Coca-Cola Presents: COP27 took place last month in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, presumably scheduled between the annual Foxes Guarding Henhouses Convention and Lockheed Martin’s World Peace Extravaganza 2022. About as much was accomplished here as one might expect of a climate change summit sponsored by the world’s largest multinational plastic polluter, and occasional patron of anti-labor paramilitary death squads in Latin America.
For those not in the know, Coca-Cola Presents: The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, is an annual summit at which the wealthy nations most responsible for the climate crisis pretend that there’s very little they can do about it which they aren’t already doing. Activist Greta Thunberg once succinctly summarized the results of every single Conference of the Parties since the first meeting in 1995 with the words “blah, blah, blah.”
The weeks leading up to this year’s summit saw the UN Environment Programme’s reassuring announcement that “no credible pathway to 1.5C” of warming currently exists, with that number being the theoretical limit of warming we can “safely” withstand while still maybe, possibly, perhaps avoiding the worst impacts of the climate crisis (though even this level will result in more of the deadly heatwaves, killer extreme weather events, sea level rise, and a litany of other consequences we’re already beginning to experience; current policies place us on track for somewhere closer to 2.7C of warming, which should see us well within the “hell on earth” range by the end of the century.)
One notable achievement of this year’s conference was the setup of a loss and damage fund supporting the global south as it continues to be ravaged by the unnatural disasters of a warming world. This is well overdue, given that the emissions of rich and powerful nations such as the United States, responsible for some 20% of all CO2 emissions since the Industrial Revolution, play an outsized role in climate tragedies so egregious as the wholesale destruction of entire nations- as in the case of the small Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu, 40% of whose capital city routinely finds itself underwater at high tide. And just on a side note, here’s a fun fact for you: the foreign minister of Tuvalu, Simon Kofe, recently announced that his would become the first ever digitized nation in the metaverse, in hopes of preserving its culture and continuing to function as a country once the real thing has been swallowed up by the sea. We truly are creating the best of all possible worlds for ourselves, are we not?
Even assuming rich nations do not attempt to weasel out of whatever commitments they make to poor nations (and you should not assume this), the achievement of this meager concession rings largely hollow considering the overwhelming failure of the conference-goers to reach any sort of meaningful agreement to phase out the use of fossil fuels. This feels somewhat akin to generously gifting your neighbor with a brand new garden hose, only to then carry on lobbing Molotov cocktails through their front window.
Furthermore, individuals describing the conference to the Guardian referred to COP27 as “the worst climate talks they had been involved in,” and stated that they were “untransparent, unpredictable and chaotic.”
Naomi Klein, climate activist and author of “The Shock Doctrine,” has suggested that civil society organizations should boycott the next of such summits altogether. COP28 is scheduled to take place at the end of November 2023 in, of all places, the United Arab Emirates, one of the largest producers of oil on the planet. One can scarcely fathom the new and innovative levels of “blah blah blah” and greenwashing that might be achieved at such a venue. Why, Klein asks in a Twitter thread, “should civil society expend the carbon, money, and time to join them just to declare it a failure all over again?”
And “failure” truly is the only way to describe it.
Last year around this time, when writing about COP26, I noted that: “It’s been estimated that more than half of our 1.5 trillion tonnes of CO2 emissions since 1751 have been produced in the past thirty years alone — more or less the exact same period that UNFCCC parties have been meeting every year to work on ‘fixing the problem.’”
If nothing else, it would seem that this year’s summit has upheld the proud tradition of doing nothing while the world burns. And by all indications, the stuffed shirts in their fancy meetings have no intention of bucking said tradition anytime soon, as they carry on with the happy, lucrative business of razing our planet to the ground.
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Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
OK, so I took a little liberty with this common axiom, but I will make the case. It has been repeatedly shown that an environment that maintains its native diversity is healthier than an environment that has lost its diversity. In terms of environmental diversity, I refer to plant/animal/soil and so on health, and what some refer to as species richness.
Modern corporate forestry practices that clear cut and replace with a monoculture of seedlings that grow into forests that support little flora and animal diversity, are prone to disease, often deplete soils, result in greater erosion, can influence local climatic conditions, resulting in frequent and ferocious wildfire, and also sequester less carbon than healthy diverse forest. There is a reason that when you walk through a normal forest you find yourself immersed in a variety of trees, those trees established where they are due to small variations in soil, moisture, sunlight, presence of other trees, etc., and this variety of trees support each other. Exceptions such as aspen groves are still a product of the forest conditions that are influenced by the forest as a whole.
Grasslands, like forests remain healthy and productive with the full complement of a diverse array of plants. Forested areas that have been cleared and converted to grassland are devoid of the seed bank that provides the basis of a healthy grassland and are generally less productive or require fertilizer to boost productivity and are vulnerable to invasion by invasive plants. Unfortunately, some farmers feel that their pastures are not in good condition unless they can look across a solid stand of grass that is uninterrupted by milkweed, leadplant, coneflower, butterflyweed, and many other plants that are beneficial to the soil and work in concert with grasses to provide healthy pastures. Farmers often apply a broadleaf herbicide to their pastures that eliminates all broad leaf plants and leaves only grasses, greatly reducing valuable diversity.
It takes a diversity of pollinators such as bees, butterflies, birds, even bats to do the necessary work of completing the reproductive process required for many plants. Many animals have a role to play in spreading seeds and passing seeds in a process required to allow those seeds to be viable (scarifying). There are many processes in nature that require the interrelationships between plants, between animals, and between plants and animals that are pivotal in their continued existence – symbiotic relationships. When we lose diversity, those relationships are severed, and we lose the health of our ecosystems.
The health of our climate and diversity are inexorably linked. Even the casual observer can see the impact that climate change is having on diversity. A close observation reveals alarming declines in diversity, part of which is associated with the spread of invasive plants and animals, some is due to climatic conditions becoming unfavorable for certain species, and many other factors.
Certainly, the effects of climate change have a direct and obvious impact to human populations from weather events such as drought. I would argue that self-imposed impacts to humans linked to diversity and its impact on the ecosystems on which we rely to provide us food, oxygen, clean water, and shelter may be as critical as any weather phenomenon that we are or will experience. I think that we will find that anything that we can do to reduce our impact and stave off the worst impacts of climate change are worthy endeavors. Each of us can play a part and collectively make a world of difference.
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Vic Elam is an avid outdoorsman and contributor to organizations that share his concern for our environment, including Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.” — Jane Austen
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What does Climate Change have to do with apple pie?
I am sitting in my kitchen as I write this column, when I should be prepping for holiday meals. My mind wanders and my hands still as I contemplate the impact of Climate Change on our food supply. I think about apple pie; that most American of desserts is just one example of a multi-ingredient delicacy that will become harder to produce in a climate-ravaged future.
While the trees seem to do all the work producing our favorite fall fruit, their sweet flavor can become impacted by changes in weather and climate. Consider these facts: Although apples are hardy, big temperature extremes can be detrimental to orchard crops, as can severe storm elements. Above-average rainfall can cause both good and bad impacts on apples. Dry weather yields smaller and sweeter tasting apples. Environmental impacts like climate change, wildfire smoke and pollution are additional challenges for farmers.
While it is possible to grow apples in warmer climates, apples grow best in regions where the temperature rarely increases above 90 degrees. Warmer-than-normal temperatures can cause an early bloom that leads to changes in apple firmness and acid concentration levels. Too much heat and sun can actually “sunburn” apples. Excessive heat can alter an apple’s color, leaving it pink or brown instead of red. A softer fruit may result from a number of high heat degree days. Rather than crisp and juicy, the apple may take on a mushy or mealy texture.
Besides the fruit, several of the ingredients for that most detectable dessert, apple pie, are impacted by Climate Change, including white sugar, brown sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla.
Studies show that both sugar cane and flour production will be affected by warming temperatures. At first sugar cane production may (temporarily) begin to increase as some areas warm and the range of the sugar crop is extended, allowing the sugar cane to grow in new regions and for extended seasons. Ultimately, however, it is thought that production could drop as much as 60% in the long run.
It is predicted that wheat production may actually increase over time, but that will involve moving wheat agriculture from the American mid-west to Europe, Asia, and South America.
Spices like cinnamon and nutmeg are grown in specific tropical locations, making them particularly susceptible to changing weather conditions. Nutmeg trees, for example, have very shallow roots. This can be troublesome when combined with the fact that increased hurricane frequency and intensity have already begun to damage existing nutmeg farms and processing plants.
Madagascar and Sri Lanka both have economies that are very dependent on vanilla and cinnamon (respectively) which means their economies would be devastated by large decreases in production. Both of these island nations are likely facing increased droughts, wildfires, and higher risks of flooding due to rising sea levels and tsunamis, all of which would threaten their food security and agricultural productivity.
People working in the food industry in this country and across the world are trying to come up with solutions that prioritize crop resilience and adaptability. For example, methods are being developed to address specific vulnerabilities in nutmeg farms, and alternatives are being developed for crops which are so threatened, like vanilla and cinnamon.
As seasons lose their familiar distinguishing characteristics due to shifting climatic patterns, traditional markers for their arrival will do the same. New leaves and dogwood trees in the spring, watermelons, peaches, and corn in the summer, apples, pumpkins, and brilliant colors in the fall, snowmen in the winter… all of these things may be a thing of the past by the year 2050. Apple pie is, of course, just one handy example of a favorite food that may become a victim of Climate Change.
