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Permaculture, a compound of the words permanent and agriculture, is about melding sustainable production with sustainable consumption. Environmentalists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren created the concept in their 1978 book “Permaculture One,” as an alternative approach to agriculture and community design and this idea is taking root here in New York’s rural and urban centers

Regenerative agriculture is a farming practice in which plants and the soil that nourishes them take care of each other. This practice brings benefits to our environment by pulling carbon out of the atmosphere into the soil.

Lead in school drinking water has been a concern in New York because children often spend all day in school facilities and receive much of their drinking water from them. NYLCV is working to prevent lead poisoning in schoolchildren by analyzing the lab reports from all 4,700 public schools in New York to model the impact of a lower lead action level on protecting school communities.

Hydropower has been a staple of power production in New York for centuries. It generates electricity by capturing the energy of falling water. The School Street hydroelectric plant in Cohoes now generates 172 gigawatt hours per year and Cornell University also has its own hydropower plant.

A process called holistic grazing can help combat global warming by pulling carbon out of the atmosphere into “sinks,” or giant carbon repositories. Farmers that use holistic grazing practices move grazing animals from one place to another for limited periods of time.

The tunnels under the Hudson River, which are over 100 years old, are deteriorating and face the risk of closing permanently. Luckily, there is a solution: the Gateway Tunnel project. Recently, a coalition of civic, labor and business leaders, including NYLCV, formed the Build Gateway Now Coalition to advocate for and spread awareness of the importance of this project.

In New York, Harmful Algal Blooms are rising at an alarming rate. One cause of HABs is agricultural runoff, which occurs when chemicals from fertilizer end up in our waterways. Some houses in rural New York neighborhood leach nitrogen into waterways because they are not connected to a public sewer system. Another cause of HABs is climate change.

The impacts of Florence were and continue to be deadly. As hurricanes become more severe and more frequent, scientists have been able to better predict just how much of a role climate change has played in the intensity of these storms.