Mayor Bloombergs Environmental Hypocrisy
Written by Mario Budha |
While Mayor Bloomberg and his friends tout the plan to plant one million trees in New York City, government policies could be leading to the cutting down of many more. The New York Sanitation Department just opened bids for the North Shore Marine Transfer Station, part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Solid Waste Management Plan, already under attack by local grassroots activists not in cahoots or
hired by the Mayor for special projects. In particular, environmental activists decried the use of tropical hardwoods logged from old growth rainforests in the Caribbean and elsewhere being specified to construct this station. The bids call for two tropical hardwoods to be used as building material, some coming from Guyana.Tim Keating, executive director of Rainforest Relief said “Sanitation isn’t just destroying rainforests. They’re also breaking state and federal law.” He has delivered a letter alerting the department of sanitation to the fact that they have specified a wood, apitong, that has 
been banned from use by New York state law.
In 1991, the State Legislature passed the Tropical Hardwoods Purchasing Law; Section 165 of this law provides a list of banned tropical woods and mandates that, “the state and any governmental agency or political subdivision or public benefit corporation of the state shall not purchase these tropical hardwoods or tropical hardwood products, wholesale or retail, in any form.” This list includes apitong, logged from old growth rainforests in Malaysia. Sanitation Department’s bid order specifies apitong for “hardwood flooring”.
To see both documents, as well as additional information, visit RainforestsInNewYork.org
In addition to apitong flooring, Sanitation proposes to construct the pilings and fenderings of the North Shore MTS, as well as those of at least three other stations, with tens of thousands of board feet of greenheart, a tropical hardwood from Guyana. Guyana contains 
some of the largest intact rainforests in the Western hemisphere, many of which are just being opened to industrial logging. Illegal logging there is now rampant. With no guarantees that Sanitation's greenheart has been legally logged, it could well be a violation of the 2008 amendment to the U.S. Lacey Act, which states that it is a federal crime to buy, sell, own, import or transport wood that has been illegal logged. Will our local Congress members work to protect Caribbean communities?
In Guyana it is the Malaysian based Barama logging company which has been the subject of scandal and illegal logging, being fined over $100 (US) million for violating a variety of laws.
Local indigenous voices as reported in an audit state: "Contract signed between the Akawini and Saint Monica communities and ... BCL (Barama Corporation limited) and has just been created to cover BCL's activities. The community is very unhappy and is being cheated by the company." Barama obtains by far the largest tax subsidy offered by the Guyana Revenue Authority to the forest sector, including provision for duty-free fuel, a subsidy large enough to pay all Barama’s forest taxes. So it is in effect getting Guyana’s logs for free.
Advocates expressed concern that because of the proposed marine transfer stations, New York City could double its consumption of tropical hardwoods for the next several years. Despite the twin catastrophes of global warming and tropical deforestation which will of course impact poor and people of color communities far more than others.
In February 2008, Mayor Bloomberg announced his Tropical Hardwoods Reduction Plan, in which he vowed to immediately reduce the City’s use of tropical hardwoods by 20%, 
and by 60% by 2020. However, according to Keating, “The mayor’s plan simply ignores the marine transfer stations to create the illusion that New York City is recovering from their addiction to tropical hardwoods.”
City and state agencies, including Dept. of Transportation, Dept. of Parks and Recreation, and Metropolitan Transit Authority, along with public benefit corporations like Hudson River Park Trust, use rainforest wood for benches, boardwalks, subway ties, pilings and decking. Meanwhile, two acres of rainforest are destroyed every two seconds, an area the size of Manhattan every two hours. How many millions of trees does NYC really need to plant and protect?
Subscribe to this comment's feed
written by Singh, April 23, 2009
written by Singh, April 24, 2009
written by mark forde, September 10, 2009
written by supra shoes, July 29, 2010
Supra Suprano High Black, Supra Suprano High Black
Supra Suprano High Red, Supra Suprano High Red
written by cheap uggs boots, July 30, 2010
written by womens uggs, July 30, 2010
written by uggs boots on sale, July 30, 2010
written by chi flat irons for sale, July 30, 2010
written by chi flat irons for sale, July 30, 2010
written by discount uggs, July 30, 2010
written by ugg snow boots, July 30, 2010
written by supra shoes, July 30, 2010
Supra TK Society Blue Black, Supra TK Society Blue Black
Supra TK Society White Gray, Supra TK Society White Gray