For now, in 2022, enjoy the holiday feast. Indulge in at least one piece of pie, and remember to appreciate all we have … while we still have it. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.
Until next time, be kind to your Mother Earth.
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Linda Eve Seth, SLP, M.Ed. is a mother, grandmother, concerned citizen, and member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
As the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) meetings wrap up in Egypt, citizens around the world realize that we can no longer base our economies on carbon fuels. Many nations are embracing renewable energy. Sweden is leading the way to become the first nation to be 100% powered by renewable energy.
Although a few countries like France still push nuclear power, a 2020 study in Nature Energy stated, “Nuclear is simply too expensive, too time-consuming, and too dangerous a technology to compete with renewables as an alternative to decarbonize the global economy.”
I have never been a proponent of nuclear energy. Some of my angst can be traced back to my days as a grade school student in the Cold War era of the 1960s. We practiced nuclear drills and viewed films of nuclear detonations. One film showed American soldiers on the Bikini Atoll Islands chaining various animals to a test area. After the bomb was detonated, the soldiers returned to the site to ascertain the damage done to those poor animals.
In the late 1990s, I had the opportunity to visit the nuclear library of Los Alamos, New Mexico. This was just after President Clinton’s Energy Secretary, Hazel O’ Leary, had declassified hundreds of nuclear research documents. One group of documents represented over 400 experiments carried out on humans, many of them without informed consent. One document, “American Nuclear Guinea Pigs: Three Decades of Radiation Experiments on U.S. Citizens,” described various experiments performed on populations within our society including mentally handicapped people, prisoners, soldiers and the elderly.
The nuclear industry has earned a reputation of being deceptive and untrustworthy. Russia initially tried to hide the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor which resulted in an explosion that blew over ten tons of radioactive debris and fuel into the atmosphere.
“As of January 2018, 1.8 million people in Ukraine, including 377,589 children, had the status of victims of the disaster.” Health effects are still occurring even in populations outside the contamination zone.
Until the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear accident, Chernobyl was the worst nuclear disaster in history. The Japanese reactor accident was a result of faulty safety equipment. An earthquake triggered tsunami caused a loss of power, rendering the cooling systems inoperable. Three reactors were heavily damaged. In September of this year, Japan announced plans to release 1.3 million tons of stored radioactive water which had been used to cool the damaged reactors. Neighboring countries like China and South Korea have expressed deep concerns over releasing this radioactive water into the fragile Pacific ecosystem.
The USA witnessed its own nuclear accident when in the early morning hours of March 28, 1979, the Unit 2 reactor of the Three-Mile Island Power Plant in Londonderry Township, PA experienced a partial meltdown. Studies show that the accident exposed the failures of cooling water systems and the lack of adequate training.
Mark Jacobson, a professor at Stanford University has pointed out many of the downsides of nuclear power. One that especially resonates with me is the exposure of indigenous communities which find themselves living and working at Uranium mines in the western states. Navaho People traveled from reservations to mines to seek work, often relocating their families to the mine camps. Although mining of Uranium peaked in the late 1950s, the area remains hazardous as more than 1000 abandoned Uranium mine shafts leak radiation.
Another major issue with nuclear energy is the disposal of the highly radioactive wastes. Even the Small Modular Reactors (SMR) which produce less than 300 MW of electricity will generate dangerous radioactive wastes. A peer reviewed study published in March 2022 stated, “SMRs will produce more voluminous and chemically/physically reactive waste than Light Water Reactors, which will impact options for disposal of the waste.”
There is a proposal to dump high level radioactive wastes into granite, limestone and salt formations in the Great Lakes Basin. This would jeopardize the drinking water of over 40,000,000 people. Additionally, it will cost $ 4.5 billion to clean up the nuclear waste nightmare at the now-closed nuclear fuel enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio.
Opting for nuclear energy over fossil fuels would just be trading one danger for another. The best choice for energy independence and sustainability by far are green, renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Isn’t it time the United States takes a leadership role in transitioning to safe, sustainable alternative energy sources?
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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.
A recent piece in The Washington Post included the fact that, “Carbon dioxide concentrations in 2021 were 415.7 parts per million (or ppm), methane at 1908 parts per billion (ppb) and nitrous oxide at 334.5 ppb. Theses values represented 149%, 262% and 124% of preindustrial levels, respectively.”
“Scientists warn that if the world is to have a chance of reaching net zero carbon [and equivalent] emissions by 2050 and so prevent the breaching of the 1.5C limit [of temperature rise over a preindustrial baseline in the Paris Climate Accords], global emissions will have to be cut by 5% to 7% a year. At present, emissions are rising between 1% and 2% a year with little sign of that increase being halted,” reads a recent piece in The Guardian.
We’re in deep trouble when it comes to preserving a habitable planet by maintaining a stable climate system and we are not reaching the goals we’ve set for working our way out of this trouble. That has to be said. But that’s not the end of the story. The change we need starts with each and every one of us in our homes and our communities. While we should all be keeping a close eye on the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) going on in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt this week, we have to recognize that how we ourselves live and vote and use our voices matter tremendously.
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed earlier this year, was a mixed bag at best, with environmental justice communities actively harmed by some of its provisions, but it will make renewable energy and energy efficiency measures more affordable and accessible for millions of Americans. More Americans will now be able to afford to better insulate their homes; replace windows; replace gas utilities with heat pumps (which both heat and cool homes and dwellings), induction stoves, and electric water heaters; purchase EVs and install at-home car charging; install solar panels or take advantage of community solar; and take advantage of other renewable energy like wind.
Important legislation has also passed in West Virginia as far as accessibility to solar, and more should be passed next session in the WV State Legislature. House Bill 3310, passed in last year’s legislative session, exempted solar power purchase agreements from the Public Service Commission’s jurisdiction. Power purchase agreements allow a developer to arrange and design and handle the permitting and installation of a solar energy system for a customer with little or no up front cost. Senate Bill 583 passed in 2020, which opened up the state for utility-scale solar development. House Bill 4561 did not pass last session but should be reintroduced and passed in the upcoming session to allow electric customers to subscribe to community solar through a solar facility and use credits against their electricity costs.
We need more by way of public policy and public and private financing to upgrade our grids, install far more renewable energy nationwide, adopt sustainable agricultural practices and more sustainable development measures, and to reduce pollution and contamination, especially that caused by plastics and petrochemicals. For these things to become realities, we will need to vote accordingly. I hope that as you read this you will have voted earlier in the week with climate change, sustainability, biodiversity loss, and pollution and contamination crises in mind.
Egalitarian democracy (i.e. “one person, one vote”) is so important to sustaining a habitable planet and protecting and preserving all the thriving life we can. So are critical and analytical thinking skills and the open and unfettered exchange of ideas. For these reason, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action supported the Parkersburg & Wood County Library levy and the Wood County Schools levies on the ballot this week.
There are those who have been attacking our library system and librarians and attacking one of the educators in one of our county schools. My hope at publication is that the levies for our library and schools passed this week, providing them with critical funding, and that those who threaten democracy and liberty have lost and continue to lose in their efforts.
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Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
I appreciate fossil fuels. They heated my various homes over the years, got me to my office every day during my work life, took me on several exciting vacations, and gave me a lot of petroleum-based products for my home. But it is time to end my friendship with fossil fuels and, I hope, for others too.
What is leading me to terminate this friendship is climate change. Oceans are rising, getting warmer, and more acidic; glaciers are receding; droughts and wildfires are becoming more serious; the atmosphere is getting warmer; and extreme weather is increasingly bringing us death and devastation. We can see the effects locally–the average temperature in West Virginia has risen to 55 degrees from 1950 to 2021. Fully 97% of scientists agree that human activity is the cause of these compelling observations about our climate.
One of the ways to bring this friendship with fossil fuels to an end is to eliminate or reduce government subsidies of these forms of energy.
Those who typically oppose government intervention in the free market have asserted that our federal government is supporting renewable sources of energy and that without such support the markets would not sustain these costs of investing in solar and wind sources. In her book, “Saving Us,” evangelical climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, describes the massive support that our government has provided and still provides to the fossil fuel industry.
The U.S. is second only to China in supporting these industries. These government supports come in the form of tax breaks and cash grants, such as subsidies for exploration. The cost of these direct subsidies amounts to $20 billion per year (20% for coal and 80% for oil and gas). The Environmental Energy Study Institute (2019) estimates that the total cost of fossil fuel subsidies is $5.3 trillion when negative externalities, such as carbon emissions, health costs, are considered. Direct subsidies include drilling-cost reductions, percentage depletion, credit for clean coal investment. Indirect costs include foreign tax credits, mass limited partnerships (to make energy companies exempt from corporate taxes), and domestic manufacturing deduction. The industry further profits from below-market value for extraction of oil and gas on public lands.
In addition, our government, through its military, invests millions of dollars in the protection of oil and gas resources in places like the Middle East and the Gulf states. We compromise our important values of human rights with the support of oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia.
