Tag: celebration

Greening New Year’s Eve

  • The numerals for the New Year's Eve celebration on Times Square are brought in by pedi-cab. Just one of the many things that organizers say make this year's celebration more green. (Photo by Samara Freemark)

Tonight, thousands of people will
gather in Times Square in New York
City to ring in the new year. But
with all those lights and all that
confetti dropping, some people
are concerned about all that waste.
Julie Grant reports on efforts to
make the party in Times Square
a little greener this year:

Transcript

Tonight, thousands of people will
gather in Times Square in New York
City to ring in the new year. But
with all those lights and all that
confetti dropping, some people
are concerned about all that waste.
Julie Grant reports on efforts to
make the party in Times Square
a little greener this year:

(sound of pedicab)

When the seven-foot tall numerals 1 and 0 were delivered to Times Square earlier this month, they weren’t driven in on big gas guzzling trucks. They were pedaled in by human power – on pedicabs – which look more or less like a rickshaw.

That’s just one of the symbolic changes making new years greener.

The numerals themselves are saving energy.
There are more than 500 bulbs in the numbers. This year, the 40-watt halogen bulbs have been swapped out for 9-watt LED lights.

Susan Bloom is spokesperson for Phillips lighting – the company that made the switch. She says the numerals will shine even more brightly.

“Now they will deliver 80% greater energy efficiency, so, if you will, the times square ball numerals have gone greener than ever.”

Organiziers say the power for those lights is also greener – it’ll come from people pedaling stationary bikes in Times Square. Power from the bikes will be stored in batteries to light up the new year’s lights.

Oh, and about the ball.

In recent years, it’s been dropping its energy usage. Bloom says since 2007 they’ve doubled the number of lights, but since those are LEDs, the ball is still 80% more efficient.

Tim Tompkins is President of the Times Square Alliance. The Alliance is one of the event organizers. He says the time is right for the iconic celebration to go green.

“Times Square is always this place that’s kind of this mood ring for America that reflects whatever is going on. And certainly, in recent years, the country and world is getting greener and so it makes sense and is consistent with history that Times Square is going green in the way that the country is going green.”

There are a lots of other big entertainment events trying to reduce their environmental footprints.

Allen Hershkowitz is with the Natural Resources Defense Council. He’s been helping to green the Grammy’s, the Academy Awards, Major League Baseball’s World Series, and lots of other big events.

“When we talk about greening an event, like the Times Square event, New Year’s Eve in New York City, or the Oscars or the Grammy’s, we go category by category. Every category of operations, every purchase made, engenders an environmental impact.”

Hershkowitz looks for ways to reduce those impacts at each event – everything from finding fuel efficient transportation to get there, to buying paper products for the event made from recycled materials, to serving locally grown food. They’ve even started using recycled plastic to make red carpets.

But sometimes these efforts draw criticism. When the Democratic National Convention tried to go green in 2008,
press photos afterwards showed piles of trash outside the convention hall. People wondered if the recycling and other efforts really made any difference.

Hershkowitz says big events, such as the DNC or New Year’s at Times Square can make some environmental improvements. But their real impact is in the ideals they represent.

“Frankly, I think the biggest thing that Times Square can do on New Year’s Eve is what they’re doing – publicizing environmentalism. Saying, ‘hey, that ball is made with energy efficiency lighting’ to the 1-point whatever billion people that are watching that show.”

Hershkowitz hopes people look at that symbol and make changes in their own lives in 2010.

