SOURCE:
https://www.newsday.com/opinion/newsday-opinion-the-point-newsletter-1.43460326
By Michael Dobie - March 26, 2020
Environmentalists near and far, for whom the coronavirus crisis has understandably shifted the focus away from their priorities and taken away many of their tools of persuasion, are eager to swing back into action.
Right now, there are no meetings at which to testify, no community educational forums to hold, no marches or protests or Fridays for Future sit-outs to stage. Nationally, big protests and other commemorations of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 have been canceled or moved online amid concerns that online advocacy, while necessary, might be a matter of preaching to those already converted.
Locally, two big topics for which advocacy is derailed for the time being are offshore wind farms whose power is proposed to come on shore on Long Island and Suffolk County’s grant program for residents replacing failing septic systems.
“We were supposed to be starting our community meetings for offshore wind so people had facts not fiction. We’ve been doing these community meetings to talk about people changing out their septic systems and the grant program available. They all got canceled,” Citizens Campaign for the Environment executive director Adrienne Esposito told The Point. “I desperately want to go back to what we were doing, we were building such momentum.”
CCE has had to cancel lectures at Hofstra University and SUNY Old Westbury, community meetings around the Island, and an Earth Day lobby day in Albany. This week, CCE was able to do a Zoom meeting with Long Island Reps. Tom Suozzi and Lee Zeldin, and two Zoom sessions with staff from the offices of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Westchester Rep. Nita Lowey. Among the topics: funding for Long Island Sound initiatives.
But the crisis has taken another toll on CCE. Esposito said she had to lay off half of her staff, a dozen or so people, that do fundraising, education and grassroots work. “We’ve taken a huge fundraising hit,” she said. “Nonprofits are just like small businesses. It’s a business, we’re just not allowed to make a profit.”