The fossil-fuel industry tries to present natural gas as a vital bridge to help utilities make the transition from coal-fired power to cleaner sources of energy. What they say is that gas-fired power plants can back up wind- and solar-based power that run intermittently. But battery technology is advancing rapidly to fill that gap as is smart-grid technology to move electricity from where the sun shines and wind blows to where they don’t.
Continuing and expanding natural gas extraction, especially through hydraulic fracturing (i.e., fracking) in this region, means for places like Washington County, Ohio, more waste products. Washington County leads the state in the injection of toxic and radioactive brine waste. Many residents of the county have said about brine waste, “Enough is enough!” We don’t want to subsidize this industry disproportionately and unfairly.
Those concerned about climate change assert that plans for massive expansion of oil and gas resources, in this period of high prices, could essentially lock us into a world of high greenhouse gas emissions and accelerating climate change (methane from natural gas is 80 times as powerful in the near term as a greenhouse gas as CO2). If the industry were to implement these investments in fossil fuels, the climate impact, including methane leaks, would surpass that of all coal-fired power plants under construction or in pre-construction planning, according to a 2021 report by Global Energy Monitor.
With the assistance of these government subsidies, the U.S. energy companies are expanding gas production and transport capacity to reach global markets. The effect of these ventures will be to reduce the cost of natural gas in other markets but increase these costs in the U.S., contributing to high energy prices at home and to inflation.
We need to switch our federal priorities from gratuities to fossil-fuel companies to a carbon fee married to a dividend that goes directly to American taxpayers. By reducing these subsidies and introducing a carbon fee, we can limit our dependence on this fossil fuel and transfer to lower-cost clean energy alternatives like solar and wind power and adopt energy-efficiency practices. Such a strategy will improve the environment, our collective health, and our bank accounts.
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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, Citizens Climate Lobby, and of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.
See WV Rivers Climate Video Library: “Learn more about climate change and its impacts and solutions by exploring gallery of videos, webinars, forums and press conferences.” Includes links to 2022 Climate Candidate Forums; Webinars; WV Climate Alliance Videos; and WV Rivers Climate & Water Webinar Series.
October 25, 2022 Dunbar: Energy, Jobs, & Justice: Candidate Forum, West Virginia State University
October 2, 2022 Morgantown: Energy, Jobs, & Justice: Candidate Forum, West Virginia University
September 13, 2022 Huntington: Energy, Jobs, & Justice: Candidate Forum, Marshall University
“Exposure to environmental toxins may be root of rise in neurological disorders” Doctors warn exposure to omnipresent yet poorly understood chemicals such as microplastics could play role in dementia.
“US firms exploiting Trump-era loophole over toxic ‘forever chemicals’” Study finds chemical companies dodging federal law designed to track how many PFAS plants are pumping into environment
October 16, 2022 Fossil Fuels Article by Jon Hurdle
“Environmentalists Fear a Massive New Plastics Plant Near Pittsburgh Will Worsen Pollution and Stimulate Fracking” Shell facility opening soon has been granted a permit to emit more volatile organic compounds than the Clairton Cole Works, a notorious polluter.
“Rooftop wind energy innovation claims 505 more energy than solar at same cost” BASF is currently testing Aeromine Technologies’ patented motionless wind-harvesting system.
October 19, 2022 Future of Transportation Article by Eric A. Taub
“E.V.s Start With a Bigger Carbon Footprint. But That Doesn’t Last.” The manufacturing and disposal of electric vehicles result in more greenhouse gasses than nonelectric models, but that difference will eventually disappear altogether.
Available on UPI:
October 26, 2022 Science News Article by Daniel J. Graeber
“NASA satellites identify more than 50 methane ‘super emitters’” NASA found several huge plumes of methane using imagery technology installed on the International Space Station
October 12, 2022 Article by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – media contacts: Andrew Wang and Jane J. Lee
“NASA Dust Detective Delivers First Maps From Space for Climate Science” Measurements from EMIT, the Earth Surface Dust Source Investigation, will improve computer simulations researchers use to understand climate change.
“U.S. coal use is falling, but some communities still bear pollution burden” A recent study of 11 states finds that natural gas plants are disproportionately located in communities of color and low-income areas. Text and 1:30 min. audio
October 28, 2022 Commentary by Kathleen Dean Moore
“Commentary: How a quiz helps people find their preferred role in climate action” Part personality, part decision tree, part choose-your-own-adventure, a new tool aims to help people find the climate action best suited for them.
October 2, 2022 Article by Kathleen Dean Moore and SueEllen Campbell
“What can YOU do about climate change? Take this quiz to find out.“ Everyone has a special role in the struggle for a stable climate. What’s yours? The authors offer some questions to help you find it.
Jeffery Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, was recently a speaker at the Athens Democracy Forum in Athens, Greece. When comparing the primary forms of government among major world superpowers such as China and Russia, Sachs made a point to note that “You can be democratic at home and ruthlessly imperial abroad. The most violent country in the world since 1950 has been the United States.”
Here he was promptly cut off by the moderator, but was nonetheless greeted with applause from the audience.
I first became involved in climate activism for a very simple reason. The climate crisis was, without exaggeration, the single greatest existential threat being faced by humanity. It was the issue upon which all other issues hinged, ranging from racial justice and immigration, to healthcare and class inequality, and so much more. A stable society, essentially, is dependent on a stable environment.
And while I still absolutely believe all of this to be the case, it is now undeniable to me that the imminence of the climate crisis has, at least temporarily, been overshadowed by a danger far more immediate and destructive, which doesn’t seem to be attracting even a sliver of the attention of those professing to be the most dedicated to protecting our biosphere- namely, the threat of nuclear war.
Early this month, President Biden finally admitted (albeit to donors behind closed doors, rather than to the general public), that the world is now at its greatest risk for nuclear armageddon since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
One might hope that, given such a grim assessment, the U.S. might show some glimmer of an interest in seeking a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine, rather than pumping an endless torrent of military aid into what U.S. officials have essentially admitted is a proxy war against Russia. An act which, it’s worth noting, Vladimir Putin has been quite emphatic about considering an act of provocation on our part.
Instead, the U.S. has now deployed the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Europe for the first time since World War II, and is “fully prepared” to enter Ukraine and attack Russia, should the situation escalate.
A minuscule smattering of Democrats, who would falsely declare themselves to be the more anti-war party of America’s political system (in reality, no actual anti-war movement exists in America), did feebly sign onto a letter urging President Biden to pursue a diplomatic solution to the war.
Said letter was released this week, was met with an avalanche of criticism from the majority of the Democratic Party, and was then promptly retracted when progressives went scurrying back on the issue with their tails between their legs, as is so often their preferred tactic when pretending to take on the corrupt establishment.
It shouldn’t need to be reiterated at this point just how unfathomably, viciously destructive the use of a singular nuclear weapon would be. I shouldn’t have to paint a picture of the thousands upon thousands of instant deaths at the moment of impact, the horrific cancerous after effects, or the lands made uninhabitable by these instruments of sheer destruction. But apparently, those respectable types pursuing “U.S. interests” on our behalf seem to have forgotten these risks- or, more than likely, they simply do not care.
America’s participation in this war has never been about saving the lives of Ukrainians, despite politicians, media outlets, and the military industrial complex manufacturing the public’s consent by exploiting the genuine, humanitarian impulses of everyday people. Our warmongering military officials, all the way up to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, have explicitly stated that their intention in being involved in Ukraine is simply to try and weaken Russia. Biden’s comparisons to the Cuban Missile Crisis behind closed doors make it abundantly clear that the risks of further pursuing this goal now vastly outweigh whatever supposed “benefits” our warlords might once have hoped to gain.
No human being who is concerned about the climate crisis should remain silent on this issue. Our unhinged military’s neverending bloodlust and these psychotic games of nuclear chicken are as great, if not greater threats than the heating of our planet due to greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, these hegemonic shows of force are only likely to grow more intense and more dangerous as the planet warms, and geopolitical tensions are amplified. We must rise up against the lifelong conditioning and propaganda of American empire that have left us silent on matters of war and nuclear destruction, much as we’ve done against the onslaught of disinformation from the fossil fuel industry, if we are to leave this planet in a habitable state for future generations.
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Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
“The beaver told the rabbit as they stared at the Hoover Dam: ‘No, I didn’t build it myself, but it’s based on an idea of mine.’” — Charles Hard Townes
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If you know any facts about beavers, it’s probably that the toothy rodents are known for being industrious. Most famously, they build dams. These giant structures made of sticks, stones, and mud can reach heights up to 10 feet and lengths averaging 20 feet. The biggest one ever found was in Alberta, Canada, and could be seen from space. As reported in 2010, it was a half- mile long.
As it turns out, these natural engineers may well be humans’ natural allies in efforts to confront climate change.
Beaver dams completely alter the landscape, flooding the surrounding area, and creating wetlands. It’s one reason beavers have often been considered pests that can cause serious damage when they build dams too close to homes or roads.
Scientists have understood beavers’ importance for decades. Studies are finding that beavers play a vital role in dampening the effects of the worsening climate crisis, especially in areas prone to fire, drought, and heat waves.
These web-footed, fat-tailed, amphibious rodents help countless other critters survive a heat wave. They not only drench certain landscapes in cold water but also help cool the air. They help make forests and grasslands less likely to burn.
