Sep 5, 2020 in Herald-Star by RANDI POKLADNIK
Most Ohioans who have lived in the state for more than 50 years have noticed that our weather is definitely changing. We have warmer winters overall, hotter summers, less snow and less rain, and in general when we do get rain events, they tend to be accompanied with extreme winds.
This summer is no exception. Since May, my county, Harrison, has had 24 days in the upper 80s and 19 days above 90 degrees. There are several portions of the state that have witnessed weeks without any significant rainfall.
May was the warmest May ever recorded globally. Also “freakishly” high temperatures were seen in the arctic, especially the Russian Arctic region in Siberia. On May 22, the town of Khatanga, located well north of the Arctic Circle, recorded a temperature of 78 degrees, some 46 degrees above normal. On Aug. 19, Death Valley’s temperature soared to 130 degrees, which broke U.S. records as well as global records as the hottest temperature ever recorded on the planet.
Greenland has lost a catastrophic amount of freshwater due to glacier melt. A study using NASA satellites showed in one month it lost the same amount of ice that it normally loses in a year. The net ice loss in 2019 was more than 530 billion metric tons. To put that in context, that’s as if seven Olympic-sized swimming pools were dumped into the ocean every second of the year.
The storms, Laura and Marcos, are the earliest “L” and “M” storms ever to be named in August. The Atlantic record for earliest “L” storm is Luis on Aug. 29, 1995.” Sadly, as temperatures increase, we use more electricity to power our air conditioners and increase the emissions of climate changing gases.
Given that Ohio is experiencing firsthand the effects of a changing climate, you would think state leaders would be trying to incorporate as many energy-saving measures and renewable energy projects as possible into its energy mix. That is not the case.
I took part in two virtual testimony events held by the Ohio Power Siting Board in August. One was to receive comments for a proposed gas-powered electricity plant on the campus of Ohio State University. The other was for a proposed project called the Emerson Creek Wind Farm Project.
The gas power plant in Columbus is a $290 million project that would be located on the western side of the campus. It would provide 105.5 megawatts of combined heat and power exclusively to the university. It will be a major emitter of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. It will use fracked gas from our region, continuing the pollution that Southeast Ohio communities face every day from fracking, pipelines, compressor stations and other fracking infrastructure.
It will do nothing to alleviate the fugitive emissions of methane gas, a very potent greenhouse gas. The 2018 well blowout by XTO in Belmont County resulted in 20 straight days of 132 tons of methane being spewed into the air, a release so great it was picked up by a methane-monitoring satellite.
The other project, the Emerson Creek Wind Project, would straddle the counties of Huron and Erie and be located south of Sandusky. Its 70 turbines would provide 300 megawatts of electricity and power 88,000 homes. It would take advantage of existing power lines and roads and, as a result, little infrastructure would be needed aside from the half acre footprint for the turbine and access road.
The project will provide $51.3 million in landowner payments at a time when Ohio citizens are feeling the economic pain from the COVID-19 pandemic. The project also would help schools with a $54 million payment and the county and townships would benefit with a $27 million payment. There would be the creation of 150 construction jobs as well as 15 operation and maintenance jobs.
Wind power development in Ohio has been blunted by unreasonable restrictive legislation including the current set-back rules for wind turbines passed in 2014. These are the most restrictive in the nation. According to the Ohio Environmental Council, “the impact of this change was an effective moratorium on any new wind farm, because since 2014, the Ohio Power Siting Board has not approved any new wind farm projects.”
The power siting board has hampered Project Icebreaker Wind. This project, which would be the first offshore wind facility in the Great Lakes, would see the construction of a 20.7 megawatt demonstration wind farm with six turbines.
The project received all of the appropriate permits and conducted the environmental impact studies. However, in May, the OPSB added a “last-minute permitting condition” that would require the blades be turned off every night for eight months out of the year. This was supposedly to protect birds; however, an ornithologist who prepared the draft environmental impact said “this was the lowest-risk project” he ever worked on.
This restrictive legislation is preventing job creation in Ohio, preventing Ohio citizens from earning income from leasing their property for wind turbine development and does nothing to combat climate change. It is estimated that Ohio has lost $4 billion in economic opportunities because of the legislation.
