Jul 3, 2026
Jean Ambrose
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
As America prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we have an opportunity to reflect not only on how far we’ve come, but on how we got here. The anniversary should be more than a celebration of our founding. It should be a reminder that America’s greatest achievements have come from our willingness to learn–from history, from science, and from one another.
We cannot sustain democracy without history. We cannot address climate change without science.
Both democracy and science depend on the same thing: knowledge accumulated over generations. They are built on observation, experience, trial and error, research, and the willingness to learn from mistakes instead of repeating them.
Too often, we discard hard-earned lessons. Ideas that history has repeatedly shown to be destructive — the spoils system giving political jobs to cronies, fascism, antisemitism, racial segregation under Jim Crow, and protectionist policies that have often done more harm than good — reappear because each generation forgets why earlier generations rejected them. Likewise, we ignore decades of scientific evidence about climate change and then act surprised when communities face stronger storms, floods, droughts, wildfires, and rising costs. Forgetting history and ignoring science are two versions of the same mistake.
The central promise of American democracy is that all people are created equal and that political authority ultimately resides with the people. But equality requires something difficult of us. As historian Timothy Snyder has written, democracy asks us to live in a constant state of inconvenience. It requires us to recognize that our own experiences are not universal.
Human beings naturally assume that what we have lived is what everyone else lives. Our own experiences shape us most deeply. Learning from the experiences of others takes more effort–but it is essential.
That challenge has become greater as the generations that experienced World War II pass away. Today, no major world leader has personal memories of fighting fascism or witnessing the devastation of global war. Without the combined protection of education and lived experience, societies become vulnerable to forgetting — and repeating — the mistakes of the past.
The same is true for climate change. Most of us experience only the weather where we live. A flood, drought, hurricane, or heat wave can seem like an isolated event. Science allows us to learn from millions of observations collected across the globe over decades. It expands our perspective beyond our own backyard, just as history expands our understanding beyond our own lifetime. Climate science is, in many ways, history written in ice cores, tree rings, ocean temperatures, and atmospheric measurements. It tells us what has happened so we can make wiser decisions about what comes next.
We are experts in our own experiences, but we are also limited by them. The genius of democracy is that it creates institutions where many different life experiences contribute to better decisions. That is why representative government matters. Leaders with identical backgrounds cannot govern as effectively as a body that includes veterans, people with disabilities, parents raising children alone, religious minorities, immigrants, rural and urban residents, scientists, teachers, business owners, and workers from every walk of life. Each sees challenges and opportunities that others might miss.
Sometimes democracy asks us to accept small inconveniences for a greater good. Accessible parking spaces may be less convenient for those who do not need them, but they create opportunity for neighbors whose daily lives differ from our own. We retire school mascots after learning they demean Native peoples. We stop using language or jokes that diminish women or minorities. We provide children with breakfast and lunch so they can learn. We carry reusable shopping bags, reduce single-use plastics, and conserve energy because we understand the damage pollution causes to wildlife, waterways, and future generations.
These are not burdens. They are examples of allowing new knowledge to change our behavior.
America has led the world not because we have been perfect, but because we have been willing to improve. The Constitution itself is a record of learning from experience. Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government lacked the authority to solve many of the nation’s problems. When farmers in western Massachusetts rose up in Shays’ Rebellion, the inability of the government to respond effectively convinced many Americans that the young republic needed a stronger framework. The Constitution was born from that lesson.
Even then, the founders recognized that they had not gotten everything right. Many Americans refused to support the new Constitution unless it included explicit protections for individual liberty. Their concerns led to the adoption of the United States Bill of Rights, guaranteeing freedoms of speech, religion, the press, assembly, and due process. The Constitution became stronger because Americans listened to criticism instead of dismissing it.
Experience continued to improve the system. After the election of 1796, John Adams became president while Thomas Jefferson, his fiercest political rival, became vice president because the original Constitution made no distinction between votes for the two offices. The dysfunction that followed led to the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring separate electoral votes for president and vice president. Years later, Adams and Jefferson reconciled, and both died on July 4, 1826 — the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Our history also includes darker lessons. Ending slavery did not end inequality. Nearly a century of Jim Crow laws denied millions of Americans rights the Declaration had promised. The Civil Rights Movement did not erase that history; it confronted it, helping the nation move closer to its founding ideals. We study those failures not to assign blame, but to recognize warning signs and avoid repeating them.
The same pattern applies to science. Every major environmental protection we take for granted today — cleaner air, safer drinking water, healthier rivers, the recovery of endangered species–came from studying evidence, acknowledging mistakes, and changing course. Climate change asks us to do what Americans have always done at our best: face facts honestly, adapt, and improve.
As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, our greatest challenge is not choosing between the past and the future. It is using the past to build a better future.
History teaches us how to preserve freedom. Science teaches us how to preserve a livable planet. Both ask us to look beyond our own experience, to learn from those who came before us, and to leave the next generation wiser than we were.
If the United States is to thrive for another 250 years, our patriotism cannot rest solely on pride in what earlier generations achieved. It must also be measured by our willingness to preserve what they entrusted to us, to correct what they left unfinished, and to pass on a nation that is freer, fairer, and more resilient than the one we inherited. That has always been the American experiment. It should remain our promise to the generations yet to come.
***
Jean Ambrose is a student of history and a founding member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Posted: July 4, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: The cost of forgetting
Jul 3, 2026
Jean Ambrose
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
As America prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we have an opportunity to reflect not only on how far we’ve come, but on how we got here. The anniversary should be more than a celebration of our founding. It should be a reminder that America’s greatest achievements have come from our willingness to learn–from history, from science, and from one another.
