Tag: Environment

Feb 5

2013

Buffalonians getting stuck in traffic more often

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You know this: Buffalo-area commuters are stuck in traffic a lot less than their counterparts in many other large cities. What you probably don’t know: Buffalonians are sitting in traffic a lot longer than they used to. The 2012 Urban Mobility Report issued by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute considered traffic congestion in the nation’s 101 largest metropolitan areas. The report includes slews of tables from which we gleaned a few highlights, Buffalo-area motorists spent an average of 33 hours in traffic due to congestion, ranking the region No. 45. The average in comparable large metro areas is 37 hours.[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Feb 5

2013

Environmental commissioner grilled on fracking

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Monday morning’s joint state legislative meeting on the environmental conservation budget turned into a question and answer session with state Department of Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens on hydrofracking. The Albany Times-Union has a good report of the meeting. One topic that caught my attention was during  Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton’s peppering of Martens on the controversial natural gas drilling process. The Ithaca Democrat said 400 families in Washington County, Pa., have had water delivered to them because of contamination. She wasn’t happy about Pennsylvania’s Act 13, either. She called it “corruption,” and asked Martens what he thought about Act 13, specifically the[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Jan 29

2013

More Tonawanda pollution problems: Tests show soil contamination

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Residents of Tonawanda already knew the air they breathe has high levels of cancer-causing benzene. Now some believe the soil they garden in and that their children play on might be contaminated, too. Jackie James Creedon, a leader of the Tonawanda Community Fund, said members took soil samples from five yards, two at a playground and one from Beaver Island State Park last November after they had discovered a black gooey substance and soot on their vehicles and gardens. The tests were taken from soil at residences on Kaufman, James and Sawyers avenues—all of which are in the middle of[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Jan 18

2013

Lack of ice in Great Lakes threatens economy, ecology

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There is less ice cover on the Great Lakes, which poses numerous economic and ecological problems, scientists say. The map above is a snapshot of the Great Lakes for January 17, showing very little ice cover so far. Normally, Lake Erie would be iced over by the second week of February. For example, watch this ice coverage video that shows each winter day, frame by frame, in 2007. George Leshkevich, a physical scientist with the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, said that while there is variability in the data, trends show there is less ice coverage on the Great Lakes over the past 40[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Jan 11

2013

Is climate change ‘rampaging our planet?’

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I find it ironic that after writing about Buffalo shattering its annual average temperature in 2012 that we may experience a weekend with 60 degree temperatures. In January? Really? Jay Burney, who founded the Learning Sustainability Campaign, believes too many people are in denial about climate change. His Dec. 2 opinion piece in The Buffalo News contends that rising temperatures and its impacts have reached an emergency level in Western New York. One of the first meetings I attended when I moved here was the Western New York Environmental Alliance’s quarterly meeting at the Marcy Casino in Delaware Park. The WNYEA is a[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Jan 10

2013

Buffalo shatters temperature record

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Some weather experts believe the record-breaking heat in 2012 is a warning that the frequency of extreme weather will increase in Western New York and the nation. The average temperature in the United States for 2012 was 55.3 degrees, which is 3.2 degrees above the 20th Century average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s State of the Climate report. The new record national average temperature is 1 degree hotter than the previous one, set in 1998. The temperature climbed even more in Buffalo. In 1998, Buffalo recorded its highest average temperature at 50.9 degrees. This record was shattered in 2012 by[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 28

2012

Texting out idling trucks around Peace Bridge

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More light may be shed on just how big of a problem idling trucks are for the Lower West Side. The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and the Clean Air Coalition of WNY launched a program this week called Grow 716 that allows people to text a six-digit number whenever they see an idling heavy-duty engine truck or bus in the Lower West Side. The foundation provided the technology and the Clean Air Coalition will be responsible for the outreach campaign. This is how it works: If you see an idling truck in the Lower West Side, text TRUCK to[...]

Posted 11 years ago
Investigative Post

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