Latest News - Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action

Posted: October 12, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Finding common ground

Oct 12, 2024

Griffin Bradley

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

To say that America has become more polarized in recent years isn’t breaking any new ground. The “us versus them” mentality has seeped into our political zeitgeist, bringing with it division among family, friends, and peers. That tense conversation with your uncle at Thanksgiving or the Facebook spat between old high school friends? We’ve all seen them, and they have become all-too-frequent.

One of the topics at the crux of America’s political divide is climate change. All across the political spectrum, climate has become not just an issue that everyone has an opinion on, but also one with major electoral implications across the country. Both major political parties emphasize climate issues in their narrative, often with stark differences between the two on how to address the issues at hand, or whether there is an issue at all.

According to the 2023 Yale Climate Opinions poll, 72% of Americans believe climate change is happening, and 70% believe that it will harm the living ecosystem and future generations. Regardless of where Americans have fallen on the issue of climate change in recent years, one thing remains true: There is a clear threat imposed on every American from a worsening climate crisis.

Despite the clear belief among a majority of Americans that climate change is happening and is harmful, there are still questions.

“So, what? People can agree that there’s a problem, but not agree on a solution.”

Herein lies the problem we face as a nation. Every election season, we hear from those seeking office that only one side is right and the other is wrong, and there’s little to no room for agreement on core policy. And yet, from the very same polling that shows us people agree on the negative impacts of climate change, we also see that there is common ground for policy fixes. Yale polling shows strong support for policies to fund research for renewable energy (79%), generate renewable energy on public lands (79%), provide tax incentives for energy efficient vehicles and solar installations (74%), regulate CO2 as a pollutant (74%), and more.

In recent years, we have seen positive impacts from strong climate policy come out of Congress, despite constant rhetoric indicating this to be impossible. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 brought historic policy and investment to bear on climate issues in America. From this bill, we have seen investments in clean energy, clean transportation, and more that have set America on the right path to limit the impacts of climate change, while also sparking economic revitalization in communities across the country, putting money in the pockets of everyday Americans. Even while no Republican members of Congress voted for the IRA at its time of passage, there is now a strong contingent of Republicans supporting provisions of the law, seeing the tangible economic value of increased clean energy investment across the country. Oh, and the rest of America? Similar to the polling trends on policy support above, recent polling has found that 7 in 10 support the IRA.

As we inch our way closer to yet another “most important election of our lifetimes,” let’s remember a couple of key things as it relates to climate change and policy. In every state and federal district in America, we are seeing new environmental trends. From flooding to droughts, extreme heat to extreme cold, more frequent tornadoes and stronger hurricanes, the impacts of climate change are felt across the political divide. The drought felt across our region this year has impacted Democrats just as much as Republicans. For our neighbors to the south, Hurricane Helene uprooted the lives of members of both parties just the same.

If nothing else, please remember: No man-made political boundary stops nature.

***

Griffin Bradley is a lifelong Wood County resident, graduate of West Virginia University (B.A., Political Science ’21; M.A., Political Science ’23), and a contributing author for Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Posted: October 3, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: A world on fire

Sep 28, 2024

Aaron Dunbar

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

On Feb. 25 of this year, United States airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C., refusing to be complicit in the American-backed genocide of the people of Palestine. On the morning of his self-immolation, he shared the following message via his Facebook account: “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

Bushnell was neither the first nor the last case of self-immolation in protest of our country’s bipartisan genocide in Gaza. In December of last year, an unidentified woman set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. And earlier this month, Boston resident Matt Nelson did the same outside his city’s own Israeli consulate, adding to the nearly 200,000 to 300,000 casualties of our indiscriminate extermination campaign against the people of Palestine, based on estimates from The Lancet journal and The Guardian.

Nor has the so-called “Israel-Hamas war” been the only impetus for such desperate acts of protest within recent memory. On Earth Day in 2022, just months after his home state of Colorado experienced its most destructive wildfire ever recorded, climate activist Wynn Bruce set himself ablaze outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

In the months prior to this action, Bruce shared a quote from Vietnamese peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, regarding the self-immolation of Buddhist monks: “To burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the utmost importance.” He later added another quote attributed to Nhat Hanh: “The most important thing, in response to climate change, is to be willing to hear the sound of the earth’s tears through our own bodies.”

