Climate Reality Finger Lakes Chapter

Finger Lakes Book Group Meeting – “Unfracked,” Richard Buttny
2024-12-18 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
The Finger Lakes Book Group will meet on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at 7 pm. We will be discussing “Unfracked: The Struggle to Ban Fracking in New York” by Richard Buttny (UMass Press, 2024). Richard, who is a trained Climate Reality Leader and a member of Finger Lakes Chapter, will attend the meeting to help facilitate the discussion.
Book description from University of Massachusetts Press:
Since fracking emerged as a way of extracting natural gas, through intense deep drilling and the use of millions of gallons of water and chemicals to fracture shale, it has been controversial. It is perceived in different ways by different people—by some as an opportunity for increased resources and possibly jobs and other income; by others as a public health and environmental threat; and for many, an unknown. Richard Buttny, a scholar who works on rhetoric and discursive practices, read a story in his local paper in New York about hydrofracking coming to his area and had to research what it was, and what it could mean for his community. Soon he joined neighbors in fighting to have the practice banned state-wide. At the same time, he turned his scholarly eye to the messaging from both sides of the fight, using first-person accounts, interviews, and media coverage.
The activists fighting fracking won. New York is now the only state in the US with sizable deposits of natural gas that has banned hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Unfracked explains the competing rhetoric and discourses on fracking among New York-based advocates, experts, the grassroots, and political officials. Buttny examines how these positions evolved over time and how eventually the state arrived at a decision to ban this extractive technology. His accessible approach provides both a historical recounting of the key events of this seven-year conflict, along with four in-depth case studies: a grassroots citizen group, a public hearing with medical physicians, a key intergovernmental hearing, and a formal debate among experts. The result is a look at a very recent, important historical moment and a useful examination of environmental activist and fossil fuel advocate rhetoric around an issue that continues to cause debate nationwide.
Richard Buttny is professor emeritus of communication & rhetorical studies at Syracuse University. He is the author of Talking Problems: Studies on Discursive Construction and Social Accountability in Communication.
Note: “Unfracked” is available at: umasspress.com (use code UMASS20 to save 20%).
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Meeting ID: 926 2795 7489
Passcode: [REDACTED]

FLGR-NY January Chapter Meeting – Connecting the Dots Between the Waste Crisis and the Climate Crisis
2025-01-09 19:00 - 20:30
Few understand the connections between the waste and the climate crises. In this presentation, Chris W. Burger will discuss how addressing the waste crisis helps to address the climate crisis. Three areas will be featured:

Reducing energy use by creating the circular use of material. The energy saved through reuse and recycling is roughly equivalent to the amount of energy used for providing us with food and rivals the energy used for transportation.
Curtailing the use of plastic along with increasing the recyclability of plastic. Plastics are of particular concern given the that 99% of all plastics are derived from fossil fuels and generate their own emissions in the process.
Eliminating organics in landfills. Anthropogenic production of methane represents a close second to CO2 in its effect on our climate, especially when its increased potency is factored in. Despite our best efforts, methane from our landfills is still a large contributing factor

Chris is a trained Climate Reality Leader and member of our Chapter. His accomplishments include developing the first Weatherization program in the country in 1977. In 1985, he developed a County-wide recycling program. He has co-founded and/or led a number of organizations focused on sustainability including the New York Sustainable Business Council. He also walks the talk, achieving zero waste along with his family since 1992 and designed and built a home that has been fossil free since 1998.
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Meeting ID: 958 6631 3240Passcode: [REDACTED]

Finger Lakes Book Group Meeting - “How to Prepare for Climate Change,” David Pogue
2025-02-06 19:00 - 20:00
The Finger Lakes Book Group will meet on Thursday, February 6, 2025, at 7 pm. We will be discussing “How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos” by David Pogue (Simon & Schuster, 2021).

Book description from Simon & Schuster:

You might not realize it, but we’re already living through the beginnings of climate chaos. In Arizona, laborers now start their day at 3 a.m. because it’s too hot to work past noon. Chinese investors are snapping up real estate in Canada. Millennials have evacuation plans. Moguls are building bunkers. Retirees in Miami are moving inland.
In How to Prepare for Climate Change, bestselling self-help author David Pogue offers sensible, deeply researched advice for how the rest of us should start to ready ourselves for the years ahead. Pogue walks readers through what to grow, what to eat, how to build, how to insure, where to invest, how to prepare your children and pets, and even where to consider relocating when the time comes. (Two areas of the country, in particular, have the requisite cool temperatures, good hospitals, reliable access to water, and resilient infrastructure to serve as climate havens in the years ahead.) He also provides wise tips for managing your anxiety, as well as action plans for riding out every climate catastrophe, from superstorms and wildfires to ticks and epidemics.
Timely and enlightening, How to Prepare for Climate Change is an indispensable guide for anyone who read The Uninhabitable Earth or The Sixth Extinction and wants to know how to make smart choices for the upheaval ahead.

