August 14, 2020 The BargainHunter.com Randi Pokladnik
Last week I took part in a virtual meeting to gather testimony concerning the construction of a new gas-powered plant in Columbus. The $290 million project would be placed on the western side of the campus.
The Ohio Power Siting Board needs to approve the 105.5 megawatt CHP, combined heat and power (two gas turbines) plant. It will be developed by a private group of companies that will manage and profit from this plant. It will only provide energy to the Ohio State University.
The plant will be a major emitter of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. It will contribute to the air pollution in Franklin County.
A recent Columbus Dispatch article reported, “Mayor Andrew J. Ginther announced in mid-February that he would pursue a community-choice energy-aggregation program to reach 100% green power by 2022.”
This fracked gas-powered plant will not move Columbus toward that goal. Why didn’t OSU consider a renewable-energy project?
This question and several others were asked when over 50 people including OSU alumni, students, faculty, and some local people from Harrison and Belmont counties provided testimony last week. Those supporting the plant were mainly using economic reasons to justify support while those against the plant were concerned as to the impact of the emissions on local residents and the failure of the campus to keep its pledge of a sustainable campus.
The proposed plant has been exempted from analysis of emissions because “OSU is a nonprofit educational institution.” However, the local residents in the area will suffer with exposures to air pollution in the form of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxides. What the proposal also neglects to address are the effects on the residents of Southeastern Ohio, the area that will most likely be supplying the fracked gas. The counties of this region will be disproportionately harmed by the continuation of an extremely destructive process.
Harrison, Carroll and Belmont counties will be those counties that see more fracking wastes, more water withdraws, more truck accidents, more air pollution, more water pollution, more social externalities, more man-camps, more ecosystem destruction and more health effects. By committing to this project, the future of residents of Southeast Ohio will be locked into years of more toxic fracking.
Natural gas is not a step in the right direction toward sustainability. It is just the opposite: a step backward that continues our reliance on a fossil-fuel resource that pushes the planet closer toward extinction. This project should be ended and replaced with a true renewable, sustainable energy source. The levelized cost of energy for solar and wind is already lower than that of natural gas without considering subsidies and environmental benefits.
We know renewable energy and energy efficiency can dramatically decrease our carbon footprint. Yet the leaders in the state continually thwart efforts to bring more solar and wind energy into the energy mix. The best example of the shenanigans surrounding energy choices in Ohio is the $60 million federal bribery scandal associated with HB 6. This bill would bail out two failing nuclear power plants along with some coal-fired plants.
Any carbon-based fuel source, whether it is coal, oil or gas, emits carbon dioxide when burned. Carbon dioxide can hang around in our atmosphere for thousands of years. One also must consider all the emissions of carbon dioxide during the full cycle of gas extraction including infrastructure construction, transport of frack water, frack wastes and equipment, and energy for concrete and chemicals used.
Any advantage natural gas has over coal as far as lower carbon-dioxide emissions when combusted is negated when we look at the amounts of methane spewing from natural gas operations every day. The methane molecule is about 90 times as effective at absorbing heat in the troposphere.
The atmospheric concentrations of methane have increased by over 150% since the industrial revolution. Jessika Trancik, an energy expert at MIT, said in order to keep from soaring above the two-degree Celsius goal, we must keep any extra methane from leaking into the atmosphere.
Lena Hoglund-Isakssona, a greenhouse gas expert at Austria’s International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, said, “It’s impossible to hit climate targets with methane in the mix.”
She also said a strong increase in global methane emissions after 2010 are “explained by increased methane emissions from shale gas production in North America.”
Methane from natural geological sources (shale gas) contains a different carbon isotope than methane from sources like wetlands. Therefore, it is possible to delineate between methane emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and emissions caused from releases in nature. A recent study in Greenland published in the February 2020 National Geographic showed oil and gas operations “have a much bigger footprint on methane emissions than previously known.”
Those operations result in methane emissions from drilling wells, transportation in pipelines, leaks, flares and storage. The Union of Concerned Scientists said, “Preliminary studies and field measurements show fugitive methane emissions range from 1-9% of total life-cycle emissions.”
In February 2018 in Belmont County, a blowout of a natural gas well run by an Exxon Mobil subsidiary, XTO, released “more methane than the entire oil and gas industries of many nations in a year.”