We cannot sustain democracy without history. We cannot address climate change without science.
Both democracy and science depend on the same thing: knowledge accumulated over generations. They are built on observation, experience, trial and error, research, and the willingness to learn from mistakes instead of repeating them.
Too often, we discard hard-earned lessons. Ideas that history has repeatedly shown to be destructive — the spoils system giving political jobs to cronies, fascism, antisemitism, racial segregation under Jim Crow, and protectionist policies that have often done more harm than good — reappear because each generation forgets why earlier generations rejected them. Likewise, we ignore decades of scientific evidence about climate change and then act surprised when communities face stronger storms, floods, droughts, wildfires, and rising costs. Forgetting history and ignoring science are two versions of the same mistake.
The central promise of American democracy is that all people are created equal and that political authority ultimately resides with the people. But equality requires something difficult of us. As historian Timothy Snyder has written, democracy asks us to live in a constant state of inconvenience. It requires us to recognize that our own experiences are not universal.
Human beings naturally assume that what we have lived is what everyone else lives. Our own experiences shape us most deeply. Learning from the experiences of others takes more effort–but it is essential.
That challenge has become greater as the generations that experienced World War II pass away. Today, no major world leader has personal memories of fighting fascism or witnessing the devastation of global war. Without the combined protection of education and lived experience, societies become vulnerable to forgetting — and repeating — the mistakes of the past.
The same is true for climate change. Most of us experience only the weather where we live. A flood, drought, hurricane, or heat wave can seem like an isolated event. Science allows us to learn from millions of observations collected across the globe over decades. It expands our perspective beyond our own backyard, just as history expands our understanding beyond our own lifetime. Climate science is, in many ways, history written in ice cores, tree rings, ocean temperatures, and atmospheric measurements. It tells us what has happened so we can make wiser decisions about what comes next.
We are experts in our own experiences, but we are also limited by them. The genius of democracy is that it creates institutions where many different life experiences contribute to better decisions. That is why representative government matters. Leaders with identical backgrounds cannot govern as effectively as a body that includes veterans, people with disabilities, parents raising children alone, religious minorities, immigrants, rural and urban residents, scientists, teachers, business owners, and workers from every walk of life. Each sees challenges and opportunities that others might miss.
Sometimes democracy asks us to accept small inconveniences for a greater good. Accessible parking spaces may be less convenient for those who do not need them, but they create opportunity for neighbors whose daily lives differ from our own. We retire school mascots after learning they demean Native peoples. We stop using language or jokes that diminish women or minorities. We provide children with breakfast and lunch so they can learn. We carry reusable shopping bags, reduce single-use plastics, and conserve energy because we understand the damage pollution causes to wildlife, waterways, and future generations.
These are not burdens. They are examples of allowing new knowledge to change our behavior.
America has led the world not because we have been perfect, but because we have been willing to improve. The Constitution itself is a record of learning from experience. Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government lacked the authority to solve many of the nation’s problems. When farmers in western Massachusetts rose up in Shays’ Rebellion, the inability of the government to respond effectively convinced many Americans that the young republic needed a stronger framework. The Constitution was born from that lesson.
Even then, the founders recognized that they had not gotten everything right. Many Americans refused to support the new Constitution unless it included explicit protections for individual liberty. Their concerns led to the adoption of the United States Bill of Rights, guaranteeing freedoms of speech, religion, the press, assembly, and due process. The Constitution became stronger because Americans listened to criticism instead of dismissing it.
Experience continued to improve the system. After the election of 1796, John Adams became president while Thomas Jefferson, his fiercest political rival, became vice president because the original Constitution made no distinction between votes for the two offices. The dysfunction that followed led to the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring separate electoral votes for president and vice president. Years later, Adams and Jefferson reconciled, and both died on July 4, 1826 — the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Our history also includes darker lessons. Ending slavery did not end inequality. Nearly a century of Jim Crow laws denied millions of Americans rights the Declaration had promised. The Civil Rights Movement did not erase that history; it confronted it, helping the nation move closer to its founding ideals. We study those failures not to assign blame, but to recognize warning signs and avoid repeating them.
The same pattern applies to science. Every major environmental protection we take for granted today — cleaner air, safer drinking water, healthier rivers, the recovery of endangered species–came from studying evidence, acknowledging mistakes, and changing course. Climate change asks us to do what Americans have always done at our best: face facts honestly, adapt, and improve.
As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, our greatest challenge is not choosing between the past and the future. It is using the past to build a better future.
History teaches us how to preserve freedom. Science teaches us how to preserve a livable planet. Both ask us to look beyond our own experience, to learn from those who came before us, and to leave the next generation wiser than we were.
If the United States is to thrive for another 250 years, our patriotism cannot rest solely on pride in what earlier generations achieved. It must also be measured by our willingness to preserve what they entrusted to us, to correct what they left unfinished, and to pass on a nation that is freer, fairer, and more resilient than the one we inherited. That has always been the American experiment. It should remain our promise to the generations yet to come.
***
Jean Ambrose is a student of history and a founding member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Posted: June 27, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Break free from plastics in July
Jun 27, 2026
Dawn Hewitt
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
In last week’s Climate Corner, Rebecca Phillips explained the connection between plastics and climate change, and the general detrimental impacts of plastics on human health and the environment: Plastics are made from fossil fuels, are challenging to recycle, and do not biodegrade but disintegrate into persistent microplastics. Still, the demand for plastics continues to grow. Who is responsible? I am. You are.
