In a gated community not far from the beltway, twin fires rage toward the heavens. On either side of the street, two sprawling McMansions kindle into ash, sparks pirouetting upward into the night sky. The blazing homes belong to two well-known and respected families, the Dempseys and the Remingtons.
“Daddy, the house is on fire!” cries the youngest Remington child, running up to the head of the family with his siblings in tow.
Mr. Remington, sitting in his armchair, uncrosses his legs and lowers the newspaper in his lap.
“On fire?” he asks.
The youngest child pauses for a moment, then turns to look at his siblings, as though for confirmation of this obvious fact. A few of them nod.
“Yes!” he reiterates, “The whole house is burning down!”
Mr. Remington lingers on his newspaper for a moment, then brushes the ash from the shoulder of his smoker’s jacket.
“No it’s not,” he says finally.
The children gape at him. “But… The fire and smoke,” says an older brother, gesturing around the room, “They’re everywhere!”
“Wrong,” Dad says. “There is no fire, and there never has been. That’s just a lie from our enemies to try and threaten our way of life.”
The kids stand there, slack-jawed. Eventually though, a few of them nod. “Yeah,” they say. “Yeah, that sounds right.”
Though not everyone is convinced. “Can’t you hear the fire alarm?” asks one of his daughters.
Mr. Remington waves a dismissive hand. “There’s always been fire,” he says. “Fire comes in cycles. That’s how God made it!”
There’s some grumbling from his audience, though by now several of them have come around.
“Even if there was a fire, we have to take into account the possible financial benefits this could bring about!” says one son.
“Exactly!” says Mr. Remington.
“Humans have always adapted to fire,” says his youngest boy, nodding vigorously.
“If it’s a legitimate fire, the body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down,” says another.
His youngest daughter, standing in the doorway, spontaneously combusts.
“Close that, will you?” says Mr. Remington, nodding to the door. They seal themselves into the den, ignoring her screams.
“Gee dad, I guess you were right,” says his eldest son.
“Your old man’s learned a thing or two in his day,” says Mr. Remington proudly. “But I will say, it’s getting a little bit hot in here. Why don’t you kids wait here while I head upstairs and crank up the AC?”
He leaves the circle of children sitting cross-legged on the floor of the den, and shuffles up the stairs with no intention of returning.
Meanwhile, a similar scene unfolds across the street.
Mr. Dempsey can be seen lounging in his recliner, staring off into the distance as the golden flames close in on all sides.
His children run up to him. “Dad! Dad, the house is on fire!”
“Huh? What’s that?” he asks confusedly.
“Our house is burning down!” repeats his middle daughter.
“Good gracious!” he exclaims, rising to his feet. “You’re absolutely right, kiddo! Quick, we gotta do something!”
The children prepare to bolt from the house and escort their elderly father as needed. But to their surprise, they see him instead shuffling in the direction of the kitchen sink. He turns on the faucet, and starts filling up glasses from the cupboard with water. He hands them one by one to the children crowded around him.
“Here, start dumping these on the fire!” he commands his youngest son. The boy doesn’t immediately comply, his gaze transfixed on the freezer full of melted Jeni’s ice cream now spilling out onto the linoleum.
“Dad, I don’t think this is enough,” says the middle daughter, watching as her younger sister splashes the contents of her glass onto the conflagration. The flames blink, then roar back to life more furiously than ever.
“Listen Jack, at least we’re doing something about it,” he counters. “If you’ve got a problem with how I do things, why don’t you go live with the Remingtons instead? I’m doing more than they are!”
“Dad, this is an emergency!” she pleads. “We need to call 9-1-1!”
He winces. “Emergency isn’t really the right word for it,” he says. “I think that the concerns are based on what we should all be concerned about, but the solutions have to be, and include, what we are doing in terms of going forward in terms of investments. There’s a process for these things. We have to go about this the right way, or else we’re no better than the Remingtons.”