It’s increasingly clear that these animals help safeguard ecosystems against the worst of climate change. Beavers are very much wildlife heroes in a warming world. We know that beavers build dams. But these structures are so much more than just a pile of sticks laid across a stream. They’re hydrological wonders.
Dams form ponds, widen rivers, and create wetlands, building all kinds of aquatic habitats that many other animals like birds and frogs rely on. Beavers are the ecosystem engineers of the animal world.
Because every ecosystem is unique, beavers can have different effects on the environment depending on where they are located.
More than just spreading water around, beavers’ dams also help cool it down. Dams can deepen streams, and deeper layers of water tend to be cooler. As streams run into these structures, they can start to carve into the river bed. So, there can be, for example, a six-foot-deep pool behind a three-foot-high beaver dam.
Dams also help force cold groundwater to the surface. Made of sticks, leaves, and mud, dams block water as it rushes downstream, forcing some of it to travel underground, where it mixes with chillier groundwater before resurfacing. Scientists tell us that is really important for a lot of temperature-sensitive species like salmon and trout.
The presence of beaver dams can also help chill the air. As all that water in a beaver habitat starts to evaporate, the adjacent air cools down. Turning water into vapor requires energy, and some of that energy comes from the heat in the air. It essentially functions like an AC system sitting out there in the landscape, keeping the air temperature, 10 or 15 degrees cooler, which, scientists point out, is a sizable difference.
Beaver damming also plays a significant role in protecting surrounding vegetation during wildfires. By helping replenish the groundwater that humans rely on, beavers’ dams also provide insurance against droughts.
We need smart, out-of-the-box ways to defend against the worst effects of climate change. Instead of just relying on human-made technologies and infrastructure, we can also restore species like beavers to the landscape, working with nature, instead of against it. We need to make our cities and towns much more resilient, not unlike a habitat filled with beaver dams.
Enlisting beavers in the effort could be one such way forward. They are, after all, the only other species anywhere nearly as capable as humans at transforming a landscape.
Beavers aren’t like other animals. In captivity they have to be groomed daily and nurtured or they fail to thrive. They have to have a constant person to care for them and lots of time spent with them. Kinda like Earth herself.
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.
I am not a regular contributor to this column but found myself needing to express my concerns after a nearby event came to my attention. On Sept. 8 a brine truck carrying what was reported as drilling brine with zinc salts crashed on or near Mountaineer Highway near New Martinsville spilling 1260 gallons into a yard and a creek that leads to Little Fishing Creek which, of course leads to the Ohio River. Given the number of miles these brine trucks seem to travel in our part of the world it seems inevitable that these types of incidents are going to happen periodically. My concerns stem from the nature of the contents of these trucks and seeming lack of concern for this material entering our environment.
You don’t have to look far to find that the average level of radiation in the brine carried by these trucks is about 10 times the environmental discharge limit and 236 times the drinking water limit established by the EPA. Then you consider all the other contaminants like zinc, cadmium, arsenic, lead, benzene, and hundreds of others, it seems to be a witches brew unfit for any level of human or environmental exposure.
If this was an oil spill, measures would have been immediately deployed to contain the spill and clean it up, not so for brine spills. Brine is heavier than water, so the damage that is occurring beneath the surface is not apparent to us. Petrochemical-related facilities are already permitted to discharge over 500,000 pounds of toxic pollutants into the Ohio River Basin within Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia annually, so these spills just add to the already contaminated waters that serve us as a source of recreation and millions as a source of drinking water.
DIVING DEEPER
The reason brine spills are not treated with the same level of concern as oil spills may stem from the fact that brine is not considered a hazardous material even though it easily meets the standards. In 1988, political will urged by the petroleum industry forced the USEPA to exempt many substances used or produced by the petroleum industry from regulatory oversight. Since brine is not considered a hazardous material, haul trucks don’t require placarding and clean-up efforts are of little concern.
I could go into great depths about the impact “brine” will have to bottom dwelling organisms that form the basis for the food web in streams but suffice to say it is devastating.
There is little doubt that spills resulting from transporting brine are not the only source of brine contamination in the Ohio Valley, and frankly these types of spills may pale in comparison to other sources. Fracking waste that finds its way through fissures and comes to the surface or contaminates water supply aquifers, surfaces through old unplugged wells, or spills from pipelines or other sources have been documented.
The Mid-Ohio Valley was blessed with plentiful, clean water and little by little we seem determined to squander this vital resource. Let us not be complacent until it is too late and lament as in the well-known expression “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” – or as my grandfather would say, “nary a drop to drink.”
Thanks to many fact sources especially fractracker.org.
***
Vic Elam is an avid outdoorsman and contributor to organizations that share his concern for our environment and the children who we borrow it from.
Find Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action on the following social media:
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Celebrating failure
Dec 10, 2022
Aaron Dunbar
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Coca-Cola Presents: COP27 took place last month in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, presumably scheduled between the annual Foxes Guarding Henhouses Convention and Lockheed Martin’s World Peace Extravaganza 2022. About as much was accomplished here as one might expect of a climate change summit sponsored by the world’s largest multinational plastic polluter, and occasional patron of anti-labor paramilitary death squads in Latin America.
For those not in the know, Coca-Cola Presents: The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, is an annual summit at which the wealthy nations most responsible for the climate crisis pretend that there’s very little they can do about it which they aren’t already doing. Activist Greta Thunberg once succinctly summarized the results of every single Conference of the Parties since the first meeting in 1995 with the words “blah, blah, blah.”
The weeks leading up to this year’s summit saw the UN Environment Programme’s reassuring announcement that “no credible pathway to 1.5C” of warming currently exists, with that number being the theoretical limit of warming we can “safely” withstand while still maybe, possibly, perhaps avoiding the worst impacts of the climate crisis (though even this level will result in more of the deadly heatwaves, killer extreme weather events, sea level rise, and a litany of other consequences we’re already beginning to experience; current policies place us on track for somewhere closer to 2.7C of warming, which should see us well within the “hell on earth” range by the end of the century.)
One notable achievement of this year’s conference was the setup of a loss and damage fund supporting the global south as it continues to be ravaged by the unnatural disasters of a warming world. This is well overdue, given that the emissions of rich and powerful nations such as the United States, responsible for some 20% of all CO2 emissions since the Industrial Revolution, play an outsized role in climate tragedies so egregious as the wholesale destruction of entire nations- as in the case of the small Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu, 40% of whose capital city routinely finds itself underwater at high tide. And just on a side note, here’s a fun fact for you: the foreign minister of Tuvalu, Simon Kofe, recently announced that his would become the first ever digitized nation in the metaverse, in hopes of preserving its culture and continuing to function as a country once the real thing has been swallowed up by the sea. We truly are creating the best of all possible worlds for ourselves, are we not?
Even assuming rich nations do not attempt to weasel out of whatever commitments they make to poor nations (and you should not assume this), the achievement of this meager concession rings largely hollow considering the overwhelming failure of the conference-goers to reach any sort of meaningful agreement to phase out the use of fossil fuels. This feels somewhat akin to generously gifting your neighbor with a brand new garden hose, only to then carry on lobbing Molotov cocktails through their front window.
Furthermore, individuals describing the conference to the Guardian referred to COP27 as “the worst climate talks they had been involved in,” and stated that they were “untransparent, unpredictable and chaotic.”
Naomi Klein, climate activist and author of “The Shock Doctrine,” has suggested that civil society organizations should boycott the next of such summits altogether. COP28 is scheduled to take place at the end of November 2023 in, of all places, the United Arab Emirates, one of the largest producers of oil on the planet. One can scarcely fathom the new and innovative levels of “blah blah blah” and greenwashing that might be achieved at such a venue. Why, Klein asks in a Twitter thread, “should civil society expend the carbon, money, and time to join them just to declare it a failure all over again?”
And “failure” truly is the only way to describe it.
Last year around this time, when writing about COP26, I noted that: “It’s been estimated that more than half of our 1.5 trillion tonnes of CO2 emissions since 1751 have been produced in the past thirty years alone — more or less the exact same period that UNFCCC parties have been meeting every year to work on ‘fixing the problem.’”
If nothing else, it would seem that this year’s summit has upheld the proud tradition of doing nothing while the world burns. And by all indications, the stuffed shirts in their fancy meetings have no intention of bucking said tradition anytime soon, as they carry on with the happy, lucrative business of razing our planet to the ground.
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Diversity is the spice of life
Dec 3, 2022
Vic Elam
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
OK, so I took a little liberty with this common axiom, but I will make the case. It has been repeatedly shown that an environment that maintains its native diversity is healthier than an environment that has lost its diversity. In terms of environmental diversity, I refer to plant/animal/soil and so on health, and what some refer to as species richness.
Modern corporate forestry practices that clear cut and replace with a monoculture of seedlings that grow into forests that support little flora and animal diversity, are prone to disease, often deplete soils, result in greater erosion, can influence local climatic conditions, resulting in frequent and ferocious wildfire, and also sequester less carbon than healthy diverse forest. There is a reason that when you walk through a normal forest you find yourself immersed in a variety of trees, those trees established where they are due to small variations in soil, moisture, sunlight, presence of other trees, etc., and this variety of trees support each other. Exceptions such as aspen groves are still a product of the forest conditions that are influenced by the forest as a whole.