Much of the plastic we use is our choice, though often unconsciously. Plastic makes our lifestyle more convenient (think ready-to-eat bags of salad and baked goods in plastic clamshell containers). We use plastics without even thinking about it, and that is a big source of the problem. We grab a bag from the roll at the grocery’s produce department for a cucumber or head of broccoli, and put it in another plastic bag at the checkout. If it’s a heavy load, double-bag. When we get home, we discard all three bags. But why? Those bags can be rinsed (if they’re even soiled) and taken back to the store for reuse for the same purposes. Does all produce need its own bag? Some does, but not every item.
With its Break Free from Plastics campaign, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action is encouraging participation in a global challenge: Plastic-Free July (https://www.plasticfreejuly.org), offering numerous ideas, local events, and even a daily calendar (https://www.movtogether.org/PLASTICFREEJULY) to remind us to use plastics mindfully. By reusing and refusing plastic, we can help reduce the demand. As individuals, that’s a drop in the bucket toward making a difference, but drops can fill a bucket. Imagine if all consumers would just say “No” to plastics (when possible)! When we stop to think about it, and with a bit of planning, there are lots of ways we can reduce our use of plastic and help curb the demand for its production. I challenge you!
If you’re like me, you’ve got a dozen or more reusable totes in your car for the explicit purpose of reducing single-use plastic grocery bags. (The trick is remembering to take them into the store with you!)
Food storage bags need not be single use. Wash them out and reuse them until they get holes or otherwise show signs of aging. The jury is still out on whether silicone food storage containers and food-wrap sheets are environmentally superior to plastic — they are both dependent upon fossil fuels for production and made of polymers, but at least silicone can be reused hundreds of times. Glass containers are probably a best bet for safe and sustainable food storage.
Opt to buy beverages in cans or glass bottles instead of plastic, or buy frozen juice concentrate in cardboard cylinders with recyclable metal ends. Boxed wine contains a big plastic bag inside, so opt for bottles instead. Buy milk in cardboard containers. Take your travel mug to the coffee shop rather than reinforcing the demand for single-use styrofoam cups and plastic lids.
Decline plastic silverware by investing in a set of bamboo or metal travel utensils. I keep one in my purse and another in my car’s glove compartment.
Marietta has a terrific farmers market. Bring your own bags, and decline plastic bags the vendor offers. A few vendors offer locally made paste shampoo and conditioner — avoiding plastic bottles!
As an alternative to toothpaste, consider trying tooth tablets, some of which come in glass jars or compostable pouches. (Beware of compostable plastic, though since there isn’t a municipal composing facility here in the MOV, and such containers usually require sustained heat to degrade. Even then, they may break down into microplastics.)
Empty pet kibble and kitty litter bags are hefty replacements for trash and garbage bags.
Laundry detergent pods and sheets use polyvinyl alcohol, which is a form of plastic. Debate continues on whether PVA biodegrades entirely in municipal wastewater systems or leaves behind microplastics. If you’re going to achieve plastic-free laundry, best switch to a powdered detergent, especially a brand that comes in a cardboard box.
Many fresh bakery goods are available only in a plastic clamshell. By buying them, I am encouraging the grocery store to offer them in such containers. So, for my waistline as well as my plastic-free July, I’ll refrain from baked goods in plastic.
Why not give it a shot for just one month: to consume plastics mindfully. You have until Wednesday to prepare! Those who understand the threats of climate change and the unsustainability of the conventional 21st-century-developed-nation lifestyle have a moral obligation to reduce their use of plastic. The challenge is on!
***
Dawn Hewitt, of Marietta, is managing editor for BWD Magazine, a co-author of Bird Watching for Dummies, and active with Washington County for Safe Drinking Water.
Last Updated: June 23, 2026 by main_y0ke11
MOVCA Kicks Off Month-Long “Break Free from Plastic” Campaign
PARKERSBURG, WV – Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action’s campaign promoting alternatives to single-use, disposable plastics begins Friday, July 3. “We’re kicking off our local campaign with a Community Drum Circle and Party, including special musical guest , The Mother Lovers. The party is open to the public, as we try to make July plastic-free this summer,” said Adeline Bailey, one of the coordinators of the project. “But officially, our challenge begins July 1, with inviting everyone to join us in the global movement sponsored by Plastic Free July.” (https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/)
MOVCA has put together a calendar full of activities and local events designed specifically for the MOV. “A QR code will take you to a digital version of our calendar, “Bailey said. “Or you can access it directly through this link: ( https://canva.link/plasticfreejuly )
“We’re really excited about a special presentation by Bob Gedert, author of Untangling Plastics: The Missing Link in Mitigating Climate Change on July 25th.” said Eric Engle, president of MOVCA’s board of directors. “Bob’s presentation, like our other in-person events, is open to all, free of charge.”
Two free, in-person screenings of documentary films about plastic pollution are planned: “The Plastic Detox” on July 9th, and “We’re All Plastic People Now” on July 16th, with discussion following the films including speakers on plastics’ harms to humans’ health and well-being as well as to the planet. In addition, other local environmental groups are hosting events and demonstrations during the month. The calendar also offers links to articles and videos about ways people can reduce disposable plastics in their homes and workplaces, and why eliminating single-use plastic is an important step in the fight against the climate crisis.
More information about the whens and wheres of all the campaign events can be found on the MOVCA website (http://main.movclimateaction.org), and frequent updates and announcements will be posted on MOVCA’s Facebook page.
#####
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action focuses on raising awareness of the solid science establishing the danger of the climate crisis and the urgency of dealing with it. MOVCA supports the efforts of 350.org, and Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and is a Science Booster Club for the National Center for Science
Education. Now a 501(c)(3) organization, the not-for-profit volunteer group also collaborates with other environmental groups on campaigns and events in the Mid-Ohio Valley. For more information, visit the organization’s web page (http://main.movclimateaction.org).