In more ways than one, we find ourselves the inhabitants of a world on fire. Seldom does a day go by that I don’t reflect on Aaron Bushnell’s sentiment, “What would I do if I was alive during ____? You’re doing it right now.”

I certainly experience these feelings with regard to the escalating genocide in Gaza, but also quite profoundly against the backdrop of the climate crisis — the most devastating global catastrophe ever engineered by humanity, for which the U.S. bears a disproportionate responsibility.

I spend every day doing everything I can think to do as an individual to try and take meaningful action against the climate crisis. But for every opinion piece like this that I write, I’m struck by a seemingly endless barrage of the bleakest headlines imaginable:

* “Antarctic ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Heading for Collapse,” Newsweek, Sept. 23.

* “AI Boom Is Driving a Surprise Resurgence of US Gas-Fired Power:

* New gas plants just keep on coming, defying expectations that their rapid growth was nearing an end,” Bloomberg, Sept. 16.

“Earth may have breached seven of nine planetary boundaries, health check shows:

* Ocean acidification close to critical threshold, say scientists, posing threat to marine ecosystems and global liveability,” The Guardian, Sept. 23.

To be quite honest, I’m at a point where I genuinely don’t know how to live as a human being who exists in the age of the Anthropocene. I have no idea how to think about the future in a world whose biosphere is on the brink of collapse. I’m fully aware of the crisis we’re in, I know the scale of it, I know that it’s irreversible and that, for all intents and purposes, we’ve basically run out the clock when it comes to preventing utter catastrophe. Every day, it seems, we learn that collapse is happening faster than we realized, that it will affect hundreds of millions or even billions more people than we believed, and that global temperatures will skyrocket to previously unfathomable levels due to our failure to curb emissions. How, then, is it possible to know all of this, and still do nothing? Or even worse, to know it and to continue adding fuel to the fire?

Increasingly I find myself questioning whether humans are even capable of thinking in such a way that we might hope to survive the coming storm. So many of us feel like we’re doing everything we can, yet remain plagued by the guilt that it still isn’t enough — that indeed, nothing could ever be enough. It’s like we’re an old-timey bucket brigade, attempting to extinguish an out of control industrial fire on a planetary scale.

It’s not merely that our political and economic systems are uniquely ill-equipped to face the challenges of the climate crisis, but that they are in fact entirely predicated on a foundation of ecological destruction and a wanton disregard for life, human or otherwise.

Should civilization survive long enough for future generations to exist, they will surely be asking the question of us: “What did you do when our world was falling apart?”

The only honest answer that most of us can give to that question, myself included, is “not nearly enough.”

Our society’s ongoing tolerance for so many catastrophic, system-wide failures are directly responsible for the fate of individuals like Wynn Bruce and Aaron Bushnell, who sacrificed their very lives to beg for justice through the angry red flames of a burning world. We cannot go on like this.

We cannot accept that the bare minimum is enough. We cannot throw up our hands and accept that the world must burn. We all need to be doing so much more, every single day, to fight back against this deadly machinery fueled by the kindling of the innocent. We must find new ways to resist our own extinction, and keep resisting as if our very lives depend on it. Without this there can be no hope.

***

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

Posted: September 14, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Parties and their platforms

Sep 14, 2024

Giulia Mannarino

Although, the Democrats (DNC) and the Republicans (GOP) are presently the two dominant political parties in the USA, our country has additional political parties. These include the Green Party, the Libertarians, the Constitution Party and more. All other parties are referred to as “Third Parties” and they often have presidential candidates in the race. Third party candidates rarely win but may have a spoiler effect on the outcome. Abraham Lincoln’s Republicans were a third party when he won the 1860 presidential election as the traditional parties at that time were the Democrats and the Whigs. In that race, there were four major candidates and Lincoln wasn’t even allowed on the ballot in the Southern states. Although, some other third-party candidates have done really well, no others have ever won an outright victory. The last president that was not a Democrat or Republican was Whig party candidate Millard Fillmore. At that time, whoever came in second was elected Vice President. Fillmore became vice president in 1848 and upon the death of Republican President Zachary Taylor served as president.

