Get the facts correct

Randi Pokladnik

Letters to the editor The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

Nov 20, 2021

A Nov. 13 letter titled “U.S. Weather Bureau Report” was a classic example of unsubstantiated claims. The author refers to the November 1922 edition of the Monthly Weather Review, titled “The Changing Arctic.” The report details the observations of both Norwegian scientist Dr. Hoel and Captain Martin Ingebrigsten. Both noted a dramatic increase in Arctic Sea temperatures around the Spitzbergen region between 1920-39. They also noted a lack of sea ice and disappearing glaciers. The geographic features of the region were “almost unrecognizable” from those of the same area from 1868-1917.

The report provided scientific evidence the region was experiencing the effects of a warming planet. Scientists did NOT claim “in just 18 months the earth will melt away.” However, a simple search of NASA data shows that indeed, glaciers all around the world are melting and this melting directly coincides with the increased burning of carbon-based fuels. Even the United States Geological Survey “climate gurus” report our own Glacier National Park has seen a 60 percent loss of glacier ice since 1966.

I was studying environmental engineering in college during the 1970s and none of my professors claimed “in as little as 3-7 years the oceans would entirely cover all land masses.” I would like to see the source of that statement. Ironically, if we had started to address carbon dioxide emissions in the 1970s our planet would be in a much better position to stave off the worst effects of the climate crisis.

The author goes on to claim that “CO2 spewed out in the eruption of one single volcanic event measures greatly more than humans (and moose and cattle) have collectively emitted since life began.” That is incorrect.

In a 2011 peer reviewed paper, U. S. Geological Survey scientist Terry Gerlach summarized data from previous global volcanic carbon dioxide emissions reaching back to the 1970s. The emissions of carbon dioxide measured about 0.2 billion tons per year on average.

In 2015, between fossil fuel combustion, land deforestation, and cement production, man-made emissions totaled about 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide, 200 times greater than volcanic action. To put our emissions in perspective, eruptions from “Mount St. Helens and Pinatubo released carbon dioxide on a scale similar to human output for about nine hours.”

The “Draconian measures” the writer says we will be subjected to include new jobs in the renewable energy sector, which employs almost twice as many workers as fossil fuels. It also includes new jobs in energy efficiency, electric car manufacturing and green building construction. All beneficial to our wallets and the economy.

American taxpayer dollars, $20 billion annually, are used to prop up the very industry that is the main contributor to climate change. The U.N. Development Program recently calculated the world spends $423 billion each year to subsidize oil, gas and coal — about four times the amount needed to help poor countries address climate change.

Exxon Mobil knew as early as 1977 their products were contributing to climate change, yet they spent decades and millions of dollars refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and instead promoted climate misinformation.

Those “Godless scientific experts” the letter writer belittles are correct. He, however, is not. Refusal to accept scientific data will not bode well for our children’s futures.

Randi Pokladnik

Uhrichsville

Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action member

Climate Corner: Resetting Earth’s thermostat

Nov 20, 2021

Cynthia Burkhart

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

As I am writing this, more than 190 world leaders and tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses, and citizens are gathering in Glasgow, Scotland for the 26th Global Climate Summit, COP26. From Oct. 31 to Nov. 12, they were to be working on reaching agreements, setting targets, and developing strategies for reducing global warming. For nearly 30 years, the U.N. has been bringing together representatives from almost every country on earth for global climate summits, called COPs, which stands for “Conference of the Parties.” This year’s summit, COP26, was originally scheduled for 2020, but was delayed one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2015, the Global Climate Change summit (COP21) was held in Paris. History was made when, for the first time, every country attending agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees C, aiming for 1.5 degrees. This became known as the “Paris Agreement.” As part of this agreement, every country committed to developing national plans detailing how much they would reduce their emissions. They also agreed to present an updated plan every five years, which is why this year’s summit is so important — this is the year for those updated plans.

Unfortunately, the plans made in Paris did not come close to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Continuing under those targets would result in global warming well over 3 degrees by 2100, which could be catastrophic. Let us hope that our world leaders recognize this and develop new targets and strategies. We must find ways to produce less carbon than we take out of the atmosphere, in other words, reach “net zero,” by 2050, to achieve the goal of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees.

Have we made any progress? Yes. Solar and wind energy are now the cheapest electricity in most countries, and a growing industry. Many car manufacturers are moving to making only hybrid or electric models. Some cities, states, and regions are working toward reducing their emissions to zero. More natural areas are being protected, and trees are being planted, which sequester carbon. New agricultural practices are being developed to make the soil better able to store carbon.

The U.K. is a leading example of what can be accomplished. It was the first country to pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2035. Its economy has grown by 78 percent over the last 30 years, while its emissions have been reduced by 44 percent. Nine years ago, 40 percent of the U.K.’s electricity came from coal. Today it is only 2 percent, and coal will be entirely phased out by 2024. The sale of new gas and diesel cars will end by 2030. The U.K. is planting trees on 74,000 acres of land per year by 2025, and is working with farmers on improving the carbon-holding capabilities of agricultural land. The U.K. is the world’s largest producer of off-shore wind power. On the international scene, the U.K. is spending over $16 billion over the next five years to help developing countries with climate change, with at least $4 billion of that focused on nature-based solutions. Impressive! Let us hope that other nations, including our own, will commit to meeting the goal of reaching net zero by 2050, and take actions, as the U.K. has, to make that happen.

In the here and now, at home, each one of us can make a difference. Small steps, but if every one of us takes them, they will become giant steps towards a healthier, cooler, safer planet. Here are some things you can do:

1. Plant trees. Trees take in carbon and exhale oxygen, which we breath. Trees store carbon, provide shade, and moderate temperature.

2. Improve your lawn and garden soil. Adding organic matter, such as peat moss, chopped leaves, compost, and manure, and using cover crops, increases the soil’s capacity to store carbon.

3. Use renewable energy. Install solar panels at your home, or purchase your power from a facility that generates from solar or wind.

4. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. You’ve heard this mantra for years — now please do it! Landfills create methane, 25 percent more potent than CO2.

5. Eat for a climate-stable planet. Eat more meat-free meals (Livestock is a huge source of methane!) Buy organic and local food — support your local farm market. Grow your own food. Don’t waste food. Compost your food waste.