At first the children continue to plead. But as they fall into the steady rhythm of activity, feebly splashing water at the flames and then returning to the sink, their complaints gradually subside.
“This isn’t really having much of an effect,” says the middle daughter, “but at least we’re doing something.”
“Keep it up!” says Mr. Dempsey, giving them a thumbs up through the haze. “This is the only way to change things! Now you kids stay with it, I’m gonna go upstairs and see if I can find some more glasses!”
Like his counterpart, Mr. Dempsey has zero intention of returning.
The two neighbors emerge into the center of their shared street, locking eyes against the backdrop of their burning homes. They cross to the center of the road, shaking hands.
“Looks like some excitement going on at your place,” says Dempsey.
“A bit more than I’d like, I’m afraid,” chuckles Remington.
Though they love to play-act as fierce ideological rivals, the two of them really aren’t so different from one another.
They stand there chatting for a few minutes, until at last a pair of private jets descend through the sizzling updraft of smoke, landing in their neighbors’ yards.
“That looks like my ride,” says Remington. They shake hands again, and the two men depart for their second homes, many miles away from here, and from the angry inferno of the desecrated world they’ve left behind.
The children are burning.
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
July 25, 2023 Event- Panel discussion Annie Regan, ReImagine Appalachia moderator, with Kimberly Ishmael, Policy Campaign Coordinator at Community Farm Alliance and Lindsey Shapiro, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.
“Instagram Live: How Can We Support the Farm Bill?”
Available on United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
June 30, 2023 Press Release (missing from June report)
“U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy Announce Partnership to Provide More than $1 Billion to Reduce Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Sector”
“Activist Bill McKibben rallies adults over age 60 to fight for climate action” McKibben’s organization, Third Act, organizes seniors to write letters, hold sit-ins, and more.
A recurrent myth in the Mid-Ohio Valley is that the transition to renewable energy from fossil fuels has to be painful and fraught with job loss, economic decline, and sacrifice. This assumption cannot be further from the truth. It is possible and within our grasp to take charge of our economy and promote job creation with new manufacturing powered by renewable energy while also addressing the accelerating problem of human-caused climate change. The need to address climate change is strikingly compelling in light of the extreme weather being experienced all around the northern hemisphere this summer.
For too long advocates of fossil fuels have led us to believe that coal and oil and now natural gas will lead central Appalachia (western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio. West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky) to economic prosperity. This promise has not been fulfilled in the past and will not in the future. Very little of the billions of dollars invested and revenue generated in natural gas extraction have helped the local economy in this region. A study by the Ohio Valley Research Institute (O’Leary, 2021) has shown that central Appalachia trails the U.S., in general, on measures of economic prosperity such as personal income and net economic growth. This pattern is largely due to the fact that oil and gas extraction is a capital-intensive business. The revenue, community benefit, and jobs with natural gas have not accrued to our region.
Opportunities exist which build upon recovery from extractive industries and align with new growth in renewable energy to benefit our local communities. One example is the manufacture of “eco bricks,” which are produced from coal ash, a biproduct of burning coal. It is estimated that there are 161 coal ash ponds in Appalachia (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2021). This coal ash, if left untended can lead to acid mine drainage and sulfuric acid. When coal ash is combined with some sand, lime, and gypsum, it can produce a composite construction material (aka “eco bricks”) that is stronger and has less of a carbon footprint than standard Portland cement (Ohio River Valley Institute, 2021).
Another opportunity for economic growth involving coal ash relates to the demanding need for rare earth elements (REE) for battery production and other applications needed for the new renewable energy technologies. Currently, 70% of REE come from China. It is possible to derive REE from coal ash (Water Research Institute, WVU, 2022), it is difficult to extract, but it is likely that research directed at the issue can address this problem in the near future.