This leak was observed by the new satellite, Tropomi, a troposphere-monitoring instrument that can measure methane. The leak took 20 days to plug and released about 132 tons of methane per hour, according to reports from scientists. A Cornell University Study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Biogeosciences, reported methane emissions from industrial sources are much higher than previously thought or reported by the scientists.
We will never be able to lower greenhouse-gas emissions as long as we continue to rely on fossil fuels, whether it be coal or natural gas.
Interested persons are encouraged to submit informal written comments to the Ohio Power Siting Board and include the Case Number 19-1641-EL-BGN.
These can be emailed to contactOPSB@puco.ohio.gov or mailed to Ohio Power Siting Board, 180 E. Board St., Columbus, OH 43215.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Be responsible, not scared
Aug 22, 2020 The Parkersburg News and Sentinel by Aaron Dunbar
I was recently watching a video on the 2020 Presidential Election (I believe it was a clip from Rising with Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti) in which the hosts discussed President Trump’s tactic during the 2018 midterms of using the so-called “migrant caravan” to scare on-the-fence constituents into voting Republican. It was speculated that, given his current poor approval ratings, he may attempt to utilize a similar scare tactic heading into November.
It couldn’t have been more than a day or two after watching this that I noticed a letter in the News and Sentinel, published on Aug. 15, warning of “central American migrant caravans” being “lured to overwhelm our southern border,” and declaring that re-electing Trump was the only way to stop them.
I honestly have no polite words with which to address the widespread scapegoating and demonization of immigrants in this country. But what about the migrants in this particular situation?
During the debates about how we should address these poor and desperate people traveling to our borders, how often did we bother discussing the root causes of their displacement? For instance, how often did we talk about the CIA coups that destabilized many Central American countries and killed hundreds of thousands of people, eventually leading to the modern conditions forcing migrants to flee their homelands? And what about climate change?
I’ve been taken to task for tying the migrant caravan to the issue of the climate crisis. But the simple fact is, the failure of crops caused by drought was a driving force behind the caravan’s very existence, on top of already violent and dangerous conditions.
Climate change-related drought has similarly been cited as a factor in the Syrian civil war, which famously led to its own influx of refugees, as well as then-candidate Trump’s racist call for a ban on Muslims from entering the U.S.
Some U.N. forecasts place the number of people displaced by climate change at one billion by the year 2050. So at some point, conservatives are going to have to come to terms with the fact that their love of endless wars and their refusal to address climate change are both key drivers behind the very influx of refugees they so vehemently despise. If you’re truly so terrified of big scary foreigners entering our country, then maybe the solution is for us to begin acting like responsible global citizens.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
OSU is ignoring climate-change science
August 14, 2020 The BargainHunter.com Randi Pokladnik
Last week I took part in a virtual meeting to gather testimony concerning the construction of a new gas-powered plant in Columbus. The $290 million project would be placed on the western side of the campus.
The Ohio Power Siting Board needs to approve the 105.5 megawatt CHP, combined heat and power (two gas turbines) plant. It will be developed by a private group of companies that will manage and profit from this plant. It will only provide energy to the Ohio State University.
The plant will be a major emitter of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. It will contribute to the air pollution in Franklin County.
A recent Columbus Dispatch article reported, “Mayor Andrew J. Ginther announced in mid-February that he would pursue a community-choice energy-aggregation program to reach 100% green power by 2022.”
This fracked gas-powered plant will not move Columbus toward that goal. Why didn’t OSU consider a renewable-energy project?
This question and several others were asked when over 50 people including OSU alumni, students, faculty, and some local people from Harrison and Belmont counties provided testimony last week. Those supporting the plant were mainly using economic reasons to justify support while those against the plant were concerned as to the impact of the emissions on local residents and the failure of the campus to keep its pledge of a sustainable campus.
The proposed plant has been exempted from analysis of emissions because “OSU is a nonprofit educational institution.” However, the local residents in the area will suffer with exposures to air pollution in the form of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxides. What the proposal also neglects to address are the effects on the residents of Southeastern Ohio, the area that will most likely be supplying the fracked gas. The counties of this region will be disproportionately harmed by the continuation of an extremely destructive process.