Grasslands, like forests remain healthy and productive with the full complement of a diverse array of plants. Forested areas that have been cleared and converted to grassland are devoid of the seed bank that provides the basis of a healthy grassland and are generally less productive or require fertilizer to boost productivity and are vulnerable to invasion by invasive plants. Unfortunately, some farmers feel that their pastures are not in good condition unless they can look across a solid stand of grass that is uninterrupted by milkweed, leadplant, coneflower, butterflyweed, and many other plants that are beneficial to the soil and work in concert with grasses to provide healthy pastures. Farmers often apply a broadleaf herbicide to their pastures that eliminates all broad leaf plants and leaves only grasses, greatly reducing valuable diversity.
It takes a diversity of pollinators such as bees, butterflies, birds, even bats to do the necessary work of completing the reproductive process required for many plants. Many animals have a role to play in spreading seeds and passing seeds in a process required to allow those seeds to be viable (scarifying). There are many processes in nature that require the interrelationships between plants, between animals, and between plants and animals that are pivotal in their continued existence – symbiotic relationships. When we lose diversity, those relationships are severed, and we lose the health of our ecosystems.
The health of our climate and diversity are inexorably linked. Even the casual observer can see the impact that climate change is having on diversity. A close observation reveals alarming declines in diversity, part of which is associated with the spread of invasive plants and animals, some is due to climatic conditions becoming unfavorable for certain species, and many other factors.
Certainly, the effects of climate change have a direct and obvious impact to human populations from weather events such as drought. I would argue that self-imposed impacts to humans linked to diversity and its impact on the ecosystems on which we rely to provide us food, oxygen, clean water, and shelter may be as critical as any weather phenomenon that we are or will experience. I think that we will find that anything that we can do to reduce our impact and stave off the worst impacts of climate change are worthy endeavors. Each of us can play a part and collectively make a world of difference.
***
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: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Climate change – as American as apple pie?
Nov 26, 2022
Linda Eve Seth
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.” — Jane Austen
***
What does Climate Change have to do with apple pie?
I am sitting in my kitchen as I write this column, when I should be prepping for holiday meals. My mind wanders and my hands still as I contemplate the impact of Climate Change on our food supply. I think about apple pie; that most American of desserts is just one example of a multi-ingredient delicacy that will become harder to produce in a climate-ravaged future.
While the trees seem to do all the work producing our favorite fall fruit, their sweet flavor can become impacted by changes in weather and climate. Consider these facts: Although apples are hardy, big temperature extremes can be detrimental to orchard crops, as can severe storm elements. Above-average rainfall can cause both good and bad impacts on apples. Dry weather yields smaller and sweeter tasting apples. Environmental impacts like climate change, wildfire smoke and pollution are additional challenges for farmers.
While it is possible to grow apples in warmer climates, apples grow best in regions where the temperature rarely increases above 90 degrees. Warmer-than-normal temperatures can cause an early bloom that leads to changes in apple firmness and acid concentration levels. Too much heat and sun can actually “sunburn” apples. Excessive heat can alter an apple’s color, leaving it pink or brown instead of red. A softer fruit may result from a number of high heat degree days. Rather than crisp and juicy, the apple may take on a mushy or mealy texture.
Besides the fruit, several of the ingredients for that most detectable dessert, apple pie, are impacted by Climate Change, including white sugar, brown sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla.
Studies show that both sugar cane and flour production will be affected by warming temperatures. At first sugar cane production may (temporarily) begin to increase as some areas warm and the range of the sugar crop is extended, allowing the sugar cane to grow in new regions and for extended seasons. Ultimately, however, it is thought that production could drop as much as 60% in the long run.
It is predicted that wheat production may actually increase over time, but that will involve moving wheat agriculture from the American mid-west to Europe, Asia, and South America.
Spices like cinnamon and nutmeg are grown in specific tropical locations, making them particularly susceptible to changing weather conditions. Nutmeg trees, for example, have very shallow roots. This can be troublesome when combined with the fact that increased hurricane frequency and intensity have already begun to damage existing nutmeg farms and processing plants.
Madagascar and Sri Lanka both have economies that are very dependent on vanilla and cinnamon (respectively) which means their economies would be devastated by large decreases in production. Both of these island nations are likely facing increased droughts, wildfires, and higher risks of flooding due to rising sea levels and tsunamis, all of which would threaten their food security and agricultural productivity.
People working in the food industry in this country and across the world are trying to come up with solutions that prioritize crop resilience and adaptability. For example, methods are being developed to address specific vulnerabilities in nutmeg farms, and alternatives are being developed for crops which are so threatened, like vanilla and cinnamon.
As seasons lose their familiar distinguishing characteristics due to shifting climatic patterns, traditional markers for their arrival will do the same. New leaves and dogwood trees in the spring, watermelons, peaches, and corn in the summer, apples, pumpkins, and brilliant colors in the fall, snowmen in the winter… all of these things may be a thing of the past by the year 2050. Apple pie is, of course, just one handy example of a favorite food that may become a victim of Climate Change.
For now, in 2022, enjoy the holiday feast. Indulge in at least one piece of pie, and remember to appreciate all we have … while we still have it. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.
Until next time, be kind to your Mother Earth.
***
Linda Eve Seth, SLP, M.Ed. is a mother, grandmother, concerned citizen, and member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Is going nuclear really the right option?
Nov 19, 2022
Randi Pokladnik
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
As the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) meetings wrap up in Egypt, citizens around the world realize that we can no longer base our economies on carbon fuels. Many nations are embracing renewable energy. Sweden is leading the way to become the first nation to be 100% powered by renewable energy.
Although a few countries like France still push nuclear power, a 2020 study in Nature Energy stated, “Nuclear is simply too expensive, too time-consuming, and too dangerous a technology to compete with renewables as an alternative to decarbonize the global economy.”
I have never been a proponent of nuclear energy. Some of my angst can be traced back to my days as a grade school student in the Cold War era of the 1960s. We practiced nuclear drills and viewed films of nuclear detonations. One film showed American soldiers on the Bikini Atoll Islands chaining various animals to a test area. After the bomb was detonated, the soldiers returned to the site to ascertain the damage done to those poor animals.
In the late 1990s, I had the opportunity to visit the nuclear library of Los Alamos, New Mexico. This was just after President Clinton’s Energy Secretary, Hazel O’ Leary, had declassified hundreds of nuclear research documents. One group of documents represented over 400 experiments carried out on humans, many of them without informed consent. One document, “American Nuclear Guinea Pigs: Three Decades of Radiation Experiments on U.S. Citizens,” described various experiments performed on populations within our society including mentally handicapped people, prisoners, soldiers and the elderly.
The nuclear industry has earned a reputation of being deceptive and untrustworthy. Russia initially tried to hide the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor which resulted in an explosion that blew over ten tons of radioactive debris and fuel into the atmosphere.
“As of January 2018, 1.8 million people in Ukraine, including 377,589 children, had the status of victims of the disaster.” Health effects are still occurring even in populations outside the contamination zone.
Until the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear accident, Chernobyl was the worst nuclear disaster in history. The Japanese reactor accident was a result of faulty safety equipment. An earthquake triggered tsunami caused a loss of power, rendering the cooling systems inoperable. Three reactors were heavily damaged. In September of this year, Japan announced plans to release 1.3 million tons of stored radioactive water which had been used to cool the damaged reactors. Neighboring countries like China and South Korea have expressed deep concerns over releasing this radioactive water into the fragile Pacific ecosystem.
The USA witnessed its own nuclear accident when in the early morning hours of March 28, 1979, the Unit 2 reactor of the Three-Mile Island Power Plant in Londonderry Township, PA experienced a partial meltdown. Studies show that the accident exposed the failures of cooling water systems and the lack of adequate training.
Mark Jacobson, a professor at Stanford University has pointed out many of the downsides of nuclear power. One that especially resonates with me is the exposure of indigenous communities which find themselves living and working at Uranium mines in the western states. Navaho People traveled from reservations to mines to seek work, often relocating their families to the mine camps. Although mining of Uranium peaked in the late 1950s, the area remains hazardous as more than 1000 abandoned Uranium mine shafts leak radiation.
Another major issue with nuclear energy is the disposal of the highly radioactive wastes. Even the Small Modular Reactors (SMR) which produce less than 300 MW of electricity will generate dangerous radioactive wastes. A peer reviewed study published in March 2022 stated, “SMRs will produce more voluminous and chemically/physically reactive waste than Light Water Reactors, which will impact options for disposal of the waste.”
There is a proposal to dump high level radioactive wastes into granite, limestone and salt formations in the Great Lakes Basin. This would jeopardize the drinking water of over 40,000,000 people. Additionally, it will cost $ 4.5 billion to clean up the nuclear waste nightmare at the now-closed nuclear fuel enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio.
Opting for nuclear energy over fossil fuels would just be trading one danger for another. The best choice for energy independence and sustainability by far are green, renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Isn’t it time the United States takes a leadership role in transitioning to safe, sustainable alternative energy sources?
***
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: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Public policy must do better
Nov 12, 2022
Eric Engle
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
A recent piece in The Washington Post included the fact that, “Carbon dioxide concentrations in 2021 were 415.7 parts per million (or ppm), methane at 1908 parts per billion (ppb) and nitrous oxide at 334.5 ppb. Theses values represented 149%, 262% and 124% of preindustrial levels, respectively.”