A recent report in Energy News Network said Illinois has added the third most new wind capacity and is the sixth state to surpass 5,000 megawatts of wind capacity. Indiana ranks 12th nationwide with 2,317 megawatts.
Ohio only has 738 megawatts of installed wind capacity, yet the state is the largest manufacturer of components for the wind industry.
Even though advances in wind technology have made it one of the cheapest sources of electricity, Ohio remains in the past, clinging to energy sources that are dirty and unsustainable and passing crippling legislation like the infamous HB 6 that will significantly weaken the state’s renewable energy standards.
We need a future that adopts clean, green renewable energy with wind power as part of our energy mix.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Green Sanctuary Committee proposes pollinator garden
Local News Oct 9, 2020 in The Marietta Times by Janelle Patterson
Approximately 250 feet of Muskingum River frontage on the western bank is the proposed home of a pollinator planting garden and solar charging bench. (Graphic illustration by Janelle Patterson)
Bees may buzz in the breeze next year on the western bank of the Muskingum River, if a proposed pollinator planting is approved by Marietta officials.
On Wednesday, Rebecca Phillips, representing the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, spoke before members of the Lands, Buildings and Parks Committee of Marietta City Council.
She described an opportunity for partnership, to reintroduce native flowering plants to a portion of the western bank of the Muskingum River between the west side boat launch and the Gilman United Methodist Church.
“There’ll be mostly pink and purple in the spring, then a lot of purple, some orange and some white in the summer and it would add so much color to that side of the river,” she described from the eastern bank Wednesday following the formal proposal to council.
Phillips explained that the funds to be used in the proposed garden are from a $7,500 grant awarded by DuPont’s “Clear into the Future” program to promote sustainability in Marietta.
The proposal also includes permission to install a solar charging bench on the city-owned riverbank adjacent to the 500 block of Front Street.
“That seemed like a good space to start the concept of native plantings on our river bank,” she said. “This would really be looking at the slope coming down and then up to the trail.”
While members of the LBP committee praised the proposal’s creativity, one councilmember also pointed to the labor strain such an experiment could solve on the limited staff-to-parkland ratio the city faces.
Councilman Geoff Schenkel said Phillips underplayed the significance the selected area could provide relief for in an already strapped public facilities labor force.
“And this really introduces a different type of flowering plant in an area that already has flowering plants,” he added.
Phillips also explained that the grant funds include hiring a master naturalist or master gardener to design the plantings so that native species with limited need for upkeep over time could be used in the bank.
The proposed area extends approximately 250 by 30 feet, from a mature tree near the old lock master’s house in front of the Gilman United Methodist Church facing the river, to the city launch ramp sign.
What’s next
City Law Director Paul Bertram and Phillips are to determine the extent of city ownership of the green space under discussion before legislation is proposed before council to propose a use agreement.
(Note Rebecca and many members of the Green Sanctuary Committee are members of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.)
Posted: October 17, 2020 by main_y0ke11
MOVCA Recommends WV3C October 22 Webinar
“Generational Perspectives and the Climate Crisis”
PARKERSBURG, West Virginia – Since large in-person gatherings indoors are not advisable during this time of COVID-19, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action’s usual Third Thursday programs have been suspended until public programs are safe for presenters and attendees. But MOVCA is pleased to announce an upcoming opportunity for taking climate action that doesn’t require meeting together in person.
This month, MOVCA is encouraging members and others interested in climate justice to participate in a free, live webinar hosted on Zoom by West Virginia Center on Climate Change (WV3C) from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 22: “What Do We Tell the Kids – And What Are They Telling Us? – Generational Perspectives and the Climate Crisis.”
“For some time, MOVCA has used ‘Save the Grandchildren’ as our motto,” said Adeline Bailey, a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action. “We know that what we do today – and what we don’t do – will have a far greater effect on the generations that follow us than on us. This webinar is right in line with our efforts to promote awareness of the climate crisis and educate ourselves and our neighbors about taking action now.”
Event organizers ask the following: “For climate generations — all over the world — what strategies support hope and positive action? How can understanding generational perspectives lead to better climate solutions?
Addressing these timely and important questions is the goal of the October 22, 2020 “Climate Generations” webinar. Please join us to learn from expert presentations, and to share comments and questions with the presenters.”
