Op-Ed Letters to the Editor
Listen to the kids on climate
PANNING ‘VENUS’
REVIEW
Regarding the Aug. 22
article “Watermelon, wine
and bird do” that appeared
in the Arts and Entertainment
section: Nancy Elsamanoudi
reviewed Eloy
Arribas’ paintings. She
mentioned a “crudely drawn
Venus of Willendorf-like
figure.” I disagree with the
description.
This drawing is just like
graffiti I see all over the
place, and it is no Venus.
It is a drawing degrading
women as nothing but
sexual servants of men. She
is all giant breasts, spread
legs and a smile.
Your euphemistic description
is not fooling anyone.
S.D. Rosenbaum
DRIVING UP A
HARD BARGAIN
The year started with the
MTA financial commitment
for construction of Second
Avenue Subway Phase 2 of
$1,735 billion. This would
support preliminary environmental,
design, engineering
and utility relocation
work north from 96th
Street to 125th Street.
They needed $4.265 billion
in total funding for actual
construction of Phase
2. The MTA would have to
find $2.265 billion in local
dollars in the next MTA Five
Year 2020 - 2024 Capital
Program. This would bring
the total local funding commitment
up to $4 billion.
In April, the MTA claimed
they could save between
$500 million to a $1 billion
in costs for this project.
This would have reduced
the overall tab to $5 billion.
Promised cost savings
were based upon reduction
in excavation for the 125th
Street Station and building
the 116th Street Station in
space no longer needed for
other project work.
Under the $51 billion
2020 - 2024 Five Year
Capital Plan, the overall
cost has now increased by
$1 billion. This raised the
project price tag to $7 billion.
The previous federal
share of $2 billion or 33%
has now been assumed to
be 50% or $3.5 billion. No
one has come forward to
explain these changes.
There is no guarantee
(based upon future advancement
of design and
engineering, construction
contractors responses to
the procurement process
for contract(s) award followed
by change orders
during construction due to
unforeseen site conditions
or last minute changes in
scope) that the final cost
could end up several hundred
million to a billion or
two more.
A legal federal commitment
to fund Second Ave
Subway Phase 2 still remains
an open question.
All the Federal Transit Administration
has provided
to the MTA in 2018 was
the FONSI (Finding of No
Significant Impact) based
upon completion of the
NEPA (National Environmental
Protection Act) review
process. The project
still faces myriad hurdles.
Larry Penner
Email letters to news@
thevillager.com, leave a
comment to any story on
our website at thevillager.
com or write to The Villager,
Letters to the Editor,
1 MetroTech Center, 3rd
Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Please include phone number
for verification. The
Villager reserves the right
to edit letters for space,
grammar, clarity and libel.
Anonymous letters will
not be published, but writers
may request that their
names be withheld from
publication.
BY CONGRESSMAN JERRY NADLER
Every Friday, 14-year-old Manhattan
resident Alexandria Villaseñor will
wake up at 8:00 am and skip school
to travel to the United Nations Headquarters.
Here, she will sit on a bench, often alone, and
picket to build awareness about the dangers
of climate change.
This week, Greta Thunberg, the 16-yearold
founder of School Strike 4 Climate, and
young people from across the globe have
joined Alexandria for the “Global Climate
Strike,” which saw students walk out of
school to protest climate change inaction.
Alexandria, like thousands of other young
people, recognizes that her generation cannot
afford to wait any longer to take meaningful
action against climate change. Their
advocacy is critical and admirable, but our
children and grandchildren should not need
to skip school and stage mass protests to stop
climate change.
Yet, the federal government has put
them in this position by refusing to address
the climate crisis.
Climate change is real and threatens all of
us, regardless of nationality, political party,
or economic status. Extreme climate change
has already arrived in the United States and
impacts every congressional district across
our country.
In New York City, the potential for stronger
storms and rising seas mean Sandy-level
fl ooding could occur once every 23 years as
opposed to once every 400. The 2018 National
Climate Assessment, a report compiled
by 13 federal scientifi c agencies, warns that
we only have a small window of time to take
meaningful action to cut carbon emissions if
we are to avoid irreversible changes.
Scientists warn that window could close
within about a decade if the earth heats up
by an average of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
If that happens, shrinking glaciers in the
poles could lead to a massive sea-level rise,
harming the planet’s ability to recover from
further warming.
That metric may seem theoretical, but it’s
not; according to the analysis from The Washington
Post, 71 counties have already hit the
3.6 degrees Fahrenheit mark, including all
fi ve boroughs.
At a time when America should be leading
the global fi ght against climate change, the
Trump Administration has taken our nation
backward, recklessly withdrawing us from
the Paris Agreement and rolling back countless
environmental regulations designed to
curb greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Administration has even gone so far
as to undermine the very science of climate
change by blocking federal climate scientists
from publishing data about the climate crisis
and scrubbing all references to climate change
from government websites. These actions
are careless, and the consequences could
be irreversible.
In the face of the Administration’s dangerous
retreat on environmental policy, the
House has not been silent. As a critical fi rst
step, the House passed multiple bills that
would require the United States to stay in the
Paris Agreement.
Additionally, the House passed legislation
to block the Trump Administration’s
dangerous plan to auction off up to 90 percent
of our nation’s offshore waters for oil
and gas drilling.
Democratic Members of Congress have put
forward bold proposals to combat this crisis.
I am proud to support Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal
Resolution, which challenges our federal government
to address the changing climate now
by bringing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions
down to net-zero and meeting 100 percent of
power demand in the country through clean,
renewable, and zero-emission energy sources
by 2030.
The Green New Deal addresses the urgency
of the moment and is the start of a serious
conversation we must be having in 2019.
As I work tirelessly with my Democratic colleagues
in Washington, I am proud that New
York has become the national leader in the
fi ght against climate change at the state level.
I commend Governor Cuomo for signing into
law the Climate Leadership and Community
Protection Act, the most ambitious state mandate
for climate action in the country that includes
a requirement for the state to transition
to 100 percent renewable energy by 2040.
It is my hope that New York will stay the
course and reject wasteful projects that would
take us backward like the Williams Pipeline.
For the sake of future generations of young
people, the federal government must move
quickly to tackle the climate crisis head-on.
We must also improve our climate resilience
to protect Americans from the increasingly
extreme weather and natural disasters that
are being driven by climate change.
The President must learn from young people
like Alexandria Villaseñor, and act before
it is too late.
Congressman Jerry Nadler represents the
10th Congressional District of New York,
which includes Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Local News
Read all about it!
thevillager.com
Schneps Media TVG September 26, 2019 13
/thevillager.com
/thevillager.com