You Can See the Summer From Here

You can see the Summer from Here

Published as a Sunday ViewPoints Cover Buffalo News May 2012

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/viewpoints/article865056.ece

Emerging visions of Buffalo’s outer harbor could transform our region into a sustainable 21^st century powerhouse.

By Jay Burney

Kayakers on the Buffalo River near Grain Elevator Canyon

In just a few short days, Memorial Day weekend will be upon us and Western New Yorkers will once again joyously leap across the threshold into another magnificent summer season.

As we break out the bathing suits and sandals and lather up with suntan lotion, we have plenty of reason to head on down to the emerging and boisterous Buffalo waterfront. Public access and engagement has quickly become one of our most profound connections to the season, our mixed cultures, and to the spectacular sweet water seas that help characterize our area as a global level paradise.

Now is a great time for each of us to think about the real value of outer harbor development.   What we do here, and who does it will significantly impact the very consequential futures of our regional economy, environment, and quality of life.

Planning and development strategies are now moving into final stages at various levels of government.  Decades of work ranging from the long defunct Horizons Commission to the very alive City of Buffalo Comprehensive Plan, Queen City Hub, the Queen City Waterfront, and the very exciting new City of Buffalo Green Code focusing on unified form based zoning, are going to create and enforce policy level decisions about what and how we decide to take advantage of what many agree is our most valuable public asset.

Of great consequence and designed to inform the Green Code, a partnership formed by the City of Buffalo, New York State, the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation, and the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper has focused on three Brownfield Opportunity Areas (BOA) in the city. One is the Buffalo Harbor BOA which includes the outer harbor.

This area is considered a brownfield because of the legacy of generations of pollution from industry and urban impacts. The BOA program is designed to help return dormant brownfield sites back to productive use and environmental quality. The partners emphasize that the BOA process will contribute to the city’s revitalization. Once completed the land use and built form components of the study will be included in the City’s Green Code.

What is the opportunity for the region?

Our waterfront that comprise parts of Lake Erie, The Buffalo River, and the Niagara River, are uniquely situated on one of the planets most consequential and valuable natural resources.

-The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater system on earth. Together they hold more than 20% of the world’s fresh surface water. 

-According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 90% of the U.S. supply of fresh water comes from the Great Lakes.

Clean water is a basic sustainability issue that we must find ways to protect and restore if future generations are going to have a sustainable quality of life.  Recognizing this, and working to help to educate about this resource, is a huge step toward global stewardship and leadership. This is part of our opportunity.

The Spirit of Buffalo near the entrance to the Buffalo Harbor

Kate Mini Hilliman of Buffalo Urban Outdoor Education, which has engaged thousands of the region's youth in Great Lakes learning on the iconic tall ship “Spirit of Buffalo”, says that the water is one of our most valuable assets and probably one of our most misunderstood and undervalued assets.

“We live in a city where many people have never actually been on the water, especially children. Every day during the spring and summer we bring kids from the urban environment out into the lake. They are usually pretty apprehensive before we cast off at the Central Wharf, but by the time we hit the Buffalo Lighthouse they are looking back at the beautiful city with amazement and wonder. During our program they make positive connections to the lake and begin to understand the biology and geography in ways that will influence them for the rest of their lives.” 

That is a consequential connection. In a city that lost its connectivity to the water with the building of the I-190, its important to bring both old and young generations back to the waters edge and out into the sweet waters of the Niagara River and Lake Erie. This is our future.

It is not lost on some of our most outspoken political representatives that have strong beliefs that appropriate waterfront development will characterize our future.

Congressman Brian Higgins who has focused much of his Congressional career on Buffalo’s outer harbor and brought hundreds of millions of dollars into play here, says that the waterfront defines our region. “People from all over, Ellicottville, Williamsville, Amherst are as excited about what happens here as are the city residents.  We are at a game changing moment.  And the good news is that our local progress is unified in ways that we have not seen in the past 75 years of visioning.  What we decide now, and how we invest will guide our future economic opportunities and our potential for jobs growth and will help us create the kind of city we want for the 21^st century”.

NYS 144^th District Assemblyman Sean Ryan recently authored important legislation making the Buffalo River an eligible water body for Local Waterfront Revitalization Program funding. This could mean millions of dollars to the waterfront.  He is concerned about the NFTA ownership of waterfront properties and wants them to divest themselves of property so that they can focus just on the mission of public transportation. He suggests that there are other state agencies that need to take the waterfront lead, but cautions that there are not enough public voices making decisions. “We need more public representation and engagement on the Board of Directors of the ECHDC and not just established decision makers that represent private interests,” he told us. This land is valuable but only after significant public investment. We should make sure that development promotes public access and not just a privatization of public resources made marketable by public investments.”

