The Fight Against the Impacts of Climate Change

by Joanna Lasher, LWVSC Environment Chair Jan 17, 2024

What is happening to the World’s Climate?  In the United States? New York? The Capital Region? Daily there are pictures on the News. Scary Weather reports. New reports from scientists saying changes such as melting glaciers, higher average temperatures, animal species going extinct, fires burning millions of acres, and mega storms happening at an ever increasing rate and sooner than previously predicted!

Many of these effects are far away and seem to be totally beyond our control. There seems to be no way for us to have an impact. However, the weird weather patterns, heavy rains and flooding are becoming much more a part of our lives locally. Those  of you who have been attending League of Women Voters of Saratoga County Meet-ups the last few years  are probably aware that we have had several programs addressing Climate Change issues in New York State. You may know that New York adopted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act,(a premier model program plan for the country) in 2019. Between 2020 and 2022, Committees of the Climate Action Council met for many hours to develop the Climate Scoping Plan which was introduced in January 2023,  The goal of this act was to develop a timeline to replace fossil fuels/ dirty energy and polluted air and water with clean energy and and a cleaner environment and do it while developing new good jobs and using 40% of the funds to improve disadvantaged communities. By 2030, 70% of electricity is to be produced from renewable resources. By 2040, the goal is to have zero per cent emissions of green house gases.  By 2050 the goal is to have NY  be carbon neutral as compared to 1990 levels.

Since the Scoping Plan has been released, many members of the legislature and Governor Hochul have been working hard to produce legislation to meet and fund these goals. A lot of progress has been made, but the struggle is ongoing. Fossil fuel companies, that have been traditionally supported by public funding and favorable regulations while making billions of dollars are fighting back. They have an army of lobbyists putting forth a variety of false solutions that appear to bridge the gap, but only produce more polluting emissions and more delays which we can no longer afford. Old regulations allow them to ask for more money to build infrastructure paid for by taxpayers that will lock us into fossil fuels for decades to come.

What can we do?

First we can keep ourselves informed through a variety of trusted sources.

Second, we can support groups such as the Climate Action Council that put in 100s of hours developing a plan and a timeline to make progress at the state level and then advocate alone or in partnership with groups who are working to develop legislation to further projects, change regulations and provide funding to meet these goals.

The League of Women Voters New York State does pick out legislation for which they advocate and encourage local leagues to advocate. That includes bills recommended by experts in the environmental area as well as bills on other types of issues.

For the purpose of education, we are sponsoring a speaker for the April 18 League Monthly Forum who will talk to us about progress the state is making in pursuit of Scoping Plan goals: Blair Horner, Executive Director of New York Public Interest Research Group. (See Events Calendar).

Saratoga Springs Public Safety Candidates

Saratoga Springs Public Safety Candidates Discuss Issues of Concern to Voters

Timothy Coll, Kristen M. Dart, and James A. Montagnino

The League of Women Voters held a virtual Candidate Forum on October 10, 2023 featuring candidates for the office of Commissioner of Public Safety for the City of Saratoga Springs. All three candidates participated, including Timothy Coll, Kristen M. Dart, and James A. Montagnino. Candidates answered questions about conflicts among members of City Council, policing in the City, police response to protests, downtown safety issues near bars, regulation of short-term rentals, pedestrian and bike safety/complete streets, and support of crime victims.

A full recording of the event is available for viewing on the LWVSC YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDZfukr9Or0.

Check out press coverage of this event by the local media:

• Daily Gazette: “Three seek Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner position” (10/18/23)

• Times Union: “Saratoga Springs candidates discuss policing, short-term rentals, civility” (10/12/23)

• WAMC Midday Magazine: “Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner candidates met to answer voter questions” (10/12/23)

• Saratogian: “League of Women Voters hosts candidate forum for Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Public Safety” (subscription access) (10/11/23)

Women’s Equality Day is Nothing to Celebrate

By Patricia Nugent
Published in the Daily Gazette August 25, 2023

In 1972, President Nixon designated August 26 as Women’s Equality Day in commemoration of the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment granting American women the right to vote. (Well, to be clear, some women in some states. Others had to wait decades longer.)

The token gesture of “celebrating” this day has continued each year with no political will to bring women’s rights into alignment with the rights of men.

It’s getting harder and harder to celebrate as we witness women’s rights being stripped away state-by-state throughout our nation.

State legislators can do that because women are afforded no legal protection and no rights under the U.S. Constitution.

In fact, they have no rights that cannot be reversed legislatively.

This has been true since the inception of our nation, when Abigail Adams begged her husband, John Adams, to “Remember the ladies.” He ignored her, as do many legislators today, to their own political peril.

In 1923, recognizing that voting itself was not enough to guarantee women equal footing in our nation, Alice Paul proposed a 24-word amendment to the Constitution that simply reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Parse that out: Equality of rights shall not be denied on account of sex!