Political party “platforms,” as we know them today, began in 1840, with DNC candidate Martin Van Buren. In 1856, the GOP issued their first platform. In the 2020 election year, the GOP made the decision to skip platform drafting, citing the pandemic as the reason. Although, it would have been possible for the GOP to draft a platform virtually, as the DNC did that year, they chose not to. Their reasons remain unclear but may have been related to a controversy, within the party at that time, about what its length should be. That year, their candidate’s campaign, rather than a platform committee, issued a 600-word document of 50 items that mirrored the GOP’s 2016 platform. This election year, as usual, both parties have adopted official party platforms. In both cases, the documents were developed by large committees prior to the recent conventions. The platforms provide concrete examples of where the time and energy of the party will be devoted if elected. The platforms are available to review online. Both party platforms begin with an introductory Preamble and are then comprised of the “planks” that build it. Ten “points” are listed by the DNC and twenty “promises” are listed by the GOP.

Media coverage of the platforms have pointed out noticeable fundamental differences regarding the future planned for the country. A very important election issue for me, personally, is the climate. The DNC’s platform devotes an entire chapter to a plank titled “Combating the Climate Crisis and Pursuing Environmental Justice.” On the other hand, the word “climate” can’t be found anywhere in the GOP’s platform. Their Preamble states “We will DRILL, BABY, DRILL…” (GOP’s caps). In my opinion, it is dangerous to ignore the very real and urgent crisis of global warming being faced by mankind. Scientific evidence for warming of the climate is unequivocally indisputable!

Consensus among actively publishing climate scientists on human caused global warming has grown to one hundred percent. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase flooding as well as the recent HOTTEST YEAR EVER (my caps), the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale.

In-person voting for a presidential election used to occur every four years in November, only on official Election Day. Voting has changed through the years. Presently 47 states provide early voting options. Early voting may be offered in person at select sites, or by mail-in voting. There are several benefits to early voting including the fact that it offers more flexibility for your schedule and is usually more pleasant and less crowded. Both Ohio and West Virginia provide early voting options. For more specific information regarding these options, as well as poll locations, hours and absentee ballot information, contact the County Board of Elections offices of Washington or Wood County or check their websites. Although paper forms are still accepted, voter registration for both states can be done online through the Secretary of State websites: VoteOhio.gov and GoVoteWV.com. Residents must meet certain criteria, as well as register by a specific date; Oct. 7 for Ohioans and Oct. 15 for West Virginians. I encourage all voters to exercise their right to vote.

***

Giulia Mannarino of Belleville, is a grandmother concerned about her two granddaughters’ futures and a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Posted: September 5, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: What’s a tree worth

Aug 31, 2024

Vic Elam

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

This is a complicated question, and the value of a tree varies upon the perspective of the beholder. One could look at it simply from the commercial perspective and determine the board feet of lumber that can be harvested from the tree, or the value of the fruit harvested from an apple tree. One could consider many other aspects, such as the intrinsic beauty of a tree, or the value of the shade provided on a hot summer day, or the ability to provide good support for a tire swing or a tree house.

Trees provide many ecosystem services like improving soil, filtering water and stabilizing streambanks. Doug Tallamy, retired entomologist from University of Delaware has studied oak trees and found that oaks provide food for an amazing array of wildlife from the tiniest of insects to bears, many animals depend on oaks, such as warblers that rely on a tremendous number of caterpillars that are found on oak trees, and time their spring migration to match the emergence of these caterpillars.

It’s no secret that trees do a great job of sequestering carbon and therefore reducing CO2 levels in our atmosphere that are mostly responsible for climate warming. Over the years there has been a lot of research on what size trees are most effective at sequestering carbon and forest types. It was thought that large, mature trees did not continue to grow very fast and therefore, do not sequester as much carbon as younger fast-growing trees. This theory has recently been debunked, and for most tree species, mature trees continue to grow throughout their life and are significantly more effective at sequestering carbon than young trees. Also, at the forest level it has been found that old forests provide the most ecosystem services and biodiversity when looking at carbon storage, timber growth and species richness.

In recent news the owner of Allegheny Wood Products sold 2,700 acres to Monongahela National Forest. Seems like a good thing for the environment and wildlife and probably will be. One thing though about the U.S. Forest Service is that their mission is to provide multiple use benefits to the public which includes timber harvest which can be highly controversial. The Forest Service must weigh competing interests and the biological integrity of their practices. Timber harvests typically require a public review, but that doesn’t mean that the forest will respond as most of the commenting public might like. All things considered, the U.S. Forest Service does a great job of managing forest, but old forests don’t get to be old by periodic harvesting and old forests seem to be what’s best for human health and the health of our planet. And who doesn’t stand in awe of magnificent tree specimens.