Expert presenters for the webinar:
Author Dana R. Fisher, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Program for Society and the Environment at the University of Maryland. Her research explores democracy, civic participation, activism, and environmental policymaking,with recent studies focusing on the youth climate movement and the American Resistance. Her sixth book is American Resistance: from the Women’s March to the Blue Wave (Columbia University Press 2019).
Danielle Lawson, Ph.D. , assistant professor of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management and Science Education at Penn State University. Her interests include environmental education, intergenerational learning, and social justice. Her ground-breaking study, “Children can foster climate change concern among parents,” was recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Discussion Leader for the webinar is Sarah Cross, Campaigns Coordinator for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. Sarah earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana, an M.S. in Agriculture from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in Education from Ohio University, where she researched the use of socio-scientific issues to promote scientific literacy.
This webinar is organized by the West Virginia Center on Climate Change (AV3C), a project of Friends of Blackwater, in partnership with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and the WV Citizen Action Education Fund, with support from the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation. For more information, or to register, go to https://wvclimate.org/climate-generations-webinar/
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Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action focuses on raising awareness of the solid science establishing the danger of the climate crisis and the urgency of dealing with it. MOVCA supports the efforts of 350.org, and Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and is a Science Booster Club for the National Center for Science Education. The not-for-profit volunteer group also collaborates with other environmental groups on campaigns and events in the Mid-Ohio Valley. For more information, visit the organization’s web page (https://main.movclimateaction.org).
Last Updated: October 17, 2020 by main_y0ke11
A Shoe Strike for Climate Justice!
Announcing: A Shoe Strike for Climate Justice!
WHAT: Shoe Strike is a COVID-proof protest with shoes & protest signs
WHEN: 9:00 am to 2:00 pm on Saturday, October 17, 2020
WHERE: Eagle Park (Corner of Grand Central & 30th, Vienna, WV)
WHO: you and everyone you know
Bring your shoes and protest signs for Climate Justice to Eagle Park in Vienna, WV at 8:00 a.m.
Why a Shoe Strike?
Changing conditions from drought to floods to wildfires to massive hurricanes are leading to millions of climate refugees all over the world. Twenty-four million people were displaced by climate disasters in 2019, and the World Bank projects that climate change will displace 143 million people per year by 2050, unless we do something about it right now.
While the USA is among the biggest polluters causing greenhouse gas emissions, we seem to be unable to take responsibility for the consequences of our actions. Across the world and in the US, it is people of color who are being most negatively affected by climate change.
Since we cannot gather safely in large numbers due to the pandemic, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action has been holding Shoe Strikes for Climate Justice over the past several months. Shoe Strikes are modeled on the Sko Strejk movement that started in Sweden and is now spreading to other parts of the World. Local people donated their shoes and protest signs for this and previous Shoe Strikes to represent themselves and those who would gather to speak out about climate justice, but cannot because of COVID-19. More than 400 pairs of donated shoes have stood in for climate justice seekers at MOVCA-sponsored strikes in Parkersburg, Williamstown, and Marietta. The Vienna Shoe Strike will take place from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 17th at Eagle Park in Vienna (corner of Grand Central and 30th). When the Shoe Strikes conclude, the donated shoes will go to Cobbler John (Marietta, OH), to be part of an international humanitarian effort.
The Shoe Strikes sponsored by Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action are in coordination with Fridays for Future and other Shoe Strikes for Climate Justice! in the U.S.
For more information, go to FridaysforFuture.org.
Additional Information
With an ongoing tragic corona pandemic and economies in free fall, our federal decision makers are busy today. But strong leadership is also about being able to look beyond the chaotic present and act now to address a far greater challenge: the climate crisis.
While many US cities are implementing strong climate action and adaptation plans, our federal government has backed out of our country’s commitments to the international Paris Climate Accord.
In the Paris Agreement, 194 countries agreed that the average temperature increase should be limited to well below 2 degrees with the aim of limiting it to 1.5 degrees. Despite this, greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. Since the industrial revolution, we have already raised the average temperature by 1.2 degrees.