6. Buy a hybrid or electric car.

7. Shopping on-line? Choose slower shipping. 1-day shipping means more delivery trips.

8. Walk or bike instead of driving, or carpool. Combine errands to save on trips.

9. Get an energy audit on your house, and follow up on ways to save energy.

10. Contact your elected officials. Urge them to take bold actions to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.

***

Cynthia Burkhart is a gardener, goat herder and concerned citizen living in Ritchie County, with solar power.

Manchin not serving the people of West Virginia

Local columns 

Nov 13, 2021

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

In the Nov. 6 and 7 edition of the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, oil and gas industry lobbyists wrote a propaganda piece for the ages. While I’m sure they’re quite grateful for the efforts of Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., polled majorities of West Virginians certainly are not.

The Build Back Better Act, which has been languishing for months because of Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona’s corporate and industry-fueled obstruction, is a once-in-a-generation investment in the working- and middle-class people of West Virginia and the entire nation. Guaranteed paid family and medical leave; extension of the child tax credit payments families have been receiving since passage of the American Rescue Plan; universal pre-K for all children ages 3 and 4; the largest, most substantial investments in our nation’s history in climate change mitigation and adaptation; and affordable childcare for working families, just to name a few provisions. These kinds of investments are what McPhail and Burd called an “amorphous political albatross.”

Like Manchin, McPhail and Burd don’t want the industries they represent held responsible for the damage they’ve caused. Manchin already killed the Clean Energy Performance Program, which would have required electric utilities to transition at least 4 percent of their energy portfolios annually to renewable and non-carbon sources, with rewards for doing so and penalties for failing to do so. Manchin’s opposition will also likely lead to the death of a fee on methane emissions for the oil and gas industry. Methane is up to 86-times more efficient at trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, though it is shorter-lived in the atmosphere. These two provisions were two of the best shots we’ve had for serious emissions reductions, but I’m sure McPhail and Burd are glad they won’t be a reality any time soon.

McPhail and Burd mention the budgetary implications of the Build Back Better Act. That’s interesting, considering that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that just passed the House adds approximately $256 billion to our national debt, according to CBO estimates. I don’t remember hearing McPhail or Burd object to the $2 trillion in debt-fueled tax cuts for the wealthiest persons and entities in the country in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. And Manchin didn’t seem to have debt in mind when he voted recently for a $778 billion National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022 alone.

The Build Back Better Act has been whittled down to between $1.75 trillion and $1.85 trillion over ten years for people who aren’t just in the top 1 percent, 5 percent, or 10 percent of the socioeconomic ladder–cue the performative cries of socialism!

Investment in what is traditionally known as infrastructure (i.e. roads, bridges, ports) as well as broadband and other more modern infrastructure is very important, but progressives have been opposed to passing the bipartisan infrastructure framework because they have been the only ones negotiating in good faith. Progressives were originally looking at anywhere from $6 trillion to $10 trillion over the next decade to fuel a second industrial revolution in renewable energy and sustainability and social investments. They compromised that number down to $3.5 trillion with the Biden administration, and now it’s half of that. Manchin still won’t commit to voting for the Build Back Better Act. He’s conceded nothing. That’s not statesmanship, it’s brinksmanship and senseless obstruction.

Manchin is not “conducting a clinic about how an elected official should operate” by any stretch of the imagination. Manchin is executing the Mitch McConnell playbook to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory for meaningful change and for his own party’s political well-being. This may serve McPhail and Burd’s clients well, but it certainly doesn’t serve the interests of the people.

***

Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Take action on climate change

Letters to the editor 

Parkersburg News and Sentinel

Nov 13, 2021

Giulia Mannarino

We live in the most decisive decade for the future of our planet. The global scientists who raised the recent “Code Red For Humanity” alarm are dead serious. Global warming is real, urgent and accelerating. Systemic changes in policies, economies and politics are necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As climate scientist Michael E. Mann stated: “The science that we are doing is a threat to the world’s most powerful and wealthiest special interest that has ever existed: the fossil fuel industry … It is about the short-term interests of a small number of plutocrats over the long term welfare of this planet and the people who live on it.” Hopefully the leaders of world nations, who were not on track to meet past Paris commitments and who recently made pledges in Glasgow that are not enough to limit global warming, will surpass their COP26 commitments and take climate actions bold enough to address this existential threat to life on Earth before it is too late to save the grandchildren.

The fossil fuel industries and their executives, who earned billions while ignoring the warnings of their own scientists and the consequences of their actions, certainly bear responsibility for the costs involved to mitigate this crisis. However, humanity cannot leave the industries in charge of creating the problem in charge of the solution. Carbon capture, natural gas and petro chemicals, should not play any part in this future. The only viable solution is renewable generation in the energy sector as well as electrification of transportation. But the power to save the planet from destruction caused by humans isn’t only the responsibility of world leaders.

There are actions individuals can take to help slow down climate change.

Discuss climate change. Talking about climate change at the dinner table and elsewhere is important to transform the culture and mobilize at the scale necessary. Use the power of your vote. Vote in every election and put politicians in place that protect their constituents over corporations and believe in implementing already available solutions. Use the power of your wallet. Divest from banks etc. that finance and expand the climate problem. When shopping, support companies that are concerned about sustainability and their carbon footprint. If possible, purchase items second hand. Eat sustainably. Cut back on beef consumption, plant a garden or trees, shop locally.

Address impacts on the local community. Engage local networks, local institutions and local decision-makers to think about the impacts of climate change for the communities and regions where you live and how to make them more resilient.

Other actions: If you have special skills use them to fight for the climate; give up single-use plastics; if you can, switch from gas to electric vehicles and install solar panels.

And, of course, donate time or cash to local organizations, like Mid Ohio Valley Climate Action, that are dedicated to educating the public in our region about the climate crisis.

Giulia Mannarino

Belleville

Last Week Tonight with Congressman Bill Johnson

Letters to the Editor Marietta Times

Nov 13, 2021

Aaron Dunbar

I was delighted to see our own Congressman Bill Johnson appear in a recent episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. I was especially delighted to see host John Oliver flatly tell him “shut up” at one point, something I’ve wished I could tell our corrupt, climate change denying Representative for quite a while now.