President Biden issued executive order 14072 on Earth Day 2022, which directs the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to protect old growth forests. Public comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for this executive order is now open and if you value old forest, I encourage you to inform yourself and provide comment. You can find further information about this by going to https://heartwood.org/2024/7/old-growth. We may never return much of our forests to the grandeur of pre-settlement, but it’s in our best interest to try.

***

Vic Elam is an avid outdoorsman and contributor to organizations that share his concern for our environment, including Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Last Updated: September 5, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Guest column/Hydrogen hub project is bad for our communities

Aug 24, 2024

RANDI POKLADNIK

On Aug. 16, I sat in on the third public meeting (by zoom) about the ARCH2 Clean Hydrogen Hub. This meeting was conducted by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. The Department of Energy held two listening sessions about the hub this spring. After all three sessions, citizens were left in the dark as to the project details. There were more than 200 questions logged during the OCED call and approximately three were answered. The lack of public engagement has been ongoing throughout the process even though the DOE promised significant community engagement. It seems the only engagement being conducted is behind closed doors with industry groups.

More than 50 environmental organizations signed a letter on May 28 asking the U.S. Department of Energy to suspend negotiations on Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub until more information about the project was released. This letter was sent by the Ohio River Valley Institute to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, recently was allocated a $30 million chunk of the total $925 million of federal funds awarded. The majority of partners in the hub are fossil fuel corporations or have ties to fossil fuels. These “partners” will see project sites across Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Scientific studies reveal that using dirty, climate-changing fossil fuels to create hydrogen is not efficient and not a path to a green energy economy. In addition, “It will always be more efficient to rely first on the direct use of renewable electricity wherever it is possible to do so, rather than convert that electricity into hydrogen before using it as an energy source.”

ARCH2 proponents state they can make clean hydrogen, hydrogen that will produce 2 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions or less per kilogram of hydrogen produced on site. However, most of the hydrogen produced at the ARCH2 projects will be blue hydrogen, hydrogen made using a process called steam methane reforming, where methane is sourced from fracking operations The carbon dioxide produced from this process is captured by using carbon capture sequestration technology. About 95 percent of U.S. hydrogen is blue hydrogen produced with methane gas.

Globally, less than 0.02 percent of hydrogen is actually green, which means it was made by using water to supply the hydrogen and renewable electricity to split the water molecules. Even green hydrogen comes with risks, as hydrogen fuel cells and the electrolyzers used to make hydrogen require toxic PFAS polymers.

A 2023 report, “Blue Hydrogen: Not Clean, Not Low Carbon, Not a Solution,” states that even with a 95 percent carbon capture efficiency, steam methane reforming would still release into the atmosphere 13 kg of carbon dioxide per 1 kg of hydrogen produced, well above the DOE’s 4 kg of CO2 per 1 kg of H2 produced.

Carbon capture technology would require a pipeline system of close to 68,000 miles at a cost of $230 billion. Before being transported through the pipelines, CO2 needs to be pressurized to 1,000 psi, becoming a supercritical fluid and then injected into Class VI wells. The pipelines used for transportation can rupture and release concentrated carbon dioxide, an asphyxiant, into the atmosphere. A pipeline rupture in Satartia, Miss., injured 45 people. Additionally, CO2 storage has to be monitored indefinitely and carbon dioxide can cause groundwater to become contaminated as CO2 combines with underground water to react and form carbonic acid.

A Nebraska-based energy company, Tenaska, has recently received $69 million from the DOE to drill four Class VI test wells in the Tri-State Area. Currently, there are no Class VI commercial-scale carbon dioxide injection wells in operation in Ohio, West Virginia or Pennsylvania.

The Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations claims the Tri-State Area was chosen for a hub because it had “renewable electricity sources for hydrogen production,” but Ohio only gets 4 percent of its electricity from renewable energy.

Hydrogen as a fuel source has its own problems. It is flammable and can cause explosions.