Posted: June 20, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: The problem(s) with plastic
Jun 20, 2026
Rebecca Phillips
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Plastic is everywhere. Some uses are beneficial and unavoidable, like the specialty plastics that enable contact lenses and lightweight eyeglasses. Other uses are less beneficial but often seem almost equally unavoidable. Take grocery shopping as an example. Unless we milk our own cows, make our own cheese, bake our own bread, shop exclusively at farmers markets and bulk stores, and never order takeout, most of the food we consume is likely packaged in plastic. Even if we avoid bagged salads and cut fruit, our individual produce items are generally marked with scannable stickers. Bread comes in plastic bags, as do staples like beans and rice. Milk, water, and soft drinks are nearly always bottled in plastic, avoiding the weight of glass. Toiletries and cleaning supplies come in plastic containers, arguably safer than easily breakable glass. All that plastic is a problem.
First, nearly all plastic is made from fossil fuels. All readers of this column are aware of the downsides of our fossil fuel dependence. What many do not know is that much of the natural gas from the fracking wells devastating Ohio and West Virginia is feed stock for the plastics industry, which according to the UN generates nearly two billion tons of greenhouse gases every year, a number that is expected to double in the next 30 years. Those emissions contribute to the atmospheric CO2 that is increasing the rate of climate change, bringing increased temperatures, sea level rise, and the now-regular algae blooms we see in Lake Erie and the rivers in our area.
Plastic also endangers biodiversity. We have probably all seen images of sea turtles strangled by plastic six-pack holders. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating blend of plastics large and small, covers an area larger than Texas. Sea birds, whales, and other wildlife mistake plastic items for food and starve to death, their stomachs filled with indigestible junk.
Finally, plastic endangers human health in multiple ways. The hotter summers caused by climate change have led to an increase in heat-related deaths. According to the World Health Organization, overall heat-related deaths have increased by 85% in this century; in the U.S., a 2024 study found the rate of increase to be 117%. Several recent news articles have indicated dangers to both players and fans taking part in the World Cup currently being held in North America. In a number of the sixteen host cities, game-time temperatures are often in the 90s. At least one player in a semifinal game in New Jersey, a young man in peak physical condition, collapsed from heat exhaustion. Babies and old people are at greater risk.
Many of the chemicals involved in plastic manufacturing and use are toxic. Most of us in the MOV remember the PFAS disaster involving the Dupont Washington Works and the resulting cancers and birth defects. Studies of workplace exposure have found higher-than-average rates of cancers of the lung, prostate, liver, stomach, and kidney, as well as twice the average rate of breast cancer. Of course, it is not only workers in the industry who are exposed. Neighborhoods in the vicinity of manufacturing facilities host higher rates of a number of illnesses, including leukemia. All plastics shed particles known as microplastics, which have found their way into our bodies, including, scientists now believe, all human placentas. The health effects are still being studied, but there is concern that the increase in colon cancer in young people may be one result.
The Plastic Free Foundation is working to change the situation and reverse some of the damage plastic causes. One initiative in which we can all take part is Plastic-Free July, which calls on us to eliminate as much of our plastic use as possible for at least one month of the year. Next week’s Climate Corner will give more information on the initiative, but you can learn more this weekend at the Mid-Ohio Valley Multicultural Festival at Civitan Park in Belpre, going on until Sunday at 5 p.m.. MOVCA will have a table at the event, with information on Plastic-Free July and other climate-related issues. You can also learn more at Plastic-Free July’s website, https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/.
***
Rebecca Phillips is a retired educator and a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Posted: June 13, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Popes and the planet
Jun 13, 2026
Giulia Mannarino
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
I was raised in a section of Pittsburgh, Pa., known as Oakland. Throughout my childhood, an important building was St. Paul’s Cathedral, an enormous Gothic Revival style Roman Catholic church. It has dozens of large stained glass windows and a monumental Von Beckenrath pipe organ. My family attended Mass there every Sunday for years. And my siblings and I attended the parochial elementary and high schools operated by the Pittsburgh Diocese. Because Popes are the VIPs of the Roman Catholic Church, the Papacy was very important during my youth. Also important to note is that the nomination and election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic president in the history of our country, was ingrained into the psyche of every Roman Catholic school student as an especially miraculous event.
Being raised a Roman Catholic piqued my interest in Donald Trump’s recent interactions with Pope Leo XIV. Their exchanges, which were related to the Iran War and world peace, brought to my mind the iconic motto: “War is not healthy for children and other living things.”
Concern and care for the natural world of God’s creation has been a long standing tradition in Catholicism. Saint Francis of Assisi (1181- 1226) is famously known for his profound love for nature and animals. In a religious song he composed, titled “Canticle of the Sun,” he refers to the sun, moon and animals as his brothers and sisters. In 1979, Pope John Paul II declared St. Francis the patron saint of ecology. Climate change has become a major concern of pontiffs, especially the current pope and his predecessor Pope Francis. Pope Francis, who chose his papal name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy. In 2015, he issued the pivotal encyclical “Laudato Si” (Praise Be To You) which was subtitled “on care for our common home.” It was the first written by a pope on the subject of the environment. His publication criticizes irresponsible economic development as well as laments environmental degradation and global warming. It calls on all people of the world to take “swift and unified global action.” Also, it launched a global network of Catholic organizations and grassroots leaders known as the Laudato Si Movement (LSM). The movement’s stated mission is to “inspire and mobilize the Catholic community to care for our common home and achieve climate and ecological justice.” LSM led to record breaking participation of Catholic institutions in their fossil fuel divestment campaign.
