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Posted: September 5, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: What’s a tree worth

Aug 31, 2024

Vic Elam

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

Last Updated: September 5, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Guest column/Hydrogen hub project is bad for our communities

Aug 24, 2024

RANDI POKLADNIK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last Updated: September 1, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: A new kind of victory garden

Aug 24, 2024

Randi Pokladnik

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., of Uhrichsville, is a retired research chemist who volunteers with Mid Ohio Valley Climate Action. She has a doctorate degree in environmental studies and is certified in hazardous materials regulations.

Last Updated: September 5, 2024 by main_y0ke11

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

Aug 22, 2024

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

Eric Engle is a local environmental activist.

Posted: August 18, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Is climate change driving us crazy?

Aug 17, 2024

George Banziger

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

Last Updated: August 10, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Learn more about an alternative

Aug 10, 2024

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

On Thursday, Aug. 15, from 6-7:30 p.m., at the Parkersburg & Wood County Public Library at 3100 Emerson Ave. in North Parkersburg, the West Virginia solar installation company Solar Holler will be hosting an in-person seminar on how to begin the process of obtaining a residential or commercial solar array.

The discussion at the seminar will center around the cost savings of going solar and what is involved in making solar a reality for your personal or commercial property. Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action is not a co-host of the event because we want to avoid any perceived favoritism of one solar installation company over another, but we are actively promoting the event to be of any assistance we can in helping Mid-Ohio Valley residents and commercial property owners harvest the sun.

Attendees can also follow up with Solar Holler and discuss the company’s purchase and leasing options after the seminar. It is the policy of the library not to allow presenters who sell goods or services to actively work on sales while utilizing library space, but outside of the time allotted at the library there will be plenty of opportunity for such discussions.

It has never been more important to embrace solar energy in West Virginia. Our utility rates just keep climbing because of our foolish reliance on continued coal use. West Virginia receives 91% of our electricity from coal-fired plants and we energy ratepayers are suffering high costs and low grid reliability during climate-related events like heatwaves, flooding, drought, severe storms and high winds, including a higher incidence of tornado activity, because of it.

AEP Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power customers, for instance, are facing a proposed rate increase of 17%, or an average of $28.72 a month. Included in such rate increases for both AEP and FirstEnergy (MonPower) customers are offsets for fuel costs (the costs of burning coal) and renovations to coal-fired plants to try to reduce their massive levels of pollution in accordance with important regulatory requirements. Solar arrays, on the other hand, last an average of 25-30 years or longer and many of their component parts can be recycled, with no fuel inputs or renovations needed.

Coal use leaves a legacy of toxicity and scarred landscapes. From acid mine drainage to dangerous slurry impoundments & coal ash ponds to mountaintop removal, valley fill, dangerous air pollution and massive greenhouse gas release, coal is a constant threat to our health and lived environments and to our ability to safely inhabit our only home in the cosmos. Then there are the dangers of coal mining, even with today’s technological advances, including the ever-present threat of black lung disease.

Solar, wind and water, plus storage, along with the potential of green hydrogen and possibly even advanced nuclear, represent a decarbonized and far cleaner and more affordable energy future. Hydrogen must be derived from an electrolysis process used to split water molecules and powered by renewable energies (the aforementioned green hydrogen) or potentially recovered from natural deposits (known as white hydrogen) to be effective as a decarbonization strategy for hard-to-decarbonize sectors like aviation, international shipping and the making of steel and cement, or as an energy storage option. The ARCH2 project to deliver hydrogen derived from fracked methane gas with disproven carbon capture and storage or sequestration (blue hydrogen) is a pseudo-solution that should not come to fruition as planned.

There is potential for nuclear power with smaller reactors that are easier and cheaper to build and waste solutions like dry cask storage, though I’m not sure nuclear is going to be a timely solution or the most cost effective. Meltdowns are exceedingly rare and the waste very carefully managed, but I can certainly appreciate reluctance to adopt nuclear as part of a clean energy future unless and until absolutely necessary. We must have nuclear contingency plans in place and be prepared regardless.

The costs of solar have plummeted and have nowhere to go but down. Affordability and accessibility are increasing daily for people of all income levels and living arrangements, including renters whose landlords are investing. Grid changes take time and carefully structured public policy frameworks that so far Congress and state legislatures and local governments largely have not managed to get in place or have faced backlash over due to mis-and-disinformation campaigns.

We can still move forward, though, with what exists right now, today, on our homes and properties, relying less on increasingly antiquated grids. If you live in the greater Mid-Ohio Valley, including in Ohio, please come out to the library in Wood County and learn more on Aug. 15.

***

Eric Engle is board president of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action

Last Updated: August 3, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: A crash course on plant hardiness zones

Aug 3, 2024

Danesha Seth Carley

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

Many people are familiar with the term “growing zone” as it is often included on plant labels that help gardeners decide which plants might thrive in their home gardens. A plant tag may say “Zones 3-6,” which means the plant can grow anywhere in the indicated zones. Zones are identified based on the average annual extreme minimum winter temperature displayed in 10-degree F zones ranging from zone 1 (coldest) to zone 13 (warmest). Each zone is further broken into “a” and “b,” with the “b” section being the warmer of the two sections. Every 12 years the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issues a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM). PHZMs serve as general guides for growing perennial plants, and are based on the average lowest temperatures, not the lowest ever experienced in that area. The first U.S. hardiness zone map was published in 1927 with 8 hardiness zones.

There have been several versions of this map since then, including an expansion from 8 to 13 zones. The most recent PHZM was just released in May 2024 and is based on 30-year average cold temperature data through 2020 (which has changed quite a bit since the late 1920s). The most recent map differs from the original in more ways than simply the number of zones.