“Hydrogen fires are invisible, making them even more hazardous for first responders, and unlike natural gas, no odorants are added to hydrogen so leaks are hard to detect. The gas can corrode steel in a process called hydrogen embrittlement, and brittle pipelines are more prone to leaks and explosions. Studies show blending hydrogen with methane in methane specific infrastructure systems is problematic. Additionally, hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas. Hydrogen emissions increase the lifetime of methane gas in the atmosphere.

While local, state and federal politicians, as well as the oil and gas industry, sing the praises of the ARCH2 projects, we in the Appalachian area realize that it means locking our region into more fracking and all the destruction and health effects that process brings to local communities.

The Inflation Reduction Act also increases tax credits for every ton of carbon dioxide captured from $50 to $85. ARCH2 is win-win for fossil fuel companies, but not for local communities.

(Pokladnik, a resident of Uhrichsville, holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, master’s and doctorates in environmental studies and is certified in hazardous materials regulations.)

Last Updated: September 1, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: A new kind of victory garden

Aug 24, 2024

Randi Pokladnik

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

During World War II, citizens were encouraged to plant “victory gardens” to support the war effort. Historical references point out that many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain, provided support for backyard gardeners. These gardens created a sense of empowerment among citizens and helped the war effort by relieving some of the stress on food supplies. Even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden on the White House lawn.

Today, growing a garden allows us all to gain a different kind of victory; a victory against ultra processed foods, the plastics industry, climate change, and the petrochemical industry. Ultra processed foods (UPF) have been the focus of many studies in the past few years. A review of 45 studies shows “eating more ultra processed foods is linked to a higher risk of dying from any cause and has ties to 32 health conditions, including heart disease, mental health disorders, type 2 diabetes, and other problems.”

Chris Van Tulleken’s book “Ultra Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food” explains the dangers of a diet that is high in processed and chemical laden foods. Sadly, we have all fallen prey to the food industry that willingly offers us processed foods such as: chips and other snack foods, industrial breads and pastries, packaged sweets and candy, sugar-sweetened and diet sodas, instant noodles and soups, ready-to-eat meals and frozen dinners, and processed meats such as hot dogs and bologna. Eating minimally processed foods like fruits and vegetables right from your garden is a great option to UPF. Who can resist a fresh tomato sandwich or a summer squash sauteed in olive oil? Your backyard garden can become a path to health for your family.

You might have noticed the alarming amounts of plastics in grocery stores today. Many of the fresh veggies are suffocating in plastics. I cringe when I see a green pepper sitting on a Styrofoam dish and wrapped in plastic. A great benefit of having a garden outside your door is there are no plastics packaging materials. Another pitfall of prepackaged fruits and vegetables is that single-use plastic packaging often forces people to buy more than they need, and this results in food wastes. How many times have you thrown away apples from a large bag because you simply couldn’t use the bag up quickly? The single-use bags are not easily recycled and contain holes for aeration that makes them unsuitable for reuse.

A big plus of backyard garden veggies is the distance they don’t have to travel to reach your house. Your zucchini isn’t picked in California and shipped on a refrigerated truck across the country. Produce grown out-of-state has a heavy carbon footprint. Often it is shipped via planes, trucks and boats before arriving at your market and then you add to the carbon footprint as you drive that food home. It is estimated that over 20% of carbon emissions from food creation chains comes from shipping.

One of the best reasons to grow as many of your family’s veggies and fruits as possible is you can grow all produce organically without using any petrochemical-based pesticides. I was first made aware of the dangers of pesticides in my senior year of high school. I read “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson. This book was a game changer for me. It’s the reason I decided to get my bachelor’s degree in chemistry and to research organic farming for my master’s thesis.

Sadly, many farmers, including some home gardeners are ignoring the warnings of Ms. Carson. Pesticides are still being sprayed on food crops at alarming rates. A recent study published in the Biomedical Journal said, “there is a near-100% certainty that all of us have pesticides in our blood or urine right now. This is the inevitable outcome of using over 1 billion pounds of pesticides each year in the U.S. which is nearly a quarter of total pesticide use worldwide.” Another cause for alarm is the fact that studies now show many pesticides also contain the forever chemicals PFAS in their formulations. A study by the Environmental Working Group looked at pesticides used in Maine and found 55 carbon-fluorine based compounds (PFAS) were in over 14,000 pesticides tested. “Extensive research demonstrated that PFAS are harmful to human health even at minuscule concentrations,” said Olga V. Naidenko, Ph.D., EWG vice president for science investigations.