There is also “mass timber,” a sustainable alternative to concrete and steel; mass timber is made from solid wood panels (derived from trees that are sustainably harvested) nailed or glued together; they are fire resistant, strong, sustainable, and cost efficient. There is industrial hemp, an alternative to plastic, which can be grown on damaged lands. And there are many options for industry around waste recovery, such as using recycled glass to make insulation. The science of battery technology is growing rapidly, and large batteries are in great demand for the rapidly expanding production of electric vehicles. There is also the need to cap orphaned oil and gas wells–a labor-intensive enterprise.
All of these ideas can be developed in West Virginia and throughout Appalachia with locally owned businesses and with the help of federal stimulus programs that are currently available.
There is an innovative project right now on our own doorstep in Mid-Ohio Valley. Thanks to the foresight and diligence of Jesse Roush, executive director of the Southeast Ohio Port Authority, and an innovative international company called SAI, a research and development center focused on heat exchange is being established just south of Marietta. The new center is based on the utilization of heat generated from computer chips, which is recycled to replace natural gas as a heat source for applications in agriculture, fish hatcheries, and residences. Tao Wu, Director of the Heat Recycling Center, is leading efforts to develop multiple computing heat recycle projects, which will benefit the community. The new facility, located on Gravel Bank Road in Warren Township, already has a greenhouse under construction, which can provide vegetables and other crops during winter months for the local community. The opening event for the center will take place on Aug. 9 from 2-5 p.m. (check local news media for details).
***
George Banziger, Ph..D., was a faculty member at Marietta College and an academic dean at three other colleges. Now retired, he is a volunteer for Harvest of Hope and a member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, Citizens Climate Lobby, and of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.
While homes and businesses in states like Florida, California and Louisiana become uninsurable from the effects of climate change, the fossil fuel industry contributing most to the climate crisis has no problem getting all the insurance and reinsurance it needs.
To quote from a piece by journalist Taylor Kate Brown writing for Floodlight and also published in The Guardian, “Each of the world’s largest insurance companies receive annual premiums from fossil fuel projects between $250 — $800 million a year, according to an internal study commissioned by Insure Our Future by market intelligence firm Insuramore.” Brown continues, “For large projects such as LNG terminals, risk is spread among many insurers, as well as the developer itself through financial mechanisms like capital reserves, debt and equity.”
Gee, our homes can’t be insured by multiple insurers. Our small businesses can’t afford to supplement their insurance premiums with their capital reserves or any debt or equity. If you’ve been keeping up with Mike Tony’s incredible reporting in the Gazette-Mail on climate change-induced flood risk in West Virginia, you know that these insurance woes are coming, or may already have come, to a holler or riverfront property near you.
The Taylor Kate Brown piece also says that “While many of the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance companies have emissions targets and no longer insure coal projects, they have resisted calls to stop insuring fossil fuel projects entirely, despite their contribution to the climate crisis and increased global risk.” “At the same time,” Brown continues, “state legislatures and Republican attorneys general have threatened insurance companies for using environmental criteria when setting rates, spooking major insurers away from a UN-backed effort on cutting emissions.”
Sound familiar? This is exactly the kind of thing our own attorney general and gubernatorial candidate, Patrick Morrisey, would happily engage in. Morrisey and state Treasurer Riley Moore have thoroughly enjoyed the spotlight they’ve gotten opposing environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing by fiduciaries, banks and other financial institutions. They don’t want the owners and controllers of capital investing in a safe and healthy climate future; why would they want anyone, except maybe their industry masters and corporate overlords, to be insured against climate calamity?
Sit with the thought of that for a minute. We’re indisputably in the midst of a global climate crisis, with surface and ocean temperature records in the Northern Hemisphere falling like dominoes and with trillions in cumulative damages in this country alone just in the 21st century. And we’ve got one of two major political parties (the GOP) dedicated to making sure we don’t protect our assets, financial or physical, from the almost unfathomable harm to come. The Republican dragon lies on its gold mound while the masses suffer.