Since being elected to the papacy in early May 2025, Pope Leo XIV has been very involved in emphasizing the church’s desire to foster a stewardship attitude toward the environment. In July 2025, he celebrated a historic new liturgy, the Mass for the Care of Creation. In September 2025, he inaugurated an integral ecology center in Rome. In November 2025, he spoke via video message to the United Nations climate conference in Brazil where he challenged the U.N. leaders to take concrete steps to address global climate related problems. Although a coalition of state and local leaders from the United States attended that annual international conference, for the first time no official federal delegation was present. In April 2026, after attacks by Trump on social media, Pope Leo stated: “I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do.” The message is, of course, world peace. And no logical person of any religion can deny that wars have devastating consequences for the environment.
In addition to starting a war, Trump is busy dismantling decades of science-based public health and environmental protections. This administration’s anti-science agenda includes developing climate science reports based on disinformation, repealing EPA’s Endangerment Finding, rolling back efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and firing or censoring federal scientists who disagree. This president is doing all he can to wipe credible climate research off the record. In addition to benefiting the polluters, this will make life more difficult for future generations. To review accurate information about the climate crisis, stop by MOVCA’s green canopy at the Mid-Ohio Valley Multi-Cultural Festival next weekend. The event will be held, again this year, at Civitan Park in Belpre, Ohio June 19-21. MOVCA will be there with swag including fans, which are always handy to have on a hot day.
***
Giulia Mannarino of Belleville, is a grandmother concerned about her two granddaughters’ futures and a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Posted: June 6, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Life’s a beach
Jun 6, 2026
Linda Eve Seth
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Life takes you down many paths, but the best ones lead to the beach.
Planning a family get away at the beach this summer? Better hurry up and go while you can. Rising seas and other climate issues are rapidly shrinking the world’s beaches and destabilizing the ecosystems that depend on them.
Planning a vacation to Miami, Coney Island or Atlantic City? The greatest number of people and homes in areas at risk from a severe coastal flood by 2050 can be found in Florida, New York, and New Jersey. Scientists have predicted that almost half of the beaches world-wide will disappear by the end of the century.
Along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a favorite summer haunt of many WV families, numerous beach homes have crashed into the ocean, littering the shoreline with hazardous debris while raising the total number of lost homes along the barrier island to 31 since 2020. Just since September 2025, 20 homes have fallen into the sea.
On the west coast, access to California’s beaches is disappearing at the rate of 100 access sites with every foot of sea level rise. By the end of the century, about 15% of Ventura County’s and 40% of Santa Barbara County’s beach access sites will drown.
Coastlines around the planet are being steadily crumpled, crushed, and consumed as climate-driven sea level rise combines with expanding development in coastal zones. This ongoing process damages the diverse life that depends on sandy environments, disrupts local economies that rely on fishing and tourism, and leaves coastal cities more exposed to encroaching waters.
While coastal erosion is a natural process, climate change events such as sea level rise and stronger storms are accelerating the process. The Earth’s climate is changing; ice sheets and glaciers are melting. and coastal hazards and sea level are rising in response. With a total population of over 300 million people situated on coasts worldwide, low-lying coastal areas represent one of the most vulnerable areas to the impacts of climate change.
A beach is a sensitive environment that supports a variety of plants and animals. Beaches, wetlands and estuarine habitats are at risk of becoming inundated or eroded and may not be able to sustain themselves as the rate of sea level rise accelerates.
As the planet warms, ice sheets will continue to melt and water levels will rise, flooding beaches. Normally, beaches might naturally migrate inland in response, but oftentimes beaches are trapped between rising seas and structures like buildings and roads, leaving them nowhere to go.
Urban areas like LA, and tourist magnet regions like Myrtle Beach, SC have historically built highways and homes along the coast, allowing little room for beaches to naturally go inward.
Increased storm intensity of stronger hurricanes and storms, fueled by warmer oceans, result in higher waves that, combined with higher sea levels, lead to extreme erosion, beach retreat, and damage to, or destruction of, coastal infrastructure.
Additional extreme events that will damage coastal development and infrastructure include cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes, large storm waves arriving simultaneously with very high tides or elevated water levels and tsunamis.
Our coastal ecosystems, including wetlands, estuaries, and sandy beaches, face destruction, directly affecting wildlife that depend on these habitats. Rising sea levels cause saltwater to infiltrate freshwater supplies which is a major issue in coastal communities like Florida.
Beach erosion threatens the tourism industry–a significant economic driver–and increases insurance risks for coastal homes and businesses.
The future of many popular beaches is threatened, with some potentially becoming entirely inaccessible within decades. Action is required to protect these natural treasures and the communities that rely on them.
Governments are implementing measures like elevating roads, nourishing beaches with new sand. Some communities are constructing sea walls to protect our infrastructure and prevent immediate destruction. Future coastal development must include smart planning, zoning regulations, and managed, intentional retreat from highly vulnerable areas. Long-term solutions require reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to slow the rate of warming and sea-level rise.
Climate Action Programs empowered by volunteer-led chapters are building a nationwide network of coastal stewards who are bolstering local resilience, to implement nature-based solutions and restore coastal ecosystems like mangroves, salt marshes, and coastal dunes. increasing biodiversity and mitigating the effects of climate change along our shores.
Climate change is already impacting the shape and future of our beaches, coasts, and communities. Scientists estimate that more than 50% of beaches globally are at risk of being permanently lost due to sea level rise by 2100. Urgent action is needed to protect the places we treasure – sunshine on wide open sandy ocean beaches with waves crashing, wind blowing, seagulls flying overhead, and a backdrop of beach grass and sand dunes …
Until next time, be kind to your Mother Earth.
***
Linda Eve Seth, SLP, M.Ed., is a mother, grandmother, concerned citizen, member of MOVCA.
