WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JUNE 6, 2019 13
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
PRAISE FOR
ADOPTIVE
PARENTS BILL
Assemblyman David Weprin
believes a birth certificate is a legal
document which is important to
one’s identity. Well I agree.
Adoptees in New York state are
forbidden access to the original
document unless they have a court
order. I feel the passage of a bill
sponsored by David Weprin know
as A.5494, The Clean Bill of Adoptee
Rights, gets passed and clears the
way for adoptees to know who their
biological parents were and are.
I feel this is important for the
adoptees and their biological
parents who seek to meet. I am one
of those biological parents who seek
to meet my children.
In 1975, while still in the Navy,
my children were adopted after my
wife had left us and I had no means
to support them and had no family,
or friends that could help me. I’m
going to be 70 years old this year and
would like to make contact before I
pass away.
I would like to tell my sons named
Tommy and Bobby, who will be 50
and 49 years old, that I still love
them and think of them and would
like to tell them it was not their fault
they were adopted and tell them of
our family history.
Assemblyman Weprin, I would
like to thank you for your efforts.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Glen
Oaks Village
FLY OLD GLORY
PROUDLY ON FLAG
DAY
Every June 14th, our country
marks Flag Day, with multiple
displays of Old Glory across the
nation. Everyone who owns a home
or business should proudly fly the
American flag on that day, because
that flag is the symbol of freedom
and represents our wonderful
country.
Despite the many problems in our
country at this time, one thing is for
certain: We are very lucky to live in
a country with so many liberties that
are guaranteed by the Constitution
and defended by our valiant men
and women of the Armed Forces.
Every American should always
salute the flag when at baseball
games or other public activities. It
is a sign of deserved respect for our
country and our flag.
John Amato, Fresh Meadows
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OP-ED
Fighting climate change
BY COSTA CONSTANTINIDES AND
The recent Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change report
and the Fourth National Climate
Assessment make it clear that we must
make radical changes in a very short
time in order to avoid catastrophic
climate change.
Keeping the planet from warming
too drastically will require rapid
emissions reductions and reaching
carbon-neutrality by 2050. Even with
these actions, we need to make sure we
make our communities more resilient
from sea level rise, and more frequent
and extreme storms and heat waves.
We need national and international
cooperation to fight climate change,
but there is plenty we can do at the city
level.
We are proud that the City Council
recently passed the Climate Mobilization
Act, which includes one of the nation’s
most signifi cant emissions reduction
policies. But we must also fi ght climate
change by increasing and protecting
our carbon sinks.
Parks, gardens, playgrounds, forests,
and other natural areas absorb carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere. New York
City’s urban tree canopy fi lters 1,300
tons of pollutants and stores 1.2 million
tons of carbon per year.
Trees also mitigate the urban
heat island effect and can lower
temperatures by up to nine degrees, cut
air conditioning use by 30 percent, and
reduce heating energy use by up to 50
percent — all of which helps decrease
pollution and fi ghts climate change.
Parks and gardens absorb rain during
storms and capture 2 billion gallons of
stormwater runoff each year, which
helps make the city more resilient.
That type of technology is now being
implemented in Queens’ Astoria Park
under a $30 million, long-overdue capital
project. Thanks to the advocacy of young
Astoria native Angela Garvin, the new
rain gardens will capture stormwater,
prevent some of the notorious fl ooding
that’s blighted this green space for too
long, and mitigate discharges into the
nearby East River.
Sadly, this is just one of the many
parks in Queens that need crucial
infrastructure investments to remain
resilient against the demands of
climate change in the 21st century.
Unfortunately, the Parks Department
receives less than 1 percent of the total
City budget, leaving these green spaces
under threat.
That’s why we joined the Play Fair
coalition in the call for increasing the
Parks Department budget by $100
million for better maintenance.
Properly maintaining parks helps
conserve nature and makes our city
more resilient. It also helps keep
invasive species away from trees
and ensures that plantings have the
essential nutrients they need to grow
and continue to absorb carbon and
pollution.
This budget season, we ask that the
city plays fair for parks!
Council member Costa Constantinides
is the chair of the Council’s Environmental
Protection Committee. Julie Tighe is
president of the New York League of
Conservation Voters (NYLCV).
SNAPS
JULIE TIGHE
SPRING DAYS IN FLUSHING MEADOWS CORONA PARK
PHOTO VIA INSTAGRAM : @jlc_omie_
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