new-york

Green Cabs Start to Appear in NYC

- Adam Clare

When news first broke about all those yellow cabs going green in New York City I was pretty excited. Now they are being rolled out and all the yellow cabs in NYC will have to be green by 2012! They taken a good initiative and made it better.

“There’s an awful lot of taxicabs on the streets of New York City obviously, so it makes a real big difference,” said Bloomberg. “These cars just sit there in traffic sometimes, belching fumes; this does a lot less. It’s a lot better for all of us.”

There are currently eight vehicles on the city’s “approved” list when it comes to hybrid vehicles to be used as yellow cabs: the Ford Escape Hybrid; the Honda Accord Hybrid and Civic Hybrid; the Lexus RX400h; the Saturn Vue Green Line; and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, Camry Hybrid and Prius. As more manufacturers roll out fuel efficient hybrids, the number of possible candidates is sure to increase. Vehicles like the Saturn Aura Green Line and rumored Ford Fusion hybrid are likely to join the list.

New York to Plant One Million Trees

- Adam Clare

New York City is considered a place of glass and concrete (with a park in the middle) and Mayor Bloomberg is looking to add trees to the mix. On Earth Day, Bloomberg proclaimed that one million trees will be planted in the city by 2017. At first I thought that the trees would go in Central Park and in the surrounding parks in the burroughs, particularly Staten Island; indeed, trees will be placed all over.

Bloomberg, whose second term expires at the end of 2009, has a goal of reducing New York City’s carbon emissions by 30 percent over the next two decades. He has said that the population is likely to grow by another million in that time – up from 8.2 million today – and that the city needs a plan now to deal with the strain on infrastructure and the environment.
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For the next 10 years, the city will plant 23,000 trees each year along city streets, to reach a goal of having a tree in “every single place where it is possible to plant a street tree,” Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff said.

The remaining will be planted in parks and public lots, while the private sector will also be encouraged to plant trees on their properties as well.

Gender Bender in NYC

- Adam Clare

New York City is moving ahead with a proposed change in the rules of birth certificates. After much campaigning from activists who argue that gender is not merely physical, NYC will soon start letting people change their gender on their birth certificates (NYT link, to bypass registration try bugmenot). Reader mkb also points out this article .

Once it’s approved people will no longer have to have sex-change surgery to proclaim what gender they are.

“If approved, the new rule would put New York at the forefront of efforts to redefine gender. A handful of states do not require surgery for such birth certificate changes, but in some of those cases patients are still not allowed to make the change without showing a physiological shift to the opposite gender.”

Thanks, mkb!

Boiling Point Reached in Global Warming

- Adam Clare

Global warming is happening, whether we like it or not. For the most part, corporations, politicians, and “scientists” have been proclaiming that global warming isn’t happening, and that if it is happening, humans are not to blame. Well, the good news is that this is changing!

New York State Governor has called for a 25% reduction in oil consumption over the next 10 years.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has had enough of politicians ignoring the truth of global warming. Now the paper is demanding action to protect the environment.

The best article is from the Montreal Gazette. They have an article written to show how some politicians, like Arnie and Blair, and some corporations are making change right now.

I know all of this is not perfect, but we are here to celebrate the good that is happening in the hopes that people don’t get discouraged.

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