http://www.sustainabletompkins.org Marcellus Challenge Make Your Pledge Today to Reduce Your Consumption of Natural Gas!
People across the Finger Lakes Region are deeply concerned about the prospect of extensive drilling for natural gas in the vast Marcellus Shale deposit. The use of hydrofracking technology to force out the gas brings with it significant threats to the health and well being of our entire community. With close to 40% of the land in Tompkins County leased for gas drilling, we are likely to see severe impacts from this extractive industry. Thats why Sustainable Tompkins has joined the call for a statewide ban on hydrofracking until all concerns and all costs are competently addressed by the drilling industry and the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation. However, we strongly believe that we must be willing to take a systems approach to the issue of natural gas drilling. If we want to reduce the supply of gas flowing from the Marcellus, then we have to prove that we are also willing to take the time, and make the investments, to decrease our demand for natural gas and fossil fuels. If we dont reduce our personal consumption of natural gas, then those who accuse us of hypocrisy and NIMBYism will have an easy target. Sustainable Tompkins believes that most of the folks showing concern about gas drilling are also interested in living more sustainably but how do we prove it? How can we demonstrate that we walk our talk when it comes to opposing drilling for natural gas? Sarah Highland, a local green builder, came up with the idea for the Marcellus Challenge as she was driving through her homelands in West Virginia coal country, wishing for a way to help people connect the dots between their own fossil fuel consumption and the damage done by mining and drilling. We strongly resonated with her vision, as we have been calling folks to action around their energy consumption for many years. Thus, Sustainable Tompkins decided to build a platform to help us document our commitment to living sustainably here in the Finger Lakes without harming the home landscapes of other regions. We invite you to accept the Marcellus Challenge. Were asking you to make a pledge to reduce your consumption of natural gas and other fossil fuels. Well collect your pledges and provide you with resources to help you reach your individual goals. If youve already taken steps to reduce your fossil fuel consumption, please let us know on the pledge form so that our movement can take credit for the changes weve already made. You can pick among a variety of actions you can take to reduce your fossil fuel consumption for heating, electricity, hot water, transportation, and food choices. The Marcellus Challenge will be made available across New York State. Well keep a tally of your pledges and make estimates for how much we are collectively reducing demand for natural gas, coal, and oil. And then well share our results with Governor Paterson, the DEC, our state legislators, and the media. Together we can prove that we are ready now to move to a sustainable economy based on renewable energy and highly efficient, low consumption lifestyles. Together we can say no to destructive extractive industries and say yes to green jobs, responsible lifestyles, and wise stewardship of our land and water. ### -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of George Frantz Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 12:58 PM To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] The morality question --- On Wed, 12/9/09, Jan Quarles <[email protected]> wrote: "I hope you're not asking that question as a way, yet again, to say that protesting fracking is morally wrong as long as the protestors are heating with gas. That's a trap that could have a chilling effect on the learning curve." +++++++ Sorry, Jan, but that is exactly the point of my question regarding how IC heats its buildings. Who are we as a region to say NO!" to natural gas drilling,and its associated risks, when our robust economy and associated affluence are so dependent on burning natural gas? What give us the right, as a region, to continue to foist off the environmental externalities of our affluance on the poorer regions of the United States and the world? My questioning of the morality of blind opposition to drilling in our region, and my "lazy, crazy, deserves to die" leisure class environmentalism position with regard to opposition to drilling remain on the table. So the new "green" building at IC is heated and cooled using geothermal technology. (If it is.) So is my home. But what about the other 75 buildings on the I.C. campus, or the other 10,999 homes in the city and town of Ithaca? What about the Cornell campus, where they are now converting from a coal fired central heating plant to one burning natural gas? Why in the Ithaca Times (12/2/09) is the mayor of Ithaca using as a rationale for demolishing the Ithaca Commons the need to install larger natural gas service lines to enable more restaurants to open there? As far as my position having any chilling effect on any learning curves, we've been "learning" now for forty years. Where are we today as a result? As a nation we now burn up land for development at 8 times the rate of our underlying population growth. There is no evidence to indicate the Ithaca and Tompkins County areany different in this regard. On the contrary in Ithaca and Tompkins County it's not merely environmentally acceptable, but even environmentally chic to live 5, 10, 15 miles or more beyond the urban fringe and alternatives to the single-occupancy vehicle, and commute into Ithaca on a daily basis. (burning gallons of gasoline imported from elsewhere and generating in the process a pound of greenhouse gases per mile in the process) In 2007 Americans generated 26.5 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per person, versus 11 ton per person in Europe and 6 tons per person in China. Just how much more is there to learn, and when are we actually move beyond pious pronouncements like "Not in Anybody's Back Yard" and "Light in My Back Yard" and make the necessary changes? George Frantz ____________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