Despite repeated attempts at passage for more than a century, it has yet to become law, which means that it is legal in the United States to discriminate against women.

Late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia can be viewed on YouTube proudly declaring this to be true.

The current court clearly holds the same position, as evidenced by rulings that further restrict women’s rights.

Lack of pay equity and bodily autonomy are just two of the social injustices that continue to hold women hostage.

The League of Women Voters’ mission to ensure a participatory democracy has continued for more than 100 years.

Although founded by the suffragists, we can no longer celebrate women getting the right to vote, especially since head-of-household-only voting legislation was proposed at a 2020 presidential convention.

Women deserve and demand equal rights as citizens of the United States.

The League urges Congress to pass Alice Paul’s ERA Amendment now and urges voters in New York state to pass the state equivalent in November 2024.

Until then, there is nothing to celebrate today.

Patricia Nugent is chair of the Women’s Rights Awareness Campaign for the League of Women Voters of Saratoga County. The column was submitted on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties.

Three Cheers for the NYS Legislature!!!

Two big wins for the Climate Movement passed with the New York State Budget:

• The All-Electric Building Act ends fossil fuels in new buildings under seven stories in 2026 and in all new buildings by 2029.

• The Build Public Renewables Act mandates the NY Power Authority to build new large-scale renewable projects to meet our Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goals while creating thousands of green union jobs and retiring polluting plants in Environmental Justice communities.

Two more Bills to work on:

• Bigger Better Bottle Bill (S237May/A6353Glick)

• The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Act (S4246Harckam/ A5322Glick)

Post by Joanna Lasher, LWV Saratoga
May 4, 2023

COP15 - A Global Action Plan to Protect Biodiversity

Understanding the Importance of COP15

By Nancy Tudor, Four League Environment Committee
April 20, 2023

You may be familiar with the United Nations Convention on Climate Change COP27 (Conference of Parties), but are you familiar with COP15, a conference on biological diversity? COP27 and COP15 are very closely related. However, climate change gets much more attention than biological diversity. Climate COPs have a clear focus to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while aiming to limit heating to 1.5°C, as settled under the Paris agreement in 2015. Currently, the UN’s biodiversity process does not have an equivalent focal point. In December 2022, nearly 200 governments from around the world came together in Montreal, Canada, to agree on a new set of goals to guide global action through 2030 to halt and reverse nature loss. Nature is critical to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Adoption of a bold global biodiversity framework that addresses the key drivers of nature loss is needed to secure our own health and well-being alongside that of the planet.

Nature is in crisis. For the past three decades governments have been meeting to ensure the survival of the species and ecosystems that undermine human civilization. Earth is experiencing the largest loss of life since dinosaurs, and humans are to blame. The way we mine, pollute, hunt, farm, build, and travel are putting at least one million species at risk of extinction, according to scientists. The sixth mass extinction in geological history has already begun, some scientists assert, with billions of individual populations being lost. The aim of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is for countries to conserve the natural world, its sustainable use, and to share the benefits of its genetic resources.

The COP15 agreement embeds the promotion of human rights and the “rights of nature” into a plan to protect and restore biodiversity through 2030. The “rights of nature” recognizes that nature and everything it encompasses—from animal and plant species to rivers, mountains, and the soil—possess inherent rights similar to those of human beings.

The COP15 agreement consists of four overarching global goals to protect nature and the Earth’s ecosystems.

1. Agreement to conserve 30% of earth by the end of the decade: Protecting a third of the planet for the long-term survival of humanity, the most high-profile target at COP15.

2. Indigenous rights at the heart of conservation: Several scientific studies have shown that Indigenous peoples are the best stewards of nature, representing 5% of humanity but protecting 80% of earth’s biodiversity.

3. Reform of environmentally harmful subsidies: The world spends at least $1.8tn every year on government subsidies driving the annihilation of wildlife and a rise in global heating, according to a study earlier this year.

4. Nature disclosures for businesses: This would require governments to ensure that large and transnational companies disclose “their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity.” According to the UN, biodiversity loss is rapidly shooting up the agenda of corporate risks. Other targets focus on reducing pollution from all sources, requiring businesses to disclose their environmental impacts and dependence on biodiversity, managing agriculture and fisheries sustainably and implementing legal, policy and educational measures to encourage people to make “sustainable consumption choices.”

Conclusion

Every 10 years, governments agree on new targets on protecting biodiversity. The world has so far failed to meet any UN targets on halting the loss of nature. Awareness of this crisis is greater. The COP15 biodiversity agreement is not binding; therefore, it will ultimately be up to governments to ensure that those rights are protected as conservation projects are carried out to further the plan’s goals. Hopefully the agreement will ensure an adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, technical and scientific cooperation, and access to and transfer of technology to fully implement the COP15 global biodiversity framework.