Earth Day Expo 2019
On Saturday April 13th, a group of activists known as the Civic Action Nation (C.A.N) set out to make one of the biggest Earth Day events that New York City has ever seen with the Earth Day Exposition 2019.
Co-sponsored by the District Council 37 and Council Member Costa Constantinides (who was a keynote speaker at this expo) the event was held at the DC 37 headquarters on Barclay Street to discuss the dangers of climate change and what the people of New York City can do to minimize damage to the Earth.
Climate change has remained a huge global topic for a while now; with recent reports of an European team heading to Antarctica to drill for the world’s oldest ice to research climate change in the past, as well as other reports of the White House planning to set up a panel to challenge the consensus of the burning of fossil fuels harming the planet.
Scientists continue to maintain that climate change is a real serious issue. According to NASA, “ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.”
Experts say that the evidence continues to accumulate showcasing the rapid change in climate. Evidence such as the global temperature rising “about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century,” as well as the oceans warming, ice sheets shrinking, rising sea levels, and the increase of record high temperature events in the U.S.
The Earth Day Expo sought to open the conversation of what can be done to save the planet from climate change. Co-founder of C.A.N Kenny Wong, who is a senior at a high school in Staten Island, hoped for this expo to bring in younger people to start taking action to save the planet.
“We created this group to inspire the millennials and the gen Z kids to take climate change issues seriously,” said Wong. “Hopefully here [at the Earth Day Expo] we can meet very motivated people to get things done.”
The event featured four different panels with different guests that each covered a different topic such as NYC sustainability, green union jobs, youth activism, and the Green New Deal.
Councilmember Costa Constantinides also delivered a speech at the event to talk about the role he is playing to reduce harm to this planet.
Constantinides’ communications director Terence Cullen believes that Costa is the guy who is going to help save New York from climate change. “Costa believes that climate change is an existential threat to NYC,” said Cullen. “He wants to take bold and smart actions on climate change.”
Constantinides’ recently proposed his bill Intro 1253, which according to The New York City Council, would “establish a sustainable energy loan program for the purposes of providing certain building owners with funding for the installation of renewable energy systems or energy efficiency improvements.” The bill, which is being titled the Climate Mobilization Act, will be voted for on April 22, 2019. This act is described as NY’s version of the Green New Deal and aims to force landlords to cut its carbon emissions forty percent by the year 2030. Constantinides believes that this is just the first step into securing a future for the future generations to come.