Posted: May 30, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Out-of-state interests win, real issues lose
May 30, 2026
Griffin Bradley
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
With the primaries now behind us, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised by the outcomes.
If West Virginia has taught us anything about politics in the last decade or more, it’s that culture war and social issues are exceedingly potent, even in the shadow of actual problems in dire need of a fix. Then when you factor in out-of-state money and PACs, the real issues don’t stand a chance of reaching the people.
According to the most recent financial reports, the Sugar Maple PAC alone spent close to a million dollars on primary elections, much of which in our area. Of the listed donations on their Q1 filings, individuals or entities from 12 different states contributed anywhere from $2,500 to $100,000 to the PAC in a single quarter. This included hedge fund managers, major political donors, and even some of the richest people in their respective states. Combine this level of support with the PACs connections to Governor Morrisey, and it becomes clear that West Virginians were heavily influenced by out-of-staters.
Much of the same arguments made about the political “swamp” — big spending, shadowy figures and political demagogues — have made a new home in West Virginia.
Let’s talk about the issues we heard the most about. From my perspective, ads centered around three main issues: abortion, transgender issues, and how “pro-Trump” a candidate was. Aside from the occasional reference to a vote or comment in committee, most of these talking points had little to no substance. They were merely vanity ads that turned attention to a very overused standard — “pro-life, pro-Trump conservative.”
Compare this to the things we didn’t hear about that actually impact our daily lives. We live in a state with the fourth highest poverty rate in the country, with nearly 1 in 5 of our neighbors living below the poverty line. We are also one of the most unhealthy states, ranking 49th nationally for chronic illness rates at the same time we are seeing increasing numbers of healthcare deserts across the state.
And finally, the environment. We all know the history of the Mid Ohio Valley and environmental issues. We live in one of the densest concentrations of chemical plants in America, resulting in decades of air and water pollution that have harmed our people, animals, and natural beauty in more ways than one for generations.
Despite these real challenges, what did we get for months on end? We were inundated with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ads, telling us that someone was “woke” or a “radical liberal” — or both. Think about that. What kind of good could hundreds of thousands of dollars have done to combat actual problems we face? Expanded community healthcare programs, new air and water quality assessments and mitigation planning, support for food banks and financial assistance programs for our neighbors impacted by the affordability crisis, just to name a few. Instead, we got a half dozen pieces of paper in our mailbox that we ultimately threw away, delivered right next to our increasingly high utility bills. Money well spent…
So where does this put us? Are we better off today than we were on May 11? Do we feel like we made the right choice, or did we do the bidding of those who had the money to make up our minds for us? I know one thing: Wood County and West Virginia at-large will surely miss the principled, focused leadership we once sent to Charleston. I hope one day we come to our senses, not necessarily for us, but for the future of our kids, community and planet.
***
Griffin Bradley is a lifelong Wood County resident, graduate of West Virginia University, and a contributing author for Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action
Posted: May 23, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Grateful for community support
May 23, 2026
Eric Engle
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action (MOVCA) was proud to take part for the first time this year in the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation’s Give Local MOV annual day of giving. Our organization received $8,655 from 22 donors to whom we express our deepest and most sincere gratitude and appreciation.
Our climate and environmental nonprofit organization got its start in October 2015 when a group of local citizens in Wood and Washington counties, led by a few deeply concerned and enterprising individuals, decided to come together to form what was initially a chapter of the national environmental organization Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Not long after, we decided to broaden our mission and collectively adopted the name Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
A sister of one of our founding members, a very talented graphic artist, designed a fantastic logo for us and, as they say, the rest was history. Over more than a decade, we’ve accomplished more together than space for this column could possibly allow for me to elaborate on, but I’d like to share some things about what we do and some upcoming activities.
MOVCA tables numerous area events throughout the year including Marietta Earth Day, the Ohio River Sweep cleanup (where we serve lunch to volunteers with some tabling materials at the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge), the Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library Library Fest, the MOV Multicultural Festival, the Rivers, Trails and Ales Festival in Marietta, and at least occasionally the Volcano Days at Mountwood Park and events like “No Kings” protests.
Our tabling resources include a fantastic canopy with our name and logo and signature colors produced by Easton Printing, climate voter yard signs you may have seen around town, informative pamphlets and handouts on numerous important subjects related to our mission and goals, t-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, fridge magnets and information from other organizations and individuals with whom we partner.
MOVCA hosts or cohosts free public events with expert speakers, free public film showings; and hosts, cohosts or helps promote free online or other in-person engagement opportunities from organizations like ReImagine Appalachia, the Ohio River Valley Institute, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, Buckeye Environmental Network, Save Ohio Parks, Washington County for Safe Drinking Water, the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta’s Green Sanctuary Committee, West Virginia Citizen Action Group, the Sierra Club Chapters of West Virginia and Ohio and many, many more.
Our organization sponsors Student Climate Ambassador programs at area high schools and is proud to support a program right now led by a Parkersburg High School science teacher called the Native Roots Club, wherein PHS students are working with local elementary school kids to develop, restore and protect monarch butterfly and other pollinator habitats at their schools and in the community. We also had a chance last fall to showcase the arts by hosting an Environmental Justice Truth Tellers exhibition of 10 portraits of climate and environmental activists painted by artist Robert Shetterly as part of his Americans Who Tell the Truth series. The South Parkersburg Branch of the Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library hung the portraits from Oct. 18 through Nov. 17 and provided us incredible space to host events surrounding the portrait displays, including getting to speak with Robert Shetterly himself online.