For The Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

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American Reviving Roman River

  • Rome is known for its many landmarks, but the Tiber River is often overlooked and neglected by its residents. (Photo by Nancy Greenleese)

When we think of Rome, we think of the Colosseum with its graceful arches and
Saint Peter’s Square, designed by Michaelangelo. We don’t often think of the
Eternal City’s oldest wonder: the Tiber River. But one American artist has. New
Yorker Kristin Jones creates public art that often focuses on nature and time. She
has found a muse in the trash-filled Tiber and wants to clean it up starting with a
small stretch. Nancy Greenleese reports from Rome:

Transcript

When we think of Rome, we think of the Colosseum with its graceful arches and
Saint Peter’s Square, designed by Michaelangelo. We don’t often think of the
Eternal City’s oldest wonder: the Tiber River. But one American artist has. New
Yorker Kristin Jones creates public art that often focuses on nature and time. She
has found a muse in the trash-filled Tiber and wants to clean it up starting with a
small stretch. Nancy Greenleese reports from Rome:


Along the Tiber, it’s “pazzo,” or crazy. Motorscooters and cars whip by near a
bridge that spans the river. Kristin Jones stands here, gazing down at the far more
tranquil river below. She decides to head down the stairs:


“We’re descending 36 feet below the street level into the channel or the gully that is now
the Tiber.”


Grafitti covers the stone walls and trash bobs in the water. It’s dirty and secluded
and Jones wants to change that with the creation of a water-themed “piazza,” the
gathering places that dot Italian cities. Jones remembers when she first saw the Tiber.
It was 1983 and she’d just arrived in Rome on a Fulbright scholarship:


And as a New Yorker I said to myself, “Oh my God. There’s something parallel here?
What is this?”


And then it hit her like a vision from the nearby Vatican:


“This is like a Central Park. Central Park is such an abstract miracle, I mean, it’s really
nature in the middle of the city and you walk there and you see leafs tremble and you see
real grass and you see a real squirrel. You even can collect mushrooms in Central Park.”


Jones could collect an impressive collection of beer bottles here. Homeless people are
camped nearby and the stench of urine is overpowering. Italian have little love for the
Tiber. It used to frequently flood, prompting the construction in the 1800s of walls that
hold – and hide – the river below the streets. Jones, however, wants people to visit and
appreciate the Tiber:


“Well, if you think about it, perhaps you could consider it to be the most ancient
monument in Rome (laughs).”


The city was founded along its banks nearly 3000 years ago and water has flowed
through its history. The Roman Empire’s aqueducts revolutionized water transportation.
A flooded Colosseum once held mock sea battles. Today, Jones says tourists still come
for the water:


“The fountains in, throughout the historic city have always been a sort of showy element
of power and exuberance and fun and yet the main artery is completely neglected.”


Until now.


(Mariamba music)


Locals and tourists stroll along the proposed piazza on a recent evening. Jones’ group
group Tevereterno, or Eternal Tiber, organized this event to promote the 600 meter
stretch. Supporters would like it to eventually host modern art exhibits and conferences
focused on water. Tonight, musicians perform and more than 1000 candles line the
river’s banks. Allegra Zapponi checks out the scene and reflects on what the Tiber means
to Italians:


“I think in the last 50 years of the last century, like the place for the rubbish. Everything
that you want to give away, you throw it in the river (laugh).”


But Kristin Jones and her supporters believe that the piazza would be a tributary for
getting people to the river and encourage its cleanup. However, arts advocate Luca
Bergamo, who has worked for two mayors, says Jones’ enthusiasm might not be enough
to get the project afloat:


“The biggest challenge is that you don’t find people investing in risky things in this
country. This is not risky but it’s unknown, not understood.”


Change is resisted in Italy, a country often strangled by its historic past. And politicians
can’t justify spending money on the Tiber when resources are scarce for more famous
monuments.


As couples at the party listen to an avante garde audio composition, attitudes might be
changing. The city has added the proposed renovation of this stretch of the Tiber, the
Piazza Tevere, to its new city plan. Jones says it’s time to hand the project over to
Italians:


“They’re all applauding me and trying to get me to keep doing it. And I keep trying to
step back and say, ‘It’s YOUR river. Hallelujah! See the potential, see the potential. I see
the potential.'”


She has agreed to plan next year’s celebration on the Tiber. In the meantime, there’s a
reminder of what could be. Jones has surreptitiously posted on the river’s embankment a
replica of the stone signs that mark Rome’s piazzas and streets. It says “Piazza Tevere.”


For the Environment Report, I’m Nancy Greenleese.

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