For context, Oliver hosts a kind of weekly variant on standard late night political talk shows, and spends the bulk of each episode diving deep into a specific topic. The segments are both funny and well-researched, and usually cover important topics that might fly under the radar for most late night hosts.

The segment in question, which can be found in full on YouTube, delves into the topic of America’s power grid. Oliver explores both the recent decline in our energy infrastructure due to its advanced age, as well as the challenges our nation faces in developing a modern grid to accommodate a massive shift toward renewable energy, in order to combat the rapidly escalating climate crisis.

I don’t claim to be an expert on the particular subject of power grids, but I somehow don’t think Congressman Johnson is either, despite an apparent willingness to present himself as such, and to continue shaming the district he represents with his ignorance.

Around 18 minutes into the video, Oliver shows a clip of Johnson grilling Patricia Hoffman, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity (OE) at the U.S. Department of Energy, over the proposed Clean Future Act, which would help to transition us toward a decarbonized power grid.

“What is the return on investment? What is the return on investment?” Johnson keeps yapping at Hoffman like a broken record, interrupting her even as she tries to give an answer about the necessity for this infrastructure toward the health and future of our nation.

Of course, not wanting your kids to be swept up in a climate change-induced firenado isn’t justification enough for Johnson. He wants a specific dollar amount, which Oliver, back in his Last Week Tonight segment, is only too happy to give him, after describing him with a few choice expletives that I really wish I could print here.

Oliver cites multiple studies showing the cost effectiveness of expanding transmission lines across the U.S., including one that predicted approximately $2.50 in benefits for every $1 of cost- a pretty decent return on investment, one might think.

But of course that doesn’t actually matter to Johnson. Evidence doesn’t truly matter at all to those of his ilk. Presenting him with the specific figures he demands isn’t enough, the same way that a 97%+ consensus among the scientific community, half a century’s worth of warnings going back to at least the Kennedy administration, and even buried reports funded by the very fossil fuel industry that created the disaster, aren’t enough to convince him of the runaway climate crisis we are now experiencing. I should know, having delivered a shopping cart full of 100 books on the subject of climate change directly to Johnson’s office two years ago. If he actually wanted to learn what was happening and how to fix it, he would have all the research material he could possibly desire.

But even if I could somehow print off a trillion pages of evidence for Representative Johnson indisputably proving that we were in a climate crisis, it would still pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of dollars he takes in from fossil fuel donors (at least $688,109, according to OpenSecrets.org, as well as, notably, $480,218 from electric utilities.)

Johnson, a supposed Christian who regularly posts Bible verses on his official government Facebook account, is ideologically committed to the notion that greed is good, and that the murderous corporate juggernauts making our planet uninhabitable truly have our best interests at heart.

Johnson’s sustained, willful ignorance cannot be reasoned with, for the simple fact that it’s based exclusively on far right dogma and corruption, rather than actual evidence. And at the end of the day, every last one of us will pay the price for it.

Aaron Dunbar

Lowell

Climate Corner: A look back at a record hot summer

Nov 13, 2021

Dr. Danesha Seth Carley

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

Picture this: It’s July, the sun is out, the grass is wilting, and the neighbor’s kids are gleefully running through a sprinkler right down the street. On this peaceful morning as I sit on my patio with a cold glass of lemonade in my hand, I watch my dog chasing a loud and clueless bumble bee (a Bombus griseocollis, or brown-belted bumble bee) through my vegetable and flower gardens.

I look back down at the dog, who is now panting heavily, curled up at my feet on the sunny patio. It isn’t just her romp through my garden that made her need a quick drink of water and a rest break. It is indeed hot. Really, really hot. No surprise; it is summer in the South. However, this July is actually really hotter than usual. Yes, July is typically the hottest month of the year, but this year, July out did itself. It, in fact, is LITERALLY the hottest month EVER recorded in human history.

As I sip my lemonade, I think about how badly my garden needs rain, and yet, in Harrisville, W.Va., where I grew up and where much of my family lives, it rained 11 days in May, 10 days in June, and to-date in July, they have already had 7 days of rain. In fact, with over 11 inches of rain in the last two months, my mother had to delay her tomato planting due to the “muddy soup” her garden had turned into. My tomato plants would love that rain, but it isn’t to happen for another few weeks.

Here in Raleigh, N.C., I planted my tomato plants in early April. Last winter, I only scraped my car windows twice, so I think the tomatoes will be safe. From cold at least. They are on their own for water, apparently.

There was a time I took the advice of the Old Timers and waited diligently to plant my carefully tended seedlings until “after Mother’s Day,” although where I live in North Carolina, the Farmer’s Almanac say I should plant on Good Friday, so I’m only a week or so early this year.

However, times, as they say, are a changin’. The climate (i.e. the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period) is anyway. The extreme heat I am currently contemplating is a part of this new normal. As are the heavy rains that kept my mother complaining about her lack of gardening progress even now, in July. We don’t have it as badly as the Northwest right now, a fact I remind my dog of as she whines to go back in the air-conditioned house.

Many will remember summer 2021 for being a hot one. An historic heat wave just baked the Pacific Northwest in June, setting all-time highs in Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash. and Lytton, British Columbia. In fact, the 121 F reading in Lytton was the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada. The event was heralded as a “1,000-year event” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was the hottest June ever in the United States. And subsequently, the hottest July as well. Especially if you live in Death Valley, Calif. There, on more than one occasion in June, they came within striking distance of its own world record temperature of 134 degrees F from 1913, hitting 128 F. Talk about hot!

Wildfires were raging across the hot western U.S., with the Dixie Fire in California devastating town after town, burning nearly 1 million acres. Smoke from the wildfires in the United States and Canada traveled across all the way to the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard over much of the summer, and caused some of the most vivid and beautiful sunsets, but unfortunately, and more importantly, they are also negatively impacting air quality across vast swaths of the country.

As a Professor in Horticultural Science and a pollinator habitat expert, I fully appreciate the impact that these weather and climate events have not only on my tomatoes and other plants in my garden, but on a regional, and global scale. As the June months trend wetter, and the July months trend hotter, we will see more and more super storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and heat waves.

The impacts will be felt not only by upscale California and Colorado communities, but also our very own rural communities in Ritchie, Roane, Wood … and other counties in West Virginia. I think about how our children will be impacted, but also our rich and unique wildlife, including, but not limited to the brown-belted bumble bees, painted lady butterflies, and the much-adored honey bees.

