While updates on the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill are reported daily, the oil that spilled into Newtown Creek in Greenpoint Brooklyn for over 50 years is still largely ignored. The spill, which is one of the world’s largest to date, started in the 1950s, was discovered by the Federal government in the 1970s and was brought to public light by Riverkeeper, an advocate organization for clean water in New York, in 2002.

Instead of lounging and on the couch and playing video games, the LaGuardia Youth Center for Engineering Excellence (LYCEE) students spent the better part of their summers working closely with LaGuardia’s Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science faculty on modern engineering projects. Several of the students incorporated an interest in sustainability with their engineering skills.

LaGuardia’s Opening Sessions 2010 website is live! Food for Thought: Strategies for Educating a Sustainable Community is this year’s theme. The website contains an overview of the theme; the program for Opening Sessions for Faculty and Staff, Tuesday, September 7, 2010; workshop descriptions and a brief bio of keynote speaker Anna Lappe, bestselling author and public speaker. 

 
In line with a growing involvement in sustainability, LaGuardia’s 2010-2011 academic year will kick off with a college-wide focus on food and sustainable consumption.

This fall’s Opening Sessions theme will be “Food for Thought: Strategies for Educating a Sustainable Community.” The Common reading will be Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation.

LaGuardia Community College dietetic technician students are doing their part to educate low-income residents in Queens on the importance of good nutrition by conducting food demonstrations and nutrition workshops at three farmers markets in Astoria, Elmhurst and Jamaica. Throughout the summer, some 14 students will show neighborhood shoppers how they can improve their diets by buying fresh fruits and vegetables that have been grown by local farmers.

The New York State Department of Transportation has declared Wednesday July 7, 2010 an Air Quality Action Day in the downstate metro area due to high levels of ground-level ozone pollution in parts of the region. This means that people can go about most of their normal activities, however, driving may be one of the most polluting activities that you do today, and we encourage everyone to leave their cars at home if possible.

LaGuardia Community College is reducing campus energy consumption on July 6 and July 7, 2010 to help ease stress on the city’s power grid. Many public and private institutions in the New York State area have been asked to do so, by electrical utilities providers, because of an influx in energy use on these hot and humid days.