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 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
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.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: We are burning our grandkids’ future
Oct 8, 2022
Randi Pokladnik
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
“How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew what was happening to the world and did nothing?” This question, posed by Sir David Attenborough, should be one we all ask ourselves every single day. It is certainly a question I would ask local, state and federal politicians. To deny the major role mankind plays in the climate crisis, especially after the massive destruction of two back-to-back hurricanes, seems ridiculous. But I am sure people in our country will do just that; deny.
We now know that a warming planet increases the chances of catastrophic weather events. Wildfires and droughts in the western states are more severe and hurricanes have also intensified as they pass over warmer oceans. The storms that hit Ohio this past June 14t were the worst I have ever seen. Over 480 acres of forests at the Mohican-Memorial State Forest were severely damaged.
Billions of dollars of damage have occurred and many lives have been lost in these storms and wildfires, but still politicians refuse to take aggressive action to address the crisis. People in our country remain apathetic when it comes to taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint.
There are many places in our lives where simple changes would make an impact on carbon emissions. People could car pool, purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles or buy electric vehicles, eat less meat, turn down thermostats in the winter and turn them up in the summer. We could recycle, compost food scraps, buy less stuff (especially plastic stuff), garden, support local agriculture, turn off lights, insulate our homes, and donate used clothes and appliances. These are just a few simple, painless steps we all could take to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Yet how many of these changes are people willing to take? We cannot even commit to the very simplest acts to help save the planet.
What if your home were destroyed like so many homes have been destroyed by the recent hurricanes: Fiona and Ian? What if everything you loved and cared about were gone? What if there was no food, no water, no shelter, no job, no future? Sounds pretty drastic but sadly, by ignoring the climate crisis and refusing to do anything to curtail the worst effects, we are creating climate refugees all over the planet. Will our grandchildren become climate refugees?
Scientists are desperately trying to shock the world into action. “As time runs out for the planet to avert a future of climate chaos, scientists around the world are throwing down the gauntlet. Climate change science has been settled for decades, yet policymakers have yet to take sweeping action, and greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb to record highs.”
As a climate scientist I echo the fears expressed by my colleagues. The fossil fuel industry continues to manipulate laws and policies to continue the destruction of our only home while they increase their profits. We don’t have time to debate; we don’t have time for false solutions like carbon capture, or blue hydrogen; and we don’t have time to slowly transition away from carbon-based fuels. We are out of time.
It is painful for me to admit, as both a scientist and a grandparent, that I am no longer hopeful or optimistic. A recent poll published in Harper’s Magazine October issue stated, “just 1 percent of voters in a New York Times/Siena College poll named climate as the most important issue facing the country.”
Scientists are now putting their lives on the line as they engage in peaceful civil disobedience, hunger strikes, the bodily obstruction of investment banks enabling new fossil fuel exploration, and the pasting of scientific papers to government buildings.
Like the scientists around the world, we too should be throwing down the gauntlet. We should be in the streets demanding action because without a livable planet, nothing else really matters. How can we justify apathy and inaction? What will we tell our grandkids? We watched while their world burned.
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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.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Plug in, Mid-Ohio Valley
Oct 1, 2022
Giulia Mannarino
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the transportation sector is the #1 source of carbon pollution in the United States. At 29% in 2021, transportation now generates the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, every car company has production plans for electric vehicles (EVs). And most are on the path to a fully electric future. Last year, Chair and CEO of General Motors, Mary T. Barra, announced that the company would stop making gas powered vehicles by 2035. Even Exxon Mobile publicly agreed electric vehicles are the future. In June, in an interview with CNBC’s David Farber, the oil giant’s CEO, Darrin Woods, predicted that by 2040 every new passenger car sold in the world will be electric. EV technology has advanced rapidly and an expansion of the market is definitely anticipated, including many more affordable models.
For the first time since 2019, the North American International Auto Show, the largest in North America, was held in September. President Biden attended opening day and used the opportunity to announce the approval of the first $900 million dollars in U.S. funding to build EV charging stations in 35 states, part of the $1 trillion dollar infrastructure law approved last November. Congress and Biden have pledged tens of billions of dollars in loans, manufacturing and consumer tax credits and grants to speed the transition from internal combustion vehicles to cleaner EVs. The Big Three automakers, General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler, showed off new EVs while the president highlighted the automakers’ EV push, including billions of dollars in investments.
Individuals interested in EVs have the opportunity to attend a local event being held this weekend. Sunday, Oct. 2, the final day of National Drive Electric Week (NDEW). The “Southeast Ohio NDEW Ride and Drive” will be held that day from 1-4 p.m. at Civitan Park, 1500 Blennerhassett Ave., Belpre. Drive Electric Southeast Ohio and the West Virginia Electric Auto Association, groups made up of EV owners and enthusiasts, will be welcoming attendees to this event. The latest makes and models of several electric vehicles will be on site and attendees will have the chance to take them for a drive as well as talk to EV owners and leaders in the clean transportation industry about driving electric. There will be speakers throughout the day and even a raffle. The event is free and open to the public. Signs and banners will be hung up to help you find them.
