A. Ficus: For Environmental Health and Justice
Montclair: First Green Community in NJ? Montclair's Environmental Affairs Office provides a brief history of Montclair's impressive environmental achievements. Compare your town... what are you missing?
Check out The Breathing Earth Simulation, a real-time simulation that displays the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of every country in the world, plus their birth and death rates (you can watch and hear it "breathe").
1. Set up an Office of Environmental Affairs in Boro government. When your Environmental Commission isn't even aware that you're putting a big, toxic, greenhouse gas-emitting plastic carpet in the middle of town, you know you're in trouble.
2. Pass a Precautionary Principle Ordinance, like the one in Lyndhurst, NJ!
3. Pass mandatory real recycling ordinance
4. Stand in solidarity with those who oppose any moves by the state toward building fossil fuel plants or additional nuclear power plants (which would likely cost no less than $4 billion and take 10 or more years to build) anywhere in the state. In particular, we must oppose the building of the PurGen Coal-powered plant currently planned for Linden, NJ, which is a giant experiment intended to "sequester" 5 million tons of CO2 (a gas that is deadly in concentration) every year in the seabed off the Jersey shore by piping it through a 100-mile pipeline. To learn more, click here
5. Identify products sold in local stores containing phthalates, which have been identified as endocrine disruptors and implicated in "phthalate syndrome" in infant boys, as well as reproductive problems, early onset of puberty, testicular cancer, and liver and thyroid damage, and which may contribute to asthma and decreased lung function in men, and follow the approach of San Francisco's phthalate ordinance in first labeling and then, ultimately banning the sale of such products (currently, there is no way for you to know whether a product actually contains phthalates, and they are often in toys that young children put in their mouths, such as teethers)
6. In the interest of protecting residents--especially children--from chemical trespass, pass an ordinance banning the use of lawn pesticides containing ingredients known or suspected to be carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, or endocrine-disrupting, and launch an educational campaign that will assist residents in using integrated pest management instead
7. Offer environmental literacy education and environmental justice literacy in partnership with local and/or regional environmental and eco-justice organizations
8. Strengthen community gardening within the township by identifying additional spaces that could be utilized for community gardens, and educating residents on collective gardening
9. Continue support for "Backyard Habitat" certification through the National Wildlife Federation, and think creatively about how to integrate Backyard Habitats with local food production
10. Strongly support, participate in, and publicize the annual Raritan River Environmental Festival
11. Continue township efforts toward implementing energy efficiency in all areas, from township buildings to businesses to residences
12. Work with Main Street to identify ways to make street fairs more sustainable such as attracting or inviting vendors and exhibitors who utilize sustainable practices or promote sustainability, and encouraging vendors to incorporate more sustainable practices such as using compostable food service materials
13. Stand in solidarity with those who oppose the relicensing of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, which is the oldest operating nuclear plant in the country, has waste storage on high towers that are vulnerable to being hit by airplanes (either intentionally or accidently), and is already responsible for severe environmental damage Stand in solidarity with those who oppose any moves by the state toward building fossil fuel plants or additional nuclear power plants (which would likely cost no less than $4 billion and take 10 or more years to build) anywhere in the state