Personally, what hits home most to me is simply the new challenges gardeners will continue to face. However, as I sip my lemonade, contemplating the heat, the lazy dog at my feet, and the bees visiting my coneflowers, I think there may just be a silver lining. Think of how much I will save on lemons when I can grow my own lemon trees year-round right here in North Carolina! But then, there’s that water bill…

***

Dr. Danesha Seth Carley is a West Virginia native, author, director NSF Center for IPM / USDA, Director, Center of Excellence for Regulatory Science in Agriculture, Associate Professor, Dept. Horticultural Science NC State Univ.

Climate Corner: The environmental costs of cheap fashion

Nov 6, 2021

Randi Pokladnik

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

A few years ago, I attended a Climate Reality Training Conference in Minneapolis. One of the speakers was involved in sustainable fashion. She told us what prompted her to leave the world of high fashion and create her own line of clothing. During a trip to China, her former employer dumped millions of mis-dyed buttons and thousands of yards of fabric into a river in China. Rather than find another use for the imperfect cloth and buttons, they chose to waste them and pollute the environment.

The supply chain of a garment, from cradle to grave, damages the environment. Most damages are in the form of toxic emissions and pollution. The industry workers and the environment pay the price so we can have cheap clothes that must be shipped thousands of miles across the ocean.

We wear blue jeans almost every day totally unaware of the environmental issues surrounding the production of a pair of jeans. More than five billion pairs are made annually. It takes an average of 1,800 gallons of water, 110 kilowatt-hours of energy, and 5 ounces of chemicals to produce one pair of jeans.

Dana Thomas’s book “Fashionopolis” states that jeans, the most popular clothing item in history, are also the most destructive of the fashion items we consume. Guangdong Province, China, claims to be the “jeans capital of the world.” Each year 200,000 garment workers in Xintang’s 3,000 factories and workshops produce 300 million pairs of jeans, about 800,000 pairs a day. The documentary, “The River Blue: Can Fashion Save the Planet,” details the environmental damage from the production of jeans.

In an effort to avoid the “break-in” period for new jeans, the industry came up with distressed jeans. Popular in the late 1980s, these jeans must be artificially treated to achieve that look of being old and worn. Workers use millions of gallons of water and energy to wash the jeans with pumice stone. Often the heavily contaminated wash water is dumped untreated into rivers.

In Guangdong, the local water treatment plant closed years ago, leaving factories to dump dye waste directly into the East River. The river quickly turned opaque; aquatic life could no longer survive. Greenpeace has reported that the riverbed contains high levels of lead, copper, and cadmium, and the river had a pH level of 11.95. Workers exposed to the water and dust reported skin rashes, infertility and lung infections.

The recently released report “A New Textiles Economy” states that between 1.22 billion and 2.93 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere annually by the textile industry. If you include the emissions released to launder those garments the total contribution from clothing accounts for 6.7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

We live in a time of “fast fashion” where high fashion designs are mass produced in a way that uses incredible amounts of energy and resources as well as large quantities of toxic dyes. Clothing barely lasts beyond a few months before it is deemed “out of fashion” or looks like an old rag from a few washings. Millions of pieces of fast fashion garments end up in landfills every year. In New York City alone more than 400 million pounds of clothes are wasted each year and the EPA reports that 5.8 percent of annual municipal solid wastes is from textiles. It can take up to 200 years for a piece of fabric to break down.

Every type of garment, be it wool, fur, or polyester, has a carbon footprint, but synthetic fibers are much worse than others. If you sew like I do, you probably have noticed that the amount of fleece fabrics available in fabric stores has skyrocketed. In some cases, half the store is stocked with various fleece fabrics.

An article in “The Revelator” states that the amount of polyester in our garments has doubled since 2000. It takes 342 million barrels of oil annually to supply synthetic fibers, which means fibers like fleece have a high carbon footprint. Consider that once discarded, fabrics like polyester, nylon, and acrylics add to the plastic fibers contaminating waterways in our environment.

Cotton-based fabric also comes at a high cost to the environment. Cotton, once referred to as “the fabric of your life,” primarily originates from genetically modified cotton plants. The genetically modified seeds are engineered to be resistant to herbicides such as Roundup, which allows the fields to be sprayed without killing the cotton plants. The use of pesticides and man-made fertilizers also adds to the carbon footprint of conventionally grown cotton. According to the World Health Organization, the world’s cotton crop requires 200,000 tons of pesticides and 8 million tons of fertilizers each year.

The Soil Association’s 2019 report, “Thirsty for Fashion,” details how a switch to organic cotton can help reduce the externalities of the fabric. Organic cotton costs more but workers have much safer working conditions, the crop uses much less water, uses little if any industrial chemicals and improves soils. The higher price tag for organic cotton is well worth it.

Another alternative fiber gaining traction in the world is hemp. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the cultivation of hemp which, up to that point, had been declared an illegal drug like other cannabis plants. Unlike its cousin marijuana, hemp has no significant amount of THC. Hemp has a long and colorful history in the USA, and farmers were once required to grow it. Our first American flags and Levi jeans were made from hemp, and our navy used ropes crafted from American grown hemp.

However, in the early 1900s, industrialists like DuPont and Hearst lobbied against the crop because they saw the threat it posed to some of their industries. Hemp can produce four times as much paper as trees. PR campaigns quickly started to associate the benign crop with “mad pot smokers.”

Hemp can be grown without pesticides and fertilizers, it grows faster and absorbs more carbon dioxide than other crops, it is biodegradable, UV resistant, and breathes, unlike synthetic materials.

There are other ways to cut the carbon budget from your clothes. Madeline Hill, an author who writes about sustainability, said in her “Good On You” column, “we need to follow these practices when it comes to fashion: reduce, reuse, rewear, repair, and resell.” There are many companies like Patagonia that will take “trade-ins” on old clothing from their stores and repair clothing for a small fee.

