About Us
We’re Your Port Washington Neighbors
Formed in the Spring of 2019 by a group of concerned residents, Transition Town Port Washington is on a mission to combat the multiple threats of climate change. We strive to inspire and activate our community and elected officials to make the sweeping changes, at all levels of society that are required to meet net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040. As environmental stewards, it is our responsibility to conserve and restore natural land and water ecosystems. We take environmental leadership on issues of rapid resource depletion, building and transportation decarbonization and pollution in all its forms. Our children’s future depends on the actions and policies that are being enacted right now. It’s all hands on deck.
“The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road—the one less traveled by—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.” —Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962
Our Call to Action
In October 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)* issued the science-based report that we must achieve global net zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2040 to prevent overshoot beyond 1.5° C of global warming. The report found that limiting global warming to 1.5° C would require “rapid and far reaching” transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport and cities. Limiting global warming to 1.5 compared to 2.O would help ensure a more liveable, sustainable and equitable society. To meet this goal, global net human-caused emissions of CO2 would need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030. Any remaining emissions would need to be balanced by initiatives to remove CO2 from the air.
*The IPCC is the leading world body for assessing the science related to climate change, its impacts, future risks and possible mitigation options.
Our Vision 2030
Transition Town Port Washington (TTPW) is part of a global social, economic and environmental movement* whose mission is to organize and promote a community-wide effort to reduce greenhouse emissions and transform our peninsula to a restorative and sustainable economy.
We are working at a local level with friends, neighbors, town, state and federal government entities as well as non-profit institutions, to meet global goals of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2040. These goals are closely aligned with New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) as well as the most recent scientific consensus.
*The first Transition Town was founded in 2006 in Totnes, England by Rob Hopkins, an expert in Permaculture and founder of the Transition Town Movement. There are hundreds of Transition Towns around the globe, each growing and learning within its own unique cultural and economic context. Learn more at transitionus.org.
Who We Are
Transition Town Port Washington is a welcoming group of like-minded people who are committed to building a resilient and sustainable Port Washington community.
Come to us and share your passion, start a campaign or participate in the projects and actions already underway. Click here to Volunteer.
With this website, our projects and events, we reach out, inform and include everyone in the collective work of transitioning to a cleaner, greener and healthier Port Washington.
TTPW Board of Directors
President: Margaret Galbraith
Secretary: Heinz Rudolf Jufer
Treasurer: Paul Merkelson
Directors:
Heather Clark Melanie D’Arrigo
David Jakim Hildur Palsdottir