Posted: September 19, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Are we prepared?

By Rebecca Phillips September 19, 20264 min read

2026 brought a summer of flash floods. We all remember the devastation inflicted on parts of West Virginia in July and August. Last month, as some areas began recovering while others were inundated, Charlise Robinson used this column to point out the need for more flood resilience in the state. More recent news has shown us more widespread devastation, and we in our river towns must face the question: are we ready for the next flood?
In mid-August, heavy rains and flash floods brought much of southern and central Ohio to a standstill, destroying homes and disrupting lives. In Indiana, seven people died in the floods. On Aug. 29, heavy downpours raced over baked, burned-over Arizona land and caused flash flooding that killed two hikers in the Grand Canyon and caused dozens to be evacuated. As of this writing, one man, a friend of the two dead hikers, is still missing. On Aug. 26, melting permafrost caused a glacier on the Nepal/Tibet border to collapse, registering as a magnitude 5.2 earthquake on seismographs. A wall of water and debris rushed down 45 miles of the Trishuli River, killing more than 1,300 people, with over 5,000 still missing. Some of the bodies were carried 150 miles downstream into India.
There is a common denominator to these far-flung disasters: climate change. The world’s oceans have warmed, leading to an increase in average air temperatures worldwide. For every 1°F of warming, the air can hold 4% more moisture, moisture that exits the atmosphere in the form of extreme precipitation events. A 2021 article in Climate and Atmospheric Science notes that, worldwide, 1 in 4 of the record rainfalls since 2010 can be attributed to climate change. Our country’s 2023 National Climate Assessment notes that rainfall events in this country have grown heavier over the last fifty years, with the Ohio River Valley experiencing one of the largest increases in hourly rainfall rates. These downpours are exceeding the soil’s ability to absorb them, leading to more floods.
We often associate increased heat with drought and wildfires, but, paradoxically, both of these can contribute to flood intensity. In places like the American West, extended periods of drought have created land so hard-baked that its ability to absorb rainfall is impaired. This impermeability was a factor in the intensity of the flash flood that tore through the Grand Canyon last month. Wildfires, besides exacerbating soil dryness, leave a lot of debris, creating debris flows that add to floods’ destructiveness. Though wildfire was not a factor in the Nepal flood, the US Geological Survey description of that event uses the term “debris avalanche” to describe the flow and its effects, which included the destruction of an international border crossing and the total inundation of many villages.
While the Mid-Ohio Valley is not at risk of the kind of flood that caused such devastation in Nepal, we are vulnerable. A 2017 study by the Army Corps of Engineers found that Ohio’s temperatures are likely to increase 16% by the end of the century, making our climate more like that of today’s Alabama. Stronger storms will be interspersed with longer periods of drought, leading to reduced water levels of as much as 50% in inland rivers like the Muskingum and more dessicated, impermeable soils. That same Corps of Engineers study found that, with the likely increase in extreme rainfall events, the Ohio River may start experiencing storm-induced surges of as much as 25% as soon as 2041, a mere fifteen years from now.
Most of our flood-prevention infrastructure was built more than 60 years ago for a very different climate. Our dams, levees, and floodwalls were built to prevent floods like those of 1913 and 1937, not those we are likely to see in the future. If our storms continue to intensify, will the current protections be enough? Only time will tell.
***
Rebecca Phillips is an Appalachian native, a WVUP retiree, and a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

 

Last Updated: September 13, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: In my life

By Giulia Mannarino

September 12, 2026

As a child growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, I remember the weather having four separate seasons during the calendar year. There seemed to be a specific winter, spring, summer and fall that were distinct and different. Although summers could be hot, daily temperatures rarely reached 100 degrees. Torrential rains and out of season snow storms were rare. Tornadoes and earthquakes never occurred locally or in nearby states. But the changes in the temperature and weather experienced in my own short life span seem astounding. Short at least as compared to the age of our universe or our planet. The seasons have changed over the years. Since the 1950s, average temperatures across the country have climbed steadily. Heat events have become more common. At the same time, there are fewer freezing days, record low snow levels and intense rainfalls. Not only are there more events like wild fires, flooding, droughts and other consequences of global warming but the duration and intensity of these events are increasing. Global warming acceleration itself has nearly doubled over the last decade. This situation is causing unusual and dramatic events such as the recent melting glaciers that flooded Tibet and Nepal villages and Grand Canyon hikers swept away by an extreme flash flood.