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and a vocal advocate of an ecologically healthy Great Lakes. She knows the impact of clean water on our regional economy. She believes that substantial Washington resources such as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative can directly benefit our region.

Jill Spisiak Jedlicka, Director of Ecological Programs at Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper says that Riverkeeper has brought millions of dollars towards revitalizing Buffalo’s waterfront.  Jedlika says that maintaining public access is fundamental. She says that appropriate economic development that respects ecology is important and that an appropriate mix of uses can be targeted for the outer harbor.  “Economic health and environmental health go hand in hand” she told us.

Conservation and Economic Development-Recreation, Tourism, Education

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council the annual percentage of world GDP based on tourism was 9.3% in 2010 and growing at almost 5% per year.   In 2011 its impacts translated to $6.3 trillion in GDP,  and 255 million jobs (1 in 12). This makes tourism the worlds largest industry.  According to the World Trade Organization, ecotourism and nature based tourism is the fastest growing sector with heritage tourism right behind. Tourism in the Greater Niagara region is a $2 billion annual industry supporting over 40,000 jobs. We can build on that. Eco and heritage tourism could be this regions future. These are the greenest of green jobs and if developed here, could mark a permanent upturn in our economic and ecological health.

National Marine Sanctuary

When Sylvia Earle, a former Chief Scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric (NOAA) and current Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society came to Buffalo a few years back, I asked her about conservation and economic development strategies for the Great Lakes. She told me, “you should think about a marine sanctuary.”

Currently NOAA administers 14 National Marine Sanctuaries in diverse locations from Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington State to the Florida Keys.  Marine Sanctuaries are designed to promote conservation while allowing compatible commercial and recreational activities. There is only one NOAA designated Marine Sanctuary in the Great Lakes and that is in Thunder Bay in Lake Huron. This sanctuary has been an economic powerhouse for the region and it is currently exploring ways to expand.

Why Not a Lake Erie Niagara River National Marine Sanctuary?

We have world-class biodiversity here including the Niagara River Corridor “globally significant” Important Bird Area recognized because of both the diversity and threats to migrating birds, fish, and other wildlife. We have marine access heritage sites offshore and onshore including our grain elevators, the underground railroad, early harbor, First People, and War of 1812 that help to tell the story of America.

Our marine sanctuary should include portions of Lake Erie, the Niagara River, and the Buffalo River, which is newly recognized as eligible for state Local Waterfront Revitalization funding thanks to Assemblyman Ryan’s legislation. Other funding sources could include the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and appropriate private investment that protects open space on the waterfront and prevents urban sprawl.  Clearly how we develop our onshore and offshore outer harbor will be key to investing in a consequential recreation and tourism economy.

Imagine building an economic plan around conservation, tourism and recreation.   World class bird watching, recreational fishing, boating, kayaking, sailing, and all of the service contexts including tours, service liveries and amenities that would come with this kind of plan can characterize our 21^st century region. Take this a step further- Imagine a vision of a Woods Hole type research and education center focused on sustainable Great Lakes waters.  Imagine our local colleges and universities tying in to make our region a leader in Great lakes sustainability. Imagine all of this as our future! If we work together, we can make our future as bright as the rising sun.

Proposed National Marine Sanctuary

Times Beach Nature Preserve in downtown Buffalo

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( Set out)

Buffalo Harbor BOA Principles  provided by Urban Strategies, Inc. –Buffalo BOA Consultants      http://buffalobrownfieldopportunities.com/

Principles

The following emerging principles were presented to the break-out groups for their consideration:

1.            Seek to better integrate the Waterfront and Harbor area into the Downtown experience. Make these areas an extension of the Downtown.

2.            Expand efforts to harness the unique economic, cultural and recreational opportunities provided by the Waterfront. Use the amenity of the water as a catalyst for positive change.

3.            Continue to work to animate the Waterfront year around through a program of events, recreation and culture.