The warming means not just elevated sea levels, but also dehydrated agricultural land and greater evaporation of our precious water. Clearly these outcomes are unsustainable. Water availability and food production are projected to drop even further in Central America, and corn production is shifting northward into Canada.
There are plenty of things that individuals do to reduce their carbon footprints. Our state and federal representatives need to take the bigger steps towards a sustainable and secure society.
At the end of 2019 the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that they will stop making loans for projects involving fossil fuels. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and other major global financial institutions are now considering whether to follow the EIB’s example.
Perhaps our cities should build a more sustainable future by divesting from fossil fuels, before their value plummets. Perhaps our government leadership should build a more sustainable future for us all, by investing in the coming technologies of wind and solar power.
Source: FridaysforFuture.org
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
How will we pay for it?
Sep 10, 2020 in The Marietta Times by Aaron Dunbar
This question serves as something of a de facto catchphrase in American politics, if a decidedly lopsided one.
Want healthcare for all Americans? How will we pay for it?
Free college? How will we pay for it?
Keep citizens alive during a global pandemic? How will we pay for it?
Fund endless wars with a military budget larger than the next twelve countries combined? No problem! Here’s a trillion-and-a-half dollars every two years, go knock yourself out!
But if there’s one issue we absolutely do not want to spend money on, it’s climate change. And look, to a certain degree I get it. Climate change is a giant, slow-moving issue (relative to our perceptions), where the average person has no way of directly correlating their individual, daily actions with the endlessly complicated effects of our industry on the planet. And conservatives in particular have
a knack for cranking up the price tag of action on climate to make it appear prohibitively expensive, with President Trump once baselessly claiming that the Green New Deal being proposed by some Democrats would cost us up to $100 trillion.
That said, there’s admittedly no doubt that addressing this crisis will take a genuine level of sacrifice and commitment in economic terms.
But let’s be entirely clear here: the choice isn’t whether we will decide to pay for climate change. It is literally HOW are we eventually going to pay?
We are, in fact, already paying for our decades-long failure to rein in our emissions, and the price tag will only grow steeper as we continue to delay action.
As I write these words, the U.S. Gulf Coast is being battered by a 150-mph hurricane, having jumped from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm in a single day – a direct effect of warming oceans, according to scientists, along with the landfall of two separate hurricanes within hours of one another from the Atlantic, an event which may be entirely without precedent. All of this comes even as other parts of the country experience out-of-control wildfires almost certainly fueled by climate change, with temperatures in Death Valley reaching 129.9 degrees Fahrenheit- probably the hottest temperature ever recorded on our planet.
Make no mistake about it, we are absolutely paying for climate change.
The human cost alone, and the possibility of making the planet uninhabitable for our children, should be more than enough to motivate us. But as the only language we speak seems to be that of dollar signs, think of it this way: we can either start making serious changes now or later, when the cost of fixing what we’ve broken, if it can be fixed at all, will be trillions upon trillions of dollars higher than it already is today.
And on that note, for anyone with the means wishing to contribute to those affected by these most recent disasters, I highly recommend looking into any of the following organizations: The American Red Cross, United Way of Northern California, The California Fire Foundation, The Cajun Navy, The Houston Food Bank, and Austin Disaster Relief. Thank you.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Our future lies in clean, renewable energy
Sep 5, 2020 in Herald-Star by RANDI POKLADNIK
Most Ohioans who have lived in the state for more than 50 years have noticed that our weather is definitely changing. We have warmer winters overall, hotter summers, less snow and less rain, and in general when we do get rain events, they tend to be accompanied with extreme winds.
This summer is no exception. Since May, my county, Harrison, has had 24 days in the upper 80s and 19 days above 90 degrees. There are several portions of the state that have witnessed weeks without any significant rainfall.
May was the warmest May ever recorded globally. Also “freakishly” high temperatures were seen in the arctic, especially the Russian Arctic region in Siberia. On May 22, the town of Khatanga, located well north of the Arctic Circle, recorded a temperature of 78 degrees, some 46 degrees above normal. On Aug. 19, Death Valley’s temperature soared to 130 degrees, which broke U.S. records as well as global records as the hottest temperature ever recorded on the planet.