The concept of global warming first appeared in 1824 when French physicist Joseph Fourier proposed that Earth’s atmosphere traps heat acting like a blanket to keep the planet warm. In the 1850s, American scientist Eunice Foote and Irish physicist John Tyndall independently conducted experiments demonstrating that CO2 and water vapor are heat trapping gases. In 1896, Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius was the first to hypothesize humanity could change the climate on a global scale. Further experiments and research continued throughout the 1900s. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president who warned about the dangers of burning fossil fuels when a report from a Science Advisory Committee titled “Restoring the Quality of Our Environment” was presented. An entire section detailed the modification to heat balance and marked changes in climate that will be caused by use of fossil fuels. This was a few years before prominent climatologist Dr. James Hansen’s testimony in Congress on June 23, 1988. At that time, Dr. Hansen was the lead witness before a landmark hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. His declaration that human caused global warming could be detected was significant in bringing anthropogenic climate change to the forefront of political and public discourse.

In the past, global warming was much less partisan. On June 12, 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit in Brazil, President George H.W. Bush signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC is the foundational international environmental treaty that laid the groundwork for all future global climate efforts, including the Paris Agreement. Its primary goal was to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous interference with the climate system. In spite of the global reaction to this serious situation, the fossil fuel industry continued to be self-serving. It fired their employee scientists that legitimately reported on the seriousness of the climate crisis. The industry also continues to run disinformation campaigns that intentionally lead to confusion and politicization. The current administration is dismantling decades of science based public health and environmental protections that benefit polluters and in some cases enrich their own bank account.

President Harry S. Truman said; “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician and I’ll show you a crook.” In fact, Trump earned $2 billion the first year he was back in office. It saddens me that the fossil fuel industry and certain politicians continue to show disregard for our environment and future generations. This past Friday was the anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001. Although this massive tragedy killed many, it led to significant changes in emergency response, aviation security and international cooperation. I recently came across a quote from Joan Baez, one of my “Sheros.” Her wise remark on the current situation was “I have hope, in people, in individuals. You don’t know what’s going to rise from the ruins.”

Let your hopes as well as your actions shape the future.

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, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Dolly’s mountain legacy – keeping Appalachia wild

By Griffin Bradley September 5, 2026

News & Sentinel

On Aug. 25, the world lost a giant in so many respects. Especially in this day and age, you are hard pressed to find a person who bridges nearly every divide and who so few people, if any, have an unkind word to say about them. Dolly Parton, a self-proclaimed country girl from the mountains of east Tennessee, created a legacy that spans so many pieces of today’s popular culture, but almost none more than her love and respect for our natural world, and the lengths she went to keeping them as wild as could be.

If you’ve never heard Dolly talk about her beloved Smoky Mountains or nature in general, I implore you to stop reading, head to Google, and take a listen. In her witty, country tone, she told stories of her life in the mountains, recalling how the rolling hills and babbling streams of Appalachia shaped the way she viewed the world. While seeing its beauty, she also saw the negative impacts people were having on the lands that she so loved.

“We’re just mistreating Mother Nature — that’s like bein’ ugly to your mama,” she said. “We need to take better care of the things that God gave us freely. And that we’re so freely messin’ up.”

In her songs, the natural landscape around her was impressed upon you, drawing on imagery not unfamiliar to many of us in the Ohio Valley.

“Life is as peaceful as a baby’s sigh,” where, “crickets sing in the fields nearby,” she wrote in her 1972 song, “My Tennessee Mountain Home.” That song, named an official state song of Tennessee in 2022, is one of many odes to nature that Dolly sang throughout her over-60-year career.

Beyond just talking and singing about nature, what Dolly did to protect it is just as important.

Dolly was an avid philanthropic champion for environmental initiatives across Appalachia, giving her time, star power, and personal wealth to causes near and dear to so many of us. As in her music, she was unafraid to take on the challenges many thought to be too large or complex to tackle, seeing them as just the very things that needed her attention the most.

In 1991, Dolly partnered with the American Eagle Foundation to establish the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, a facility for bald eagles and other birds of prey unable to survive in the wild. She participated in the opening of the sanctuary, and over the last 35 years has helped expose millions of people to the conservation and rehabilitation needs for these animals through her support.

Through programs at her famed Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, millions of park guests have been educated on issues of conservation and environmental need in a way only Dolly could provide. Using entertainment and style, Dollywood has acted as an ambassador for conservation across the Smokies, with guests taking the meaningful impact it has back home with them across the globe.