4.            Make it a place that people want to come to and where there are things to do and see.

5.            Protect and celebrate the waterfront as a working waterfront. Balance interests.

6.            Work to remediate and restore the health of the Waterfront: Clean, Green and Beautiful.

7.            Work to improve accessibility to the Waterfront and make it a truly public space for all to enjoy.

8.            Make the waterfront a public space for all ages and abilities to enjoy.2

9.            Plan Waterfront Growth Smartly

There was general consensus on the emerging principles. There were, however, additional priorities the community wished to be added to the list, including:

-emphasizing Buffalo Harbor BOAs role in both the City and Regional context;

-recognizing the Harbor’s ecological significance;

-the need to include sustainability and environmental performance as a part of the BOAs future;

-ensure that the waterfront is usable year around – winter and summer;

-recognize the industrial legacy of the waterfront;

-and keep the waterfront and access to the water public.

Biodiversity and Climate Change Part II- WNY Primacy

Biodiversity and Climate Change Part 2

WNY Primacy

by Jay Burney

Preserve, Protect, and Defend, -biodiversity

In part 1, we explored that the fundamental cause of human created climate change is the eradication of biodiversity.  Eradication is enriched by the economic exploitation and the characterization of these resources as commodities.   The harvesting of forests and the use of our waterways as waste repositories have dealt fundamental blows to our planets ability to support life.  The ecological services provided by ecosystems are marginalized as economic “externalities”.  Ecological and social contexts have to be woven in to the sustainability equation with the real bottom line being biodiversity. A purely economic definition of “sustainable development” remains an oxymoron.  We have to change this.

The potential negative impact on our region’s biodiversity by climate change is substantial.  The positive contribution to atmospheric stability by biodiversity is fundamental science.  We must recognize the overwhelming significance of habitat destruction and the exploitation of natural resources. This is a very addressable strategy.

We Can

-Rethink, redefine, and react to fundamental causes of climate change. This will characterize the value of our current generations. 

-Identify, catalog and reverse the unprecedented human evisceration of biodiversity.

WNY is located in one of the most historically biodiverse regions on the planet. Our Great Lakes, rivers, creeks, streams, wetlands, forests, uplands, and meadows are vital components of a rapidly vanishing bioregion of global significance.

Although most of our natural assets have been urbanized or seriously altered by human activity there remain significant areas that are ecologically productive.   Most areas can return to ecological productivity with planning and investment.

The Sweetwater Seas

The Great Lakes contain nearly 1/5^th of the world’s fresh surface water.

The Great Lakes Basin is a bioregion that supports nearly 10% of the US population and 25% of the population of Canada.  Urbanization, industry and agriculture have diminished our ecologically productive capacity.

Our waters are a valuable asset.   They face growing threats championed by economic activities with a laser focus on growth and development.  We can enhance our planets capacity to support life and atmospheric stability if we continue to provide opportunities for biodiversity.  But only if we engage conservation as a primary first line of defense.

One of the most significant threats to our waters involves waste treatment and disposal. For example, just seven sewer authorities throughout the Great Lakes including the Buffalo Sewer Authority (BSA) discharge almost 20 billion gallons of untreated sewerage and storm water through Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). The BSA is responsible for releasing almost 2 billion gallons per year of our untreated material into the Niagara River, Buffalo River, Black Rock Canal, Scajaquada Creek and 52 other permitted outfalls. 

The good news is that currently the BSA has a 19 year plan developed in conjunction with RiverKeeper to address CSOs.  The BSA is one of the only sewer authorities in the Great Lakes with a “Green Infrastructure Plan”.  It comes with a $500 million plus price tag. 

The bad news is that the BSA plan is not enough and there is no guarantee that the money can be raised. Our culture is in a current suicidal cycle of downplaying infrastructure investments of this kind. Maybe we will build a new football stadium instead.

The bad news goes deeper with the BSA. It is a “self-permitting” Public Authority.  The BSA alone determines and monitors what it processes through its system.  This is not a unique situation. The political and economic underpinnings of a Public Authority give the BSA extraordinary legal powers and can keep public scrutiny at arms length. Contentious issues involving permitting disclosures  result.

-The BSA is the sole authority for Buffalo Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permits (BPDES), issues permits for “Trucked in Waste” and permits for “Temporary Discharges”.

While the BSA is on record as saying that it is doing nothing illegal, permit applicants “self-identify” the materials that they are seeking to discharge into the lake.

This means that the potential for deliberate or unintentional misidentification of materials permitted for release by private entities is there. Public scrutiny of these permits does not include public review of permit applications prior to permitting.

We would be shocked, just shocked if illegal activity takes place, but the potential is there.