In 2015, I attended a conference sponsored by the Patagonia Company. The company gets high marks for its contributions to environmental grassroots groups and its sustainable business practices. During the conference, Yvon Chouinard, founder of the company, spoke to us. As he sat in an over-stuffed chair wearing an old flannel shirt he asked, “Why do kids need so many T shirts and twenty pairs of jeans?” It was a good question and one to consider as the ridiculous madness of Christmas shopping approaches. Instead of buying cheap stuff made in China and transported across the ocean using fossil fuels, why not refrain from consuming or at least purchase something that will last longer than the next wash cycle? Let your fashion choices reflect your desire for a livable planet.

***

Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., of Uhrichsville, is a retired research chemist who volunteers with Mid Ohio Valley Climate Action. She has a doctorate degree in Environmental Studies and is certified in Hazardous Materials Regulations.

Suggested Readings for November 2021

October 2021 MOVCA Selected Media Postings

Compiled by Cindy Taylor

Appearing on-line in the Charleston Gazette-Mail:

October 28, 2021   Op-Ed by Sean O’Leary, Ohio River Valley Institute

“Sean O’Leary: A coal bailout too pricy even for Manchin”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/sean-oleary-a-coal-bailout-too-pricy-even-for-manchin-opinion/article_4d8198d6-bbdd-5e79-aac2-faf5b2ef3395.html

October 27, 2021 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony

“High stakes and wide open future for carbon removal discussed at WV climate webinar”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/high-stakes-and-wide-open-future-for-carbon-removal-discussed-at-wv-climate-webinar/article_b93c1cfc-d60e-5e04-a3a9-95374493fdca.html

October 27, 2021 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony

“US Army Corp of Engineers to hold WV public hearing on key permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/us-army-corps-of-engineers-to-hold-wv-public-hearing-on-key-permit-for-mountain/article_ba98caa1-cef4-5228-a5cf-a98601b513ce.html

October 23, 2021   Op-Ed by Morgan King, WV Rivers Coalition, Climate Campaign Coordinator

“Morgan King: impact of changing climate can be seen in WV”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/morgan-king-impact-of-changing-climate-can-be-seen-in-wv/article_a76a4640-afdd-524d-9588-20df53e7cb1a.html

 October  23, 2021   Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony 

“Why West Virginia is left especially vulnerable by Manchin blocking key climate policy”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/why-west-virginia-is-left-especially-vulnerable-by-manchin-blocking-key-climate-policy/article_8244ca80-9ece-54e5-83f0-3d6c223de744.html

October 8, 2021 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony

“Manchin protecting coal industry while profiting from it imperils key climate priorities”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/manchin-protecting-coal-industry-while-profiting-from-it-imperils-key-climate-priorities/article_be7472e4-1560-5d79-8856-4820700c56ab.html

October 5, 2021 Op-Ed by Jeremy Richardson, senior energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists

“Jeremy Richardson: Manchin Key to Once-in-a-Generation Boost”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/jeremy-richardson-manchin-key-to-once-in-a-generation-boost-opinion/article_c6e9ed7f-bff4-5b4c-a898-411e33c03195.html

Appearing on-line on The Columbus Dispatch: (Omitted from last month’s report)

September 29, 2021 Opinion column by Rich Bloomingdale, Timothy Burga, William Longdrigan, and Josh Sword

“Labor leaders: ReImagine Appalachia would create over half a million well-paying jobs”

https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2021/09/29/afl-cio-presidents-reimagine-appalachia-plan-would-create-over-half-million-well-paying-jobs/5833942001/

Appearing on-line on WV Public Broadcasting or WOUB (PBS) or NPR:

Friday, October 22, 2021 Article by PBS Newshour. Text summary with YouTube video link.

“How Dem debate over Biden climate agenda could affect U.S. economy”

October 7, 2021 Article by Jeff Brady, Broadcast  on Morning Edition      Text and Audio

“We need to talk about your gas stove, your health and climate change”

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/1015460605/gas-stove-emissions-climate-change-health-effects

Available on West Virginia Climate Alliance https://www.wvclimatealliance.org :

October 30, 2020 1- 2:30PM Halloween Rally for Climate Action in Charleston, WV sponsored by WVCA

Press Release: https://www.wvclimatealliance.org/blog/2021/10/press-release-wv-climate-alliance-hosts-rally-in-west-virginias-capital-sat-oct-30 

October 30, 2020 “Transcript: Michael E. Mann’s remarks to Halloween Climate Rally in West Virginia”

https://www.wvclimatealliance.org/blog/2021/10/transcript-michael-e-manns-remarks-to-halloween-climate-rally-in-west-virginia   Video link to Mann’s presentation “Navigating the Climate Crisis”

Available on OurEnergyPolicy https://www.ourenergypolicy.org :

Wed. October 20, 2021l, 1PM Energy Leaders Webinar Series hosted by Our Energy Policy, Edison Electric Institute, Ohio River Valley Institute

“Coal and the Energy Transition” A conversation about reliability, policy, jobs, communities and the economics of the industry.

Suzanne Tegen, Asst. Dir. Center for the New Energy Economy; Sean O’Leary, Ohio River Valley Institute; Uday Varadarajan, Rocky Mountain Institute; and moderated by Emily Sanford Fisher, Edison Electric Institute(EEI)

Recording available at: https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/energy-leaders-webinar-series/coal-the-energy-transition/   

October 13, 2021 Post by Sean O’Leary, ORVI

“Suddenly a Distressed Coal Town Thrives . . . and Provides a Model for Successful Clean Energy Economic Transition”

Appearing on-line on Ohio River Valley Institute https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org :

October 15, 2021 Article by Ben Hunkler

“Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro Charges Mariner East Pipeline Developer with Environmental Crimes, Reflecting Widespread Support for a Crackdown on Fracking”

October 13, 2021 Article by Ted Boettner with link to summary and REPORT released by ORVI, in partnership with  ReImagine Appalachia & Union of Concerned Scientists. Authors: Jeremy Richardson, Ted Boettner, and Eric Dixon

Repairing the Damage: Cleaning Up Hazardous Coal Ash Can Create Jobs and Improve the Environment

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 10AM-11AM  Coal Ash Report Press Conference & Webinar 1PM hosted by ReImagine Appalachia, Union of Concerned Scientists, Earthjustice and Ohio River Valley Institute

Presentation on the new report and ongoing work to remediate coal ash clean up in the US.