After the devastating 2016 Tennessee wildfires, Dolly established programs through her own charity and the Dollywood Foundation to provide assistance to impacted families as well as disaster cleanup. Dolly donated millions of dollars of her own alongside raising millions more through her fundraising effort, Smoky Mountains Rise. Without Dolly’s direct stewardship, there’s simply no telling how widespread the long-term environmental and community impacts of the wildfires may have been.

As we watch tributes to Dolly Parton roll in from all around the world, I hope we are able to find our own connections to the place that we call home, and are able to stand up for it when we know it’s right. For Dolly, I find National Geographic’s closing statement from their 2022 write-up on her life, music and legacy especially poignant.

“Parton is unafraid to stomp her glittery heel when it comes to caring for the environment — her message is clear and she is increasingly amplifying it wherever she travels.”

Thank you, Dolly, for all you gave us. We will always love you.

***

Griffin Bradley is a lifelong Wood County resident, graduate of West Virginia University, and a contributing author for Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Last Updated: September 9, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Let that sink in

By Linda Eve Seth August 29, 2026

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now. — Chinese Proverb

Carbon is an essential element to all life on Earth. Like DNA and protein, it is one of the molecules that make up our bodies. Carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, or CO2, is part of the air we breathe in every day. It can also be found in plants, rocks, oceans and fossil fuels. However, in the form of carbon dioxide gas, it can be very dangerous, and since industries emit a lot of CO2, it causes the planet to get warmer. Fortunately, there are natural ecosystems that store this carbon dioxide in what are called “carbon sinks.”

A carbon sink is any natural or artificial reservoir that absorbs more atmospheric carbon dioxide than it releases. By removing greenhouse gases from the air, these systems play a critical role in the natural carbon cycle and mitigating global climate change. The most effective, important carbon sinks on Earth are oceans, forests, and soil. Just like a kitchen sink holds water, a carbon sink holds carbon. In nature, things that release carbon into the air (like burning fuels or human breathing) are called sources. Things that suck that carbon out of the air and store it are called sinks. CO2, is a greenhouse gas, which means it traps heat from the sun and warms up the planet. If we didn’t have carbon sinks like oceans and forests soaking up huge amounts of this gas, Earth would get much too hot.

When we burn too many fossil fuels, we release excess carbon into the air. The carbon sinks try to soak it all up, but climate change is making it harder for them to do their job in several ways:

Ocean Acidification: As oceans absorb too much CO2 the water becomes more acidic. This makes it very difficult for marine animals like corals and shellfish to build their shells.

Wildfires: Warmer, drier weather leads to intense forest fires. When trees burn, they release all their stored carbon right back into the air.

Warming Waters: Water, especially the ocean, also acts as a carbon sink. A warmer ocean is less able to dissolve and hold onto carbon dioxide.

Trees are nature’s carbon storage units. As they grow, trees pull CO2 out of the air through photosynthesis and use the carbon to build their trunks, branches, roots and leaves. Because that carbon is stored in the wood and other plant tissues, the tree acts as a “carbon sink” — it takes in more carbon than it releases and keeps it out of the atmosphere for years, or even centuries, depending on the life of trees — while releasing oxygen back into the air.

In one year, a mature tree can absorb the equivalent of a half a metric ton of carbon dioxide. Altogether, forests in the U.S. offset about 16% of greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks, power plants and other sources. In fact, forest ecosystems are the largest land-based carbon sink on Earth.

Forests have been quietly cooling the planet for decades, but their role is increasingly under threat. Historically, by removing CO2, forests have acted as a reliable planetary thermostat. They regulate Earth’s temperature, drawing CO2 from the atmosphere, and lock it in trees, roots and soil — carbon that is emitted if trees are cut down. In a typical year, forests and other vegetation absorb roughly 30% of the carbon that humans emit from burning fossil fuels — a vital climate service performed at virtually no cost by trees around the world, from tropical rainforests to temperate and boreal forests. Deforestation reverses this absorption, releasing stored carbon and turning these areas into carbon sources

The past several years have not been typical. Recent research reveals that extreme fires have caused forests to absorb far less carbon than usual in 2023 and 2024, weakening their cooling effect. During those years, forests absorbed only a quarter of the carbon dioxide they do in an average year. 2023 marked the lowest “forest carbon sink” in over two decades when considering the loss of trees’ stored carbon and greenhouse gases caused by burning.

This recent sharp drop is also part of a longer-term decline, where the margin between forest emissions and carbon removals appears to be narrowing. With emissions from deforestation and other forest disturbances rising, the world’s forests risk shifting from a carbon sink to a carbon source.

