Tuesday May 6th is Idle-Free Day in NYC!

Press Conference:
Tuesday, May 6th
10am
City Hall Steps
Go here to see the flyer for the press conference.

As we know from the post this week, NYC’s air quality is, well, ahem, sub-par. Okay, it’s horrible. 43% of Brooklynites are at risk of health problems each day because of pollution — most of which is from vehicles’ tailpipes.

Find out more truths about idling and how it harms your health, hurts air quality, wastes fuel, and is against the law!

Join a growing chorus of New Yorkers who are tired of breathing exhaust from idling cars and trucks!

Here are some resources on what you can do if you are: an individual, a school, a community group, a business, or a policy-maker.

Stay tuned at the IFNY website or on the Idle-Free NYC blog.

Gotta love Earth Day. It doesn’t matter if you are 9 or 99 years old. Or 999 for that matter, but that might be pushing it.

Tomorrow (Friday, May 2nd) the Brooklyn New School (PS 146)/Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies is having an Earth Day event with all kinds of green activities, sustainable food, a biodiesel car, you name it.

Friday, May 2
6 - 8 pm
Brooklyn New School Cafeteria
610 Henry Street (between 3rd and 4th Place)

Attendees include:

• CENYC Office of Recycling Outreach and Education
• Green Parents Alliance
• Get Fresh NY
• Added Value Farm
• a Master Composter
• Green Builders
• And more!

Read on for more information about the Earth Day event, BNS/BCS, and definitely do not miss the BNS 2nd grade blog! More below the fold, click the link below…

So our air got WORSE last year? How did that happen? Not good.

According to State of the Air: 2008 — the American Lung Association’s annual report on air quality country-wide — NYC is now the 8th most polluted city in the country in regards to ozone, aka smog.

We are now the 13th most polluted city in the country for short-term particulates, aka soot. Soot!

We used to be the 10th-worst and 17th-worst polluted in those categories respectively, but we seem to have actually gotten worse and not better in the course of 2007.

People at risk from poor air quality in King’s County alone:

Pediatric Asthma: 60,806
Adult Asthma: 156,821
Chronic Bronchitis: 78,575
Emphysema: 33,462
Cardiovascular Disease: 615,491
Diabetes: 141,024

That is over 1 million people who are at risk of poor health every single day due to pollution in King’s County. That is a whopping 43% of the population that is at risk. It deserves the “D” grade that it gets.

Read the report’s key findings to read some pretty shocking stats about the state of the air in this country, but also some positive plans for action on how we can improve our air quality.

Read the whole post, and find out how you can take action, by clicking below…

He was against it before he voted for it. Sounds awfully familiar, right? This, at least, is a flip-flop that makes some sense, unlike John Kerry’s inexplicable comments in the lead-up to the 2004 Presidential election.

City Councilman Kendall Stewart; who represents Flatbush, East Flatbush, Flatlands; opined in a Brooklyn Daily Eagle op-ed this past Tuesday — Earth Day — that based on the evidence presented him, including facts brought to his attention by the Campaign for New York’s Future, he could not and would not oppose congestion pricing.

We have until midnight tonight 4/7 to let the NYS Government know how we feel about congestion pricing.

Use NYLCV’s action alert to contact the Governor, your State Representative, and your State Senator.