Speakers :Jeremy Richardson, Senior Energy Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists, Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Earthjustice, Amanda Woodrum, Senior Policy Analyst for Policy Matters Ohio & Co-executive Director of ReImagine Appalachia

October 7, 2021 Article and link to download REPORT by Sean O’Leary

“Carbon Capture, Use and Sequestration Would Decarbonize the Electric System . . . in the Worst Possible Way”

Report outlines the profound drawbacks of CCUS, emphasizing that the expensive, largely untested technology would impose serious costs on electricity customers if adopted at scale

October 7, 2021 7pm Zoom Webinar hosted by ORVI – about Carbon Capture & O’Leary’s report.  Recording link:

October 7, 2021 Article by Ben Hunkler with interactive data maps presented by ORVI

“Mapping the Cost of Widespread CCUS Adoption”

Available online on Public News Service – WV:

October 29, 2021 Text & audio by Nadia Ramlagan, Producer.

“WV Holds Climate Rally as Congress Inches Toward ‘Build Back Better’ Deal”

https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2021-10-29/climate-change-air-quality/wv-holds-climate-rally-as-congress-inches-toward-build-back-better-deal/a76301-1

Available on WCHS (Charleston TV):

October 25, 2021 Article and video by Megan Bsharah. (Includes interviews with Eric Engle and Perry Bryant)

“Climate change leaders worried Manchin isn’t looking out for West Virginians’ future”

https://wchstv.com/news/local/climate-change-leaders-worried-manchin-isnt-looking-out-for-west-virginians-future

Available from West Virginia Center on Climate Change  https://wvclimate.org :

October 26, 2021 7:00 – 8:00 PM  Interactive Zoom Webinar hosted by WV3C co-sponsored with WVU College of Law Center for Energy and Sustainable Development; WVU Bridge Initiative for Science and Technology Policy, Leadership, and Communications.

“Carbon Removal and More: What Lies Ahead for these Climate Solutions?”

Main speaker Dr. Julio Friedmann, Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia U. Panelists Erin Burns, Ex. Director of Carbon180 and Dr. Emily Grubert, US Dept. of Energy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Carbon Management

Link to webinar at https://wvclimate.org or YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9s1YYMH6UA 

Available on Appalachian Voices https://appvoices.org   / Blog “Front Porch”:

October 28, 2021 Press release

“Build Back Better Framework contains key provisions to spur clean energy investments in Appalachia”

NATIONAL ATTENTION:

Available on CNN:

October 19, 2021 Article by Ella Nilson, CNN

“West Virginia’s reliance on coal is getting more expensive, and Joe Manchin’s constituents are footing the bill”

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/19/politics/west-virginia-coal-rates-manchin-climate/index.html

Available on The Guardian:

 October 13, 2021 US News Article

“We kayaked to Joe Manchin’s yacht, and we’d do it again – Angie Kerns and Loretta Young”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/13/joe-manchin-west-virginia-kayak-democrats-biden

Available on The New York Times:

 October 17, 2021 Article by Christopher Flavelle

“As Manchin Blocks Climate Plan, His State Can’t Hold Back Floods”

Available on United States Environmental Protection Agency:

October 7, 2021Press Release

“EPA awards $300K to West Virginia for wetlands protection”

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-awards-300k-west-virginia-wetlands-protection

“Wetland Program Development Grants and EPA Wetlands Grant Coordinators”

https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/wetland-program-development-grants-and-epa-wetlands-grant-coordinators

RESOURCES and other NEWS:

Available from ReImagine Appalachia https://reimagineappalachia.org :  

“Support Local Communities” see “Local Officials” and “Local grassroots”

See also Resources available on Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR):

Resources available from Stop the Money Pipeline https://stopthemoneypipeline.com:

Resources Available from First Street Foundation: https://firststreet.org/research-lab/published-research/ 

 October 11, 2021 Article about new research from the First Street Foundation

“Highlights From ‘Infrastructure on the Brink’” with link to REPORT The 3rd National Risk Assessment

October 1, 2021 Peer Reviewed Research from First Street Foundation. Research by Dr. Jeremy Porter; Mike Amodeo; Evelyn Shu, Ho Hsieh; Neil Freeman and Ziyan Chu

“Community Flood Risk and Infrastructure: Examining National Impacts Using a High Precision Risk Assessment Tool”

FloodFactor: Defining America’s Past, Present, and Future Flood Risk (Free online tool)

Available on ProPublica:

Sept. 15, 2021 Climate Migration Feature by Al Shaw, Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica and Jeremy W. Goldsmith

“New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States”

https://projects.propublica.org/climate-migration/

See Interfaith Power & Light https://www.interfaithpowerandlight.org  “A Religious Response to Global Warming”

Many resources available

Available on The Center for Biological Diversity:

October 7, 2021  Press Release  

“Hundreds of Scientists Tell Biden: Halt Fossil Fuel Development Now:

Top Scientist Back Demands of People vs Fossil Fuels Mobilization”

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/hundreds-of-scientists-tell-biden-halt-fossil-fuel-development-now-2021-10-07/

Available on People vs Fossil Fuels: https://peoplevsfossilfuels.org :

October 16, 2021 Press Release by People vs Fossil Fuels

“The Capitol; 90 Arrested at Capitol; Total Arrests at 655 for the Week”

Oct. 11- 15, 2021 Build Back Fossil Free’s People vs Fossil Fuels Week of Action Nonviolent civil disobedience

“Join us in Washington, D.C. to demand  A fossil free future” Invitation to join action in DC

https://peoplevsfossilfuels.org/invitation/  (MOVCA was represented)

October 8, 2021 News

“338 Scientists Tell Biden to Build Back Fossil Free”

Available on Indigenous Environmental Network https://www.ienearth.org : (missed from previous reports)

 August 2021 New REPORT by Dallas Goldtooth & Alberto Saldamando of IEN and Kyle Gracey (OCI)

“Indigenous Resistance Against Carbon” Summary and link to download 

September 22, 2021 8pm Webinar featuring Indigenous resistors from the frontlines and report authors from IEN and OCI

Posted Sept. 23, 2021 “Indigenous Resistance to Carbon Report Webinar” Indigenous Environmental Network recording:

Available on Inside Climate News:

October 22, 2021 Environmental Justice article by Katie Surma, ICN reporter from Pittsburgh

“To Stop Line 3 Across Minnesota, an Indigenous Tribe Is Asserting the Legal Rights of Wild Rice”

Available on Oil Change International (OCI) http://priceofoil.org :

October 12, 2021 Press Release by Collin Rees about new REPORT  by OCI with link to report.