Losing the world’s forest carbon sink will have catastrophic consequences for people and the planet. Without urgent intervention, a continued decline in forests’ ability to absorb carbon could accelerate climate change, increasing the frequency of deadly extreme weather events, and disrupting rainfall patterns that underpin water and food security.

Until next time, be kind to your mother Earth.

***

Linda Eve Seth, SLP, M.Ed., is a mother, grandmother, concerned citizen and member of MOVCA.

Last Updated: September 9, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Root of all evil

By Vic Elam

August 22, 2026

When I hear the assertion that we are in a race with China to build up our artificial intelligence capacity it makes me wonder where this level of concern was when we were handing over the keys to the electric car and the renewable energy that powers it to China.

In recent weeks I’ve tuned in to various business news television programs and have found that AI has dominated the business world and in fact is propping up the economy as wealthy investors reap healthy rewards from what some refer to as the AI boom, which is returning record profits on investment. This AI boom requires data centers to handle an immense amount of data, and the data centers enable other data intensive processes such as bitcoin mining and Flock videos. Meanwhile the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world, BYD (a Chinese company) cannot build cars fast enough to meet world demand – BYD is prohibited from entering the U.S. market by a 100% tariff.

Although renewable energy investment is highly profitable it cannot compete with AI and many of the reasons are because of input costs. AI data centers and renewable energy are not playing on a level playing field, although I will argue that the field should be leveled.

During the infancy of renewable energy there were growing pains. Renewable energy sources were not reliable and not nearly as efficient as they are now, were costly to employ and not cost-effective. Over time, renewable systems improved in reliability and cost-effectiveness and now renewable energy is cheaper to produce than fossil fuels even though the U.S. taxpayer provides approximately $50 billion in direct subsidies for fossil fuels annually. Because of the advances in renewable energy and battery storage over the years, most of the new electrical production worldwide is now renewable. Changing the U.S. electric grid to operate with renewable energy is not easy, but it has been and continues to migrate in that direction, albeit slowly.

The U.S. electrical supply has been placed under demand by the proliferation of data centers, so much so that in many places the electrical grid cannot meet the demands. Also, energy costs are typically the largest cost input for data centers. Some of the new data centers are expected to use as much as 4,000 megawatts of electricity (equivalent to 3 million-4 million homes’ usage). Some data center companies are going off the grid and building their own power supplies. Typically, the fuel for these power plants is gas, and they are placing data centers in areas where there is an ample supply of natural gas. But gas is not the clean energy source it was once heralded to be, emitting carbon, methane and other harmful pollutants, and that’s after the environmental destruction caused in the gas extraction. Also, they are targeting rural areas where there is less organized resistance to their installations.

One thing that never comes up in the business news coverage of the AI boom and all the profits that wealthy investors are making from it is the impact that the proliferation of data centers is having on largely rural America. Cloaked in secrecy these behemoths move into rural America, get non-disclosure agreements with county or city officials and start buying up property. Often, local residents have no knowledge of the threat until it is too late. I don’t want to rehash the effects of data centers that have been well documented by myself and others in this column, I simply want to point out that the people who stand to profit from the AI boom are only a few landowners who sell their property for development and wealthy investors who will not be living with the harmful impacts. Few jobs will be created. Meanwhile, the harmful impacts from data centers will continue and likely grow as the demand for energy and water grows. One of the unfortunate outcomes of the AI boom is that in their urgency to produce electricity to power these data centers most companies are not investing in renewable sources and going the quick and easy route of gas power plants, some even looking to bring old retired nuclear plants back online. Adding concern is that while renewable energy projects go through the normal process to meet environmental compliance standards, data centers are given a green light to avoid many of those standards meant to protect ourselves and the environment.

I can’t help but think that if the industrial complex had put as much effort into developing this country’s renewable energy infrastructure over the last two decades or more as it has at building data centers in the last two years then we would be in a much better position to provide the needed energy without raising rates and without the environmental consequences. But I am not thinking with my wallet, and I am not already heavily invested in fossil fuel production.

To make things worse, many financial experts are growing concerned about an AI bubble, similar to the real estate bubble that burst in 2008 except about four times the size. I’m no financial wiz, but best I can synopsize this is that several companies are fighting to be the dominant players in the AI data center race and between investors and borrowing, there is in the order of trillions on the line and currently the demand for the AI is not backing up what’s being invested. This may lead to a financial collapse that leaves all of us paying the bill and data centers abandoned on the landscape.

