By Indypendent Staff
Two climbers scaled 40-foot flagpoles in City Hall Park April 21 and dropped a yellow banner demanding that New York City stop its use of tropical rainforest wood.
The 150-square-foot banner, which stretched between the two flagpoles, read, “If Bloomberg Is So Green, Why Is NYC America’s #1 Consumer Of Rainforest Wood?”
“It’s the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and it’s simply unacceptable that the City is still using rainforest wood for public infrastructure,” said Tim Doody, New York City campaign coordinator for Rainforest Relief and climber on the west flagpole, in a press release.
“We’re in front of Mayor Bloomberg’s office window and we hope our message is large enough for him to see it,” Doody said.
This action has been organized by Rainforest Relief and the New York Climate Action Group (NYCAG).
According to Rainforest Relief, the banner was dropped near to where the City has installed (or is currently installing) tropical timber include the decking of the Brooklyn Bridge, South Street Seaport, Battery Park, Fulton Ferry Terminal and Empire-Fulton State Park, fenderings and pilings at the Staten Island Ferry terminals, 12.5 miles of boardwalk, Hudson River Park, Washington Square Park, and the High Line, tens of thousands of park benches throughout the city, and hundreds of miles of subway track ties.
“Tropical deforestation is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all planes, trains, automobiles and ships combined,” said J.K. Canepa, co-founder of NYCAG, in the press release. “The world watches New York City. Let’s take the lead and show the world what it truly means to be green!”
To read more about the action or about the use of rainforest wood in New York City, visit Rainforest Relief's list of city projects. Photos courtesy Rainforest Relief.
Comments
OK, it's a good cause, but it bothers me that the left often puts more effort into individual/theatrical actions such as banner drops than into organizing groups of people.
Bloomberg doesn't care if we're right. Appealing to his supposed conscience is meaningless. We need large groups of people working on it, including many who are not part of the activist subculture.
How could you leave out that the gentlemen hanging the banner were arrested?!
I saw it with my own eyes. This was incredible. Police made them come down and immediately arressted them. These guy were really brave, hanging there on this big height surronded by police demanding that they come down.
OK, it was really brave, but was it effective?
If the point of the action was to raise awareness, wouldn't handing out 10,000 flyers have done the job better--without the risk of arrest and having to put movement resources into legal defense?
I don't want to trash these people, because I agree with them. The city shouldn't be using rainforest wood. But too many actions on the left, from civil disobedience to Black Bloc tactics, seem to be more about proving people's commitment than about being effective. Think about it.
Hey Ink-Stained Wretch:
I hear you. The problem with too many actions is that they're one-off occurrences. But this climb action is just one facet of a long-term campaign.
We've passed out thousands of flyers in the last year and met with officials from multiple city agencies. We've researched extensively where tropical hardwoods are being used in the city and what alternative materials could be used in their place. Here's a link to some of what we've found: http://rainforestsofnewyork.net/alternatives
A year ago, we put on a seminar in the Manhattan Borough President's chambers, where we had some of the top manufacturers and inventors of building materials like recycled plastic lumber and Kebony explain to NYC officials how these products could be substituted for the tropical woods they're currently using.
These aren't the kinds of things that typically get the attention of flashy actions. But flashy actions don't mean so much to me either--unless they're accompanied by long-term strategy and commitment.
Anyway, we're going to win this thing, sooner rather than later.
Thanks, Tim. I'm glad you're doing all that.
Hope I wasn't too harsh on you--it's just the way I reacted to the news of a banner drop.
I've been political since I was a kid, I'm a red-diaper baby, and one of the things that bothers me about the left today is its emphasis on heroic one-off actions instead of long-term and grass-roots work. So I'm glad you're doing all the other stuff too.
One suggestion: What City Councilmembers are on the committee with jurisdiction over this issue? A little organizing in their districts might go a long way.
Anyway, someday I hope to walk on the Brighton Beach boardwalk that's not made with rainforest wood!
@ Ink-Stained Wretch:
City Council is a great idea, and one we've tried. But what we've found, the hard way, is that state legislation trumps city legislation. New York State banned a list of dozens of tropical hardwoods in the 90s--most of the woods that the city was using--in a good-faith effort to push alternative materials.
But the problem is, there are countless species in a rainforest, and that includes trees. Within a couple years, agencies found other species of wood they could use that were not on the list:
*ipe and cumuru (used by Parks for benches and boardwalks)
*greenheart (DOT uses it for the decking of the Brooklyn Bridge and the thousands of pilings of the Staten Island Ferry)
*ekki (South Street Seaport and MTA's subway tracks
*etc.
Because the State already sounded off, City Council is out. We basically have two options to resolve this issue:
1. State Legislature -we all know how broken that is
2. the Mayor - He can single-handedly change the materials that agencies use - without any legislation. At this point, he's even gone so far as to declare NYC's use of rainforest wood a done deal, one that he's already addressed. But the problem is, his so-called "Tropical Hardwood Reduction Plan" won't stop NYC's use of rainforest wood for 20 years.
20 years later, and, at the current rate of destruction, most of the world's rainforests will be gone.
We've got a pretty solid plan to get the city off tropical hardwood in two years. We're not lacking for vision and solutions here, just political will.
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