Culture & Community | Downtown | Environment | New Haven Climate Movement
Top: Sarkar and Bartnicka speaking together. Adrian Huq Photos.
“Youth are unstoppable!” the words of a call-and-response chant floated over the intersection of Chapel and High Streets as blue, wave-shaped signs shone in the sun. “Another world is possible!”
Friday afternoon, 15 people gathered outside the Yale University Art Gallery for New Haven Climate Movement's (NHCM) “Ride the Wave of the Future,” hosted in advance of World Oceans Day to recognize how oceans (including, on a local level, the Long Island Sound) are impacted by climate change. Holding handmade signs and cutouts of fish, speakers stressed the need to limit greenhouse gas emissions and increase access to pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly infrastructure and public transportation.
“New Haven especially faces an immense risk of inland and coastal flooding as climate threats continue to cause the sea level to rise and the possibility of extreme precipitation,” said emcee Suprya Sarkar, a junior at Mark T. Sheehan High School in Wallingford. “Sea levels are projected to rise 20 inches by 2050, which could lead to increased flooding in areas like City Point.”
"People of color and low-income individuals are disproportionately exposed to flooding risks, air and water pollutants, and pollutant producers,” Sarkar added.
Top: NHCM members Manxi Han (left) and Amelia Lee (right) with their completed paper slips. Bottom: The messages in bottles.
The United Nations has observed World Oceans Day on June 9 annually since 2008 to inform the public of the impact of human activity on the globe’s oceans. In New Haven, speakers focused on warming oceans, climate change, and transportation, as well as participatory art making with protest signs and repurposed nip bottles.
After filling out slips of blue paper with the prompt “for a safe/healthy future, we wish,” attendees and passers by rolled them up and stuck them in the bottles, which will ultimately be delivered to each New Haven alder by NHCM.
NHCM particularly focused on emissions from the transportation sector, which makes up 38 percent of Connecticut’s greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to air pollution. In response, speakers called for policy changes to reduce car pollution, increase public transit, provide free bus passes to youth, electrify all school buses, and create safer streets.
Top: Park New Haven's Doug Hausladen on bike lanes and better bus infrastructure.
Co-emcee Marta Bartnicka, a junior at High School in the Community, noted how much these emissions affect warming oceans and sea level rise. She explained that 83 percent of the global carbon cycle is circulated through oceans. Close to 93 percent “of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the ocean ever since the 1970s,” she added.
“Such dramatic changes to ocean temperatures mean changes to both the ocean's biodiversity and human life,” Bartnicka said.
Other speakers noted cost-effective solutions that New Haveners—and city and state governments—can implement quickly. Doug Hausladen, executive director of Park New Haven, pointed to the contraflow bike lane that runs along High Street, the state’s first when it was added in 2016.
Given the relative inexpensiveness of paint, Hausladen called implementing and painting the lanes “one of the most cost-effective climate solutions” that the state can turn to. He added that New Haven has historically been a statewide leader in establishing bike lanes, with the first in Connecticut being on Orange Street.
He added that it’s personal: growing up in Kentucky, Hausladen lived in a community that lacked sidewalks. After his mother found some available federal funding, a 4-year-old Hausladen joined her in going door to door collecting petition signatures from their neighbors to advocate for sidewalks.
Top: Rosie Hampson speaking to the crowd. An NHCM member and Wilbur Cross High School senior, Hampson read out an excerpt from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass about indigenous wisdom and gratitude to the Earth. Bottom: K.K. (left) and Novajas (right).
When he moved to New Haven in the early 2000s, his advocacy around bike and pedestrian safety continued when two city residents—including a child—were struck and killed by cars. Now, he number of New Haveners who walk to work and a new, in-the-works bus rapid transit system make him excited. He’s looking forward to the city’s revamped bike share program, which will launch July 31 featuring both traditional and electric bikes.
Since it is funded by the city, short rides will be free for all New Haven residents.
“Don’t let anyone off the hook,” Hausladen said. “If you want a bike lane on your street, talk to your parents, talk to your alder.”
Princess Twasam, a senior at Eli Whitney Technical High School, highlighted how rising temperatures will threaten food security and raise food prices, such as for food products derived from oceans. “What this will look like for most people is a loss in products from the oceans, whether that be food or otherwise, and a severe increase in food prices.”
Twasam emphasized that the increased prices will particularly harm those who already struggle with food shortages and food insecurity. “Inflation coupled with climate change produces a space for poverty to flourish… low and middle income families will struggle as this fight with climate change progresses.”
A student at Southern Connecticut State University, who chose to go by only her initials, K.K., said that what brought her to the event was her concern about climate change. “I also feel like, a lot of the time, to get people's attention you have to speak about it more to get more folks involved,” K.K. said. She found out about NHCM through a website called VolunteerMatch in an effort to get more involved in the causes that matter to her.
Another attendee, Martina Novajas, heard about the event when NHCM was tabling at the CitySeed Farmers Market earlier this month. Originally from Chile, Novajas came to the United States three years ago for college and recently arrived in New Haven for a summer internship. “I care a lot about sustainability, I feel like it's a part of me. Growing up I've always been part of different organizations and educational projects, so I feel like it just spoke to me.”
Bartnicka and Sarkar closed out the event with hopes for an equitable, clean, and safe transportation future before attendees dispersed using various modes of transportation.
Learn more about NHCM through their website. You can also keep up to date on their work through their Instagram and Facebook. In the interest of full transparency, this writer is a cofounder of the New Haven Climate Movement Youth Action Team.