I have no concerns about AI done responsibly and wealthy people who consider how their actions impact others. We can always do better, but if the power of the dollar is the only thing with meaning, then we are doomed to be subservient to it. As the saying goes, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” I think that many of us should take stock in what is really important.

***

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

Posted: August 15, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: C8, water and household pollution management

By Callie Lyons

August 15, 2026

If you live in the Mid-Ohio Valley and rely on public water, it is worth knowing whether your community is filtering for C8 and other forever chemicals.

The region is widely known for C8 contamination linked to DuPont Washington Works. What most people probably don’t realize is that Parkersburg, the community most closely identified with this global crisis, has yet to implement a filtration system to deal with the problem.

Across the Mid-Ohio Valley, the pollution is widespread, yet some communities have filtration and others do not.

Some of us have benefited from filtration for years thanks to class-action litigation against DuPont, which resulted in the construction of granular activated carbon filtration systems for six public water systems in 2005: Lubeck and Mason County, West Virginia, and Belpre, Little Hocking, Pomeroy and Chester/Tuppers Plains in Ohio.

Independent of litigation, the city of Vienna installed a water treatment facility in 2017 to comply with the U.S. EPA’s health advisories.

Parkersburg has never had dedicated C8 or PFAS filtration. And the water system has come up with some pretty creative ways of delaying the inevitable. Recently, the Parkersburg Utility Board has been developing plans for a granular activated carbon treatment system. So far, those are future plans.

Whether your water is currently being treated or not, here’s what you need to understand about filtration.

Think of it as pollution management. Pollution, like your household garbage, needs to be collected, contained and removed so you can reduce your family’s exposure.

Filtration doesnt make the pollution disappear, just like a garbage truck doesn’t make your trash disappear. The garbage truck is the mechanism for collecting and removing. Likewise, granular activated carbon collects and captures these industrial chemicals so they can be removed from your water.

Filtration technology relies on a strength that is also its limitation. Carbon is remarkably good at capturing pollutants, but it can only hold so much. Overfill a garbage truck and that truck is going to be spilling your trash on the highway. Likewise, if you overburden the carbon material, it will become saturated and unable to contain the pollution. Filters have to be replaced on schedule to remain effective. And so filtration comes with ongoing maintenance and expense.

Filtration works. It can work extremely well. But it has to be managed.

Even if your community has municipal PFAS filtration, I believe people in the Mid-Ohio Valley should consider an additional layer of filtration for the water they actually consume. And if your public water system doesn’t yet have dedicated PFAS treatment, there is even more reason to understand your options.

You don’t necessarily need an elaborate or expensive whole-house system for effective management. A simple GAC (granular activated carbon) filtration pitcher used for drinking water can offer your family an additional layer of protection and one more way to reduce exposure.

The Mid-Ohio Valley has spent more than a quarter-century learning an extraordinarily difficult lesson about C8. It’s time we learned more about protecting ourselves from this very real and ongoing health threat.

Municipal filtration is an important layer of protection. Household pollution management is another layer of protection — and one you can control.

Remember: Exposure avoided today cannot become a health problem tomorrow.

Posted: August 8, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Why is there a war on renewable energy?

By George Banziger

August 8, 2026

One would think that with the profusion of data centers, the growing need for more electricity for manufacturing, and the need to keep electric rates for residential consumers affordable, we should want energy from all sources: oil, gas, hydro, geothermal, nuclear, wind, and solar. But our state and federal governments seem to be opting for fossil fuels only. In the recent past we have heard public officials from both parties advocate for “all-of-the-above” energy sources. That message seems to have disappeared.

In March of this year President Trump paid TotalEnergies, a French company, $1 billion to terminate its wind energy project off the U.S. east coast. This tipping of the scale to favor fossil-fuel interests is in addition to the panoply of federal benefits for the oil and gas industry. The U.S. government provides substantial subsidies to the oil and gas industries, amounting to approximately $34.8 to $40 billion annually. These subsidies include various tax breaks, direct spending, and regulatory advantages that support fossil-fuel production and consumption (e360.yale.ed). These subsidies are part of broader energy policy aimed at supporting domestic fossil fuel production. Recent reports indicate an increase in subsidies, with an additional $4 billion allocated annually over the next decade.

Admittedly, there have been some incentives for renewable energy projects in recent years, such as the Investment Tax Credit, the Production Tax Credit and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. These incentives have diminished considerably since the recent Trump presidency and pale in comparison to the benefits that have accrued to the oil and gas industry over the past several decades. One might argue that federal investments and incentives for renewable energy are desirable since they serve the long-term national interest of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing our dependency on foreign sources of oil and gas.

