HP climate change slide show with Stender, covered in Home news

by: kwilkinson

Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 11:25:51 PM EDT

The Home News covered our event:

Forum brings home climate-change issue

HIGHLAND PARK - Two of New Jersey's most eco-friendly officials visited the borough's senior center Saturday in support of Step It Up 2007, a nationwide day of action on global warming. They joined local residents for a slide show on climate change.  "The federal government has failed us miserably," said state Assemblywoman Linda Stender, D-Union, who brought New Jersey's Global Warming Response Act to the Legislature. "States and cities are holding themselves responsible, as we should all do." Stender said she takes action in her home by limiting showers to five minutes, driving a hybrid car and taking cloth bags to the supermarket instead of using disposable plastic ones.

Borough resident Tina Weishaus presented the slide show, highlighting the science behind global warming and emphasizing a need for action. Weishaus noted that New Jersey can expect to face coastal flooding, drinking water contamination by salt water and an influx of non-native species that thrive in warmer temperatures, including pests and diseases such as West Nile virus. Weishaus also cited a report by former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern, who said global warming could cost the world $9 trillion... 

"Everything that we do in Highland Park, we do green," said Mayor Meryl Frank... Other green initiatives include planting 100 trees at Centennial Park - trees absorb carbon dioxide - and creating a "rain garden" to trap polluted rainwater and filter it through gravel and sand before it trickles into the Raritan River, the mayor said. Also, the Borough Hall is powered by solar panels.

Though as we learned it's better to plant trees closer to the equator.

After the slide show, Weishaus led participants to the sidewalk in front of Stop & Shop on Raritan Avenue, where the group held up signs demanding an 80 percent cut in carbon-dioxide emissions by 2050...

"The urgency really gets you," said Dallas Grove, an Ocean Township resident who traveled to the borough for the day of action. "Global warming has gone beyond a concept into, "What do we do today, tomorrow and this year?' "