This shift to transportation’s electrification is critical to addressing the climate crisis but it should have come much sooner! Investigations done by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), as well as other organizations, have uncovered hundreds of pages of historic documents with striking parallels between the automakers and oil companies. CIEL’s research demonstrates that two of America’s biggest automakers, General Motors and Ford, as well as one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, Exxon Mobil Corp. were aware of climate risks years earlier than suspected. The documents reveal that for decades, these companies failed to act on the knowledge that their products were heating the planet. At the same time, these industries were donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups that created public doubt about the scientific consensus on global warming.
According to Carroll Muffett, CIEL’s president and CEO, “CIEL’s findings add to the growing body of evidence that the oil industry worked to actively undermine public confidence in climate science and in the need for climate action even as its own knowledge of climate risks was growing.” Muffett’s description of automakers is essentially the same. He stated that the industry was “deeply and actively engaged,” since the 1960s, in understanding how their cars affected the climate. “We also know that … the auto industry was involved in efforts to undermine climate science and stop progress to address climate change,” Muffett said.
It’s sad this behavior seems to be standard operating procedure for many international corporations. Given the urgency of the climate crisis and the increasingly understood negative impacts to the planet and human health, thank goodness the future of transportation is FINALLY electric. We can only hope it’s better late than never for the sake of future generations.
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Giulia Mannarino, of Belleville, is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Proposed plant a dangerous distraction
Sep 24, 2022
Eric Engle
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
The company Competitive Power Ventures Inc. has announced plans to build a combined-cycle natural gas power plant in West Virginia, an 1,800-megawatt facility representing a $3 billion investment that could potentially be built in Doddridge County (this is not certain). The facility would use carbon capture and storage technology made possible by expansion of what are referred to as 45Q tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. This facility, and carbon capture and storage (or carbon capture, utilization and storage, as it is often referred to) more broadly, are terrible ideas.
Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is dangerous, unproven at anywhere near scale, and massively expensive, even with taxpayer subsidization. The “utilization” part is often deliberately left out when describing these processes because it’s an environmental nonstarter. Captured CO2 has, more often than not, been used to extract more oil through a process called advanced oil recovery. What’s the use of capturing these emissions if you’re just going to turn around and use them to recover more emissions-producing fossil fuels? Profit motive is the only rational driver in that scenario. As far as actual emissions reductions, a mitigation report released in April 2022 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that, by 2030, CCUS could cut only half the CO2 emissions that could be cut by solar, wind, and efficiency, and CCUS is far more expensive.
When I say that CCUS is dangerous, I mean it’s dangerous to public health and safety. The site carboncapturefacts.org, sponsored by the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN), breaks down the numerous ways CCUS is a threat to the lives, safety and health of communities in its path. CO2, for example, is an asphyxiant and toxicant. In high quantities (such as what would occur in a leak from a CO2 pipeline or storage site), it depletes oxygen in the surrounding environment. Inhalation of high concentrations causes a lowering of the pH of blood and tissues (acidosis) causing acute effects on the respiratory, cardiovascular, and central nervous systems.
CCUS also requires a tremendous amount of water. To quote from SEHN, “A CO2 capture system requires additional water for cooling and make-up, increasing the water requirements for power plants. Estimates in the technical literature show that, with the addition of a full-scale post-combustion capture system, the increase in water consumption per megawatt-hour (MWh) of electrical output can be as high as 90%.” Quoting from the site carboncapturefacts.org, “In 2021, more than 300 U.S. research scientists, including many of the nation’s top climatologists and public health professionals, submitted a letter to President Biden calling CCS [or CCUS] a ‘delay tactic’ and a ‘dangerous distraction.’”
All this danger, all this inefficacy, and it’s not even a good economic investment! Sean O’Leary, senior researcher for the organization Ohio River Valley Institute, recently told E&E News the following:
“Once it is completed, the proposed plant will inflict higher taxes and higher utility bills while still contributing to pollution and the loss of jobs and population that has accompanied natural gas development in Appalachia. In short, if the objective is to decarbonize our energy sector at the lowest possible cost, with the greatest reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and with the greatest amount of job creation, the development of renewable resources would do a much better job of all three.”
O’Leary mentioned in a Twitter post that, “CCS adds $38/MWh to the cost of generating electricity with gas. In 2021, the wholesale price of energy in PJM [PJM is the wholesale electricity market that includes West Virginia] was only $39.86, so electricity from this plant will be at least 2X as costly as the average. Renewable resources would be cheaper and eliminate emissions entirely.”
We are building electric vehicle batteries, electric car chargers, electric school buses, and even electric pontoon boats in West Virginia. Berkshire Hathaway is investing $500 million in Jackson County for a renewable energy microgrid-powered production facility to produce aeronautic titanium. Let’s not lose sight of that progress in favor of combined-cycle gas, which cannot compete with renewables on a levelized-costs basis, especially with added CCUS. Let’s stay focused on a clean, safe, efficient, renewable and sustainable future for West Virginia as an energy state.
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Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
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