Greenland has lost a catastrophic amount of freshwater due to glacier melt. A study using NASA satellites showed in one month it lost the same amount of ice that it normally loses in a year. The net ice loss in 2019 was more than 530 billion metric tons. To put that in context, that’s as if seven Olympic-sized swimming pools were dumped into the ocean every second of the year.
The storms, Laura and Marcos, are the earliest “L” and “M” storms ever to be named in August. The Atlantic record for earliest “L” storm is Luis on Aug. 29, 1995.” Sadly, as temperatures increase, we use more electricity to power our air conditioners and increase the emissions of climate changing gases.
Given that Ohio is experiencing firsthand the effects of a changing climate, you would think state leaders would be trying to incorporate as many energy-saving measures and renewable energy projects as possible into its energy mix. That is not the case.
I took part in two virtual testimony events held by the Ohio Power Siting Board in August. One was to receive comments for a proposed gas-powered electricity plant on the campus of Ohio State University. The other was for a proposed project called the Emerson Creek Wind Farm Project.
The gas power plant in Columbus is a $290 million project that would be located on the western side of the campus. It would provide 105.5 megawatts of combined heat and power exclusively to the university. It will be a major emitter of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. It will use fracked gas from our region, continuing the pollution that Southeast Ohio communities face every day from fracking, pipelines, compressor stations and other fracking infrastructure.
It will do nothing to alleviate the fugitive emissions of methane gas, a very potent greenhouse gas. The 2018 well blowout by XTO in Belmont County resulted in 20 straight days of 132 tons of methane being spewed into the air, a release so great it was picked up by a methane-monitoring satellite.
The other project, the Emerson Creek Wind Project, would straddle the counties of Huron and Erie and be located south of Sandusky. Its 70 turbines would provide 300 megawatts of electricity and power 88,000 homes. It would take advantage of existing power lines and roads and, as a result, little infrastructure would be needed aside from the half acre footprint for the turbine and access road.
The project will provide $51.3 million in landowner payments at a time when Ohio citizens are feeling the economic pain from the COVID-19 pandemic. The project also would help schools with a $54 million payment and the county and townships would benefit with a $27 million payment. There would be the creation of 150 construction jobs as well as 15 operation and maintenance jobs.
Wind power development in Ohio has been blunted by unreasonable restrictive legislation including the current set-back rules for wind turbines passed in 2014. These are the most restrictive in the nation. According to the Ohio Environmental Council, “the impact of this change was an effective moratorium on any new wind farm, because since 2014, the Ohio Power Siting Board has not approved any new wind farm projects.”
The power siting board has hampered Project Icebreaker Wind. This project, which would be the first offshore wind facility in the Great Lakes, would see the construction of a 20.7 megawatt demonstration wind farm with six turbines.
The project received all of the appropriate permits and conducted the environmental impact studies. However, in May, the OPSB added a “last-minute permitting condition” that would require the blades be turned off every night for eight months out of the year. This was supposedly to protect birds; however, an ornithologist who prepared the draft environmental impact said “this was the lowest-risk project” he ever worked on.
This restrictive legislation is preventing job creation in Ohio, preventing Ohio citizens from earning income from leasing their property for wind turbine development and does nothing to combat climate change. It is estimated that Ohio has lost $4 billion in economic opportunities because of the legislation.
A recent report in Energy News Network said Illinois has added the third most new wind capacity and is the sixth state to surpass 5,000 megawatts of wind capacity. Indiana ranks 12th nationwide with 2,317 megawatts.
Ohio only has 738 megawatts of installed wind capacity, yet the state is the largest manufacturer of components for the wind industry.
Even though advances in wind technology have made it one of the cheapest sources of electricity, Ohio remains in the past, clinging to energy sources that are dirty and unsustainable and passing crippling legislation like the infamous HB 6 that will significantly weaken the state’s renewable energy standards.
We need a future that adopts clean, green renewable energy with wind power as part of our energy mix.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Ignore chatter, learn more
Sep 5, 2020 in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel by Aaron Dunbar
“You’re a dummy!” “drink the kool-aid snowflake” “how about you go into your basement cupcake” “you need to seriously change your name to Aaron Dumbar.”