It is also worth noting that many of the commercial composts or potting soils sold can contain PFAS compounds. Some of these “soil amendments” are manufactured from biosolids that originate from waste water treatment plants. To avoid PFAS, you can make your own compost pile from food wastes and untreated grass clippings.

Our family has never used pesticides. It is great to be able to eat a tomato right off the plant. Our son, who was a botany major in college, was in the garden at two years old. He has his own garden and has handed down his love of plants to his youngest daughter Isabel who too has a green thumb. A backyard garden is just a win-win for your family and the 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.

Last Updated: September 5, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Op-ed: Expanding oil and gas use not the answer

Aug 22, 2024

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the presidents of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the West Virginia Oil & Gas Association and the Ohio Oil & Gas Association would claim that the industry they’re paid to promote and lobby on behalf of is the key to U.S. energy security and national security, and even that it reduces carbon emissions because its use emits less CO2 than coal. We can’t fault them for doing their jobs, but we can fault them for ignoring facts, painting over other facts and disparaging the name of environmental activists and others while they’re at it.

In a piece in last weekend’s edition of the Parkersburg News and Sentinel titled “To build or not to build… Are we even permitted?,” these industry representatives claimed that “The Marcellus and Utica Shale formations that lie below [the Appalachian region] are the most prolific in the nation and the resources are produced under the strictest environmental standards.” While “strictest environmental standards” is a questionable assertion at best, it also ignores the realities spelled out annually in the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure (see: concernedhealthny.org).

This report by the Concerned Health Professionals of New York, a program of the Science & Environmental Health Network and Physicians for Social Responsibility, currently in its ninth edition, is a fully referenced, 637-page report clearly and unequivocally demonstrating the immense and ongoing environmental, climate and public health harms related to fracking and the oil and gas industry more broadly. While these industry PR personnel and lobbyists claim that attempts to ban fracking are “red herrings,” communities faced with the devastation laid out in the aforementioned compendium do not consider preventing or stopping it to be a misleading or distracting ruse.

What the authors describe as an “onslaught” caused by “a web of red tape and environmental activism in the courts” putting a stop to dangerous pipeline projects like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and delaying the in-service date for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was especially insulting to citizens of West Virginia and Virginia looking to protect their homes and health. Had the authors described these folks by name instead of simply as part of the “environmental movement,” their piece could have arguably been libelous.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 303.5-mile, 42-inch in diameter pipeline built to transport approximately 2 billion cubic feet of methane (aka “natural”) gas per day at up to 1,480 pounds per square inch of pressure. Part of the pipeline already ruptured during a water pressure test in Virginia earlier this year. A rupture while in full operation could be utterly catastrophic. Methane is 86 times more efficient a heat-trapping gas than CO2 over a 20-year period (though it stays in the atmosphere a far shorter time) and explosions are frighteningly possible.

MVP crosses over 75 miles of slopes greater than 30% in gradation, which is unusually high for any pipeline, as it crosses our mountainous region. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection fined MVP a combined $569,000 in 2019 and 2021 for erosion and sedimentation issues along its path and those issues are still arising in weekly summary reports filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as recently as late July and early August.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III, I-W.Va., working with the Biden administration to circumvent judicial review by appropriate courts of jurisdiction and ignoring half-century old environmental law to bring MVP to fruition was the problem, not the citizens, courts and regulators with respect for the rule of law who worked to hold the entities behind MVP accountable. Beyond that, the suggestion that all of this pipelined shale gas would lower natural gas prices for U.S. consumers up and down the Eastern Seaboard is nonsense.

The reason the U.S. natural gas export ban was lifted by the Obama administration was the glut of fracked gas we were already producing over eight years ago. That’s the same reason we’re seeing industry trying to build out all these polluting liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals, many in environmental justice communities consisting of mostly low-income folks and people of color. Let’s not pretend that exploiting the Marcellus and Utica shale plays is about domestic energy prices. Anecdotally speaking, my family and I still have a gas utility (working to change that) and certainly haven’t seen our bills reduced to date; have you?

