CNS reporters covered Climate Week NYC which featured 1,500 events across the city and drew more than 120,000 participants.
Place-based Ideology
Climate Literacy Must Start Local, Experts Say
Amidst the politicization of the climate crisis, climate education will take more than science alone
By Georgia Campbell
When Rajendra Dawadi recognized the signs of a flood rushing toward his school in Nuwakot, Nepal, in early September, the headteacher instructed students to evacuate immediately. Ten minutes after the building was cleared, according to multiple news outlets, Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School was demolished by a deadly torrent of mud and water.
Just weeks before the floods, Dawadi received practical training on the signs and severity of environmental disaster from the education charity Street Child. As the impacts of climate change increasingly become an everyday reality, climate literacy can save lives.
Dawadi’s story was the concluding anecdote of a UNESCO roundtable on September 23, hosted by Siemens Siftung, a non-profit that works towards sustainable social development, including climate education. The roundtable focused on delivering climate literacy – the understanding of human influence on the climate and vice-versa – and brought educators and climate specialists from around the world to the Penn One Building in Manhattan. The panel was unanimous on one point: explaining science alone cannot solve the problem of climate literacy.
Protect Where You Play
Athletes Use Their Platforms to Speak Up for the Oceans
Amani Toomer, Jasmyne Spencer, and Lee Whitwell explained during Climate Week why their platforms could help protect the waters and fields where they play.
By Valeria Cortés
It seemed an unlikely trio: an NFL veteran, a former National Women’s Soccer League star, and the world’s top-ranked senior pro female pickleball player. United, not around a game, but for the ocean.
The three athletes—Amani Toomer, Jasmyne Spencer, and Lee Whitwell—spoke at a Climate Week panel on September 23 about using their platforms and influence to raise awareness about environmental issues. Toomer, Spencer, and Whitwell are part of the Ocean Conservancy’s “Protect Where We Play” initiative, which seeks to involve more people in caring for the oceans.
“Every second breath comes from the ocean,” Whitwell said. “We need to do a lot more to protect it, to preserve it.”
Since its launch in February 2025, the initiative has partnered with sports leagues and venues, including the Seattle Seahawks, who won this year’s Superbowl. One of the campaigns aims to prevent single-use cups from entering the waste stream at arenas across the country.
Environmental Center
South Bronx Breaks Ground on New Arts and Wellness Center
The $44.6 million HEArts complex, set to open in 2028, will bring green jobs, gardens and health education to a neighborhood with some of the nation’s highest asthma rates.
By Francesca Di Muro
Since 2013, the building at 349 East 140th Street has stood empty on a stretch of the South Bronx known as “Asthma Alley.” It once housed the Lincoln Detox Center, founded by members of the Black Panthers and the Young Lords, who pioneered acupuncture as an addiction treatment in the 1970s. Now the building that led one fight for community health is about to lead another.
Construction began Sept. 23 on HEArts, a $44.6 million center that will bring health, education, art and the environment under one roof. Set to open in 2028, it caps more than a decade of organizing led by South Bronx Unite, with support from at least five other local groups, including several of the center’s future tenants.
David Rosales of South Bronx Unite said the center is meant to be a gathering place that connects neighbors.
“We’ve fought for nearly 15 years to transform the abandoned Lincoln Detox Center into what you’ll see here in just a few years,” said Aresh Javadi, an artist and co-founder of the community group More Gardens!
This Human Brain of Mine
Demonstrators Call For AI and Data Center Slowdown in Rally Outside Google
“Unplug AI” Week of Action scheduled rallies at OpenAI and Amazon’s offices.
By Nick Mossman
Bicycles whizzed past Google’s 8th Avenue building as about 50 people chanted children’s songs and call-and-responses with updated lyrics on Sept. 23.
“This human brain of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,” some sang as Google employees walked out of the building at the end of the business day.
The demonstrators’ lyrics warned against unchecked artificial intelligence development by companies like Google.
“Google’s AI is insane,” they chanted. “Don’t let AI rot your brain.”