PARKERSBURG — Using less plastic is better for the envvironment and people’s health, according to a retired research chemist speaking at the July 20 meeting of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Randi Pokladnik, a retired research chemist who also has a doctorate in environmental studies, spoke as part of Climate Action’s Break Free From Plastic – Plastic-Free July campaign. Pokladnik’s talk included a description of the life cycle of plastic, starting with fracking for oil and natural gas and ending as trash, generating heat-trapping gases at every stage of the life cycle.
In Pokladnik’s view, using less plastic would lead to a healthier environment for humans.
She spoke about toxic additives to the “basic cookie recipe” for plastic used to create the properties of hardness, flexibility and moisture resistance in the end product. Bisphenol A and phthalates are found in can liners and artificial fragrances and may cause endocrine disruptions or cancer, Pokladnik said.
Persistent organic pollutants found in pesticides and flame retardants may cause neurological damage, the known carcinogens styrene and benzene are present in many food containers and the single-use disposable plastics discarded into the environment and exposed to sunlight degrade into methane and ethane that is released into the atmosphere, she said.
“In some situations, using plastic is the right choice,” Pokladnik said.
However, even in those circumstances, getting plastic recycled is a problem, according to Pokladnik. According to Earthday.org, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled (15% is collected for recycling but 40% of that is disposed of as residues). Pokladnik says we will never be able to recycle our way out of plastic pollution. Even “advanced” recycling ideas like pyrolysis or chemical recycling are not proven to be sustainable, since the processes consume more energy than they produce, the release from Climate Action said.
Instead, Podladnik recommends “turning off the faucet” by stopping production of plastics intended for single use.
“We’re addicted to convenience,” she said. “Some of us remember a world without those convenience plastics, and we got along just fine.”
Alternatives to single-use disposables like plastic water bottles, shopping bags, cups, straws, cutlery, take-away containers and food storage bags and wraps would be easy items for consumers to find, she said. Studies show that 40% of the plastics market could be eliminated today by getting rid of single-use, disposable plastics, Climate Action said.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, writer and researcher Callie Lyons will present “Plastics, PFAS, and You: Forever Chemicals in the MOV” in the social hall of the First Unitarian Univeralist Society of Marietta, 232 Third St., Marietta. The presentation also will be offered over Zoom, registration required. Register by email to “mailto:adesign4199@gmail.com”>adesign4199@gmail.com, with “Callie Lyons 7-27-23″ in the subject line and the Zoom link will be emailed.
Have you noticed hazy skies or the news about the Canadian wildfires, which are causing air quality concerns here in the Mid-Ohio Valley. Wildfires are intensifying and can be tied to 88 major fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers according to the recent publication “Quantifying the contribution of major carbon producers to increases in vapor pressure deficit and burned area in western U.S. and southwestern Canadian forests” (https://tinyurl.com/589vt2cb) The article focuses on the vapour-pressure deficit (VPD) or the amount of water the air is holding vs how much it could hold.
The VPD is a metric for understanding wildfires. Wildfires we may be thinking about may be hundreds of miles away, but these are impacting our lives and health by decreasing our air quality in Ohio and West Virginia and we’ve contributed to their intensity through fossil fuels.
Now wildfires happen nearby, it was only the end of 2022 when the Wayne National Forest’s 1,300 acres burned due to a wildfire. Understanding that wildfire intensity is a result of human behavior is important to understanding what steps we need to take to reduce our impact on the climate and our forests. Not only would reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere contributed by humans, but working to ensure we have clean water and combat invasive species. (More: https://tinyurl.com/2p9cwfds).
We are living in a time where we experience the effects of massive wildfires far and near, we should have tools to help with early detection and make informed decisions for our health. A starting point for our health is EPA AirNow (https://tinyurl.com/w4m3sfvm), but we can help improve the data with local sensors and identify point sources of air quality issues. Many of us may turn to our favorite weather station, website, or app to find out the air quality or the weather forecast. These are good for a rough idea, but with more local data it would change what kind of predictions, decisions, and models we can make.
Many primary monitoring stations may be miles away from your house or location of interest, which means we make the best prediction based on what we know and data. Often the sensors for the data to help make these predictions are based at airports, hospitals, and other sites with regulatory monitoring requirements. We rely on modeling and predictions based on math and statistical estimations to fill in the areas between monitoring stations along with known data about the environment (wind, sun, etc).
The site and app Weather Underground has been filling in their models with low cost sensors to get more local data readings. For instance with personal weather stations, rain, temp, humidity, wind speed and direction are some of the captured data points which can be more local and measured. More important to the current wildfire situation are the particulate sensors to understand the air quality for our breathing. With a rise in popularity of low cost sensors (very relative), PurpleAir sensors can be integrated with WUnderground.
There are only a few PurpleAir sensors in Washington and Wood County, none in Parkersburg and one in Marietta. PurpleAir sensors are not the only low cost air quality sensors out there, but they are the largest deployed globally, studied by the US EPA and contribute to EPA studies/services. The newer Flex model includes an ozone sensor as well as particulate counts. If you enjoy being outdoors, maybe consider sponsoring a low cost sensor for the community at your favorite outdoor location and help build the sensor network for the Mid-Ohio Valley. Detect smoke and fires, high pollution events, share data for better science models and analysis.
“To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.” — John Muir, naturalist
***
Alaska is on the front lines of the climate crisis.
For many people climate change is still an abstract concept. They might experience hotter summers and strange weather patterns, but much of their lives are relatively unchanged. For others, like the Indigenous communities in northwestern Alaska, life is drastically different. The community’s traditional way of life and subsistence living is being threatened by rapidly melting sea ice coverage and a reduced hunting season.
Alaska is larger than Texas, California, and Montana combined. It is vast, remote, and still largely wild, with a land area of more than half a million square miles, and the longest coastline of any state. It is home to an estimated 100,000 glaciers. Its natural features include mountains, tundra, glaciers, lakes, and seas. But as Alaska’s climate is changing, the effects are widespread and sometimes dangerous, even beyond the state’s own borders.
Over the past 60 years, Alaska has actually warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the United States. Average annual temperatures have increased by 3 degrees Fahrenheit and average winter temperatures by 6 degrees Fahrenheit. As a result, Arctic sea-ice is shrinking, glaciers are retreating, the shores are eroding, and the permafrost that underlays much of the state is melting. Record-breaking temperatures, rapidly melting ice, and huge wildfires are all impacting this vast, wondrous state. This reality threatens the security of the state and the entire country.
Rising temperatures may provide some benefits in Alaska, such as a longer growing season for agricultural crops, increased tourism, and access to natural resources that are currently inaccessible due to ice cover, like offshore oil. However, climate change also has adverse effects on many ecosystems and species, and is creating new hardships for Native Alaskans.
Alaska is home to some of the largest glaciers and fastest loss of glacier ice on Earth. Thawing ice, more severe storms, and wildfires are already risking public health, food and water security, and even spirituality and cultural traditions tied to the land. High temperatures are melting snow covers and glaciers. Permafrost is thawing and collapsing. Sea ice is disappearing.
Permafrost is frozen ground that is located a few feet below the soil surface in extremely cold regions. Eighty percent of Alaska’s surface lies atop permafrost. Permafrost temperatures in Alaska are rising. Thaw is already occurring in interior and southern Alaska, and will likely continue. Uneven sinking of the ground in response to permafrost thaw is predicted to add as much as $6 billion to the costs of buildings, pipelines, roads, and other infrastructure over the next 20 years.
The distribution, quality, thickness, and timing of ice on the ocean, lakes, and rivers drive nearly every aspect of life on Alaska’s Arctic coasts, from boating to whaling and seal hunting to the safety of fishing and foraging.
