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Morning Spew

It’s a Beautiful Day to Chain Yourself to the Park Avenue Home of a Fossil Fuel Executive

Spring, it seems, never got unsprung.

10:01 AM EST on February 15, 2023

Cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

(Pascale Amez / Unsplash)

It's a beautiful day in the low 60s, and you're standing in a ray of sunshine that's gotten ahold of you as you turned the corner. There are birds chirping, some plant bulbs beginning to peek through the soil, and the damp and sweet smell of the arrival of a new season.

The unsettling part is…it's February. Or January. Or December. Spring, it seems, never got unsprung. 

It's easy enough to inhabit a kind of everyday malaise over the state of the Earth's biosphere while enjoying New York's new, all-year temperate climes. The feeling of learned helplessness is real, so much horrible change is a fait accompli. In New York City, many of us are already living a fairly low-carbon intensive life (look at how many carless households the city has!). It's tempting to laze about in that unsettling ray of sunshine and shrug your shoulders—you're not the problem.

But New York City has serious work to do—electrifying its buildings; turning its dirty, dirty, dirty electricity grid into one that runs on renewables; cutting way down on the use of cars (even electric ones) on city streets; and getting rid of asthma-inducing delivery trucks that are busy delivering your stupid fucking packages every day. Oh, also, figuring out how to address the one-foot of sea level rise that's set to come by 2050, without just slapping up big stupid walls.

So perhaps you spend this glorious afternoon in the park, calling your state senator to urge them to make the governor's cap-and-invest proposal better. It's also a lovely day to chain yourself to the Park Avenue home of a local fossil fuel executive! 

Or maybe you start small, and just read this fantastic thread that covered the state budget hearing on climate and the environment. (Ha ha but seriously, call your senator.)

Some more hopeful links!

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