“Scientists warn that if the world is to have a chance of reaching net zero carbon [and equivalent] emissions by 2050 and so prevent the breaching of the 1.5C limit [of temperature rise over a preindustrial baseline in the Paris Climate Accords], global emissions will have to be cut by 5% to 7% a year. At present, emissions are rising between 1% and 2% a year with little sign of that increase being halted,” reads a recent piece in The Guardian.
We’re in deep trouble when it comes to preserving a habitable planet by maintaining a stable climate system and we are not reaching the goals we’ve set for working our way out of this trouble. That has to be said. But that’s not the end of the story. The change we need starts with each and every one of us in our homes and our communities. While we should all be keeping a close eye on the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) going on in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt this week, we have to recognize that how we ourselves live and vote and use our voices matter tremendously.
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed earlier this year, was a mixed bag at best, with environmental justice communities actively harmed by some of its provisions, but it will make renewable energy and energy efficiency measures more affordable and accessible for millions of Americans. More Americans will now be able to afford to better insulate their homes; replace windows; replace gas utilities with heat pumps (which both heat and cool homes and dwellings), induction stoves, and electric water heaters; purchase EVs and install at-home car charging; install solar panels or take advantage of community solar; and take advantage of other renewable energy like wind.
Important legislation has also passed in West Virginia as far as accessibility to solar, and more should be passed next session in the WV State Legislature. House Bill 3310, passed in last year’s legislative session, exempted solar power purchase agreements from the Public Service Commission’s jurisdiction. Power purchase agreements allow a developer to arrange and design and handle the permitting and installation of a solar energy system for a customer with little or no up front cost. Senate Bill 583 passed in 2020, which opened up the state for utility-scale solar development. House Bill 4561 did not pass last session but should be reintroduced and passed in the upcoming session to allow electric customers to subscribe to community solar through a solar facility and use credits against their electricity costs.
We need more by way of public policy and public and private financing to upgrade our grids, install far more renewable energy nationwide, adopt sustainable agricultural practices and more sustainable development measures, and to reduce pollution and contamination, especially that caused by plastics and petrochemicals. For these things to become realities, we will need to vote accordingly. I hope that as you read this you will have voted earlier in the week with climate change, sustainability, biodiversity loss, and pollution and contamination crises in mind.
Egalitarian democracy (i.e. “one person, one vote”) is so important to sustaining a habitable planet and protecting and preserving all the thriving life we can. So are critical and analytical thinking skills and the open and unfettered exchange of ideas. For these reason, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action supported the Parkersburg & Wood County Library levy and the Wood County Schools levies on the ballot this week.
There are those who have been attacking our library system and librarians and attacking one of the educators in one of our county schools. My hope at publication is that the levies for our library and schools passed this week, providing them with critical funding, and that those who threaten democracy and liberty have lost and continue to lose in their efforts.
***
Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Time to end unhealthy relationship with fossil fuels
Nov 5, 2022
George Banziger
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
I appreciate fossil fuels. They heated my various homes over the years, got me to my office every day during my work life, took me on several exciting vacations, and gave me a lot of petroleum-based products for my home. But it is time to end my friendship with fossil fuels and, I hope, for others too.
What is leading me to terminate this friendship is climate change. Oceans are rising, getting warmer, and more acidic; glaciers are receding; droughts and wildfires are becoming more serious; the atmosphere is getting warmer; and extreme weather is increasingly bringing us death and devastation. We can see the effects locally–the average temperature in West Virginia has risen to 55 degrees from 1950 to 2021. Fully 97% of scientists agree that human activity is the cause of these compelling observations about our climate.
One of the ways to bring this friendship with fossil fuels to an end is to eliminate or reduce government subsidies of these forms of energy.
Those who typically oppose government intervention in the free market have asserted that our federal government is supporting renewable sources of energy and that without such support the markets would not sustain these costs of investing in solar and wind sources. In her book, “Saving Us,” evangelical climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, describes the massive support that our government has provided and still provides to the fossil fuel industry.
The U.S. is second only to China in supporting these industries. These government supports come in the form of tax breaks and cash grants, such as subsidies for exploration. The cost of these direct subsidies amounts to $20 billion per year (20% for coal and 80% for oil and gas). The Environmental Energy Study Institute (2019) estimates that the total cost of fossil fuel subsidies is $5.3 trillion when negative externalities, such as carbon emissions, health costs, are considered. Direct subsidies include drilling-cost reductions, percentage depletion, credit for clean coal investment. Indirect costs include foreign tax credits, mass limited partnerships (to make energy companies exempt from corporate taxes), and domestic manufacturing deduction. The industry further profits from below-market value for extraction of oil and gas on public lands.
In addition, our government, through its military, invests millions of dollars in the protection of oil and gas resources in places like the Middle East and the Gulf states. We compromise our important values of human rights with the support of oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia.
The fossil-fuel industry tries to present natural gas as a vital bridge to help utilities make the transition from coal-fired power to cleaner sources of energy. What they say is that gas-fired power plants can back up wind- and solar-based power that run intermittently. But battery technology is advancing rapidly to fill that gap as is smart-grid technology to move electricity from where the sun shines and wind blows to where they don’t.
Continuing and expanding natural gas extraction, especially through hydraulic fracturing (i.e., fracking) in this region, means for places like Washington County, Ohio, more waste products. Washington County leads the state in the injection of toxic and radioactive brine waste. Many residents of the county have said about brine waste, “Enough is enough!” We don’t want to subsidize this industry disproportionately and unfairly.
Those concerned about climate change assert that plans for massive expansion of oil and gas resources, in this period of high prices, could essentially lock us into a world of high greenhouse gas emissions and accelerating climate change (methane from natural gas is 80 times as powerful in the near term as a greenhouse gas as CO2). If the industry were to implement these investments in fossil fuels, the climate impact, including methane leaks, would surpass that of all coal-fired power plants under construction or in pre-construction planning, according to a 2021 report by Global Energy Monitor.
With the assistance of these government subsidies, the U.S. energy companies are expanding gas production and transport capacity to reach global markets. The effect of these ventures will be to reduce the cost of natural gas in other markets but increase these costs in the U.S., contributing to high energy prices at home and to inflation.
We need to switch our federal priorities from gratuities to fossil-fuel companies to a carbon fee married to a dividend that goes directly to American taxpayers. By reducing these subsidies and introducing a carbon fee, we can limit our dependence on this fossil fuel and transfer to lower-cost clean energy alternatives like solar and wind power and adopt energy-efficiency practices. Such a strategy will improve the environment, our collective health, and our bank accounts.