A recent example of the kinds of problems that exist under this current system include an investigation of fracking wastewater permits undertaken by ArtVoice in the late winter of 2011-12.

http://artvoice.com/issues/v10n6/week_in_review/seven_days

Hydrofracking

Despite all the industry hype about the environmental benefits of a transitional natural gas economy, one of the least reported aspects of hydrofracking is that the activity releases huge amounts of methane, a less reported but highly significant greenhouse gas. Coupled with the documented consequences of using billions of gallons of water, concocting and injecting proprietary chemical soups that are highly toxic that appear in groundwater, aquifers, and other drinking water sources, hydrofracking is not the answer. Even on a purely economic basis hydrofracking does not live up to industry hype. Mix in the development of landscapes eaten by roads, well heads, lagoons, and other infrastructure demands, it becomes more clear that this energy strategy does not support biodiversity and is instead another nail in the coffin of atmospheric stability.

Land Use

Land use models that transcend traditional economic factors are being developed locally. Riverkeeper has  introduced a GIS land use database focusing on watersheds. This groundbreaking approach to identifying value is transforming our ability to promote conservation and protection. Other local working groups are focusing on expanding the concept and identifying areas that have  economically quantifiable ecological services values such as intact or partially intact ecosystems on both public and private lands. County Forests, parkland, land banks, abandoned farmland, trails, wood lots, and other areas are strategic places.

A new database approach could form the basis of quantifiable analysis of critical habitat and biodiversity generators. The objective is to create a tool to build upon traditional land use concepts that help citizens and governments determine planning, zoning, conservation, and land protection. One potential outcome is incentives that would target keeping public and private land ecologically productive.

Buffalo Waterfront

We can recreate an ecologically productive waterfront by avoiding industrial, commercial or inappropriate mixed use development.  Only if we make significant public investments does this land become valuable land for the developers. Instead of driving profits just to the developers, lets invest in an economic plan that benefits a broader spectrum.

By concentrating development on the downtown side of the river and harbor and we will build a better city. The outer harbor should remain as open space with public access. How about a National Marine Sanctuary just off shore? An economic plan that encourages conservation through recreational and tourism will make us wealthier as a sustainable community.

Urban Greenscaping

Community owned lands such as parks and streetscapes can contribute to biodiversity. If you have a yard you can make a difference.  Here is how- Learn about the kinds of beneficial animals such as pollinators, local birds, and butterflies that depend on native plants, and then landscape with those plants! There are plenty of local organizations that promote this kind of gardening. One word of caution, -avoid using native plants in rain gardens that collect street runoff.  Toxic materials from automobiles, lawn chemicals and other poisons can accumulate in these gardens and if you are using plants that attract native butterflies, birds, and bees, they will absorb the toxins, which can be counterproductive.

Biodiversity and Climate Change Part 1- Its the Economy Stupid!

First Published in Artvoice

September 2012 

http://artvoice.com/issues/v11n35/greenwatch

Biodiversity and Climate Change Part 1

Its the Economy Stupid!

By Jay Burney

Climate change is rampaging our planet, our region, and our communities like an unstoppable freight train that has gone off the tracks.  We are no longer looking at a “predicted” future of possible highly variable extreme weather conditions and catastrophic events. That future is here now.

 

The impacts do and will continue to effect each one of us. Our pocketbooks and our health will bear the scars.

Climate change is challenging our very ability to survive as a species. 

In early August, NASA released a study co authored by Jim Hansen, the Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. This study uses statistical analysis of recent heat and drought events, and extreme weather patterns and concludes that climate change has arrived, is here on a disastrous global scale, and is worse that we thought.

The science has been clear for a decade. The changes in atmospheric gasses which now include nearly 400 ppm of CO2 is increasing about 2ppm per year. These increasing emissions are due to human activity and this activity is causing a rapid escalation. Climate scientists estimate that a healthy and stable atmosphere needs to be reduced to 275 ppm.  Currently we are not even slowing down global emissions although according to a new report issued by the US Energy Information Administration, in 2011 due to factors such as a poor economy and a glut of cheap natural gas US energy related carbon emissions declined by 2.4%.

The debate about what causes climate change is also over.  The endless and obfuscating natural v. humans activity debate must be put behind us. If you do not understand that your head is buried somewhere other than deep in the sand.

We must solve the most serious issue that has faced our species.  To do that we need to intelligently characterize and continue to identify how human activity has caused climate disaster.  Most importantly we must find ways to change our ways.