“New REPORT: Emissions from Proposed U.S. Fossil Fuel Projects Equivalent to Doubling U.S. Coal Plants if Biden Approves Construction”

http://priceofoil.org/2021/10/12/new-report-emissions-biden-fossil-projects/ 

October 12, 2021  Briefing by OCI Team

“Briefing: Greenhouse Gas Pollution Estimates of Proposed U.S. Fossil Infrastructure”

http://priceofoil.org/2021/10/12/biden-ghg-fossil-fuel-projects/ 

Available on Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL):

Post October 2021 Announcement of new REPORT by CIEL & GAIA with support of Plastics Solutions Fund

“Plastic is Carbon: Unwrapping the ‘Net Zero’ Myth”

Available on The Guardian:

 October 21, 2021 Climate article by Maya Yang. About new REPORT by Bennington College’s Beyond Plastics project.

“US plastics to outstrip coal’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, study finds” American plastics industry, described by experts as ‘the new coal’, releasing at least 232m tons of gas annually

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/21/plastics-greenhouse-gas-emissions-climate-crisis

Available on Beyond Plastics:  

October 2021 REPORT by Beyond Plastics at Bennington College  Report’s major author is Jim Vallette

The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change

https://www.beyondplastics.org/plastics-and-climate

Some MORE WORTHWHILE  READS/LISTENS:

Available on NBC News: 

October 7 , 2021 White House News by Lauren Egan

“Biden administration releases alarming reports on climate change challenges” The reports from 23 federal agencies examine how climate change will disrupt nearly all aspects of life including more traffic and disease.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-administration-releases-alarming-reports-climate-change-challenges-n1281036

Available on National Geographic:

October 5, 2021 Article by Kieran Mulvaney

“How Climate Models got so Accurate They Earned a Noble Prize”

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/how-climate-models-got-so-accurate-they-earned-a-nobel-prize

Available on EarthBeat “Stories of climate crisis, faith and action”:

October 21, 2021   Article by West Virginia Interfaith Power & Light Steering Committee

“West Virginia faith community to Joe Manchin: Listen to Pope Francis, support bold climate investments that benefit our state”

https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/west-virginia-faith-community-joe-manchin-listen-pope-francis-support-bold-climate

Available on Common Dreams:

October 13, 2021 by Jake Johnson

“IEA Sends Clear Message to World Leaders: Stop Investing in New Oil and Gas”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/13/iea-sends-clear-message-world-leaders-stop-investing-new-oil-and-gas

HBO: October 4, 2021 “PFAS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)”

John Oliver discusses PFAS — a class of chemicals linked to an array of health issues — and why their widespread use isn’t as magical as it may seem

Climate Corner: COP26 in Glasgow

Oct 30, 2021

Aaron Dunbar

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

I was four years old when parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held their first annual conference to agree to do nothing about the existential threat of climate change. You’ll forgive me if my now-30-year-old self sees little reason for optimism in anticipation of the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow this Sunday.

It’s been estimated that more than half of our 1.5 trillion tonnes of CO2 emissions since 1751 have been produced in the past 30 years alone — more or less the exact same period that UNFCCC parties have been meeting every year to work on “fixing the problem.”

This is, in effect, akin to finding out from your doctor that you’re at imminent risk of a heart attack, and immediately switching to an all-Big Mac diet to try and preserve your health.

As of this writing, COP26 hasn’t even begun yet, and numerous world powers are already trying to weasel their way out of whatever toothless half-measures we can probably expect to see over the course of the next two weeks.

Recent reporting by the BBC revealed that several nations, including Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Australia, have been lobbying the U.N. to try and water down its climate reports. Wording such as “the need for urgent and accelerated mitigation actions at all scales …” has been specifically targeted by these nations, which are all, not coincidentally, massive users and/or producers of fossil fuels.

Odds are, we can expect much aggrandizement of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology as an “alternative” to actually reducing fossil fuel emissions, despite it being largely a wishful fairytale technology at this point. Just last month, the Swiss company Climeworks opened up its Orca facility, the largest carbon-removal plant on Earth, in Iceland. In a year’s time, it will have negated approximately three meager seconds’ worth of global emissions from our atmosphere.

Whether or not this technology ever becomes usable at anywhere near the necessary scale, it’s clear that its appeal is the same as so many climate “solutions” being proposed by high polluting nations — taking a problem that’s happening right here and right now, and proclaiming that it’ll be solvable 20 or 30 years in the future, without any concrete evidence to that effect.

Meanwhile, senior observers of COP26 have stated that the summit is unlikely to meet even the goals set forth by the Paris Agreement, which is itself woefully inadequate in getting climate change under control.

Nations such as China, Russia, and India have not yet made further pledges to pollution cuts. The United States, the greatest contributor to climate change throughout all of industrialized history, and currently the world’s second highest emitter behind China, has pledged to slash emissions “50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels in the next decade,” according to The New York Times. However, there is little to suggest that meaningful progress is being made to this effect, with one of our nation’s two serious political parties still flat-out denying that climate change even exists, and the other giving lip-service to climate issues while simultaneously stripping crucial climate legislation from the still-gestating and virtually moribund infrastructure bill.

I keep thinking of the term Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.) in relation to the dynamics between major powers that refuse to decarbonize. It’s not a perfect metaphor, but the way that so many nations are unwilling to phase out fossil fuels for fear of being one-upped economically (for instance, opponents of green energy in the U.S. say that we can’t have it because then China will be stronger than us), is grimly reminiscent of the nuclear proliferation and brinksmanship that threatened the entire world throughout the latter half of the 20th Century (the U.S. can’t reduce its world-ending nuclear arsenal because then Russia will be stronger than us.) In both cases, the only ends achieved is widespread death and destruction, through the means of a rabidly competitive suicidal idiocy.

Given everything that’s at stake, and the vanishingly small time frame we have left in which to take action on climate, what exactly might a “successful” COP26 even look like at this point?

To quote the answer of activist group Extinction Rebellion: “How about a world war-sized mobilisation in every high-emitting country to decarbonise as quickly as possible. Anything else will result in mass death and an increasingly uninhabitable world.”

