Tue Greenfort and $5 billion
$5 billion dollars is the staggering sum that Tue Greenfort, working with long-time artist activist Peter Fend, are allocating for their project that promises more than mitigating the devastating effects of climate change in Jamaica Bay, Manhattan that was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy. They also promise to reverse it. The proposal is directed at the source of the area's warming waters - far, far fropm Manhattan in Greenland!
The Labrador Current, the artists discovered, is extremely fertile; but it now sinks into a cold, deepwater current moving to Antarctica. Jamaica Bay is a way station for the largest concentration of biological wealth in the East. It is a wildlife mecca. The artists propose undertaking a continuous harvesting/dredging program taking advantage of the colossal natural abundance of incoming Arctic waters.
Where will they get this massive investment?
The artists have that all worked out. They propose reallocating the $20 billion Mayor Bloomberg proposed for climate mitigation. Instead of constructing super expensive dikes, establish a massive kelp, fish, and shellfish industry. The artists’ approach to climate mitigation promises substantial return-on-investment.
-$5B paid for exclusive resource-extraction rights in Greenland to offset the lost revenue associated with imposing a moratorium on uranium mining or drilling.
-$5B paid to produce and transport methane or hydrogen from Greenland waters where it is generated by fermentation or other chemical breakdown.
-$5B paid to “seaweed defense” and “organic dredging” to replace the huge costs of mechanical dredging and restoration of Jamaica Bay
-$5B to construct marshlands and coastal inlet programs, including fish/shellfish nurseries.
Fend’s confidence in this plan is evident when he asks, “Why fret about “disaster” and nanny-spoil the party with talk of “protection” and “sea walls”? Why not bring in more wildlife and do work that’s also play?”
The effects of this alternative allocation of funds, the artists assert, will benefit a large portion of the east coast because the Northeast seaboard is a way-station of seawaters and nutrients from the Arctic to the Antarctic. The project will generate the following benefits:
– Job creation through the seaweed-to-methane power plant.
– Production of 50,000 cubic feet of methane a day in a local, 25 acre power plant. The power plant that existed in this location was so badly damaged in the hurricane that rebuilding is required. The old model caused the loss of saltmarsh islands in the Bay.
– Shellfish, fish, and birds populations bounce back from post-World War losses.
Fend sums up the plan, “Remember where all the wealth comes from, the whole Labrador Current. Gain control of the biggest source, Greenland. Keep out the oil and mineral companies, mostly foreign: consolidate North American assets. Pay for rights…”