***
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, Citizens Climate Lobby, and of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Suggested Readings for November 2022
MOVCA October 2022 Selected Media Postings
Compiled by Cindy Taylor
Appearing on-line in the Charleston Gazette-Mail:
October 27, 2022 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“Feds take input on $1 billion program for rural energy upgrades, including microgrids eyed for larger populations in WV”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/feds-take-input-on-1-billion-program-for-rural-energy-upgrades-including-microgrids-eyed-for/article_3a43ab3d-15ee-590f-be0d-592b43a65fc6.html
October 20, 2022 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“WV environmental groups press case challenging DEP water quality certification for Mountain Valley Pipeline”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/wv-environmental-groups-press-case-challenging-dep-water-quality-certification-for-mountain-valley-pipeline/article_f1b8fec7-914c-5905-847c-bc0fa9ddf7d3.html
October 14, 2022 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“West Virginia faces toxic aftermath of industrial water pollution as Clean Water Act turns 50”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/west-virginia-faces-toxic-aftermath-of-industrial-water-pollution-as-clean-water-act-turns-50/article_62939d32-d3ad-5382-95bc-b83ef48c4f45.html
October 13, 2022 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“House speaker touts nuclear option for WV amid transition from coal”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/house-speaker-touts-nuclear-option-for-wv-amid-transition-from-coal/article_69051d4e-0bd4-55f3-85a9-5855dc545e36.html
October 8, 2022 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“Amid high industry-fueled health risks, WV officials objected to tighter methane regulations with new EPA rule in pipeline”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/amid-high-industry-fueled-health-risks-wv-officials-objected-to-tighter-methane-regulations-with-new/article_ed622cd4-bfc3-586f-8d75-6692647636fe.html
October 7, 2022 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“Nation’s largest gas well owner says DEP agreement shields it from plugging responsibility in WV landowner lawsuit”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/nations-largest-gas-well-owner-says-dep-agreement-shields-it-from-plugging-responsibility-in-wv/article_4819c241-562e-5c60-b06f-065aea6a64ff.html
October 3, 2022 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“West Virginia eyes electric vehicle infrastructure buildout with $45 million plan”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/west-virginia-eyes-electric-vehicle-infrastructure-buildout-with-45-million-plan/article_08a7f9e3-3998-5cf9-a366-8a0b9bba7ca4.html
Appearing on WTAP:
October 28, 2022 Article by Cathy Bussewitz
“Oil giants rake in record profits amid high energy prices”
https://www.wtap.com/2022/10/28/oil-giant-exxon-rakes-record-1966-billion-profits/#l9t7x2aul6ujv07d0t
Appearing on-line on Ohio River Valley Institute https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org :
October 13, 2022 Research article by Sean O’Leary
“Inflation & Natural Gas: A Disease and its Carrier”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/inflation-natural-gas-a-disease-and-its-carrier/
October 12, 2022 Article by Ben Hunkler
“Industry is Misleading the Public on Carbon Capture, Internal Documents Show”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/industry-is-misleading-the-public-on-carbon-capture-internal-documents-show/
October 4, 2022 Article by Ben Hunkler
“ORVI Makes Waves at the 2022 Global Clean Energy Action Forum”
Appearing on-line on WV Public Broadcasting or WOUB (PBS) or NPR:
October 27, 2022 Climate Article by Lauren Sommer and 3min. audio heard on All things Considered
“Here’s how far behind the world is on reining in climate change”
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/27/1131687504/heres-how-far-behind-the-world-is-on-reining-in-climate-change
October 26, 2022 Associated Press Climate Article
“Greenhouse gases reach a new record as nations fall behind on climate pledges”
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/26/1131671933/greenhouse-gases-record-climate-pledges-un
October 24, 2022 Investigative Report by Laura Sullivan. Text and 4 min. audio heard on All Things Considered
“Recycling plastic is practically impossible- and the problem is getting worse”
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic-is-practically-impossible-and-the-problem-is-getting-worse
October 18, 2022 Climate Article by Juanpablo Ramiriz-Franco & Eva Tesfaye
“Mississippi River Basin adapts as climate change brings extreme rain and flooding”
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1127966940/mississippi-river-basin-adapts-as-climate-change-brings-extreme-rain-and-floodin
October 17, 2022 Business article by Dave Mistch Text and 7-Minute Audio (heard on All Things Considered)
“Coal companies use bankruptcy and asset transfers to shed obligations”
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/17/1128354266/coal-companies-use-bankruptcy-and-asset-transfers-to-shed-obligations
October 14, 2022 News article by Alexa Beyer/Ohio Valley ReSource
“The Biden administration has yet to finish a key review of mountaintop removal’s health impacts”
Available from West Virginia Rivers:
October 19, 2022 Article by Morgan King, climate campaign coordinator
“Climate is on the ballot this November”
October 12, 2022 Article with link to take Action: Send Comments to the EPA on Toxic PFAS by November 7, 2022
“EPA: Designate Toxic PFAS as Hazardous Substances”
See WV Rivers Climate Video Library: “Learn more about climate change and its impacts and solutions by exploring gallery of videos, webinars, forums and press conferences.” Includes links to 2022 Climate Candidate Forums; Webinars; WV Climate Alliance Videos; and WV Rivers Climate & Water Webinar Series.
October 25, 2022 Dunbar: Energy, Jobs, & Justice: Candidate Forum, West Virginia State University
October 2, 2022 Morgantown: Energy, Jobs, & Justice: Candidate Forum, West Virginia University
September 13, 2022 Huntington: Energy, Jobs, & Justice: Candidate Forum, Marshall University
Available on West Virginia Center on Climate Change (WV3C):
News: Webinar Programs are Successful! Links provided to webinars.
October 3, 2022 Hybrid program at U. of Charleston, WV
“2022 and the Climate Crisis – What Happened , and What’s Ahead?”
NATIONAL ATTENTION & Relevant to our region:
Available from FrackCheckWV:
October 12, 2022 Article by Randi Pokladnik
“Plastics Industry is Promoting Bogus Recycling Schemes: Another False Solution for Plastic Pollution”
https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/10/12/plastics-industry-is-promoting-bogus-chemical-recycling-schemes/
Available online from The Guardian:
October 23, 2022 Article by Nina Lakhani
“Exposure to environmental toxins may be root of rise in neurological disorders” Doctors warn exposure to omnipresent yet poorly understood chemicals such as microplastics could play role in dementia.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/23/environmental-toxins-neurological-disorders-parkinsons-alzheimers
October 12, 2022 Article by Tom Perkins
“US firms exploiting Trump-era loophole over toxic ‘forever chemicals’” Study finds chemical companies dodging federal law designed to track how many PFAS plants are pumping into environment
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/12/pfas-toxic-forever-chemicals-trump-era-loophole
Available on Inside Climate News:
October 16, 2022 Fossil Fuels Article by Jon Hurdle
“Environmentalists Fear a Massive New Plastics Plant Near Pittsburgh Will Worsen Pollution and Stimulate Fracking” Shell facility opening soon has been granted a permit to emit more volatile organic compounds than the Clairton Cole Works, a notorious polluter.
RESOURCES, RESEARCH, and SOLUTIONS:
Available from CIEL (Center for International Environmental Law):
October 2022: Article about CIEL’s new REPORT with links to the report, executive summary and explanatory video
Fossils, Fertilizers, and False Solutions: How Laundering Fossil Fuels in Agrochemicals Puts the Climate and the Planet at Risk
Available on The WashingtonPost.com:
October 31, 2022 Analysis by Vanessa Montalbano
“For Gen Z voters, combating climate change is top of mind”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/31/gen-z-voters-combating-climate-change-is-top-mind/
October 10, 2022 Analysis by Maxine Joselow with research by Vanessa Montalbano
“Half of voters say climate change is important in midterms, poll finds”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/10/half-voters-say-climate-change-is-important-midterms-poll-finds/
Available on Climate Central:
October 11, 2022 Climate Matters summary of REPORT
“Billion-Dollar Disasters in 2022”
https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/billion-dollar-disasters-in-2022
Available from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information):
October 11, 2022 Overview of REPORT from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
“Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters”
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/overview
Available from WATERKEEPER Alliance:
October 18, 2022 Waterkeeper Alliance Press Release about PFAS STUDY
“Unprecedented Analysis Reveals PFAS Contamination in U.S. Waterways Shows Shocking Levels of Contamination”
Available on PV magazine:
October 27, 2022 Article by Beatriz Santos
“New solar capacity 10 times cheaper than gas, says Rystad”
October 17, 2022 Article by Ryan Kennedy
“Rooftop wind energy innovation claims 505 more energy than solar at same cost” BASF is currently testing Aeromine Technologies’ patented motionless wind-harvesting system.
Available on The New York Times:
October 19, 2022 Future of Transportation Article by Eric A. Taub
“E.V.s Start With a Bigger Carbon Footprint. But That Doesn’t Last.” The manufacturing and disposal of electric vehicles result in more greenhouse gasses than nonelectric models, but that difference will eventually disappear altogether.
Available on UPI:
October 26, 2022 Science News Article by Daniel J. Graeber
“NASA satellites identify more than 50 methane ‘super emitters’” NASA found several huge plumes of methane using imagery technology installed on the International Space Station
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2022/10/26/nasa-methane-iss-emit/7261666792546/
Available on NASA’s Global Climate Change:
October 25, 2022 Article by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – media contacts: Andrew Wang and Jane J. Lee
“Methane ‘Super-Emitters’ Mapped by NASA’s New Earth Space Mission”
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3228/methane-super-emitters-mapped-by-nasas-new-earth-space-mission/
October 12, 2022 Article by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – media contacts: Andrew Wang and Jane J. Lee
“NASA Dust Detective Delivers First Maps From Space for Climate Science” Measurements from EMIT, the Earth Surface Dust Source Investigation, will improve computer simulations researchers use to understand climate change.
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3223/nasa-dust-detective-delivers-first-maps-from-space-for-climate-science/
Available on Common Dreams:
October 23, 2022 Article by Andy Rowell
“Ahead of COP27, Big Oil Climate Denial More Potent Than Ever”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/10/23/ahead-cop27-big-oil-climate-denial-more-potent-ever
Available online from The Guardian:
October 30, 2022 Science Article in The Observer by Robin McKie
“Cop27 climate summit: window for avoiding catastrophe is closing fast”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/30/cop27-climate-summit-window-for-avoiding-catastrophe-is-closing-fast
Available on Yale Climate Connections:
October 28, 2022 by YCC Team
“U.S. coal use is falling, but some communities still bear pollution burden” A recent study of 11 states finds that natural gas plants are disproportionately located in communities of color and low-income areas. Text and 1:30 min. audio
October 28, 2022 Commentary by Kathleen Dean Moore
“Commentary: How a quiz helps people find their preferred role in climate action” Part personality, part decision tree, part choose-your-own-adventure, a new tool aims to help people find the climate action best suited for them.
October 2, 2022 Article by Kathleen Dean Moore and SueEllen Campbell
“What can YOU do about climate change? Take this quiz to find out.“ Everyone has a special role in the struggle for a stable climate. What’s yours? The authors offer some questions to help you find it.
A NEW BOOK TO READ TO/WITH KIDS:
Announced on Yale Climate Connections (YCC):
October 24, 2022 Article and 1:30 audio by YCC Team. Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media
“New Book helps parents have ‘the climate talk’ with kids” It stars a squirrel named Coco.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Climate, war and existential threats
Oct 29, 2022
Aaron Dunbar
Jeffery Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, was recently a speaker at the Athens Democracy Forum in Athens, Greece. When comparing the primary forms of government among major world superpowers such as China and Russia, Sachs made a point to note that “You can be democratic at home and ruthlessly imperial abroad. The most violent country in the world since 1950 has been the United States.”