Harrison, Carroll and Belmont counties will be those counties that see more fracking wastes, more water withdraws, more truck accidents, more air pollution, more water pollution, more social externalities, more man-camps, more ecosystem destruction and more health effects. By committing to this project, the future of residents of Southeast Ohio will be locked into years of more toxic fracking.
Natural gas is not a step in the right direction toward sustainability. It is just the opposite: a step backward that continues our reliance on a fossil-fuel resource that pushes the planet closer toward extinction. This project should be ended and replaced with a true renewable, sustainable energy source. The levelized cost of energy for solar and wind is already lower than that of natural gas without considering subsidies and environmental benefits.
We know renewable energy and energy efficiency can dramatically decrease our carbon footprint. Yet the leaders in the state continually thwart efforts to bring more solar and wind energy into the energy mix. The best example of the shenanigans surrounding energy choices in Ohio is the $60 million federal bribery scandal associated with HB 6. This bill would bail out two failing nuclear power plants along with some coal-fired plants.
Any carbon-based fuel source, whether it is coal, oil or gas, emits carbon dioxide when burned. Carbon dioxide can hang around in our atmosphere for thousands of years. One also must consider all the emissions of carbon dioxide during the full cycle of gas extraction including infrastructure construction, transport of frack water, frack wastes and equipment, and energy for concrete and chemicals used.
Any advantage natural gas has over coal as far as lower carbon-dioxide emissions when combusted is negated when we look at the amounts of methane spewing from natural gas operations every day. The methane molecule is about 90 times as effective at absorbing heat in the troposphere.
The atmospheric concentrations of methane have increased by over 150% since the industrial revolution. Jessika Trancik, an energy expert at MIT, said in order to keep from soaring above the two-degree Celsius goal, we must keep any extra methane from leaking into the atmosphere.
Lena Hoglund-Isakssona, a greenhouse gas expert at Austria’s International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, said, “It’s impossible to hit climate targets with methane in the mix.”
She also said a strong increase in global methane emissions after 2010 are “explained by increased methane emissions from shale gas production in North America.”
Methane from natural geological sources (shale gas) contains a different carbon isotope than methane from sources like wetlands. Therefore, it is possible to delineate between methane emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and emissions caused from releases in nature. A recent study in Greenland published in the February 2020 National Geographic showed oil and gas operations “have a much bigger footprint on methane emissions than previously known.”
Those operations result in methane emissions from drilling wells, transportation in pipelines, leaks, flares and storage. The Union of Concerned Scientists said, “Preliminary studies and field measurements show fugitive methane emissions range from 1-9% of total life-cycle emissions.”
In February 2018 in Belmont County, a blowout of a natural gas well run by an Exxon Mobil subsidiary, XTO, released “more methane than the entire oil and gas industries of many nations in a year.”
This leak was observed by the new satellite, Tropomi, a troposphere-monitoring instrument that can measure methane. The leak took 20 days to plug and released about 132 tons of methane per hour, according to reports from scientists. A Cornell University Study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Biogeosciences, reported methane emissions from industrial sources are much higher than previously thought or reported by the scientists.
We will never be able to lower greenhouse-gas emissions as long as we continue to rely on fossil fuels, whether it be coal or natural gas.
Interested persons are encouraged to submit informal written comments to the Ohio Power Siting Board and include the Case Number 19-1641-EL-BGN.
These can be emailed to contactOPSB@puco.ohio.gov or mailed to Ohio Power Siting Board, 180 E. Board St., Columbus, OH 43215.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Fracking plant proposed for OSU requires critical review
Aug 13, 2020 in The Columbus Dispatch by Aaron Dunbar
On Aug. 4, I provided testimony to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in opposition to a proposed fracked gas plant being considered at Ohio State University.
I do not live in Columbus, but rather in a small Appalachian community in southeast Ohio. I’m from one of the so-called “sacrifice zones” that’s at the front lines when it comes to natural gas extraction. Right now many of us are fighting against a proposal to barge radioactive fracking waste along the Ohio River, as well as, in the larger scheme, the potential for increased fracking to turn our region into the next Cancer Alley.
Natural gas is neither a “clean” fossil fuel (it releases huge quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas which can be up to 120 times worse than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in our atmosphere), nor is it safe.
Not even a week after giving my testimony, a massive natural gas explosion tore through Baltimore, Maryland, leaving one woman dead, seven individuals in serious condition, and all but annihilating three homes.
Natural gas is as dangerous as it is unsustainable, and it should not even be included in the same sentence with the words “clean energy.” I urge the public to reject the Combined Heat and Power Facility being considered at OSU and for the PUCO to hold additional hearings on this matter once OSU students have returned to campus and can effectively make their voices heard.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Real lessons on energy
Aug 8, 2020 in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel by Eric Engle
On July 23, Congressman David McKinley (District 1-WV) penned an op-ed titled “Learning Lesson on Energy Security” in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel. The Congressman claims in the piece that we cannot afford to rely on precious metals and rare earth materials from overseas countries like China, Russia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the production of electric car batteries, solar panels and wind turbines. I guess the Congressman assesses risks and what we can and cannot afford a little differently than the global climate science community and environmental scientists.
Where the Congressman is worried about the stability of governments in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and things like the water use involved in extracting lithium, I’m comparing those concerns to the massive global climate destabilization being caused by the CO2 and methane emissions of coal and oil and gas and the fact that “clean coal” technology is not even remotely the success the Congressman claims. Carbon capture and storage currently cannot be scaled to anywhere near the level of the problem (30 to 40 gigatons — a gigaton is a billion metric tons — of C02 emissions annually) and is prohibitively expensive. Nuclear, another recommendation for focus from the Congressman, is also prohibitively expensive and so-called “new age” nuclear, with less danger of meltdowns and less waste is, like carbon capture and storage, years or even decades from being practical, cost-efficient and scalable.
Since when has the Congressman and his party really been concerned about water usage? The Congressman mentions that it takes 500,000 gallons of water to obtain 1 ton of lithium, but the Congressman fails to mention the enormous amounts of water it takes to extract and use coal, oil and gas (especially with hydraulic fracturing) and the enormous amounts of waste that come from the use of these fuel sources. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that total water used for coal mining in the United States ranges from 70 million to 260 million gallons a day. Scientific American estimates that fracking uses 9.6 million gallons of water per well and puts farming and drinking sources at risk.
The Congressman mentions use of hydrogen as a clean energy source. I agree, we should absolutely be exploring and investing in hydrogen use, especially for high energy processes like steel and cement-making, that way we could even leave metallurgical coal in the ground.
A long-standing narrative suggests that the federal government is the reason for the export of American manufacturing and our reliance on foreign goods, but what this narrative deliberately misses is that corporations and industries are even more to blame. Cheap labor, even more lax environmental oversight, poor public health oversight, even less corporate taxation, it all means that these industries and corporations choose to produce overseas. The Congressman and his party act as though that means we should devalue American labor, fail to protect our environment and public health and fail to fairly tax hugely profitable industries and corporations. When you think of it that way, “business friendly” doesn’t sound nearly as good, does it? Isolationism doesn’t solve these problems and it doesn’t solve a global climate crisis or global environmental degradation. When it comes to securing our energy future in a clean, efficient, healthy way, perhaps it is the Congressman who is in need of a lesson.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Many questions regarding fracking facility still need to be answered
August 5, 2020 in The Marietta Times by George Banziger
On Aug. 7 from 5-6:30 p.m. there will be a virtual public meeting regarding the application from Deep Rock Disposal Solutions LLC of Marietta to build a facility just outside Marietta on the Ohio River to offload “traditional well waste” (of hydraulic fracturing or fracking) from barges. This application was submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Huntington WV office), which is sponsoring the meeting. There are many unanswered questions about this application that need to be addressed before it is approved.
Many of these questions relate to the safety, security, health, and environment of residents of the Marietta area. Among them are:
¯ What is meant by “traditional well waste?” I am aware that 99% of what goes into fracking wells is water, but with one million gallons going into each well, the 1%, which contains toxic substances like arsenic, lead, mercury, benzene, hardly amounts to teaspoon quantities. Furthermore, the water involved is salt brine and can be radioactive.
¯ The waste materials, once offloaded, are going to be transported via an old pipeline. Has its integrity been tested, how can leaks be detected, how often will it be inspected? Where is the terminus to this pipeline?
¯ What happens to the fracking waste when it gets to the terminus of the pipeline?
¯ According to the application there is a 90-foot walkway/pipeway from the barge offload site. Does that pipeway pose any risk to the waters of the Ohio River?
¯ What is the safety review process for the transport and offloading of these waste materials?
Concerned residents of the Marietta area may have other important questions about this proposed facility. I would urge all those concerned to RSVP to the virtual public meeting by sending an e-mail message to: CELRH.North@usace.army.mil and put “RSVP 7 August Public Meeting” in the subject line (give your full name, e-mail address and phone number in the message).To submit a question for the public meeting before the event send an e-mail message to the same address with “Question for 7 August Public Meeting” in the subject line (with your name and phone number).
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action holds shoe strike
By Hannah Stutler
Published: Jul. 25, 2020 at 6:58 PM EDT|Updated: Jul. 25, 2020 at 7:34 PM EDT
PARKERSBURG, W.Va (WTAP) – If you drove past Parkersburg City Park on Saturday, you may have noticed the nearly four hundred pairs of shoes sitting in the grass.
They were put there by members of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action organization.
The organization held a shoe strike for climate justice.
The event allowed the organization to share their message while remaining socially distant.
The shoe strikes have been happening not only here, but across the globe.
“The movement Fridays for Future, which Greta Thunberg helped found,” said, Aaron Dunbar, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action. “They have been setting these up in different locations around the world. It is to encourage people to get involved even though they can’t protest in large groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, this is a way to get together and keep the issue of climate change in focus.”
Many of the shoes were donated to the organization.
The ones that are still wearable will be donated and the rest will be recycled.
Last Updated: April 26, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Do You Want Oil and Gas Waste in Your Water?
Robin Blakeman
Jul 23, 2020
Hoots and Hollers
If the answer to the title question is “no!” then please register to attend the Peoples Hearing on August 27th
Why is this necessary?
A virtual hearing hosted by USACE on August 7th, 2020 didn’t provide good access and allow adequate time for all participants to voice their concerns, so we – the people – are holding our own public meeting!
Media reps covered the August 7th public meeting, but USACE officials wouldn’t even talk freely to them.
This Letter to the Editor of the Huntington Herald Dispatch gives some details.
What’s the big deal? There have been three barge docks proposed to be built along the Ohio side of the Ohio River this year. If built, all three will be accepting oil and gas waste from unknown destinations, some of which are likely to be connected to horizontal well “fracking” operations. This would put a host of highly toxic and potentially radioactive substances only one spill away from contaminating the tap water for five million people. So far, this is the only public meeting or hearing that has been granted in response to public requests and comments.
Please register for the virtual public meeting, and send comments or questions. If you need more information or advice, contact robin@ohvec.org
Particular details of the hearing:
United States Army Corps of Engineers
ATTN: CELRH-RD-N
Public Notice: LRH-2020-293-OHR
502 Eighth Street
Huntington, West Virginia 25701-2070
Here are some urgent concerns we have about these proposed barge dock facilities, which focus on pollution/spill response concerns:
· It is unclear who would have jurisdiction/responsibility for records keeping and spill response planning, and whether those entities have clear channels of communication about the contents of these barges.
· There is a lack of appropriate testing methods for radionuclides; some of this waste could be radioactive (especially if from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields).
· USCG does not provide for any public notification, or public comment period, and only allows extremely limited access to public records on horizontal fracking related waste barges. USCG approves applications for this type of oil and gas waste based on information provided entirely by the shipper and waste can be sourced from hundreds of horizontal or vertical fracking wells in different phases of production throughout the Appalachian Basin.
· Toxic contents of unconventional oil and gas drilling waste are not among the chemicals tested for at source water intakes, nor at ORSANCO testing stations. Common contaminants in fracking waste that are toxic to human health: chemical additives, such as ethylene glycol, naphthalene, and sulfuric acid; Metals and organic compounds – for example, barium is linked to gastrointestinal disturbances, muscle weakness, and paralysis; BTEX – benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene – for example, benzene is a carcinogen, and linked to blood disorders such as anemia, and toluene is
linked to nervous system, kidney, and liver problems; salts or total dissolved solids – corrodes infrastructure, harms aquatic life and vegetation; NORM – naturally occurring radioactive materials, such as radium-226 and radium-228 – carcinogenic, linked to blood disorders. (These isotopes are found in brine associated with the salt deposits in the Marcellus shale and are brought to the surface along with produced water during fracking).
· Current drinking water treatment would probably be unable to filter out these contaminants if a spill occurred.
· Current standards for chemicals in fracking fluids, such as toluene, benzene and xylenes – established over 30 years ago – are NOT adequate to protect human health. Fracking waste contain TENORM (Technically enhanced radioactive materials) that can contain water soluble radium 226 and 228 according to a March 20, 2020 EPA post, in 120 pCi/gram. These radionuclides can only be removed by osmosis and ion exchange
methods; neither technique is used by most public drinking water facilities in our region. (The EPA has set a legal limit for Radium 226 and 228 combined at 5 picocuries per liter)
· Levels of radium could be much higher because of inadequate testing methods.
Here are more talking points, and sample questions that you might want to include in comments or questions sent to USACE:
Updated: Aug 25, 2020 — 8:55 pm
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
A Shoe Strike for Climate Justice
July 21, 2020 Press Release (written and submitted by Adeline Bailey)
Appearing in Clutch MOV (on-line magazine):
The Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action group is hosting a Shoe Strike this Saturday, July 25th at Parkersburg City Park. A Shoe Strike is a safer form of protest during a global pandemic. Those wishing to participate are encouraged to bring a pair of shoes and a protest sign for Climate Justice to Parkersburg City Park at 9:00 am. The protest will be on display through 3:00 pm that afternoon. Once participants have placed their shoes and sign, they are asked to leave so that they can maintain safe social distance.
If you prefer, you can donate shoes in advance at one of three drop-off locations:
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 is holding a Shoe Strike for Climate Justice, modeled on the Sko Strejk movement that started in Sweden and is now spreading to other parts of the World. People will bring their shoes and protest signs toCity Park in Parkersburg (corner of 23rd St. and Park Ave.)on Saturday, July 25th. The protest will take place from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.
The Parkersburg Shoe Strike is sponsored by Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action in coordination with Fridays for Future and other Shoe Strikes for Climate Justice! in the U.S. For more information, visit FridaysforFuture.org.
Part of a Movement
On July 25th Shoe Strikes for Climate Justice are going global with Shoe Strikes happening all over Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, the US, Canada, and parts of Africa.
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.
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action announces online series of seminars
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel:
Community News
Jul 16, 2020
PARKERSBURG — While Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action has suspended its Third Thursday programs because of the pandemic, the group has several upcoming opportunities that don’t require in-person meetings.
Climate Action will hold a webinar at 11 a.m. Friday, “Climate, Water and Justice” with Dr. Georgiana Logan, an assistant professor of health science and a research associate for the Minority Heath Institute at Marshall University. She is among the nation’s leading experts on climate, public health and environmental justice.
Logan is serving a two-year term on the American Public Health Association’s Center for Climate, Health and Equity inaugural advisory board. Part of WV Rivers’ Climate and Water Series, the free webinar will be presented on Zoom and requires registration at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIlceqgqzkuHtYMLiFPatNLrxAQGQYN3PwZ
Last Updated: April 29, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Teaching kids to care about the world we all live in
Appearing in The Marietta Times
Editorials
Jul 15, 2020
It is never too early to start thinking about ways to do better for our environment. In Williamstown, officials found a way to rope in local elementary students in lending support to pollinators. In fact, Williamstown Bee City USA had the aid of 16 children this summer, who planted their own pollinator gardens.
“We as a committee had to shift gears with what we could accomplish this year, because of the shut down and social distancing,” said Marty Seufer, a Williamstown council member and president of the Bee City Committee. “With school being taught from home during the COVID-19 outbreak, we were really glad to be able to work with the elementary schools to help educate the youth and give parents an activity they could involve the whole family in.”
Certainly help is needed from those of all ages, and anyone who wants to get involved can check out a list of plants that encourage pollination and can be added to a home garden at williamstownwv.org. Some of them can be purchased from River City Farmers Market vendors.
Meanwhile, having kids in our midst who already care this much about the world around them is an encouraging sign.
We hope the upcoming school year provides enough normality to allow the committee to expand the program beyond Williamstown-area elementary students, as they plan.
Find Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action on the following social media:
Check out our Facebook group and join a conversation
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