The authors call for supporting legislation by Manchin and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on permitting reform to make energy infrastructure updates that would also help bring a large amount of renewable energy to grids sooner. The bill in question, though, is not the bill we need. We need permitting reform legislation focused only on renewable energy, energy storage and energy efficiency, not dangerous and polluting fossil fuels.

I’m not arguing that oil and gas magically disappear tomorrow, but calling for their expansion with climate change raging and the numerous threats they pose, while falsely claiming that they’re good for energy consumers, is disingenuous at best if not just propaganda. We deserve better.

***

Eric Engle is a local environmental activist.

Posted: August 18, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Is climate change driving us crazy?

Aug 17, 2024

George Banziger

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

The mass deaths of coral reefs, the abrupt thawing of the permafrost, the collapse of Greenland Ice, the loss of the Amazon Forest, the shutdown of the Atlantic currents. These headlines can be daunting and anxiety-provoking. What can be more disturbing to our personal psyches are direct experiences with wildfires, hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, and floods, which are linked to human-caused climate change.

As a psychologist, I have a long-standing interest in the effects of external events on mental health. I started with dispelling the myth about the effects of astronomical events like phases of the moon (there is no evidence that lunar events affect mental stability), weather, such as seasonal changes (seasonal affective disorder during the winter months of limited sunlight), and economic indicators of mental health. Several years ago I was awarded grant funds for a research project on the relationship between economic factors and mental health in Appalachia, in which we found some lagged influence of economic indicators on intake at community mental health centers in the region.

The pervasive, unrelenting, and increasingly dangerous phenomena associated with climate change create new challenges for all individuals on the planet and for mental health professionals who have to deal with those impacted by these events. Negative responses to climate change include anxiety, helplessness, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidal thoughts. The risks of such mental health problems are greatest for those directly impacted by climate-related disasters like floods, heat waves, and wildfires (67% of those affected by the Camp Fire of 2018 in California showed PTSD symptoms – The Commonwealth Fund, 2023). It is not surprising that those whose livelihoods are robbed by climate-change-related disasters like floods or hurricanes would experience mental health issues. But even those not directly impacted by disasters can suffer mental health problems when presented with information about the inexorable impacts of human-caused climate change. In a 2021 survey of 10,000 young people (aged 16-25), more than 45% of respondents, reported by The Commonwealth Fund, said that worrying about climate change negatively affected their eating, working, sleeping, or other aspects of their daily lives. The American Psychiatric Association has formulated a statement on climate change and mental health: “Climate change poses a significant and growing threat to public health in general and to mental health in particular … “

Mental health professionals are developing new approaches to treating those with psychological issues related to climate change. Traditional models of psychotherapy have not been shown to work with those experiencing anxiety and, more seriously, depression associated with climate change. In response to this challenge there is a new class of mental health professionals called climate-aware therapists; a directory of these professionals can be obtained online.

Rebecca Weston, a therapist and co-president of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, stated: “Unfortunately, the field of mental health tends to be so individualist and so focused on internal experience to the exclusion of and not in a relationship to the external world” (Yale Climate Connections, 2024).

What can one do in the face of these mental-health challenges presented by climate change apart from seeking assistance from an enlightened mental-health professional? The best antidote to the helplessness and fatalism that these stress-inducing events of climate change present is to exercise one’s personal agency. Evangelical climate scientist, Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, recommends five ways to establish personal agency in the face of human-induced climate change: 1) start a conversation about climate change; 2) join a climate action group; 3) consider where you keep your money (e.g. credit cards, retirement annuities); 4) spark ideas for change at work, school or place of worship; 5) hold politicians (city, county, state, federal) accountable for legislation affecting the climate (Linkedin, 2024).

Furthermore, a family or individual might choose to reduce its carbon footprint by raising the home thermostat in the summer and lowering it in the winter; or by acquiring a hybrid or electric vehicle; eschewing single-use plastics. There are local options right here in the Mid-Ohio Valley to implement Dr. Hayhoe’s second recommendation to establish personal agency; to wit, joining the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action group, the local chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, and the many other statewide groups in West Virginia and Ohio that are taking effective action to address climate change and avert the impending disasters described in the headlines that we see everyday.

***

George Banziger, Ph.D., was a faculty member at Marietta College and an academic dean at three other colleges. He is a Group Leader of the Marietta Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, and of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.

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