an early member of 350 Brooklyn and pivotal organizer of the Williams Pipeline battle. Eva and Sara discuss the growing movement against creating non-renewable energy infrastructure in New York City, the success of a community-based organizing effort assembled to resist this infrastructure, and how one panel discussion led to years of crafting for a viable future for all Brooklynites.

Learn more about the resources mentioned in our episode: