Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate action group accepting youth ambassador applications

Feb 8, 2023 The Marietta Times

Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action (MOVCA) is now accepting applications for its Youth Climate Ambassador program for the coming school year. Students in the Mid-Ohio Valley who will be in grades 9-12 in the 2023-2024 academic year are eligible to apply.

Climate ambassadors will implement a community environmental project over the course of the academic year in either their school or the larger community to address a climate-related issue. MOVCA provides up to $250 for project expenses.

Projects will be proposed by the students based on their interests and developed with support from MOVCA’s program coordinator and a teacher-mentor. The program will also help students develop the organizational and leadership skills needed to carry out a long-term environmental project. Upon completion of the program, MOVCA will award a $150 cash stipend to the student for their work.

Applications for the program are being accepted now through March 31. Students do not need to have developed a project idea for the application, but they should have a genuine interest in the issues of climate and the environment. The application form, as well as a summary of current projects being implemented by the 2022-2023 ambassador cohort, is available online at movcayouth.wordpress.com.

Students who submit an application will be contacted around the beginning of April to schedule an interview, and new ambassadors will be notified by the end of April, exact date TBD.

For more information, please contact the program coordinator at movca.youth@gmail.com

Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: How much are you willing to tolerate?

Feb 7, 2023 The Marietta Times

Vic Elam

On Sept. 8 a brine truck carrying what was reported as drilling brine with zinc salts crashed on or near Mountaineer Hwy. 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. The truck could easily have been en route to injection wells in Ohio as seems to be customary. 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 the 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.

Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Blue hydrogen hub a bad idea for the Ohio Valley

Feb 4, 2023

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

With the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, perhaps better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations received up to $7 billion to establish six to 10 regional hydrogen hubs across the country under what is known as the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program. The rules for the program mandate that at least one of the hubs must produce hydrogen from fossil fuels. The Ohio River Valley region (including West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) is under consideration for this fossil fuels-based hub.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “Because hydrogen does not exist freely in nature and is only produced from other sources of energy, it is known as an energy carrier. It is a clean-burning fuel, and when combined with oxygen in a fuel cell, hydrogen produces heat and electricity with only water vapor as a by-product.” Hydrogen shows promise in decarbonizing hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy like steel- and cement-making, aviation, and international shipping.

This hub would generate hydrogen from methane (aka “natural”) gas coupled with carbon capture and sequestration technology. This type of hydrogen is more casually known as blue hydrogen. This region is being looked upon favorably for a blue hydrogen hub because of its existing infrastructure, a large number of potential industrial end users, a favorable regulatory and political environment, and favorable geologic formations (both natural and man-made) for carbon sequestration. This hub would be yet another fossil fuels-driven quagmire and is the last thing this region needs.

As pointed out by the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI), an independent, nonprofit research and communications center founded in 2020, a blue hydrogen hub would mean more fracking (and all the pollution that comes with it), increased costs to ratepayers, more pipelines, and few new jobs, all while failing to address the climate crisis and pulling resources away from real climate solutions, such as investing in clean, renewable energy.

The Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN) administers a website called carboncapturefacts.org, an indispensable site for understanding the plethora of safety and health threats, immense costs, and lack of viability of carbon capture and sequestration technologies and methodologies. The West Virginia Legislature has already passed legislation, Senate Bills 161 and 162, that would allow the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to sell, lease or dispose of property under its control under certain circumstances (SB 161) and to lease state-owned pore spaces beneath state forests, wildlife management areas and other lands under DNR’s jurisdiction for use in carbon sequestration projects (SB 162). These bills were written with the blue hydrogen hub in mind and passed after the Senate suspended state constitutional rules requiring bills be read on three separate days in order to pass both bills on just one day, the second day of the 2023 legislative session.

To quote from the SEHN site, “For a CO2 storage site to be considered suitable, it must have (a) adequate total capacity for the intended load of CO2; (b) must allow the injection of CO2 at the desired pressure and rate without breaking the underground geology; (c) must provide evidence that it will not leak CO2 in the future — the existence of fissures, cracks, fractures, faults must be completely ruled out, and ideally the site would have two layers of impermeable ‘cap rock’ above the pressurized CO2 to stop the upward flow of dangerous hazardous-waste CO2. All this investigation of the geology must take place a mile below ground without compromising the geologic integrity of the storage site. In addition, any old exploratory boreholes and abandoned oil or gas wells must be located and permanently sealed.

West Virginia has more than 4,000 abandoned oil and gas wells that have been documented, but there are likely more. Will all the wells be located and permanently capped before CO2 is injected? How long will that take?

Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit climate and environmental education and advocacy organization for which I am Board President, is partnering with numerous other organizations and groups to oppose the development of a blue hydrogen hub in the Ohio River Valley region. We strongly oppose a blue hydrogen hub in the region for the reasons outlined above but know that numerous powerful and wealthy interests are already committed to seeing the hub to fruition.

If West Virginia continues to pursue a fossil fuel-based hub we must ensure that the project ensures strong safeguards and the maximum benefits possible for our communities, workers and environment. This includes:

* limiting end uses to hard-to-electrify needs that don’t already have better alternatives.

* ensuring users are close to the site of hydrogen production to minimize infrastructure and the associated risk of leaks and accidents.

* requiring robust monitoring, reporting, and mitigation of pollutants, including hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide leaks.

* a safety assessment of any transportation infrastructure.

* meaningfully engaging workers and residents, especially those in environmental justice communities.

Hydrogen produced by separating water molecules via electrolysis powered by renewable energies like solar and wind, aka green hydrogen, is the only sensible means of obtaining hydrogen. The Ohio River Valley deserves better after decades of fossil fuels and chemicals industry exploitation than this proposed blue hydrogen hub.

***

Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: An intergenerational partnership

Jan 28, 2023

Jean Ambrose

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

When America was attacked on 9/11, more than 20 years ago and before anyone now in high school was born, there was a prevalent idea that if there were the smallest chance of another attack, it was our duty to spend whatever it took to prevent it. Because the consequences of weapons of mass destruction are so dire, then Vice President Cheney said, “If there’s a one percent chance, you have to pursue it as if it were true.”

For young people alive today, climate change is their looming weapon of mass destruction, their Doomsday clock. Glaciers disappearing, water sources for entire countries drying up, coastal cities and island nations under water, critical species like bees diminishing — new signs that our planet is dangerously out of balance appear every year.

Evidence from all branches of science verifies the certainty that today’s young people will suffer a harsh and diminished environment because of what humans have done to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. (Many scientists see our time as the sixth great mass extinction and the only one caused by human activity.) VP Cheney and others hit the panic button about terrorism at only 1% certainty! The “one percent doctrine” can be just as appropriately applied to the climate crisis: If you wait for certainty, it is far too late to do anything about it. The urgency to act decisively increases every day.

Platitudes about how our children are the most precious things in our world and our promises to build them a bright future ring hollow when we observe the continued increase in the emissions of greenhouse gases and the inability of countries to keep even the modest promises made in annual climate summits. It is all too clear that the rising generation will need to come up with the solutions to preserving a habitable planet themselves.

With that necessity in mind, MOV Climate Action has created a new program in partnership with young people called Climate Ambassadors. Over the past year, we provided resources to students attending two area high schools to develop their ideas for projects that address aspects of the climate crisis.

Nathaniel McPeak, a PHS junior, explains. “I wanted to be a Climate Ambassador because I want to help save the world that I am a part of. I enjoy observing nature, going on hikes, and breathing clean air. The idea that at any given moment we are losing a percentage of what we have on this earth is terrifying, and I will do anything to stop it. I want to have a career in conservation and thought being a Climate Ambassador would be a good opportunity to start working towards that.” Nate’s project is installing bat boxes to provide habitat for that critical species.

According to Williamstown junior Alayna Garst: “I wanted to be a Climate Ambassador because I care about nature and want to do my part in the fight against climate change. Being a Climate Ambassador is a way to take an active role in that fight. I like to hike, swim, bike, camp, and take walks in nature. I believe everyone has the right to enjoy those things. While I will most likely pursue a career in art instead of environmental science, art can be useful for spreading information and knowing is half the battle. When I became aware of the melting Artic, dying coral reefs, and burning forests, it inspired me to get involved. Being a Climate Ambassador has given me a voice to speak on issues that are important to me and my community.” Alayna’s project has been to start an environmental club at her school.

We intend the Climate Ambassadors to be the kind of intergenerational collaboration that will be essential to create solutions to the climate crisis. People learn how to make a difference and solve tough problems by picking a place to start, and learning by doing. My generation, which made the problem so much worse during our lifetimes, can and must share resources, connections and skills with rising generations so they can more quickly and effectively solve the problems of maintaining a livable planet. Our goal is to spread the program to students attending at least four area high schools this year. We’ll start recruiting new ambassadors next month.

For more information on how to join the next class of Climate Ambassadors, or how you can support this program, leave a message on the MOVCA Facebook page or at movca.youth@gmail.com.

***

Jean Ambrose, of Walker, is trying not to be a criminal ancestor.

Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Maple syrup season approaches – but for how much longer?

Jan 21, 2023

Rebecca Phillips

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

If you are like me, you look forward to each year’s maple syrup crop. After tasting the real thing, the artificially flavored and colored substance that passes for syrup in most grocery stores is a sad imitation. Ohio has a long history of maple syrup production, going back to its indigenous peoples, and is the fourth-largest producer of maple syrup in the U.S. With more than 900 producers, mostly small businesses, the maple industry adds about $5 million to our state’s economy each year, according to the Ohio State University–not bad for a niche crop that can live for over 300 years. In West Virginia, maple products are helping small farmers succeed while preserving woodlands on their property, as witnessed by the state’s annual Maple Days.

Unfortunately, this long tradition and the economic boost it provides are endangered by our changing climate. The sugar maple requires specific conditions to thrive, and even more specific conditions for peak sap production. Scientists are warning that those conditions may cease to exist in our region within the next few decades.

During the growing season, maple trees store starch, a process that ends with leaf fall. The starch stored over the summer and fall converts to sugar when the temperature of the tree’s wood reaches 40 degrees or so, and the sap rises. In Ohio, the tapping of maple trees generally begins in late January when, historically, conditions have been right for optimal sap flow — daytime temperatures in the low 40s and nights slightly below freezing. The tapping ends when the trees bud out, something that is happening earlier in the season than it once did due to earlier spring thaws. A shorter season means less maple syrup and reduced income for producers. Higher temperatures also result in reduced sugar content in the sap, making it not as good for syrup production.

Erratic weather is also bad for the trees themselves. Early extreme cold such as the Christmas freeze we recently experienced can damage roots and slow tree growth, especially when there is no snow pack. Early warmth and late frosts can kill the year’s first leaf buds, forcing trees to expend energy growing a new set of leaves. These combined stresses, besides reducing sap production, can harm the long-term health of the trees.

Climate change is harming maple forests in other ways. Sugar maples evolved in relatively cool climates with abundant rainfall; they do not tolerate heat or drought well. Unfortunately, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Ohio River Valley is likely to see heavier rainfall over short periods of time interspersed with summer drought. All predictions are for more days exceeding 90 degrees. Increased temperatures mean that insect seasons are longer, and while insects are a vital part of all ecosystems, a warmer climate is allowing certain invasive species to thrive. Pear thrips, tiny insects originally from Europe, are thriving in the northern half of the U.S. and, despite their name, damaging millions of acres of maple forest, over a million in Pennsylvania alone.

It is true that we are unlikely to see a massive sugar maple shortage in the near future, these trees being as long-lived as they are. Recent studies from several universities and the Department of the Interior, however, indicate that seed germination is likely to decrease, and the range of these magnificent trees will slowly move north, possibly vanishing from the southern part of their range (Virginia, West Virginia, and southern Ohio) by 2100. It is likely that the cool overnight temperatures required for optimum sap movement will decrease, and that our region may not be able to sustain syrup production for more than a few more decades.

This is bad news, but at least for now, we can enjoy this gift of the forest while supporting the small farmers who produce it–before a changing climate takes it away from us.

***

Rebecca Phillips is a retired professor from WVU Parkersburg. A member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, she is also on the coordinating committee for the Fort Street Pollinator Habitat in Marietta.

Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Oil Companies Lying to You

Jan 17, 2023

Aaron Dunbar

Letter to the Editor Marietta Times

“On January 12th, the New York Times published an article entitled “Exxon Scientists Predicted Global Warming, Even as Company Cast Doubts, Study Finds.”

I was actually quite perplexed by this. I had frankly assumed Exxon’s culpability was common knowledge by this point, having myself learned about the fossil fuel industry’s subterfuge on the climate crisis through Naomi Oreskes’s excellent 2010 book “Merchants of Doubt,” not to mention the subsequent #ExxonKnew allegations that have only intensified alongside the ever-worsening effects of global warming.

However, a new study headed by Oreskes herself, along with others, has more recently quantified just how brazenly oil giants like Exxon have spent decades lying to our faces about the heating of the planet, and the catastrophic impact that is now guaranteed to ensue.

Analyzing records from Exxon scientists between the years 1977 and 2003, researchers found that “their projections were as accurate, and sometimes even more so, as those of independent academic and government models.”

Think about that for a moment. One of the most powerful companies on the planet has known for decades on end that the product they sell people is killing us– and has, in fact, known it with greater surety than those who have spent just as long trying to sound the alarm and stop us from destroying ourselves.

And yet in spite of this knowledge, Exxon has during this same period established the Global Climate Coalition to prevent the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, become a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council in order to prevent state and federal action on climate change, and funded think tanks to co-publish fraudulent “research papers” and petitions, allegedly signed, among others, by fictional characters from the hit television series M.A.S.H. (and yes, this is every bit as insane as it sounds.)

They’ve hired con artists who once represented the tobacco industry to trick the public into believing there’s uncertainty about the reality of climate change, spent millions upon millions of dollars lobbying against emissions regulations, bought off politicians as well as positions of political power, and done just about everything humanly possible to keep us from ending our dependence on a deadly fuel source that might well bring about the collapse of civilization.

And they knew. All this time they lied straight to our faces, and they knew.

There’s a good chance that if you’re reading all of this right now thinking that it’s some sort of far left communist propaganda, Exxon and its campaign of mass deceit are almost certainly responsible for you viewing the issue of climate change in the way that you do.

So the next time some oil and gas stooge or their right wing cronies on TV and in the newspapers tell you that climate change is a hoax, or that they have some miracle solution to the climate crisis that somehow doesn’t involve eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels, just remember: they lied to you. They sold all of us the greatest lie ever told in the history of humankind, and they will keep on doing it for as long as we keep letting them.”

Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Your water is not all right

Jan 14, 2023

Callie Lyons

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

When is DuPont going to provide a means of filtering Parkersburg water supplies contaminated with highly fluorinated chemicals like those we call C8 or Gen-X?

Twenty years ago this coming June, I attended the U.S. EPA’s initial hearings on PFAS in Washington, D.C., (though that’s not what we were calling it at the time). My coverage of that event appeared in the News and Sentinel. The subsequent community conversation was controversial and prompted far more questions than answers about the safety of long-term exposure. Often the local commentary would include the notion that if the water was truly harmful, surely the EPA would do something about it. We waited to see if they would.

Since that time studies of our population and exposed communities around the world have shown widespread damage and human health effects including the development of cancer, reproductive issues, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, pre-eclampsia and other serious concerns. Yet, this class of chemicals remains unregulated. Much studied, known to cause harm, and unregulated.

Perhaps the most concerning and illogical part of the ongoing controversy locally has to do with the fact that Parkersburg’s water supplies remain unfiltered and the government’s most dire warnings about the water for those who live in the area have gone unheeded.

As I was browsing the Environmental Working Group’s Tap Water Database recently, I was stunned to discover how remarkably high the publicly available sampling results indicated exposure levels for Parkersburg to be. It’s no surprise to me that the city water supply has unacceptably high levels of PFOA contamination. But it does surprise me that no one is trying to remedy the problem even as the government’s provisional health advisories creep lower and lower. Filtration or other treatment is inevitable. In time, it will be required by law. So, why wait?

Belpre, Little Hocking, Lubeck and Vienna have filtration systems that use granulated carbon to absorb contaminants and reduce the amount of pollution in the finished water. Yet, Parkersburg, the city most often associated with the discovery of C8 contamination in the Mid-Ohio Valley, has no such treatment for the water.

In 2009, the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry issued a directive regarding the water, which remains in effect. It states that the water should not be used to make baby formula or consumed by children, seniors, women of childbearing age, or those with compromised immune systems. This directive was not communicated to the public at the time because the official charged with doing so did not want to “cause a scare.” Such a decision deprived much of the populace of the knowledge. That was 14 years ago. How much longer do we wait to take action?

The harmful health effects of exposure such as we have in this community are known to cause many more problems than those linked by the C8 Science Panel at the conclusion of the class action lawsuit that shined a light on the bleak situation. People who live with this chemical burden suffer high rates of miscarriage. Those so exposed have a harder time absorbing Vitamin D, which leads to symptoms of depression and in particular seasonal depression. The contamination makes it easier for some people to put on weight – and ever so much more difficult to lose it. Take a look around and you will see for yourself the toll this poison is taking on our population every day.

This exhausting hopelessness is continually contributing to a climate of despair that fuels the drug epidemic, economic blight, and the erosion of our brain trust. We are poisoned. And, the poisoning continues.

Filtration isn’t everything and it will not solve all of the contamination issues compromising the water or our local environment. But, it’s a long overdue step in the right direction. It is something that can be done. Isn’t it about time someone heeded that ASTDR warning from 2009 and took action to protect the most vulnerable amongst us?

You can make a difference by contacting your city leaders to let them know of your concerns. Spread the word by letting friends and family members know of the existing guidance. If you suffer from these miserable conditions, have a conversation with your medical provider and see what can be done to improve your quality of life.

Don’t make baby formula with the water. And, don’t give it to sick people.

***

Callie Lyons is a journalist and author living in the Mid Ohio Valley. Her book, “Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal: The Hidden Dangers of C8,” was the first book to reveal the prevalence and danger of the PFAS family of highly fluorinated compounds used by industry in the manufacture of Teflon and thousands of other consumer applications.

Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: All in this greenhouse together

Jan 7, 2023

Giulia Mannarino

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

Although the basic physics of climate change have been known for more than a century, it remained out of the public’s attention for decades. In the 1980s, media outlets began bringing scientists’ concerns into the mainstream. Over 37 years ago, on Dec. 11, 1985, an article appeared in the New York Times with the headline: “Action is Urged to Avert Global Climate Shift.” This article reported on a bipartisan hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Toxic Substances and Environmental Oversight which was headed by Sen. Dave Durenberger, a Minnesota Republican. Although more recently climate change has become a partisan and divisive issue, at that time senators of both parties were interested, concerned and in agreement about the seriousness of this situation. At the hearing, scientists called for action to avert a predicted warming of the earth’s climate resulting from buildup of carbon dioxide and other man-made gases into the atmosphere. They warned this greenhouse effect would produce radical climate changes with possible catastrophic results in the next century unless steps were taken immediately to deal with the problem. Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell University, the leading planetary astronomer at that time, was one of the scientists that spoke. When Durenberger introduced him, he was presented as discussing “how our past and present may well affect our future.” His speech to the group is available on YouTube.

Sagan identified the purpose of his speech as “…to give some sense of what the greenhouse effect is, to try to say something about the greenhouse effect on other planets (and) to underscore that this is a real phenomenon…” He also took “…the liberty to say a few remarks about what to do about it.” He began by stating that the power of human beings to “both intentionally and inadvertently make significant changes in the global climate and ecosystem” has occurred for tens of thousands of years; however, Sagan noted that this power has grown as technology has grown. He then went on to explain the Earth’s climate as well as the greenhouse effect on it, including its causes and its long-term and global consequences. He discussed the fact that every planet with an atmosphere has some degree of a greenhouse effect and talked about the greenhouse effect of our nearest planet, Venus. Because the atmosphere is almost entirely CO2, Venus has an absurdly high surface temperature.

Also reviewed by Sagan were the “things that can be done” to address this global warming problem. These included more efficient use of and fewer government subsidies for fossil fuels, as well as use of alternative energy sources such as solar power and safe fission power plants, “which are, in principle, possible” and which, “whatever other problems they may provide, they do not provide a greenhouse problem.” These “other problems” were addressed in a recent Climate Corner column and presently, the future of nuclear power is being rethought. In closing, Sagan discussed the fact that global warming is “a problem that transcends our particular generation” and warned, “if we don’t do the right thing now, there are very serious problems that our children and grandchildren will have to face.” Another point made was that “what is essential for this problem is a global consciousness.”

Regrettably, almost every government across the globe isn’t doing enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The burning of fossil fuels continues with little regard to the impacts on the climate or the “very serious problems that our children and grandchildren will have to face.” After 37 years of not doing “the right thing,” global warming has grown from the climate change predicted to an emergency climate crisis with impacts felt worldwide. Unfortunately, future generations will indeed be facing “very serious problems” that could and should have been addressed decades ago. Sagan’s final statement, “The solution to these problems requires a perspective that embraces the planet and the future because we are all in this greenhouse together,” fell on deaf ears. We can only hope that increased public awareness of the fact that we are on a fast track to climate disaster, coupled with the ever-decreasing costs of renewable energy sources and the climate investments included in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, can help provide a livable planet for future generations.

***

Giulia Mannarino, of Belleville, is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Climate change played a role in Winter Storm Elliott

Dec 31, 2022

Randi Pokladnik

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

Some will use the recent cold weather event to claim climate change is not real and the planet isn’t warming. But, when one looks at the actual science behind these “Arctic bomb cyclones” and the record-breaking Winter Storm Elliott, it is obvious that climate change has played a role.

This past week, many of us might have felt like we were enacting the 2004 movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” The movie is loosely based on a theory called “abrupt climate change.” The ocean’s thermohaline conveyor normally circulates ocean water around the planet. Cold, salty ocean water sinks and pulls warmer fresh surface water in to replace the sinking water. This sets up a deep-sea current that circulates water round the planet. If the belt shuts down, the northern hemisphere abruptly cools while the southern hemisphere warms.

Paleoclimate records from Greenland ice cores show that the conveyor belt shut down near the end of the last ice age. The ocean circulation stops when higher water temperatures and the addition of more freshwater cause the salinity and density of seawater to drop. A warming planet and melting freshwater could trigger another shut-down of the belt, throwing North America and Europe into frigid cold temperatures for hundreds of years.

While most scientists agree that what happened in the movie (overnight change) will never occur, U.S. citizens witnessed some dramatic weather changes in a matter of hours. Denver, Colo., experienced a temperature drop of 70 degrees in an 18-hour period. Winter Storm Elliott affected over two-thirds of our population and almost every state except the South Western area. There were record setting winds and cold temperatures in our region, blizzard conditions in the plain states and feet of snow in the New England area; even Florida broke some records for cold temperatures. Meteorologists say this storm will be a once in a generation storm.

So what caused Winter Storm Elliott? The northern polar vortex played a major role in the crushing cold that blanketed the North American continent. There are two polar vortices on our planet, one which spins around the North Pole and the other spins around the South Pole. We are dealing with the northern vortex which was first described in an article published in 1853. Normally, low-pressure cold air circulates counterclockwise and inward toward the North Pole. The polar jet stream (high-altitude high-speed wind currents) helps hold the vortex in place, much like an old-fashioned girdle held our bulges in place. However, a weakened polar jet stream causes tiny breaks in the “girdle” and allows the cold vortex to seep out of its circular orbit dipping southward. It is like someone opening the refrigerator door and the cold air seeps through your house.

It is thought that climate change is causing a destabilization of the polar jet stream. Scientists say that the Arctic region is warming faster than any other area on the globe, on average four times faster in the past forty years. As the polar air warms, the temperature differences between that air and mid-latitude air lessens. This causes a “wobble” in the jet stream, or weakening of the “girdle,” allowing the cold air to advance south.

This year’s 2022 Arctic Report Card, authored by 147 experts from 11 nations, tells the disturbing story of the effects of climate change on the Arctic. Some of the changes include: shrinking sea ice, warming atmospheric temperatures, and shorter periods of snow cover. These could all play a role in more frequent polar air intrusions into our region.

So far at least 50 deaths have been attributed to the storm, with at least 27 in New York State. More than 8,305 flights were canceled and millions of people spent Christmas day without power. The economic impact “will likely be in the billions.”

Scientists have been warning us that the time frame for mitigating climate change is quickly closing. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in their 2022 report, “The dangers of climate change are mounting so rapidly that they could soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and humanity to adapt, creating a harrowing future in which floods, fires and famine displace millions, species disappear and the planet is irreversibly damaged.”

