EPA Meeting for the Gowanus Canal !!

On the 21st of January, Brooklyn Kids for Change went to an EPA meeting about the Gowanus Canal.   The EPA held this meeting because they are about to start research on the canal and maybe call it a Superfund site.  A superfund site is a place where the EPA is trying to help a toxic site.  Natalie, the community involvement coordinator and Christos Tsiamis, the manager for the Gowanus project, were speaking and holding the meeting.  My friend, my dad and I spoke up in front of the crowd of 50!

Councilmembers Steve Levin and Brad Lander were there.  In this video, Brad Lander welcomed Brooklyn Kids for Change up in front of the crowd.  We went to the EPA meeting because we are concerned about the Gowanus. (Of course!)  While we were there, we learned about CAG, TAG and TASC groups.  A CAG is a community advisory group, a forum for all interests in the community where there's a superfund site.  Who can participate in a CAG?  Members of the local community, local environmental or public interest groups (that's us!) who can attend meetings as needed.  You would have to go to about 15 meetings per year! For more on CAGs go here.   When Natalie from the EPA took questions, we asked how old you have to be to be eligible for a CAG or TAG!  Natalie said she would highly recommend for people to invite us into a CAG or TAG!

A TAG is a Technical Assistance Grant.  You get $50,000 for hiring a scientist who is an expertiste on certain environmental issues.  The scientist checks the EPA's work on the research of your superfund site to make sure the information is right.

A TASC is technical assistance services for the community.  It is EPA sponsored.  The TASC will provide stuff to help educate the members of the community about the superfund site. 

Finally, I think the Gowanus Canal being called a Superfund site would be great, especially for the man at the Guido Funeral Parlor who would like it to become a replica of Venice! 

hydrofracking

I am in West Virginia.  We were driving up Backbone Mountain to start hiking and we passed a reclaimed surface coal mine.  My uncle told us about the reclaimed mine and how the trees were clear cut and the water was polluted by the mining.  Now that the land has been reclaimed by the people of the state there is just a big hole with water draining down into a sludge pond. The sludge pond is full of pollution. They planted trees but they are all one kind of pine tree and are not like the forest before the mining started.

My uncle also told me about hydrofracking. A lot of power comes from natural gas.  We used to be able to get this natural gas by simply drilling a hole in the ground and the gas would come out.  Most of that gas has been used up. Now they've found little pockets in shale.  They can get the gas out by drilling a hole and shooting water and chemicals down into the shale to get the gas. The danger of hydrofracking is that these chemicals may seep into people's and animal's drinking water. People can and are getting very sick. It is already happening here in West Virginia, but they want to start doing it in New York.  In New York they want to start hydro fracking under the watershed.  This could lead to polluting New York City water and more people getting sick. Start fighting against hydrofracking now!

On the same drive we saw windmills making windpower.  If we could have more non-polluting energy like this people would not need to depend on coal and hydrofracking.

Election Day!

Today is the election for city council.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for Brad Lander to win.  Why?  I met Brad Lander in Carroll Park while putting up Brooklyn Kids for Change flyers with my friends.  I told him about my blog. He told us if he gets elected or not as city councilman, he will help us with our community services and blog!

(Earlier this year, our blog site shut down so we were trying to get it back up on the web and we successfully have.  We are now waiting to schedule our meetings in parks and community gardens.)

Save The Pandas

 My friend me and sold cupcakes on the street and raised twenty-seven dollars, and are sending it to a company who will use it to help pandas!   Why did we chose pandas?  We chose pandas because their an endangered species and are adorable in my opinion!

 Pandas homes are being destroyed to create more farm land, pandas do not only depend on their homes for  just shelter but for food.  If their homes are destroyed the pandas could go extinct and we don't want this to happen, think what would it be like with your kids never getting to see a panda, or a black bear, in the zoo or to be able to watch the national geographic channel and see  footage that was only shot a week ago, so in conclusion help save the pandas!

Join the Many Trying to Help the Gowanus

The Gowanus Canal is naturally thought of as a dump.  There is this Italian man who owns a pizzeria and has a hope for the Gowanus that it could be like Venice with mini villas, cafes, and since he was born in Italy, he wanted it to remind him of his home.

My art class from school joined A.G.A.S.T. (Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour).  Visit the official A.G.A.S.T. site at agastbrooklyn.com.

Each fourth grade class made six strips of scenery.  Our teacher Miss Kimball put them on canvas after we had collaged our strips.  For more info about this project go to MeganKimball.blogspot.com
We designed what we hoped would be the future of the Gowanus Canal.

Elephant Seals!

I went to Las Piedras Blancas, an elephant seal rookery, along the central coast of California.  Elephant seals mate, molt and give birth there.  The seals looked so lazy and happy on the beach, but they have such a sad history.

In 1880, people thought they were all extinct from hunting, but a few survived on an island off the coast of Mexico.  The elephant seal population today is 150,000 and still growing!  This only happened after Mexico and the US declared no tampering, harassing or hunting elephant seals.

The male seals grow up to 14 feet long and have big flaps over their noses.  Females grow up to 12 feet long and have no flaps over their noses.  The ones I saw were females and pups.  They were molting, lying in the sand, throwing sand on themselves so they didn't get sunburned and barking at each other.  We were driving up highway one after we had a brief visit at Hearst Castle and pulled over to the side of the road and looked out to the the beach and saw hundreds or thousands of elephant seals lying on the beach.  Some were in the water and some were just lazing in the sand.  They were so cute, some looked like they were smiling, especially one who was nuzzling her nose in the sand.  She's the one in the picture in the photo section of my blog.

If you want to find out more, go to ElephantSeal.org.

Oil Spills and How to Make Your Carbon Footprint Smaller

Oil spills are effecting the animals on our planet especially sea creatures.  When the oil spills it gets stuck to sea otters' fur and clogs whale's breathing holes.  An oil spill is a release of  liquid petroleum and hydrocarbon.  Sometimes oil spills can take years to clean up, but the good news is people are finding out new ways to make their carbon foot prints smaller and are also finding new energy sources.

This is how people are making their carbon footprints smaller:  Buy carbon offsets when you take long airplane flights.  Ride your bike or walk instead of driving or take public transportation.  Use flourescent lightbulbs instead of regular lightbulbs.  Compost, recycle, refuse, reduce and reuse.  If you have to, buy a hybrid car.

People are finding new energy sources: hydropower (waterpower), windpower and solar power.  The funny thing is that water, wind and sun have been around for millions of years.