It has been reported that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection is seemingly drafting a new rule which would require all restaurants with brick and wood-fire ovens installed before 2016 to reduce their carbon emissions by up to 75 percent.
This means that these restaurants would now be required by law to install a device which would help to reduce emissions as well as most likely to regularly hire an engineer to inspect them. An official stated that under 100 restaurants in New York City would be impacted by this new rule.
The pushback and outrage — both across the city and on the internet yesterday after the release of this report — was not surprising. New Yorkers are facing so many legitimate issues it is hard to imagine how any officials find the time to worry about banning certain pizza ovens.
According to the NYPD, through the first quarter of 2023, index crime arrests were at a 24-year high. We regularly hear about attacks on the city’s streets, and many say the city has not come close to recovering or feeling like it once did before the start of the pandemic.
As a born and raised New Yorker, I can tell you that we do take our pizza extremely seriously. But the issue of pizza ovens itself isn’t what New Yorkers, and frankly many Americans, are sick and tired of today. It’s the issue of hypocrisy and double standards. Most New Yorkers — despite their political views or backgrounds — share a common trait; honesty.
Say what you want about New Yorkers, but we will always tell you how we feel and there is nothing that gets on our nerves more than blatant hypocrisy, regardless of political ideology or views.
It is often that we see those who are the loudest about climate change, and frankly in better positions to make the necessary changes which could help to save our planet, that end up doing the least. And despite doing the least to act on their “views,” they seem to love to force things on others who frankly may not have the luxury to make the kinds of changes needed, even if they share similar hopes for the future of our planet.
Let’s take our Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, for example. According to the New York Post, in 2021 alone Kerry’s private jet emitted an estimated 116 metric tons of carbon; one would have to burn a wood-burning stove for 849 years to equal that amount.
It’s important to note that these new rules were apparently supposed to be put in place in 2020 but were delayed due to a much more serious concern – the pandemic. You would think that after a virus which took over a million lives in the United States alone and destroyed so many people’s financial situations, our political leaders would have a bit more awareness about those they are supposed to be serving.
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