Almost every time it rains in New York City, raw sewage, pet waste, trash, and polluted runoff flow into waterways where people swim, fish, row, kayak, and boat.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and NRDC's Science Center convened a National Heat-Health Surveillance Expert Workshop to discuss the development and dissemination of more robust, rapid tracking and estimation of the health impacts of extreme heat. The workshop was held in New York, March 17-18, 2015, hosted and co-sponsored by the Climate & Health Program, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, New York, NY. Other co-sponsors included: American Public Health Association, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, California Environmental Health Tracking Program, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the Public Health Institute's Center for Climate Change and Health.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and NRDC's Science Center convened a National Heat-Health Surveillance Expert Workshop to discuss the development and dissemination of more robust, rapid tracking and estimation of the health impacts of extreme heat. The workshop was held in New York, March 17-18, 2015, hosted and co-sponsored by the Climate & Health Program, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, New York, NY. Other co-sponsors included: American Public Health Association, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, California Environmental Health Tracking Program, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the Public Health Institute's Center for Climate Change and Health.
NRDC kicked off a 'Dump Dirty Diesels' campaign in 1995 that led to New York City Transit's adoption in 2000 of its Clean-Fuel Bus Program. In 2006, NRDC hired Michael J. Bradley & Associates to study the reductions in emissions from NYC Transit buses since the start of that campaign. The study concluded that NYC Transit reduced particulate matter emissions from its buses by 97 percent and smog-forming nitrogen oxides emissions by 58 percent since 1995. The NYC Transit program is now being replicated by other transit fleets around the U.S. and the world.
This amicus brief was filed by NRDC on behalf of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA), UPROSEand THE POINT Community Development Corporation in support of New York City’s claims against the world’s five largest investor-owned fossil fuel producers (BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell). The City is seeking compensation for the harm it has and will continue to incur to protect itself and its residents from the impacts of climate change.
The New York City Council passed two bills that, when signed into law, will mark the beginning of the end for the notorious Rikers Island jail complex and transform the island into a model of green infrastructure and jobs.
