Aspire to Zero

10/29/2026

Repost from Climate Families NYC :
Fantastic AIM Coalition rally asking Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani to cancel the “A.i.” pilots in the public schools on 10/28!

NY State Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Diana Moreno joined A.l.
Moratorium coalition parents and students to talk about the enormous potential harms of “A.i.” to students, including cognitive decline, privacy violations, environmental destruction, and more.

A.l. Moratorium youth leader Juno talked about the way
“A.i.” could be forced on up to 50,000 kids who have no way to preemptively opt out of the pilots - and then presented the Panel for Education Policy and Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels with a petition signed by over 1000 New Yorkers calling for the pilots to be canceled.

New Yorkers, please tell the mayor to cancel the pilots - visit HeyMamdani.fyi to submit a comment!

And please sign the petition - link in the AIM Coalition bio!

Other folks in the photos include
Liat from Climate Families NYC Alexis Kaloyanides
Maria Bautista with Racially Just Public Schools
(and Greg Pak from Comix Action behind the camera!)

10/29/2026

I had such a blast with Annalisa Iadicicco and The Blue Bus Project at Hunters Point Park Conservancy weaving plastic waste to be added to a giant “skirt” and will be on display when finished here in Queens!!!! Making art while learning is just the most innovative thing! We need more of this for so many environmental problems so that creative problem-solving can be activated! Grazie Annalisa!

10/14/2026

I think we learn better when our hands are occupied. And when they’re occupied by the thing we’re learning about, oh the synapses will be a-firin’!! Can’t wait to speak at this innovative event by The Blue Bus Project in LIC, NYC. Hope to see you there 🫶🏽

10/12/2026

Indigenous Peoples Day Indigenous Peoples Day NYC
I came carrying a heavy load but the joy and resistance of the people of the many tribes represented lifted all the spirits. The sacred bond between us and our ancestors and the land was celebrated from the Sunrise Ceremony, To***co Ceremony, to the powerful Water Ceremony. Thank you to the organizers for an incredible day! Happy to be on the Zero Waste volunteer team led by Gil Lopez and TreeBedsNYC

10/08/2026

For a long time now, I’ve known about and even recommended NYC’s Master Composter program to others. I followed the program and saw how frustrating it was that such a wonderful program could not be guaranteed funding year after year from NYC Mayor's Office and New York City Council , keeping many educators, workers, and students/volunteers wondering if they could ever use these skills in the future and be able to count on them in a stable way.

Then one random day, upon Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‘s encouragement, I signed myself up for it. I am so elated that I did! From the standard coursework (which I did on Zoom) to the incredible hands-on volunteer hour opportunities at the many different locations all over NYC, I feel I have learned so much more than I ever knew from reading about compost! I also deeply appreciate the way the program makes it accessible to visit so many locations and in all 5 boroughs, if you’d like, demonstrating the different challenges and wins with composting in different spaces and sizes.

Big thank you to the program and organizers New York City Council , and to Sky Farm LIC and Big Reuse educators for maintaining a lovely space and providing a fun experience (and workout!). Doing this work shows that low tech, high community engagement, low fossil fuel usage, and high people powered solutions ARE THE FUTURE!!!! ☀️🕶️

Much pride in the windrow we created, affectionately: Doctober McSteamy 🧖🏽‍♂️ (the middle one in the first pic!). I ❤️ 🔄 ❤️NYC

10/06/2026

10/02/2026

Come to our monthly meeting and learn what Climate Families is all about! I’m leading this one around AI and Climate Action because it’s so important to me to teach my kids the cost of convenience. AI can make some tasks easier and faster, but AT WHAT COST? Come discuss this with our amazing community of parents, caretakers, and allies so we can co-create SOLUTIONS! 💚

09/23/2026

09/23/2026

NYC Climate Week is officially kicked off!!! 🌍🌱Plastics & Public Health Symposium NYULH CIEH , year 3 (and Day 1)!! Featuring a moving speech by the Honorable Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr., Executive Producer, President and CEO of Hip Hop Caucus Hip Hop Caucus as well as Dr. Leo Trasande Plastic Pollution Coalition Outside Lands hannah testa and many more!! People are hearing the message about plastic pollution, and want to act! These folks are given then evidence backed solutions! True win-win 🙌🏽

(And wouldn’t be complete without a protest outside NYU, which I didn’t have time to find out much about)

09/07/2026

As Aspire to Zero, our values around boldly reducing climate change through the low hanging fruit of waste reduction and diversion from the landfill/incineration cuts across everything we do. I am proud to include this disclaimer into the report of my current client. We never have and never will use Artificial (Manipulated Stolen Uncredited) Intelligence in our work.

A friend who believes AI is inevitable watched me struggle through writing some parts of the report and crunch the data asked why I wouldn’t run my spreadsheet through AI. So here are my reasons:
1. My data is nuanced and, in certain ways, complex. I believe I’d have to do more work in the end to ensure the AI had the right results. (It reminds me in coding that it’s often harder to read through someone else’s code to figure out what went wrong than to just write it yourself.)
2. The greenhouse gas emissions. We’ve just been informed by the UN that we’ve surpassed the 1.5 degree Celsius warming threshold to keep climate change consequences within safe(ish) levels. The widespread wildfires, flooding, extreme heat, hurricanes, etc that we’ve experienced these last few decades are in the “safe” zone. Do we really want to use AI that spews so many GHG’s in the atmosphere in a crisis moment when we need to be doing the exact opposite of that??
3. THE STRUGGLE IS THE ENTIRE POINT. After some of the most laborious struggle can be automated (think: washing machine), there needs to be some friction that results in meaning which is what humans crave, not only for a feeling of accomplishment, but as a way of realizing one’s own identity.
4. I don’t want to erode my own critical thinking skills. Only through DOING, even when at times tedious, do we learn and lock the skills in our brains. I’m not giving those skills away for some convenience.
5. Many more reasons including that people aren’t compensated or credited when their work is stolen and fed into AI, that it is increasing the likelihood of a surveillance state, that it’s stealing kids’ futures and presents…and on and on.

AI is not inevitable. 🛑