As important as it should be, I can all but guarantee you that this event will be nothing but political posturing from a group of deranged world leaders- a whole lot of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing.

We, the people, must rise up and demand that our governments be held accountable for their failure to reckon with the looming catastrophe that is global warming. If our leaders refuse to act then we must force their hand into doing so, or else risk abandoning our country, and the world, to the corrupting forces of ecological collapse unleashed by an elite few.

Time is up. We simply cannot wait for change from the top down any longer. The moment to act on climate is now.

***

Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Climate Corner: With climate justice for all

Oct 23, 2021 in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel

Giulia Mannarino

Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Corner

The climate crisis is not just an environmental issue; it is also an ethical, social and political issue. An online article published in July 2020, by the Yale Climate Connection, gives the following definition of climate justice; “Climate justice is a term, and more than that a movement, that acknowledges climate change can have differing social, economic, public health and other adverse impacts on underprivileged populations.” The fact that historically marginalized groups throughout the world: people of color; indigenous people; people with disabilities; the elderly; women; children; and households with low income are impacted disproportionately as climate change persists is now a more significant part of the global warming concerns raised by the UN, the IPCC and most organized religions. This disproportionate harm is due to many factors that not only increase these underprivileged groups’ exposure to the unhealthy effects of climate change but also their susceptibility to destruction caused by its impacts. And, generally, these victims that suffer the most have a disproportionately low responsibility for the emissions that have caused this crisis.

The indigenous people of the United States were the primary caretakers of our nation’s biodiversity and totally depended on their environment for survival for thousands of years. As a marginalized community, the climate crisis impacts them perhaps the worst because this group still depends on their environment for survival from wild rice fields to salmon. This actually is a treaty right, a law of the land, guaranteed to them by our federal government for as long as the wind blows. Only since 1990, have indigenous people within the United States been formally addressing “environmental and economic justice issues.” That year an alliance of grassroots indigenous people met to discuss the environmental assaults on their communities and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) was established. Their mission statement is “…to Protect the Sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by Respecting and Adhering to Indigenous Knowledge and Natural Law.” IEN’s native environmental justice movement expanded primarily in North America (Turtle Island) and, in recent years, globally. It is involved in a variety of activities.

An organizer from IEN, along with a senior research analyst from Oil Change International, authored a report that was issued in August 2021, “Indigenous Resistance Against Carbon.” For years, the Indigenous Tribal Nations of the United States and First Nations of Canada have been organizing protests, direct action and other resistance that have canceled or delayed extractive fossil fuel projects and pipelines on indigenous lands. These actions have had an impact on emissions and this report calculated how much CO2 or other green house gas emissions these canceled or delayed projects would have emitted in the last 10 years. According to the math, the indigenous resistance to pipelines and fossil fuel projects saved U.S. and Canada 12% of annual emissions or almost a billion tons of CO2 per year (.8 billion). And if indigenous people in North America were to win every fight they’re in, that amount doubles. A lot of other significant information is contained in the report including the Right of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). This right was recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Persons (UNDRIP), adopted in September 2007. If it is implemented properly, indigenous persons have the right to more than consultation; they have the right to grant or withhold permission for projects that affect them or their territories. Only four countries voted against this resolution; Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

Oct. 11, 2021, Columbus Day, was formally recognized as Indigenous Peoples Day by President Biden. Not coincidentally, this was the first day of a largely indigenous led major mobilization, People vs. Fossil Fuels. This event was held, in Washington D.C., Oct. 11-15. An on line invitation to participate was signed, “In solidarity for the protection of Mother Earth and the next seven generations of life” by representatives of ten indigenous environmental groups throughout the United States as well as an additional four environmental justice organizations located in Texas, Louisiana, California and (Stop the MVP) Appalachia. The two main sponsors were IEN and the Build Back Fossil Free Coalition which was organized shortly after Biden’s election and includes hundreds and hundreds of national, regional, state and local organizations (including MOVCA) that want fossil free solutions to Build Back Better. People vs. Fossil Fuels focused on President Biden’s authority to stop fossil fuels and included two demands: (1) President Biden must stop approving fossil fuel projects and speed the end of the fossil fuel era and (2) President Biden must declare a national climate emergency and launch a just, renewable energy revolution. Both demands included specific actions as well as background and rationale. Non-violent civil disobedience, a time tested tactic which has been a part of every movement for social change, was an essential part of the event. A total of 655 civil arrests, of both indigenous and non-native persons, of various ages and genders, were made by police during the week.

In the 1970s, I spent a summer near Cherry Creek, S.D., on the Cheyenne River Reservation. While there, I was invited to attend a Sun Dance Ceremony, an important sacred ritual of nearly all Plains tribes. Prior to the ceremony, a participant dancer spoke about a major difference between the world views of Western colonial culture and indigenous traditional culture, which influenced how the two groups interacted with the world around them. The basic difference, explained the speaker, is that free will and reason are seen as a blessing by the Western colonial world view and proof that man is superior to and most important of all species. However, free will and reason are seen as a curse by the indigenous traditional world view and proof that man is inferior to and least important of all species. The traditional viewpoint is that free will and reason make life more difficult and confusing compared to other species that operate by instinct.

Many websites are available that compare the world views of indigenous traditional and Western colonial cultures, some with ominous names such as “Indigenous Corporate Training.” The many differences are always direct opposites. In the indigenous culture; community is foremost; the future tense is dominant; ownership is communal; soft spoken words carry farthest; the land/resources are sacred and given by the creator for use by all. In the Western culture: individualism is foremost; the present tense is dominant; ownership is personal; emphasis carries the day; the land/resources are for development and extraction for the benefit of humans. This difference in world view will always exist. As one of the indigenous participants of People vs. Fossil Fuels stated during a news segment, “Our infrastructure is land, water, air and people.”

Climate justice is a multifaceted issue and this column seems limited in its review of it. It touches on aspects of climate justice without elucidating finer details. It only discusses indigenous people of North America; however, there are other underprivileged groups in the U.S. as well as across the globe. And each group has its own story regarding environmental wrongs. Also, very little was written about the intent and activities of a five-day historic event. Despite these omissions, it is obvious which world view will take better care of our planet for future generations.

***

Giulia Mannarino is vice-chairperson of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.