The Role of Biodiversity

The evolution of life on earth coincides with the evolution of the atmosphere.  Over the millennia, nature, biodiversity, and earth’s ecosystems and atmosphere have undergone ongoing substantial adjustments. At every level vital exchanges between energy and life effect the atmosphere including how gasses are stored and released. 

Biodiversity is fundamental to the way our atmosphere has evolved, -and to its stability.  Life, collected in the oceans, forests, savannahs, wetlands and literally all of the bioregions of the planet interconnect, interact, and interdepend upon each other.  E.O Wilson, the famed Harvard biologist says that “nature achieves sustainability through complexity”.  A stable atmosphere champions life, including the relatively recent rise of the human species.  Biodiversity makes us unique in the universe.

The downside is that has humans have risen to the top of the food chain, we have come to dominate and transform ecosystems at every level.  One of the primary consequences is vanishing biodiversity.  EO Wilson says, “each millimeter, each acre, each square mile of natures ecosystem that is destroyed is a nail the atmospheric coffin”.

Human Dominion Over Nature

Human fecundity, and our alleged ability to reason have been the foundations of our belief in human primacy on the planet. That may be a temporary adjustment. Many scientists are now recognizing that we are experiencing an extinction event on this planet, The Holocene Extinction, that rivals any previous extinction episode.

Generally accepted practices of human culture tend to view the earth from an essentially anthropocentric point of view. This centers on the belief that the earth is here to serve humans rather than humans are actually a part of a complex interdependent ecosystem.  This intellectual achievement by humanity centers around a fundamentally political failure that pits things like mainstream monotheistic religious beliefs and economic hegemony, -and against science. The resulting conflicts have been consequential.  It is a mismatch. Science wins. Humans and their paradoxical and often corrupting political philosophies are on the way out.

We cannot afford to think of the environment as something to be conquered but rather we must understand that our lives depend on our own healthy relationships with ecosystems. That means fundamentally, we must defend biodiversity.

The Kaya Identity

Decades ago, Japanese energy economist Yoichi Kaya explained that human caused CO2 emissions are explained by four factors: population, economic activity, how we obtain our energy, and how we use that energy. His resulting “Kaya Identity” ( Emissions=GDP x Technology) is a formula that has been a way to both recognize and predict carbon emissions, and to find ways to reduce these emissions. Economic activity, translated in the formula as GDP, externalizes by tradition, fundamental environmental values. This egregious miscalculation has lead to a false hope that we can still work within the economic systems that have championed consumption and destruction of habitat.

This path has lead to climate disaster by forcing us to decide that we can only address the almost singular issue of “how we obtain our energy” while ignoring the results of expanding GDP on biodiversity and habitat loss. This strategy is not working.

The Kaya Identity Redux

Emissions=GDP-Biodiversity x Technology

It’s the Economy, Stupid

Until now the discussions and arguments have been filled with political obtusities. Science almost always takes a back seat to economic growth.

We have been through decades of failed global summits and conventions including Kyoto, Rio, Johannesburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen and many others with the focus ostensibly on sustainable development and climate change. One of the problems is that the term sustainable development is clearly an oxymoron. Another problem is that the primary concern of virtually every world leader that has attended any of these events is not the environment, but instead the concern is economic growth and the GDP.  According to our global leadership, sustainability is about the economy and not about the relationships between environment, society, and the economy, with the environment being the real bottom line.  This is where the train has gone off the tracks.

Externalities v. Value

Our generally accepted economic system declares natural resources to be commodities. The costs and values of the ecological services that these systems provide such as atmospheric balancing and clean water are externalities. In other words a forest is measured by its value in board feet and its ecological services values are marginalized. The real costs and consequences of harvesting our ecosystems are “external” and are not the responsibility of the political entities that are profiting from exploitation. Instead the costs of water treatment facilities and health care associated with environmental degradation, are passed on to the public while the measured consumer economy grows without the bother of accounting for environmental loss.

The political economic systems that we have intentionally deployed are directly responsible for eviscerating earth’s ecosystems.

Why the Energy Equation is Not Enough

How we obtain and use our energy is very important. The focus on renewable energy strategies is consequential, but identifying energy sources without taking into consideration consumerism, growth, and the externalities of the value of biodiversity and costs of habitat loss, and the social consequences of all of the above flies in the face of sustainable problem solving.

Certainly a focus on “greener” energy and a “green economy” has its merits, but can anything that promotes consumer growth that ignores the basic reality of the value of biodiversity succeed?  Can we stop this careening train?

Coming Next- WNY Primacy- Ways to think global and act local