Winter Storm Elliott proved to be an example of how we humans cannot successfully adapt to abrupt changes in our weather, even though we have access to advance technology. As climate changes occur more often and at a faster rate, we find that adapting to these changes will become that much harder and more expensive. Even more alarming is the fact that many of the species we share the planet with will not be able to adapt but will instead succumb to extinction.

We are faced with the realization that when it comes to climate change, the phrase “pay me now or pay me later” rings true.

***

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 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: It doesn’t make cents

Dec 24, 2022

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

The continued use of fossil fuels coal, oil and “natural” (methane) gas for energy and product production increasingly does not make sense or cents. There’s really no other way to look at it.

Let’s start with how this reliance doesn’t make sense. The habitability of Earth, our only home in the cosmos, is threatened by a runaway greenhouse effect caused by anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas emissions. These excess emissions originate from, in large part, the recovery, use and disposal of wastes from fossil fuels, as well as unsustainable agricultural, consumption and development practices (with many fossil fuels inputs).

Global climate change and biodiversity loss are existential crises for humankind, but they’re also accompanied by massive pollution and contamination crises that threaten our access to clean air and water, the safety and viability of our food supplies and the healthy functioning of our bodies. These, too, are crises attributable in part to fossil fuels. Plastics, for example, are derivatives of the oil and gas industry.

Now let’s look at how this reliance doesn’t make “cents.” It is cheaper to build, operate and maintain new solar and wind plus energy storage facilities than it is to keep old coal-fired power plants burning. On a levelized cost per kilowatt-hour produced basis, it is already cheaper in many places globally to produce renewable energy than it is to produce energy from combined-cycle natural gas facilities. Ratepayers are getting stuck with higher energy costs, especially in West Virginia, by utility regulators like the West Virginia Public Service Commission all because of an irrational cultural obsession with coal. West Virginia ratepayers and taxpayers alike are being stuck with retrofitting and cleanup costs of using coal for no other reason than to appease bought-and-paid-for politicians in our state legislature and the administration of our coal baron governor.

The oil and gas industry has recovered a glut of natural gas during the fracking boom of the last 10-15 years, but they’ve hemorrhaged cash doing it with boom and bust cycles that have not delivered the economic growth, jobs or sustained investment and tax revenues promised for communities across the country, and especially in Appalachia. Even gas for heating is being undercut in affordability by heat pumps. According to a piece in The Charleston Gazette-Mail, “A recent report by the sustainable living research group Carbon Switch citing data from the federal government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that, if every home in the United States replaced its heating and cooling systems with heat pumps, the average homeowner would save $557 per year on their utility bill. In West Virginia, the average homeowner would save $887 per year and 52,000 jobs would be created, the report projected.” Up front costs for heat pumps are coming down thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.

Desperate to shore up prospects for long-term profitability, the oil and gas industry turned to new (virgin) plastics in recent years, with promises of a huge plastics and petrochemicals buildout in the Ohio River Valley. That hasn’t materialized. According to a recent report for the Ohio River Valley Institute by Kathy Hipple and Anne Keller, “Today, it’s clear that the petrochemical ‘renaissance’ once envisioned for Appalachia has largely failed. Plans for a sprawling regional buildout, complete with a network of world-class and small-scale ethane crackers, hydrogenation plants, an Appalachian Storage Hub and 500 miles of new pipelines, were supposed to create more than 100,000 new jobs in the region. Shell’s Beaver County [Pennsylvania] plant is the only remnant of this grand vision. Eroding plastics demand and a shaky global plastics market indicate it may be the region’s last petrochemical facility.”

The industry is now hedging its bets on blue hydrogen production with carbon capture, utilization and storage technology. This, too, is a nonsensical waste of money, not to mention dangerous. Hydrogen can be produced using a renewably powered electrolysis process to separate hydrogen atoms from water molecules (aka green hydrogen). As renewables affordably expand, why would any entity want to invest in massively expensive carbon capture technology and continue to spend money recovering feedstock using fracking when hydrogen could be derived much more cheaply? And hydrogen itself may displace metallurgical coal in the steelmaking process. It offers potential for decarbonization in hard-to-decarbonize sectors like steel and cement, international shipping and aviation.

The future is in renewable energy plus storage, grid management, maximized energy efficiency, decarbonization and sustainable agriculture and development. For our health, environment and financial well-being, we need to make that future a reality with all due haste.

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

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