Here he was promptly cut off by the moderator, but was nonetheless greeted with applause from the audience.
I first became involved in climate activism for a very simple reason. The climate crisis was, without exaggeration, the single greatest existential threat being faced by humanity. It was the issue upon which all other issues hinged, ranging from racial justice and immigration, to healthcare and class inequality, and so much more. A stable society, essentially, is dependent on a stable environment.
And while I still absolutely believe all of this to be the case, it is now undeniable to me that the imminence of the climate crisis has, at least temporarily, been overshadowed by a danger far more immediate and destructive, which doesn’t seem to be attracting even a sliver of the attention of those professing to be the most dedicated to protecting our biosphere- namely, the threat of nuclear war.
Early this month, President Biden finally admitted (albeit to donors behind closed doors, rather than to the general public), that the world is now at its greatest risk for nuclear armageddon since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
One might hope that, given such a grim assessment, the U.S. might show some glimmer of an interest in seeking a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine, rather than pumping an endless torrent of military aid into what U.S. officials have essentially admitted is a proxy war against Russia. An act which, it’s worth noting, Vladimir Putin has been quite emphatic about considering an act of provocation on our part.
Instead, the U.S. has now deployed the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Europe for the first time since World War II, and is “fully prepared” to enter Ukraine and attack Russia, should the situation escalate.
A minuscule smattering of Democrats, who would falsely declare themselves to be the more anti-war party of America’s political system (in reality, no actual anti-war movement exists in America), did feebly sign onto a letter urging President Biden to pursue a diplomatic solution to the war.
Said letter was released this week, was met with an avalanche of criticism from the majority of the Democratic Party, and was then promptly retracted when progressives went scurrying back on the issue with their tails between their legs, as is so often their preferred tactic when pretending to take on the corrupt establishment.
It shouldn’t need to be reiterated at this point just how unfathomably, viciously destructive the use of a singular nuclear weapon would be. I shouldn’t have to paint a picture of the thousands upon thousands of instant deaths at the moment of impact, the horrific cancerous after effects, or the lands made uninhabitable by these instruments of sheer destruction. But apparently, those respectable types pursuing “U.S. interests” on our behalf seem to have forgotten these risks- or, more than likely, they simply do not care.
America’s participation in this war has never been about saving the lives of Ukrainians, despite politicians, media outlets, and the military industrial complex manufacturing the public’s consent by exploiting the genuine, humanitarian impulses of everyday people. Our warmongering military officials, all the way up to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, have explicitly stated that their intention in being involved in Ukraine is simply to try and weaken Russia. Biden’s comparisons to the Cuban Missile Crisis behind closed doors make it abundantly clear that the risks of further pursuing this goal now vastly outweigh whatever supposed “benefits” our warlords might once have hoped to gain.
No human being who is concerned about the climate crisis should remain silent on this issue. Our unhinged military’s neverending bloodlust and these psychotic games of nuclear chicken are as great, if not greater threats than the heating of our planet due to greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, these hegemonic shows of force are only likely to grow more intense and more dangerous as the planet warms, and geopolitical tensions are amplified. We must rise up against the lifelong conditioning and propaganda of American empire that have left us silent on matters of war and nuclear destruction, much as we’ve done against the onslaught of disinformation from the fossil fuel industry, if we are to leave this planet in a habitable state for future generations.
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Leave it to beavers
Oct 22, 2022
Linda Eve Seth
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
“The beaver told the rabbit as they stared at the Hoover Dam: ‘No, I didn’t build it myself, but it’s based on an idea of mine.’” — Charles Hard Townes
***
If you know any facts about beavers, it’s probably that the toothy rodents are known for being industrious. Most famously, they build dams. These giant structures made of sticks, stones, and mud can reach heights up to 10 feet and lengths averaging 20 feet. The biggest one ever found was in Alberta, Canada, and could be seen from space. As reported in 2010, it was a half- mile long.
As it turns out, these natural engineers may well be humans’ natural allies in efforts to confront climate change.
Beaver dams completely alter the landscape, flooding the surrounding area, and creating wetlands. It’s one reason beavers have often been considered pests that can cause serious damage when they build dams too close to homes or roads.
Scientists have understood beavers’ importance for decades. Studies are finding that beavers play a vital role in dampening the effects of the worsening climate crisis, especially in areas prone to fire, drought, and heat waves.
These web-footed, fat-tailed, amphibious rodents help countless other critters survive a heat wave. They not only drench certain landscapes in cold water but also help cool the air. They help make forests and grasslands less likely to burn.
It’s increasingly clear that these animals help safeguard ecosystems against the worst of climate change. Beavers are very much wildlife heroes in a warming world. We know that beavers build dams. But these structures are so much more than just a pile of sticks laid across a stream. They’re hydrological wonders.
Dams form ponds, widen rivers, and create wetlands, building all kinds of aquatic habitats that many other animals like birds and frogs rely on. Beavers are the ecosystem engineers of the animal world.
Because every ecosystem is unique, beavers can have different effects on the environment depending on where they are located.
More than just spreading water around, beavers’ dams also help cool it down. Dams can deepen streams, and deeper layers of water tend to be cooler. As streams run into these structures, they can start to carve into the river bed. So, there can be, for example, a six-foot-deep pool behind a three-foot-high beaver dam.
Dams also help force cold groundwater to the surface. Made of sticks, leaves, and mud, dams block water as it rushes downstream, forcing some of it to travel underground, where it mixes with chillier groundwater before resurfacing. Scientists tell us that is really important for a lot of temperature-sensitive species like salmon and trout.
The presence of beaver dams can also help chill the air. As all that water in a beaver habitat starts to evaporate, the adjacent air cools down. Turning water into vapor requires energy, and some of that energy comes from the heat in the air. It essentially functions like an AC system sitting out there in the landscape, keeping the air temperature, 10 or 15 degrees cooler, which, scientists point out, is a sizable difference.
Beaver damming also plays a significant role in protecting surrounding vegetation during wildfires. By helping replenish the groundwater that humans rely on, beavers’ dams also provide insurance against droughts.
We need smart, out-of-the-box ways to defend against the worst effects of climate change. Instead of just relying on human-made technologies and infrastructure, we can also restore species like beavers to the landscape, working with nature, instead of against it. We need to make our cities and towns much more resilient, not unlike a habitat filled with beaver dams.
Enlisting beavers in the effort could be one such way forward. They are, after all, the only other species anywhere nearly as capable as humans at transforming a landscape.
Beavers aren’t like other animals. In captivity they have to be groomed daily and nurtured or they fail to thrive. They have to have a constant person to care for them and lots of time spent with them. Kinda like Earth herself.
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: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: How much are you willing to tolerate?
Oct 15, 2022
Vic Elam
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
I am not a regular contributor to this column but found myself needing to express my concerns after a nearby event came to my attention. On Sept. 8 a brine truck carrying what was reported as drilling brine with zinc salts crashed on or near Mountaineer Highway near New Martinsville spilling 1260 gallons into a yard and a creek that leads to Little Fishing Creek which, of course leads to the Ohio River. Given the number of miles these brine trucks seem to travel in our part of the world it seems inevitable that these types of incidents are going to happen periodically. My concerns stem from the nature of the contents of these trucks and seeming lack of concern for this material entering our environment.
You don’t have to look far to find that the average level of radiation in the brine carried by these trucks is about 10 times the environmental discharge limit and 236 times the drinking water limit established by the EPA. Then you consider all the other contaminants like zinc, cadmium, arsenic, lead, benzene, and hundreds of others, it seems to be a witches brew unfit for any level of human or environmental exposure.
If this was an oil spill, measures would have been immediately deployed to contain the spill and clean it up, not so for brine spills. Brine is heavier than water, so the damage that is occurring beneath the surface is not apparent to us. Petrochemical-related facilities are already permitted to discharge over 500,000 pounds of toxic pollutants into the Ohio River Basin within Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia annually, so these spills just add to the already contaminated waters that serve us as a source of recreation and millions as a source of drinking water.
DIVING DEEPER
The reason brine spills are not treated with the same level of concern as oil spills may stem from the fact that brine is not considered a hazardous material even though it easily meets the standards. In 1988, political will urged by the petroleum industry forced the USEPA to exempt many substances used or produced by the petroleum industry from regulatory oversight. Since brine is not considered a hazardous material, haul trucks don’t require placarding and clean-up efforts are of little concern.
I could go into great depths about the impact “brine” will have to bottom dwelling organisms that form the basis for the food web in streams but suffice to say it is devastating.
There is little doubt that spills resulting from transporting brine are not the only source of brine contamination in the Ohio Valley, and frankly these types of spills may pale in comparison to other sources. Fracking waste that finds its way through fissures and comes to the surface or contaminates water supply aquifers, surfaces through old unplugged wells, or spills from pipelines or other sources have been documented.
The Mid-Ohio Valley was blessed with plentiful, clean water and little by little we seem determined to squander this vital resource. Let us not be complacent until it is too late and lament as in the well-known expression “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” – or as my grandfather would say, “nary a drop to drink.”
Thanks to many fact sources especially fractracker.org.
***
Vic Elam is an avid outdoorsman and contributor to organizations that share his concern for our environment and the children who we borrow it from.
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