In the state of Ohio Senate Bill 238 specifies set-back regulations for wind turbines by increasing the distance to 1,125 feet from the nearest residential structure and requires public information sessions for wind-turbine projects. But when it comes to high-pressure hydraulic fracturing, i.e., fracking, drilling rigs not only can be placed adjacent to public lands such as state parks, but according to 2026 legislation can now be placed within state parks. Oil and gas companies can impose “forced pooling” for leasing of drilling rights on private properties. Ohio has one of the most aggressive forced pooling laws in the region. If 65% of mineral owners in a drilling unit sign a lease, companies can request a mandatory pooling order for the remaining landowners. What this means for landowners: If enough of your neighbors sign, you could be forced into a drilling agreement. You will receive royalties, but you lose the ability to negotiate your contract terms. No such forced pooling is offered for wind or solar projects.

Solar projects were seriously evaluated by the Ohio Department of Health for safety and health issues. There has been no serious study of the safety, health, and environmental risks of fracking and of injection of production waste despite the high rates of accidents in these enterprises.

Senate Bill 52, passed in 2021 by the Ohio Legislature and signed by the governor, allows counties to ban wind and solar projects. In Richland County, for example, 11 of 18 townships have been designated as restricted zones so that no wind or solar projects can be developed in these areas.

The group, Save Ohio Parks, with which I have been affiliated, for several years has been involved in organizing opposition to fracking projects near public lands in the state, most of which involve the eastern part of the state. We have informed volunteers about parcels being “nominated” for fracking in the vicinity of state parks and encouraged those volunteers to submit oppositional statements to these proposals to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission. The latter group has rubber stamped every “nomination” (most of which are submitted by out-of-state companies) for parcels to be offered up for fracking despite the hundreds of comments in opposition. There has been nothing from the state legislature for renewable projects comparable to SB 52.

In West Virginia HB 5381 describes the state’s comprehensive energy plan, which strongly favors coal, the most expensive, unhealthy, polluting, and dangerous form of energy to extract.

The issue of data centers has been brought to our doorstep in Washington County with the non-disclosure agreement that our county commissioners have arranged with a developer for a data center in the Waterford community. This particular data center is apparently on track for development, but around the U.S. things are different. More than 500 counties and municipalities have imposed serious restrictions and even blocked the development of data centers — 190 since June — and the pace of moratoriums has accelerated. In addition, 50 data centers already planned have been canceled. Nevertheless, data centers have an inexorable momentum. Data center development, if it does proceed, needs to be accompanied by community benefit agreements, guarantees of local employment, responsible usage of water, and assurances that electricity rates for residential consumers would not be increased. What would also make the idea of data centers more palatable than it is currently would be the use of renewable energy as the primary source of energy for these electricity hogs.

Bill McKibben in his recent book, “Here Comes the Sun,” documents that solar power is the least expensive source of energy and that despite the barriers it faces in the U.S., and with the help of advances in battery technology, it has shown impressive gains in adoption throughout the world. These points should demonstrate that solar power should be embraced rather than considered an enemy against which war should be waged.

***

George Banziger, Ph.D., was a faculty member at Marietta College and an academic dean at three other colleges. He is a member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, a member of the Washington County for Safe Drinking Water, and a contributor to Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.

Posted: August 1, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Responding while recovering

By Charlise Robinson

August 1, 2026

The devastating flooding that recently swept across West Virginia and beyond is another heartbreaking reminder that our region is no stranger to natural disasters. Last week, torrential rain triggered catastrophic flash flooding, forcing dozens of water rescues and leaving a long road to recovery for many. As our thoughts and hearts are with the communities affected, our deepest gratitude goes to the courage displayed by first responders, the National Guard, volunteers and neighbors helping neighbors at this time.

The recent storms demonstrated how quickly aging infrastructure can become overwhelmed. In some locations, rainfall reached an extraordinary level in less than an hour, overwhelming drainage systems and creating emergency rescue situations.

While our immediate focus is on supporting recovery in these communities, our state leaders must also prioritize flood resilience in the near future. Flood resilience is more than rebuilding after a disaster. It is a real investment in flood mitigation and storm water management infrastructure. That’s why WV Rivers continues to advocate for policies and investments that help communities prepare before disaster strikes.

Earlier this month, we presented on a flood resiliency webinar hosted by Reimagine Appalachia and the Appalachian Flood Resilience Coalition featuring experts and community leaders discussing practical solutions for reducing flood risk, strengthening infrastructure, and improving community prepared.