These are a few of the very mature responses I received when I dared to bring up the subject of climate change on a Republican lawmaker’s Facebook post. I’ve grown pretty used to receiving this kind of abuse from commenters whenever I write into The News and Sentinel about climate issues, and I want to be entirely clear here — none of these insults bother me even a single iota.
What does disturb me, however, is that those most vocal about insulting me appear totally unwilling to listen to the scientific experts on climate. I truly do not care whether anyone pays attention to what I have to say. I’m not an expert on climate change. And I’m not some self-professed “climate guru,” as I’ve been derisively called in the past.
But when I see information directly from NASA (you know, those very intelligent people who put us on the moon?) stating that human-made climate change is real, I can’t even imagine having the audacity to think that I personally know better than the smartest people on our planet.
I get asked a lot of the same questions about climate change over and over, and I generally have or can locate answers to just about all of them. But I’ve learned by now that climate change deniers don’t actually want answers. They want to throw as many gotcha questions as they can at you, then ignore every answer you give them and simply move on to something else.
However, for anyone out there who’s skeptical about climate change but who genuinely wants to learn more, I want to highly recommend looking into a few of the following titles that helped convert me from a climate change denier into a full-fledged environmentalist:
“Merchants of Doubt” (Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway); “The Madhouse Effect” (Michael Mann and Tom Toles); “Losing Earth” (Nathaniel Rich); “The Sixth Extinction” (Elizabeth Kolbert); “The Uninhabitable Earth” (David Wallace-Wells); or basically anything by Bill McKibben, one of the earliest and most prolific authors on climate.
There’s truly no room for genuine climate skepticism when the staggering mountains of evidence are viewed fairly and objectively. Nor can there be any doubt about the need for taking swift and immediate action to preserve our planet.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
More Opportunities For Climate Action with MOVCA
Sept 3, 2020 in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel by Adeline Bailey
PARKERSBURG, West Virginia – Since large in-person gatherings indoors are not advisable during this time of COVID-19, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action’s usual Third Thursday programs have been suspended until public programs are safe for presenters and attendees. But MOVCA is pleased to announce upcoming opportunities to work for climate justice that don’t require meeting in person.
MOVCA members and friends are invited to participate in a free, five-day webinar series on Community Democracy presented by Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services beginning Monday, August 24th. Fair Shake is a nonprofit law firm that believes everyone should be able to defend their environment. They provide access to environmental justice through pro bono and income-based legal services on environmental issues.
Fair Shake’s Community Democracy Series aims to give people the tools they need to participate in the processes that shape their communities. Each segment of their free, five-part webinar series is hosted by one of their staff attorneys and dives into important aspects of local and regional democratic processes that are often overlooked. Some examples include zoning, long term land-use planning, environmental permitting, lead hazards, environmental justice, and organizing around risk-management.
The webinar series runs the week of August 24th – 28th, with a different topic relating to environmental justice covered each day, beginning at 2:00 p.m. Interested persons can register for one or all of the daily webinars. Learn more about the series and register at the link below:
If attending an online webinar doesn’t sound appealing, MOVCA invites any and all to participate in their second Shoe Strike for the Climate at Fenton Park in Williamstown on August 29th from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Since large assemblies in person are restricted due to COVID-19, in July a small group from MOVCA met – wearing masks and practicing social distancing – to lay out more than 400 pairs of shoes donated by area residents, thereby representing citizens concerned about climate change, as well as future generations who have no voice with which to protest. The shoe strike in Williamstown will follow a similar pattern.
Anyone with shoes to donate or a protest sign for climate justice can bring them to the strike and stop by to say hello. If they prefer to drop off shoe donations in advance, MOVCA has set up sites in Parkersburg at the First Christian Church parking lot (1400 Washington Ave.) or at the Seventh-day Adventist Church (1901 Park Ave.); or in Marietta in the courtyard area at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Marietta (232 Third St.). After the strikes, MOVCA will give the donated shoes to local charity efforts.
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action’s Shoe Strike for Climate Justice is modeled on the Sko Strejk movement that started in Sweden and is now spreading to other parts of the world. The group plans to sponsor a third shoe strike in Marietta on September 25th, coordinated with a global climate action day organized by Fridays For Future. On September 25th, demonstrations and manifestations will take place all across the globe, all adjusted according to Covid-19 circumstances.