We’re particularly proud to have been able to publish these weekly Climate Corner Column pieces in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel and its sister paper The Marietta Times since March 2021. We so appreciate the cooperative work of the newspapers’ Executive Editor Christina Myer and staff. We’re also deploying air quality monitors across the MOV and in surrounding counties that link to the PurpleAir monitoring network, and are in talks with the Environmental Health Project to potentially make use of their air quality data analysis tool called AirView Public to provide detailed information to the public about what the numbers mean. If you’re interested in obtaining an air quality monitor, please contact me at ericengle85@yahoo.com or visit map.purpleair.com, where you can also view the publicly available data from air monitors that are currently in operation.
One event we’re participating in and supporting is The Great Ohio Climate March, taking place May 16 – 28, which is a march through Southeast Ohio culminating in a Rally Lobby Day at the Ohio Statehouse on May 28. Meetings with Ohio legislators that day begin at 2 p.m. You can learn more at greatohioclimatemarch.org. We’re also encouraging participation in two other ongoing projects, one each in West Virginia and Ohio.
On the West Virginia side, we’re encouraging folks to complete the WV Utility Impact Project Survey. The WV Utility Impact Project is “a grassroots advocacy campaign collecting data from West Virginians to hold utility companies — such as AEP — and regulators accountable for skyrocketing energy and water bills.” You can complete the survey at https://form.jotform.com/260745171610047 or by visiting WV Utility Impact Project on Facebook.
On the Ohio side, we’re encouraging folks to sign a petition to amend the Constitution of the State of Ohio to ban data centers in the state that consume more than 25 megawatts of electricity. You can find out where to go to sign the petition and learn more about these efforts at conserveohio.com. The goal is 413,000 Ohioan signatures by or before July 1.
You’ll continue to see great billboards throughout the MOV, designed by MOVCA Board Member and graphic designer, Aaron Dunbar, and the deployment of our great yard signs this election year. We thank all those who have supported us over the years, all our current members and all those who care about taking action to stabilize and protect our shared global climate, lived environments and health and well-being.
***
Eric Engle is board president of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Posted: May 16, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: AI, data centers a dangerous spreading plague
Climate Corner: AI, data centers a dangerous spreading plague
Local columns
May 16, 2026
Aaron Dunbar
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Silicon Valley wants to control every single aspect of your life. They want to tell you what you can and can’t think. They want to control your movements. They want to monitor your every word. They want to strip the masses of their critical thinking skills, and to be able to crush any sign of dissent with the push of a button. They want us to be totally and helplessly dependent on them.
And now they’re coming for our communities.
The large-scale data center buildout we’re seeing spread across the country like a particularly virulent strain of plague is the latest mechanism through which big tech seeks to expand its empire of control over us lowly consumer peons. These data centers are, of course, being built to facilitate the ubiquitous and largely unwanted insinuation of artificial intelligence into every conceivable facet of our lives.
There’s a deeply perverted irony to the fact that tech giants are seducing their way into communities by promising data center job booms through one side of their mouths, while proudly boasting about how artificial intelligence is expected to eliminate entire workforce sectors with the other.
Said CEO and AI consultant Elijah Clark, in an interview with Gizmodo last year: “CEOs are extremely excited about the opportunities that AI brings. As a CEO myself, I can tell you, I’m extremely excited about it. I’ve laid off employees myself because of AI. AI doesn’t go on strike. It doesn’t ask for a pay raise. These things that you don’t have to deal with as a CEO.”
As for the purported jobs we’re to expect will come rolling into town with the construction of these facilities? In one pitiful instance reported by Cleveland.com back in March, a $136 million data center in Northeast Ohio receiving a $4.5 million sales tax exemption was slated to create a whopping ten new full-time positions. And this is supposed to somehow even remotely compensate for the immense damage being done to our communities by these resource hungry behemoths?
The buildout of data centers is rapidly becoming an ecological catastrophe. Environmental tolls from these facilities can include cancer-causing forever chemicals, the draining of critical water resources, infrasound and light pollution, wildlife habitat loss, deadly air pollution including smog and acid rain, along with a vast array of other issues. That includes, most notably, a massive explosion in greenhouse gas emissions, with WIRED recently estimating that dirty power sources for planned data center facilities could emit some 129 million tons per year — handily eclipsing the greenhouse gas outputs of numerous entire nations.
Famed Epstein associate Bill Gates at one point went to great lengths to style himself as some sort of benevolent climate savior, even authoring the best-selling book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” in 2021. Then, all at once, he appeared to have an abrupt change of heart in October of last year.
“Although climate change will have serious consequences – particularly for people in the poorest countries – it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” he wrote. “This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives.”
Suddenly, it seemed, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid a climate disaster wasn’t all that important to Gates. It’s surely no coincidence that Microsoft was now stumbling headlong into the AI race, with the company currently poised to abandon its 2030 clean energy targets as a result of increased energy demands. I would also be remiss not to point out that around this time, Microsoft’s AI was being implemented by Israel to carry out its barbaric campaign of genocide and ecocide in Gaza — a chilling portent of how we can likely expect these dystopian technologies to be used once conflict and social unrest brought on by environmental collapse begin to manifest in ernest.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp, whom I genuinely believe to be a sociopath, was pressed last year about the unconstitutionality of the Trump Administration’s horrific attacks on Venezuelan fishing boats, blatant war crimes carried out with the aim of invading the country and pillaging its 300 billion barrels of oil.
“Part of the reason why I like this questioning,” Karp replied, “is the more constitutional you want to make it, the more precise you want to make it, the more you’re going to need my product. So you keep pushing on making it constitutional. I’m totally supportive of that.”
