Featured Story

Shelter Island Reporter editorial: A symbol and a reality

It’s baffling that there are still people who deny that climate change and severe weather patterns are caused by the burning of fossil fuels that erode the planet’s atmospheric shield, something documented by an overwhelming consensus of scientists and scientific organizations.

Disbelieving the evidence is on par with the belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Or the lunar landing in 1969 was a TV show produced in a Houston studio.

The catastrophic failure of electrical grid infrastructure in Texas was, of course, at first blamed by some on green energy, until it was revealed that only a fraction of that state’s power comes from solar or wind power. Still, the lie has staying power for some folks.

Here on Shelter Island for those who have eyes to see, you can witness change in climate affecting our shores. Rising sea levels have alerted the ferry companies to go into long-range planning to secure bulkheads, roadways and raise the landing docks.

We applaud them for their forward thinking, while also realizing the companies are simply looking at data and responding accordingly, as any business would.

Two other examples of the Island taking steps to combat global warming that puts us all in peril have recently become part of the discussion, one practical and one symbolic. The Town Board is mulling installing solar panels at the Recycling Center as well as other sites. The board and Town Engineer Joe Finora are beginning to work out some complicated options to come to the best solution for the Island to draw renewable and safe energy from the sun.

It’s not a new idea here. Eight years ago, then-Highway Superintendent Jay Card Jr. presented a plan along with representatives from American Capital Energy, a Massachusetts-based company that sells solar-generated electricity to utilities, and Eldor Contracting Corporation, a Holtsville construction company that builds solar installations.

The proposal was that Eldor would build solar panels at the Recycling Center, mounted on the ground, on the roofs of buildings and in the form of carports. Areas for construction would include about four acres of the landfill and the drop-off point for bagged garbage.

But nothing ever came of it.

The other alternative energy news is the windmill at Sylvester Manor is nearing completion. The beautiful, historic structure won’t be a museum piece, but will be a working mill grinding wheat. It’s not going to put Wonder Bread out of business but, as said, it’s a symbolic accomplishment, to show people that power generated by the wind is free, safe and can provide for all of us.

Opportunities for alternative energy are here now, and let’s hope we’re on a path where those opportunities quickly lead to realities, with symbolic projects inspiring practical ones.