If you don’t follow planting recommendation shifts closely, let me catch you up. When I was born in the mid-1970s, the PHZ for my hometown in the Mid-Ohio Valley was 5. Then when the map was updated in 2012, our zone shifted to 6a. Now, in 2024, my hometown sits firmly in hardiness zone 6b. On the surface, this change doesn’t seem terribly significant, but it does represent a 10-degree F change from 2012 to 2024, and an increase of over 15-20-degree F across 47 years. More than the average lowest temperature has changed. The MOV is getting fewer hard freezes, and more extreme climate events – like heavy rainstorms, record high temperatures, and long, hot dry spells – are becoming more common.

A Word of Encouragement for Plant Lovers

While these fluctuations in weather and bloom times are undeniably due to a shift in climate, not all climate change events need be approached with fear and loathing.

For example, have you ever seen banana plants in West Virginia? I know, it sounds crazy since bananas are typically grown in places such as Hawaii and Florida; locations with hardiness zones of 9-13. Some varieties can grow in the 8a and 7b zones. I have had success growing a robust banana colony in my yard in Raleigh, N.C. (previously PHZ 7b, now PHZ 8a). In fact, I see them all over the upper south. Online experts say that banana “trees” (Note: bananas are not really a type of tree, believe it or not, it is the world’s largest herb) can grow just fine in USDA plant hardiness zones 7a/7b. But, thanks to a shifting climate, gardeners with a fondness for plants that aren’t “supposed” to grow well in their zone may have the opportunity to grow a special plant in a “shoulder zone.” A zone 7 plant may survive in zone 6 when carefully protected over the winter.

A great example of this is that banana plant from my yard. My dad fell in love with that banana plant and despite my warning that they were not likely to survive in West Virginia, he dug up a small shoot and took it back to plant in his yard in Ritchie County. The PHZ map tells us that it likely gets too cold for my dad’s banana plant in zone 6, but he has painstakingly cared for it by carefully cutting back the foliage in the autumn and heavily mulching the remaining material to protect it over the winter. His zone 7b banana is still doing great, and although it does not produce fruit, it is a tall, lush, eye-catching plant.

PHZMs are an important guide for those gardeners who are averse to losing their more sensitive plants. Passionate and careful gardeners can usually squeeze out an extra zone in either direction for certain very special plants. With the new PHZM, you can now think about planting crepe myrtles in your yard in the Mid-Ohio Valley, or if you’re lucky, maybe even try your hand at growing your very own banana non-tree.

***

Dr. Danesha Seth Carley is a West Virginia native and professor at North Carolina State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, department of horticulture.

Posted: August 2, 2024 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Not the end of the world

Jul 27, 2024

Rebecca Phillips

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

There is a lot of bad news out there; we’ve all heard it. So it was a surprise to read “Not the End of the World,” a recent book by Hannah Ritchie, lead researcher at Our World in Data. Without ignoring all the very real work needing to be done, she details ways in which we humans are getting it right.

At the most basic level, people are living longer than even a hundred years ago. Fewer children are dying. Fewer women die in childbirth. Regular bouts of famine are no longer the norm, as they were for much of human history. United Nations data show that extreme poverty is being reduced around the world. Alleviation of so much human suffering is good.

In earlier times, such poverty reduction came at an environmental cost. Agriculture brought deforestation. Industry brought pollution of air and water, problems that are with us still. Yet the air in most human-inhabited places is cleaner today than it has been for centuries.

How can this be? The answer is simple: cleaner fuels. Our species’ first fuel was wood, which releases more CO2 and particulates than any other substance used for heating and cooking. The adoption of coal in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reduced deforestation, but descriptions of cities in those days generally include details about poor air quality. London, for instance, was called “the big smoke,” and the five-day Great Smog of 1952 is believed to have killed more than 10,000 people outright, with many more sickened. Difficult as it may be for some to believe, even the most polluted cities today have cleaner air than Louis XIV’s Paris or Victoria’s London.

It is not just smog that has decreased: Per-capita CO2 emissions have declined as well. Humanity’s total emissions have been rising (except for the pandemic reduction when fewer of us were driving), but per-capita carbon emissions peaked in 2012. As Ritchie notes, she, a city dweller with a climate-controlled home and all the electronic devices common today, whose work requires her to spend lots of time online with the data held in energy-guzzling data centers around the world, emits half the carbon her grandparents did at her age. Half. And she is not an anomaly. The same is true of a majority of the world’s people.

Why have the per capita emissions declined? Again, the adoption of clean fuels. In developing countries, the Clean Cooking Alliance has helped millions of households transition from cooking with wood or charcoal–dirty fuels responsible not only for massive carbon emissions but for respiratory illness and early death–to the use of cleaner, modern stoves. In the developed world, electricity generation is transitioning from coal to cleaner alternatives, among them solar, wind, hydro, and (arguably) nuclear energy, all of which have lower emissions of CO2, particulates, and a variety of noxious substances than coal does. In this century, the percentage of electricity derived from coal burning has declined from 55% to 20% in the U.S., in Denmark from 90 to 10%, and in the U.K. from 66% to 2%.

Not only are these alternative fuels cleaner-burning, they are now less expensive than either coal or natural gas when the total cost is considered. By 2019, electricity generation from onshore wind or solar photovoltaic was less than half the cost of coal plant generation or two-thirds the cost of natural gas. Clean technologies are now economic winners.

The good news, then: we are not doomed. Scaling up the adoption of our cleanest technologies will not drive societies into poverty. It will reduce our emission of CO2 and particulates, help to stabilize our climate, and improve human health at the same time. As the subtitle of Ritchie’s book states, we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet.

***

Rebecca Phillips is a retired English professor, pollinator gardener, and member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

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