We’ll continue the conversation with another webinar “Responding While Recovering — Storm Recovery Futures Amid Ongoing Disaster” on Aug. 4 at 2 p.m., where we’ll explore additional tools, resources, and strategies that can help communities become safer and more resilient in the face of future flooding events with our regional partners. You can register for this webinar at wvrivers.org

Recovery takes all of us working together to inspire a lasting commitment to flood mitigation and a safer future for everyone.

Charlise Robinson is Ohio River Coordinator, West Virginia Rivers Coalition

Posted: July 27, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Solar could stabilize your budget and save money

By Jonathan Brier

July 25, 2026

Switching to electric energy is my strategy for stabilizing home energy costs. Global events, like the conflict in Iran, highlight the volatility of gas prices. As I transition my home to be fully electric, the long-term cost of electricity is my primary focus.

After a hail storm damaged my roof in April 2026, I revisited solar energy and discovered a new leasing option. Leasing is ideal if you aren’t sure you’ll remain in your home for 25 years. It requires no upfront cost, provides high-output panels, and offers immediate savings by locking in a fixed electric rate for 25 years — a rarity in the energy market. If I move, I can transfer the contract to the new owner, buy out the panels after five years, or include the buyout in the home’s sale price. While leasing is more expensive than purchasing, the company covers repairs and guarantees production. My lease costs $62 monthly and decreases annually. A Swiss study even shows that quality panels can maintain 80% output for over 30 years (https://doi.org/10.1039/d4el00040d).

My only open roof space faces Northeast and has enough space for a 9.9 kW array of 22 panels on it, estimated to cover 50% of my electricity for the year. If I remove my gas furnace and go with a cold climate heat pump, the panels would effectively cover my heating by electricity and the annual lease is less than what I pay in gas. With Ohio’s net metering and the production never exceeding my use in a month I will help clean up the daytime grid. I am not buying the panels, I am signing a lease which has a flat rate each month and is calculated at a per kWh of $0.10 and the price I pay decreases each year proportional to the expected panel output decrease. While Marietta, Ohio has negotiated $0.098 per kWh this solar is lower cost since transmission and distribution are excluded. The solar looks more expensive, but as a distributed resource it is almost half the cost. The best thing about the lease is there is no cost for the panels up front so you start saving on day one. My family is forecasted to save nearly $50 a month on average. Batteries are an option to help, but not as part of the 25-year lease. https://www.pilaenergy.com/ might fix needs more for just critical loads like the refrigerator and would allow time shifting of consumption as well as being able to move with you.

Commercial entities with over 5000 sq feet of roof could also lease their roof space for solar and get payment for use of the space and potentially not just save money if they buy some back but also help stabilize costs for the region. All the large warehouses and self storage around the Mid-Ohio Valley should view solar as a missed opportunity for revenue and savings since most can host more panels than they could consume themselves and make money too. Installing some batteries in the area too can absorb any excess and make our community more resilient and affordable.

Electrification is about more than just the environment; it’s about creating a predictable, affordable budget, and with storage it becomes a tool for resiliency and cheaper power. Electrification shouldn’t be a political issue–it’s a practical way to simplify infrastructure and lower costs. While rising data center demand can spike local rates, smart regulation can protect residents. For example, New Jersey recently passed legislation requiring data centers to fund residential energy efficiency upgrades, freeing up grid capacity without needing new hardware. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/data-centers/new-jersey-data-centers-energy-upgrades

To help others on this journey, I am organizing a local home tour as part of my Rewiring America Coaching program. Experts and homeowners in the Mid-Ohio Valley will showcase their energy improvements and share their experiences. If you want to host, join as an expert, or receive an announcement about the tour, please fill out https://forms.gle/2wNndwdcczoSErbg7 or email me at climatecorner@brierjon.com.

***

Jonathan Brier is a Marietta resident, information scientist, and Eagle Scout. You can reach him via https://brierjon.com or email: climatecorner@brierjon.com.

Last Updated: July 19, 2026 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Greed (not need) behind ridiculous data center expansions

July 18, 2026

By Randi Pokladnik

I recently did a presentation at the Dover Public Library about the environmental issues associated with data centers. These issues include: noise, water usage, hundreds of acres of land transformed into industrial developments, exposure to air pollution from power generation, light pollution from the facilities, high voltage transmission lines cutting through communities and farmlands,

probable increases in utility bills due to the increases in power consumption, surface water contamination from plant cooling systems, and high-volume gas pipelines for onsite megawatt power generation.