Palantir, for the uninitiated, is a nearious tech company with its tentacles in everything from healthcare to mass surveillance, farmland management to autonomous weapons, the CIA, the U.S. military, and more. In March, Palantir’s Anthony Bak and Mehdi Alhassani published a column in the billionaire-owned Washington Post entitled “Don’t forget who wins in the fight against data centers,” arguing that “Bipartisan efforts to stop the build-out will make AI accessible only to the wealthy.”
“The surest way to guarantee that artificial intelligence becomes a tool of the wealthy elite,” they claim, “is to block the infrastructure that would make it cheap for everyone else. Across the country, though, a growing coalition of activists, local officials and leaders on both the left and right are fighting explicitly to halt data center construction, restrict energy development, stop microchip production and slow the build-out of the backbone upon which cheap AI will depend.”
In other words, these two stooges for the wealthy elite, writing in a propaganda rag owned by the wealthy elite, truly think you’re stupid enough to believe that they have your best interests at heart. The best way to shield ourselves from being exploited by the wealthy elite, they argue, is to welcome them into our communities with open arms.
I don’t know about you, but the future these people are creating for us is not a future I want to live in.
I don’t want data center hubs leaking PFAS into the water supply so that my government can spy on me. I don’t want to be exposed to constant air, noise, and light pollution so that half the country’s jobs can be replaced by artificial intelligence. I don’t want to see ecosystems and natural resources destroyed to help companies like Palantir and Anthropic commit large-scale massacres of Iranian schoolchildren. I don’t want to cede the precious last fumes of Earth’s remaining carbon budget so that an elite cadre of megalomaniacs can reign supreme over the tattered remnants of our world.
And that’s why I’m doing something about it.
I’m proud to say that I’m a part of the aforementioned “growing coalition of activists fighting explicitly to halt data center construction.”
Everyday people across Ohio are engaged in an ambitious effort to amend our state’s Constitution, in order to ban the construction of large scale data centers that consume over 25 megawatts of energy per month. Under the banner of Conserve Ohio, volunteers are working hard to collect signatures that would put this initiative on the ballot to be voted on in our November election.
Together, we hold the power to prevent Silicon Valley from steamrolling small communities to enact their dystopian vision of the future.
For more information on where to sign the petition, or to get involved in our efforts, please visit conserveohio.com. The petition is also available to sign during business hours at Cobbler John’s in Marietta.
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Posted: May 9, 2026 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: The ‘scare’
May 9, 2026
Callie Lyons
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
For many years, the story of C8 or PFOA contamination in the Mid-Ohio Valley was framed as nothing more than a “scare.” Journalists who covered it were accused of using inflammatory and irresponsible language to frighten people.
Calling it a “scare” became a way to dismiss the message without ever confronting the contamination. Because if this was a scare, the problem wasn’t the poison — it was the reaction.
This framing had consequences.
Critical health advisories were withheld from the public because officials did not want to cause a “scare.”
We are talking about guidance that involved the most vulnerable — infants, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems — all advised by a federal agency not to drink the water. The directives were never provided to those it was intended to protect.
And, they were never revoked.
What is actually more frightening? The poison or the way it was covered up?
Calling the crisis a “scare” undermined its significance. Attempts to define the crisis were limited to words that were safe and palatable, diluting the truth.
The message was watered down — which only served to prolong the deception.
We are, after all, talking about a silent killer, an invisible crime scene, the mass poisoning of millions, and generations of victims with no end in sight. How can such an enormous, ongoing problem be communicated effectively? For me, the answer was a new approach. So, recently I launched a true crime science podcast “Killer Chemistry” to tell the story in a different way to new audiences.
Presenting this vast environmental crisis in this way does nothing to diminish the science.
Instead, it is absorbed incidentally.
And that matters.
Because the people living with the consequences of this crisis who were incidentally exposed should not have to navigate technical language to understand what happened to them.
By using the language and mechanism of a true crime podcast, I am turning to a genre I have come to understand and respect as a journalist — a genre that most effectively communicates the kinds of truths people would rather not face.
The poison was the problem, but instead of addressing it, the response was to filter the information, diluting the truth in the process.
The reality is — this story is offensive. Not because of how it’s told but because of what actually happened.
More than 20 years into this public crisis and more than 40 years after industry and regulatory authorities became aware of the poison in the water, it occurs to me that the diluted versions of this story were not scary enough — because the threat continues. It hasn’t been handled or remediated. Industry is allowed to continue to discharge the poison into the river by virtue of their permits. Water systems that were not included in the 2002 class action lawsuit — communities like Parkersburg — are still without filtration. The poison is still being consumed.
Here’s what you need to know:
* If you live in the Mid-Ohio Valley, you are being exposed through multiple pathways — and drinking water is a major concern.
* As a result of the class action lawsuit filed in Wood County over contaminated water, treatment facilities were built to filter the water for Belpre, Little Hocking, Tuppers Plains, Pomeroy, Lubeck, and Mason County, W.Va. Vienna later added a filtration system in accordance with federal health advisories.
* People who do not live in areas with filtered tap water can use carbon filtration systems to reduce exposure.
* If you have any questions about water quality, look up your utility on the Environmental Working Group’s tap water database — which provides information about contaminants and filtration. You can find the database at ewg.org.
Has the pervasive presence of this danger made us too comfortable to notice the threat?
It’s time to stop worrying about causing a scare and start telling the truth with the clarity people need to understand what’s at stake.
***
Callie Lyons is an author and investigative journalist who began covering the story of PFAS or forever chemicals more than 20 years ago. She launched the Killer Chemistry podcast this year — a true crime science podcast exploring the legacy of forever chemicals developed for the Manhattan project, which subsequently made their way into the biology of nearly every living thing on Earth.
Find Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action on the following social media:
Check out our Facebook group and join a conversation
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
Categories
Meta