Maldives On the Brink: Climate Justice Catastrophe?

 

Central United Methodist Church
Endicott, NY  February 17, 2015

A talk by Leah R. Malone, M.S.

Statement from the Sierra Club Susquehanna Group:

The Maldives, a tropical small island nation and luxury resort destination known for its ecological beauty, is facing catastrophe from climate change impacts, particularly rising sea levels. Escalating instability and violence in the wake of the 2012 coup d'état and 2013 presidential election have limited the nation's ability to mitigate and adapt to the ongoing effects of climate change. Additionally, the Maldives’ global climate justice advocacy efforts - which provided a model for other vulnerable nations - have been curtailed as this 100% Sunni Muslim country struggles to maintain its fledgling democracy. These events - relevant to Binghamton as a fellow community on the front line of climate change - will be discussed by Leah Malone, M.S.; She has worked in the Maldives since 2009 as a civil society consultant for Maldivian national, regional and local NGOs as well as a journalist for Minivan News, the country’s only independent English news outlet.

Sponsored by Sierra Club Susquehanna Group

Related Links:

Dhivehi Sitee
Huvadhoo Aid
Minivan News

Reforming the Energy Vision

 

NYS Public Service Commission Hearing
Binghamton, NY ; February 12, 2015

Part 1 is a PowerPoint presentation by Anthony Belsito.
Part 2 starts with a statement by Public Service Commissioner Diane Burman, and then moves on to public comments.

Statement From: Agree New York
Alliance for a Green Economy

What is REV?
 

Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) is a process initiated by the New York Public Service Commission (PSC), which is the state agency that regulates the utility companies in New York. REV seeks to speed up the transition to energy efficiency and renewables by overhauling the regulations that govern utility companies and designing new energy markets. The PSC says that REV will give consumers more control over their energy use and engage them as energy producers. By promoting efficiency and distributed energy, REV also seeks to avoid billions of dollars in investments to repair or replace our aging energy infrastructure.
 

Read more at Agree New York

Production Notes for Geeks:

The venue, Binghamton City Council Chambers, had no provision to record audio directly from the PA system, and my attempts to record acceptable audio of Judge Mullany's comments failed. These have thus been omitted from the video. Luckily, Judge Mullany's comments were 95% procedural rather than substantive.
 
Also, because I couldn't get acceptable audio of the questions (no direct feed from the PA, no audience microphone), I had to omit almost all of the questions, many of which were interspersed with the PowerPoint presentation, and show only the presenter's responses. Occasionally the presenter paraphrased the questions, but if not, the questions can be inferred from the responses. I omitted responses where this was not the case. There was one instance where the questioner spoke very loudly and was in the vicinity of my second camera, so I was able to get reasonably good audio and video.