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action focuses on raising awareness of the solid science establishing the danger of the climate crisis and the urgency of dealing with it. MOVCA supports the efforts of 350.org, and Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and is a Science Booster Club for the National Center for Science Education. The not-for-profit volunteer group also collaborates with other environmental groups on campaigns and events in the Mid-Ohio Valley. For more information, visit the organization’s web page (https://main.movclimateaction.org).
Additional information:
Fridays for Future: FridaysforFuture.org.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
New Coalition Releases West Virginia Guide On Climate Change
West Virginia Public Broadcasting | By Brittany Patterson
Published September 21, 2020 at 4:40 PM EDT
A newly formed group of civic-minded and environmental organizations have teamed up to produce a climate change guide for West Virginians.
The 16-page document, released Monday by the West Virginia Climate Alliance, is called “The Citizen’s Guide To Climate Change.”
The goal, according to alliance member Perry Bryant, is not to endorse a certain climate change policy proposal, but to lay out the basic science of what is causing climate change and some of the solutions.
“This publication was designed to begin a dialogue with the citizens of West Virginia,” he said. “ In order to have that dialogue, we thought it was really important for people to have a very clear understanding of what [is] the basic science of what’s causing climate change.”
The guide pulls from scientific studies and the work of U.S. and international agencies including the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
According to the guide, West Virginia can expect to see more frequent and severe rainfall events, which can lead to flooding. The Mountain State is also expected to see temperatures increase by nearly 8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century if action isn’t taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change will especially impact the state’s most vulnerable residents, including children, the elderly, communities of color, low-income communities and those with pre-existing conditions, said Pam Nixon, with the NAACP in Charleston and former environmental advocate for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. These groups may lack the resources to retrofit their homes to withstand more severe weather and will pay a disproportionate amount of their income in higher electricity costs.
“When disaster hits, they’re more likely to be displaced from their homes, they may run out of fear medications or lose them,” she said. “They have a lack of transportation. They lose contact with family members and even become unemployed as we’ve seen during COVID-19. The stress can lead to mental health issues that can take years for recovery if at all.”
Talking about climate change in a resource-heavy state, can be tough, Bryant said. According to data from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, on average, 59 percent of West Virignians think climate change is happening. That’s about 13 points lower than the nation as a whole.
Alliance members said they expect climate legislation to be taken up by Congress in 2021, regardless of who is elected president, and West Virginia, which for decades has fueled the nation, needs to be included in the conversation as to how the country transitions to a cleaner economy. Specifically, the group hopes environmental justice and a just transition are included in any policy proposals.
A just transition recognizes that communities that produce fossil fuels, such as coal miners and power plant workers, are going to be disproportionately impacted by policies that decarbonize the economy. As such, these communities need to be compensated for this loss. It’s an idea gaining traction with some groups in Appalachia.
“It’s really important that West Virginians who are dependent on carbon — we have a very heavy carbon economy and we’re going to be impacted by this — to know what are the various proposals and how it’s going to impact West Virginia,” Bryant said.
Proposals include things such putting a price on carbon, either through a tax or by the development of a cap-and-trade program, and more sweeping plans such as the Green New Deal, which calls for billions in investment to transition to a low-carbon economy by requiring 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035.
“There’s an old adage that if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu, and I think that applies in this situation,” he said.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Hold reps to task on climate
Aug 29, 2020 The Parkersburg News and Sentinel: Sarah Cross
This letter is in response to the July 25 op-ed article in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, “Thank you for Backing the Great American Outdoors Act.”
I could not agree more with the authors — the Great American Outdoors Act is an investment in the people and we owe much gratitude to Senator Manchin and Senator Capito for co-sponsoring the bill, as well as Representative Miller for voting in favor of the law. I’m excited to see this legislation pass, as I, too, believe it promotes better access to the outdoors, supports economic development, and addresses societal challenges.
While it was not mentioned in the article, one of these relevant societal challenges is climate change. The Great American Outdoors Act will promote the protection of forests and waterbodies, which will, in turn, help mitigate climate change by storing and removing carbon through a process known as “carbon sequestration.” Essentially, by protecting natural outdoor spaces and resources, we are combating climate change. The more carbon that is stored and removed through natural processes, the less carbon dioxide will reach the atmosphere. This is considered a “natural solution” to climate change and helps slow down the depletion of the ozone layer.