More information about David Pogue can be found on his website. He is a trained Climate Reality Leader. He was featured at a meeting of the Bay Area Local Chapter discussing this book.

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Meeting ID: 926 2795 7489

February Joint Chapter Meeting: FLGR and WNY Chapters – Combating Climate Disinformation
2025-02-13 19:00 - 20:30
Guest Presenters: Tom Coleman and Bruce Mainzer, Co-Chairs, Chicago Metro Chapter, The Climate Reality Project
Since passage of the IRA Act in 2022, significant progress has been made to address the climate crisis. However, fossil fuel interests and climate deniers have intensified their efforts to hinder adoption of effective climate solutions by households and businesses and to delay and derail local legislative efforts in the more progressive states such as New York and California.
From auto manufacturers, attributing the slowdown in new EV purchases to consumer markets instead of their own delays in introducing lower-cost EVs, to political leaders avoiding climate initiatives during an election year, 2024 saw a surge in disinformation on social media and the mainstream news. This has made it more challenging to effectively communicate how the average citizen can reduce their carbon footprint.
With the incoming President and Congress, the current climate crisis has become increasingly urgent with greater challenges expected for 2025. We will summarize the top actions individuals can take to decrease their carbon footprint. Breakout groups will allow us to brainstorm ways to counter the current wave of climate disinformation.
Learn to equip yourself with the latest information to combat climate denial!

About Our Presenters
A native of Boston, Tom Coleman has worked at many organizational levels in manufacturing, information technology, and in process improvement disciplines. In 2018, he retired as chief information officer and now works in the field of environmental, social, and governmental education and activism He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, is a Certified Business Process Master, and is Certified as a Change Management Professional. Tom has rooftop solar panels and two electric vehicles.
With degrees from Cornell and Northwestern, Bruce Mainzer has worked in public transportation sector, followed by work for several large companies in the consumer travel sector including airlines, cruise lines, hotels and resorts. Bruce retired in 2019, after serving for the last 13 years of his career as a travel marketing and pricing consultant. After owning a convertible foreign sports car, he is now a big fan of his EV. He and his wife love to travel, especially to Paris, which is his second favorite city after Chicago.
Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 958 6631 3240Passcode: [REDACTED]

Finger Lakes Book Group - "Regenesis" by George Monbiot
2025-04-03 19:00 - 20:00
The CRP Finger Lakes Book Group will meet on Thursday, April 3, 2025, at 7 pm. We will be discussing “Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet” by George Monbiot (Penguin Random House, 2022).

Book description from Penguin Random House:

Farming is the world’s greatest cause of environmental destruction—and the one we are least prepared to talk about. We criticize urban sprawl, but farming sprawls across thirty times as much land. We have plowed, fenced, and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves. Yet millions still go hungry and the price of food is rising faster than ever.

Now the food system itself is beginning to falter. But, as George Monbiot shows us in this brilliant, bracingly original new book, we can resolve the biggest of our dilemmas and feed the world without devouring the planet.

Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionizing our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from plows and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how the tiniest life forms could help us make peace with the planet, restore its living systems, and replace the age of extinction with an age of regenesis.

George Monbiot is interviewed about the book on 5X15 Stories.

More information about George Monbiot can be found in Wikipedia. For some additional background on the topic, this TED Talk by Jonathan Foley is recommended.

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Meeting ID: 926 2795 7489

April Chapter Meeting – “Double Feature on Climate and Health”
2025-04-10 19:00 - 20:30
“Climate Health is Public Health: A Night at The Museum of the Earth” – Susan Harris (EdD), NYSPHA and “Gas Stoves: The fracking tailpipe in kitchens creating harmful indoor air” – Carmi Orenstein (MPH), CHPNY
Susan Harris is founder and chair of the New York State Public Health Association’s Climate Committee. She will talk about the effects of climate change on public health. Note that the NYSPHA is holding their annual convention in Ithaca this year. Susan will also discuss this special event held Ithaca as a lead-in to the meeting, Climate Health is Public Health: A Night at the Museum of the Earth. As the inaugural leader of the Climate Committee, Susan has spearheaded significant accomplishments, including: Mobilizing key external partners, such as the New York State Children’s Environmental Health Centers, the Climate and Resiliency Education Task Force, NY RENEWS, The Wild Center, and Third Act; advocating and lobbying alongside students for the passage of a climate change education bill; and creating an engaging and informative Youth Climate Resource Guide.
Carmi Orenstein is co-founder and director of Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY), now a program of the Science and Environmental Health Network. She will discuss the hazards of gas-fired appliances in the home, focusing on gas stoves, which the group has come to consider the “fracking tailpipe in our kitchens.” She will touch on the contents of the most recent edition of the group’s Compendium, a compilation of scientific studies, reports, and investigative journalism addressing the risks and harms of fracking and its infrastructure. CHPNY played a significant role in the campaign to ban fracking in New York State and continues its work compiling and amplifying the science for our region and beyond, with the aim of informing energy policymaking that is truly protective of health and climate.
Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 958 6631 3240Passcode: [REDACTED]