The demonstration was part of an “Unplug AI” Week of Action sponsored by Climate Defenders, a non-profit based in New York City. Demonstrators also scheduled rallies at OpenAI and Amazon’s offices in the city earlier in the week.
The protests come days after AI industry leaders warned of potentially existential impacts if AI development does not slow down.
Environmental Monitor
What Can We Learn from the DNA Stored in Honey?
Bees bring data from the environment they live in back to the hive after foraging, which shows up in the honey they produce.
Honey, it turns out, contains much more than sweetness.
New Yorkers got a chance to visit with a beekeeper, see hives, and sample honey during New York Climate Week. The Battery Park City Authority and Alvéole, a hive-tending company, held “Meet the Beekeeper” at Rockefeller Park.
Kristen Rydberg, one of 60 full time beekeepers working for Alvéole in the U.S., talked about the benefits of keeping bees in New York City, which include increasing biodiversity and using honey as an environmental monitor. Bees forage within a 5 km radius of their hive, bringing back data on the types of plants, pesticides, and even microplastics found in the neighborhood. Alvéole manages over 180 bee habitats in all five boroughs of New York.
Alvéole establishes and maintains beehives through partnerships with parks, businesses, and apartment complexes. The company currently manages hives in more than 70 cities across North America and Europe.
Stand ing Up for Science
Climate Advocates Urge Action at Stand Up for Science Event
The Climate Week NYC panel “Science, Democracy and Climate” explored the complex connections between climate science and politics.
As climate science continues to be suppressed and ignored by politicians, remaining silent is no longer an option. Speakers at a recent Stand Up for Science event said that political activism and advocacy may be the key to solving the climate crisis.
“The path forward is taking ownership of our politics…” said panelist Dr. Michael Mann. “The obstacles are not physical, they’re not technological, they’re political.”
Stand Up for Science (SUFS), a science-focused American political advocacy organization, was founded in 2025 after the Trump administration significantly reduced the funding of federal science programs. Through volunteer activism, outreach campaigns, and public education, SUFS works to protect scientific integrity from political interference.
The discussion took place on Wednesday, September 23rd in Midtown and featured two speakers: Dr. Ticora Jones from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an international nonprofit group for environmental advocacy, and Dr. Michael Mann from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Colette Delawalla, CEO and Founder of SUFS, moderated the conversation.
Environmental Monitor
Environmental Leaders Say Women are the Key to Combating Climate Change
An all-female climate panel came together to discuss women-led solutions toward the phase out of fossil fuels.
By Gianna Clarke
Climate related disasters continue to devastate communities. Frustrated by the lack of action from world leaders to implement policies that will work to solve the climate crisis, female climate leaders came together during Climate Week to push for real action.
“The winds, the thunder nation, the gentle female rain that will sweep away a dam, that’s power,” said Casey Camp-Horinek, environmental ambassador for the Oklahoma Ponca Nation. “Human-made power is just pitiful.”
Camp-Horinek spoke to a crowd of about 30 people at a Climate Week event hosted by the Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network. During the three-hour session, entitled
“Women Building a Resilient World,” 11 speakers discussed the importance of women to be a part of climate solutions.
Stand ing Up for Science
The Climate Cost of Separating Affordable Housing From Transit
During Climate Week NYC, panelists warned that placing affordable housing far from jobs and public transportation can raise costs and carbon emissions.
Where people live shapes how they travel. In cities around the world, placing affordable housing far from jobs and public transportation can leave low-income residents with longer, more expensive commutes—and increase carbon emissions.
That was a key message from four panelists at “Popular Transport, Low-Cost Housing and Climate,” a Sept. 23 Climate Week event at the World Resources Institute in Manhattan.
Low-income and vulnerable communities often face greater exposure to climate hazards while having fewer resources to adapt, said Anjali Mahendra of the World Resources Institute, a global research nonprofit. Yet their housing and transportation needs are frequently left out of climate planning.
Low-income commuters largely depend on walking, cycling and public transportation, according to a 2021 WRI report co-authored by Mahendra. But as much as 95% of urban road space is typically allocated to cars and trucks, leaving less space and investment for the transportation options those residents use most.
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Columbia News Service