Ultimately, reducing our dependency on fossil fuels is not enough to slow down the negative effects of climate change, such as incredibly severe storms, dangerous temperature fluctuations, and air pollution. However, academic literature suggests natural solutions can provide over one-third of cost-effective climate change mitigation needed by 2030! The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis has also stated the need for natural climate solutions in a recent report called “Solving the Climate Crisis.” Let’s hold our representatives accountable to this action plan and thank those who have helped along the way.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Marietta residents plan virtual hearing on fracking
Aug 26, 2020 The Marietta Times: by Michele Newbanks
A recent public hearing on a proposed docking facility near Marietta left local residents frustrated and disappointed.
DeepRock Disposal Solutions in Marietta applied for a permit for a docking facility, where locals believe fracking wastewater will be offloaded. The wastewater will be disposed of at DeepRock.
Devola resident George Banziger said he was unhappy with a virtual public meeting with the Huntington District, U.S. Corps of Engineers on Aug. 7.
“People were required to register for the meeting, which was on a Friday and not convenient for most people,” he explained. “The meeting time was changed at the last minute.”
He said after an introduction that lasted half an hour, the 13 people who were able to connect each had two minutes to speak.
“Then the meeting ended early,” Banziger said. “It was not on Zoom, but was on a platform that several people had trouble getting on.”
He said he was also frustrated no representation from DeepRock was in the meeting to answer questions.
Wes Mossor, DeepRock’s general manager, said they were requested answers to questions prior to the meeting.
“We were told we would get a summary of the meeting,” he said. “I don’t know that we’ve received it.”
As a response, a virtual Peoples Hearing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday through Zoom. It will be live streamed on YouTube and Facebook live and a hard copy transcript will be sent via certified mail to the Corps of Engineers.
Beverly Reed, community organizer for Concerned Ohio River Residents, said the Peoples Hearing is something the citizen advocacy groups have put together. She said those who spoke at the Aug. 7 hearing, as well as those who didn’t get a chance to attend are invited to register for the meeting at bit.ly/DeepRockPeoplesHearing.
“We’re going to record the Zoom call and send it to the Army Corps so we can feel heard and know they’ve heard our concerns,” she explained.
She added an official complaint was sent in by the group’s attorneys, Fair Shake Environmental Legal Service, as many people were shut out of the meeting.
Groups supporting the hearing include Buckeye Environmental Network, Concerned Ohio River Residents, Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, Climate Reality Pittsburgh, Ohio River Guardians, Freshwater Accountability Project, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and Ohio Poor People’s Campaign.
Banziger said additional comments could be sent to the Corps by Aug. 17, so several people got together and submitted their concerns.
“On Monday, I asked the Corps if I could get a copy of the comments submitted and the Corps’ response to the comments,” he explained. “I was told I had to apply under the Freedom of Information Act. I submitted the completed form right after and was told I would have to pay a cost of $48 an hour. It would be about two hours for the cost the Corps had of providing these.”
A FOIA request was submitted Tuesday afternoon by the Times and the Corps has 20 days to respond.
“Those comments should be publicly accessible,” Banziger said.
He said some of his questions about any safety precautions or back up systems were in place for anything offloaded at the docking site.
Mossor said DeepRock is regulated by the government and their facilities are regularly checked.
“We’ve addressed questions in the supporting documents (for the permit). We are monitored and oversaw by a whole lot of programs,” he said. “One of the biggest is the Facility Response Plan.”
He said the Spill Prevention Countermeasures and Containment is a program that’s in place to monitor and assure that any above ground tanks are in compliance.
“It’s very robust because of our location,” he explained. “We fall under the federal EPA. Every oil and gas business has a SPCC plan if they have bulk storage.”
He noted there are a “fair amount” of injection wells in Washington County, where the wastewater is pumped into the ground. Banziger said he wondered if people knew where they were.
“There are at least 11 injection wells in Washington County,” Banziger said. “There are four on Harmar Hill, with one in back of the offices of the Ohio Soil and Water District on (Ohio) 676. We don’t know if people on Harmar Hill know about these injection wells.”
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