New York City’s Climate Week, the largest event of its kind in the world, kicks off Sunday.
The weeklong event coincides with the U.N. General Assembly’s annual general debate, which brings world leaders and hundreds of interest groups to Midtown. It comes as the federal government is rolling back environmental and climate change policies, like air pollution standards for car and power plant emissions.
While many programs are geared toward advocates, policymakers, experts, innovators and industry leaders, there’s a multitude of events for the average New Yorker, including art shows, nature hikes, writing workshops and introductory seminars on topics like energy.
“During this Climate Week there’s a lot of emphasis on narrative and storytelling,” said Raya Salter from the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center. “I really hope that the folks in New York City take the time to dip their toe in, to take advantage of all that’s going on, and get involved and learn something and have their voice heard, get involved in conversations.”
An easy entry into the climate conversation can begin at PlanetHAUS, a highly curated, immersive experience that showcases practical, everyday, sustainable consumer choices. Attendees can sample and take home environmentally conscious products that range from food to fashion and beauty.
For a more theatrical approach to weathering climate change, Please Don’t Flush is a comedy about a community board about to vote on a waterfront project that residents, plumbers and birds are worried will increase the potential for flooding in their community. The show, a result of a partnership between New York City’s emergency management agency and the Waterfront Alliance, combines theater and education on flooding resources available to local communities.
New Yorkers can also take an exclusive tour of the city’s largest stormwater management system, or the Staten Island Bluebelt, which covers a third of the borough. For about 30 years, stormwater runoff has been managed successfully and naturally through a series of ponds, creeks and parks with native plants.
If data centers are your issue, a coalition of advocacy groups and policymakers is launching a data center policy toolkit. The event will bring together experts and organizers for an in-depth discussion on the effects on local communities and to introduce interactive resources to understand the issue from all aspects, from policy and pollution to water and electricity usage.
“The data center issue is very front and center,” Salter said. “Folks are concerned about data centers, they take up huge amounts of energy, huge amounts of water resources, and they cause upward pressure on utility bills.”
Events will also focus on energy production locally. While the average New Yorker has felt the sting of rising costs of utility bills, behind the scenes the state’s grid is anticipating increasing demand and a shortfall in the generation to meet the Empire State’s needs, according to the state’s grid operator. Locally, the city’s power is supplied by mostly fossil fuels despite the push to decarbonize.
For a more enjoyable way into the issue, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn is hosting a clean energy board game session. The cooperative game, called Energetic, aims to build clean energy to power New York City and its increasing demand while also balancing needs for electrical grid stability and juggling outside factors such as political elections, available funding, current technology and the effects of climate change.
Adapting to extreme weather has been a foundational part of the climate week. Event organizers said it’s also something all New Yorkers can relate to as flooding and heat waves have become more common.
“ A lot of people are galvanizing around how we make our state agencies function in a way where they can support the work of decarbonizing our energy grid and how we can start funding that,” said Kim Fraczek, director of Sane Energy, a a green energy advocacy group.
The city government is sponsoring programming about extreme heat, including a seminar on the municipal plan for keeping New Yorkers cool and a roundtable with Deputy Mayor Julie Su on protecting workers from hot temperatures. For a more hands-on event, the city is calling on volunteers to apply a reflective coating to 4,500-square-foot roof, reducing surface temperatures, cutting cooling energy costs and mitigating the urban heat island effect. The program is part of NYC CoolRoofs.
“We are going to have to get very community-focused, very locally focused, making sure that we are talking to our neighbors and thinking through solutions because it’s going to just get worse,” Fraczek said.
Her advice to attendees: “ Start with one event and just go and start talking to someone. I think that is the most effective way to get involved.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story mentioned a Sunday “Whack-a-Data-Center” event as part of the official Climate Week schedule. Organizers have since announced it was canceled and did not provide additional details.
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