Connecticut Green Living

Today I have to decide whether I'm up for the challenge of going out and waiting for the bus and schlepping out to my storage unit. I need to go out there and pick up my suit for my interview on Tuesday, but I also don't want to become overheated. In the past I have suffered from heat rash, and clearly today is one of the hot weather days to take very seriously. The feels-like temp will be over 110 F once humidity is factored in. But this is not just a blip, a heat "wave" that will hit us today and perhaps not again for many years. It is indicative of the plight we humans have put ourselves in, destroying the precious ozone layer with our assault of C02 pollution born of selfishness and laziness. That anyone would question a person's decision not to buy a car and bike or Uber instead is appalling. That anyone would throw her empty water bottle (it's bad enough to even buy them!) in the litter bin is appalling. That anyone would throw out food waste without so...

The following article was published on Examiner.com May 9, 2013. It has been lightly edited. The pummeling Long Island Sound suffered from Tropical Storm Irene and Superstorm Sandy showed us here in Connecticut that climate change is not some far-off intangible. And more recently, the flip from 60 degree day in New York to a biting snowstorm the next just last week should be a climate denier's wakeup call. Of course, not everyone has rallied around the climate change camp (Fox News). Yale Climate Project released in 2013 an extensive study in accessible PDF form that shows how climate change advocates are far more firmly entrenched in their beliefs than are doubters. The study,  "Climate Change in the American Mind: Americans' Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in April 2013"  is a good read for anyone who doubts the science (or anyone who doesn't). Yale scientists and students have nicely illustrated their points, which include: • A majority of Americans ...

For those of us who realize climate change is the top issue facing the world, this election did not go in our favor. Donald Trump has scoffed about climate change and dismissed Obama's activism on the matter, whether it's the Paris Agreement, negotiated by nearly 200 countries and enacted just this Nov. 4, or favoring fossil fuel sources like coal instead of alternative energy. Now that the dye has been cast, green-minded Americans have no choice but to press the president-elect on moving toward a clean energy future. The Paris Agreement, which spun out of last year's Conference of the Parties, has been enacted - but countries are still able to pull out, should they wish to. Right now, COP22 is happening in Marrakesh, where world leaders and activists from around the world have convened. Last year, Trump dismissed the event, and in May the BBC reported that Trump would cancel the Paris climate accord. The world is getting warmer, as Democrats' chances of making chan...

In its first-ever endorsement, the eight-year-old U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce promotes Hillary Clinton. According to the Chamber's president Michelle Thatcher, the choice was clear even if it wasn't always easy. After all, representing businesses means representing people of various political orientations. "First and foremost, it was a hard decision because we are such a varied membership, so the biggest implication of course we want to make is to have an effect. The numbers are still so close – this is why we put this out there. We put the country even ahead of our own non-profits," says Thatcher. She says that while endorsing Clinton "wasn't on the forefront" of the Chamber's planning, it made sense from a sustainable business perspective, as well as buinesses and practices they promote. "To do otherwise would be extremely risky," she says. The Chamber's endorsement follows the lead of hundreds of nationally prominent organizat...

This has been an astounding election season. At once nauseating as shocking, despicable as hilarious. Yes, if you don't have a sense of humor, your nerves and stomach won't survive this final stretch. But through it all, whatever your feelings about Hillary Clinton in particular, you must vote for her. To vote for a candidate who denies the existence of climate change is a vote for ruining the planet. Think of it: every day, Americans board planes, confident that the laws of science have allowed that plane to take off and get them safely to their destinations. And adventurous souls, from the SpaceX astronauts to National Geographic explorers to simply weekend backpackers, rely on physics, astronomy, geology and other disciplines to inform their every move. When a high school friend was killed during a rock climb of Half Dome in the '70s, it was a scientific principle that killed him, not the will of God or magic. When there is a tragic train accident, science is behind the...