My dear friend, Winter, is trying so hard to survive. It was 70 degrees the other day and today has been a mixture of sleet and snow. It is March. March is still winter, and it should be that way. I went to college in Iowa, it snowed in April. That is what the weather should look like. Yet, someone has screwed this all up. Who is that someone? Us, humans.

I know that most of the climate issue stems from large corporations, but us as individuals have contributed to this mess that we are in. Yet, us as individuals don’t seem to understand that is us that will suffer. When you hear about the polar bears dying, or bees disappearing it is nothing that seems tangible. We are seeing tangible issues like tornados ruining homes in the mid-west, and flooding in Europe, but collectively we are still sucking.

It has been a long time since I wrote last, life got tricky. But it doesn’t mean that I stopped with my desire for the city of New York to enforce the anti-idling law they put in place fifty years ago. The new Mayor, who said the climate crisis was important to him while he campaigned, is already trying to cut back on composting (which is another important issue, but not for this blog) so I doubt he cares about the anti-idling law–but he he should, and just like my friend, Winter, I am going to keep showing up and trying to push through the mess.

On the good news front, P.S. 24 in Sunset Park has been approved for anti-idling signs!! The wonderful Sustainability Team at that school sent out emails, and at some point in the future Sunset Park will be one of maybe three schools in Brooklyn with these signs. Yet the question remains, who will enforce this law. I have been told personally that since the public do not like to receive these tickets, the police won’t write them. I will take it as a win that one school is getting them, but there are so many schools in the city–all of them deserve them. Not just for the environment, but our children should be able to walk into schools not in a cloud of smog from an engine running for over an hour. Just because we don’t see pollution, it doesn’t mean it is not there.

So in the meantime, be kind to my friend Winter. Pass along how important it is to not idle your car. True, it is not the main cause of our climate crisis, but every little bit hurts poor poor Winter.