We have been told by countless politicians that we “need these to compete with China.” Yet, if you look at the current numbers of data centers by country, as of May 2026 “the United States dominates the market with 5,427 data centers for a population of 349,035,494. This is 46 percent of the global total.” China has 449 data centers with a population of 1,412,792,821. My question for the big tech CEOs is why do we need so many data centers and who is financing all of them? Is it greed, not need, driving the ridiculous amounts of hyperscale centers being built around the country?

Is has become obvious to most citizens in the USA that these hyperscale centers are resource hogs. Especially disturbing is the large amount of water used primarily for equipment cooling, however large quantities of water are also required for energy production. Most data centers in the USA use methane gas and rely on on-site gas power plants or gas-powered fuel cells.

The members of Save Ohio Parks have pointed to the explosion of construction for new data centers as a possible reason our state lands (including Salt Fork State Park, Egypt Valley Wildlife Area, and Jockey Hollow) have been nominated by fossil fuel companies to be leased for fracking. I was at the recent Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission give-a-way and watched as Commission Chair Theresa White and the other members handed over 15,000 more acres of Ohioans’ public lands to out-of-state oil and gas companies.

Additionally, “companies are proposing or building 10 new natural gas power plants, mostly in southern Ohio. If all 10 operate at full capacity, they could emit 75 million tons of greenhouse gases per year, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project.

Another major issue with hyperscale data centers is water consumption. A single data center can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day, and operate 24/7 365 days a year (usage equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people). Note that the years of 2024 and 2025 saw record droughts in Ohio and West Virginia.

Water cooling systems also require chemicals like nitrates, disinfectants, azoles, and other compounds, which are discharged into the environment. Even in a closed loop system, these compounds are discharged into the environment during what is known as a “blowdown.” A blowdown is used to clean the system of unwanted buildup of suspended solids and chemicals. When a blowdown discharge finally leaves the site via a body of water, it can carry nitrates, glycols, and heavy metals at thousands of times the limits set for surface waters. Both Lake Erie and the Ohio River have experienced toxic algal blooms as a result of excess nitrates.

Light and sound pollution are also concerns of communities close to hyperscale data centers. Dr. Kat Kennedy, a sleep and circadian physiologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona, said during a recent interview with Dark Sky, an organization that fights light pollution, “exposure to light after dark can suppress the body’s production of melatonin, a key hormone that signals it’s time to sleep. Artificial light can confuse our internal clocks, potentially leading to sleep disturbances and cause changes at the genetic level. Some studies show that disrupting the light/dark cycle can affect the function of our genes.”

Data centers emit loud noise 24/7, in some cases above 85 decibels (the safe level of exposure). Think of your kitchen blender on high. Diesel generators plus heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems create a constant hum that can be audible to neighboring residents and wildlife.

Data center proponents like to point a finger at citizens, claiming that we are responsible for the increased number of data centers. However, the recent increase in massive 100 MW data centers is not due to our phones or our use of the internet. A large percentage of data centers is attributed to cryptocurrency, AI computing, and video surveillance analytics. Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, use thousands of specialized computers worldwide to solve complex mathematical puzzles, which requires continuous, immense computational power. In May of 2022, the annual sum total of the power for global Bitcoin mining operations was equivalent to annual power usage for Argentina. As of 2024, 137 large scale crypto mines were identified in the U.S., while China has declared all virtual currency activities illegal in the fall of 2021 due to carbon emissions and illegal activities.

Studies show a sharp increase in construction of hyperscale data centers occurred at the same time platforms like ChatGPT and other AI chatbots became popular (2022). These programs are not like the internet of the ’90s where we could access data that has been loaded onto the world wide web.

Searching the internet for data is like searching in a library for a book. Using ChatGPT requires much more computing power.

“A single query using an AI chatbot consumes the electrical equivalent of powering a lightbulb for 20 minutes; more than 10 times the power cost of a simple Google search.” The use of these platforms is causing teachers at all levels to become AI police as students are tempted every day to use the easy way out for school work.

The U.S. government is using increasing efforts to monitor everything we do. AI technology has supercharged surveillance techniques. Video language models can search and analyze thousands of images for specific traits like “search for the man in a purple shirt.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) contracted with 11 tech companies for $513 million dollars in 2026 to provide surveillance tech and Trump’s Executive Order 14179 “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence” is paving the way for more hyperscale data centers.

Make no mistake, we are entering a dystopian nightmare and it is time to put on the brakes before we can no longer control our destiny.

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