Climate change creates the perfect conditions for extreme wildfire seasons. Warm weather is arriving sooner and sooner in Alaska, increasingly breaking heat records. Ice and snow are melting earlier in the season, too, leaving plant life to dry out and act as tinder for bigger, more destructive fires. Wildfires in Alaska are expected to get more frequent and severe, and the amount of land burned is expected to double by the middle of this century — and then triple by the end of it.
Compounding the problems caused by climate shifts, historical policies of land allotment have forced some Alaska Native communities into areas that are extremely vulnerable to climate change, such as low-lying coastal deltas at risk of storm surges and floods. The cumulative effects of inadequate infrastructure, loss of access to traditional foods, food insecurity, threat of community relocation, impacts to water quality and quantity . . . have challenged the adaptive capacity of many Alaska Natives, particularly in rural areas.
Alaska is built for seasonal cold. Climate change is disruptive to its culture, modern housing, transportation in the vast roadless areas of the state, hunting and fishing, agriculture, and traditional food storage methods. The state’s extraordinary warmth of recent years brings stress, risk, and hardship to many…even beyond Alaska’s borders.
The hottest days on Earth dating back approximately 125,000 years have all occurred in the recent week between July 4 and July 10, according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and instrument-based global temperature readings, tree rings analyses and ice core samples taken globally.
Data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Inc., as of June 30, and reported by Axios, shows that 3,063 wildfires have burned approximately 20 million acres across Canada. The 10-year average for Canadian wildfire seasons around this time is 2,452 fires burning 1.3 million acres. July tends to be the most active month and wildfire season doesn’t tend to abate until the fall. The U.S. choked on the smoke of these wildfires through much of June, including those of us here in West Virginia, and there may be more to come.
Sea water temperatures around the state of Florida right now are so high as to be off the scale of color contours on some weather maps, according to a piece in The Washington Post, with meteorologist and journalist Bob Henson calling the 92- to 96-degree temperatures of coastal waters in the Florida Keys “downright shocking.” This as hurricane season is fast approaching. Hurricanes and tropical storms are strongly fueled by high ocean temperatures. The intensity of this Atlantic hurricane season could be almost unfathomable in terms of the size, strength and number of recorded storms.
Vermont is enduring an ongoing and massive deluge of precipitation causing devastating flooding and untold damage. Vermont just does not see this much rainfall this quickly. We know a little about that in Central Appalachia, too. Eastern Kentucky recently suffered the same conditions. At least Vermont doesn’t have clearcut and flattened mountains and valleys, courtesy of the coal industry, and widespread poverty (also attributable, in part, to clinging to fossil fuels) to make it worse.
The states of Texas and Louisiana and parts of the American Southeast have been suffering under heat dome conditions that have been causing a stalled out system to boil these states for weeks. The Southwest is facing torturous heat conditions, even by the historical standards of a very hot, dry region. A similar heat dome baked the Pacific Northwest in recent years, driving temperatures far higher than any Oregonian, Washingtonian or Alaskan has ever been accustomed to experiencing. Heatwaves take a larger toll on health and life than any other climatic conditions I’ve discussed.
“This is the last slap upside the head we’re going to get when it might still matter,” longtime climate activist Bill McKibben told The New York Times. “It’s obviously a pivotal moment in the Earth’s climatic history. It also needs to be a pivotal moment in the Earth’s political history.”
Our entire congressional delegation in West Virginia are fossil fuel lapdogs, prostrating themselves before coal, oil, gas, plastics and petrochemical overlords, even as the stability of our shared atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere on our only home in the cosmos collapses.
While these fossil fuels and derivative companies rake in hundreds of billions of dollars annually in revenue from their activities, and billions more annually in government subsidies, our collective ability to safely and healthily inhabit our planet rapidly diminishes because of them. We have the technological means to reduce our carbon dioxide and equivalent greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions in keeping with scientifically agreed upon targets within the shrinking window of time we have left. What we still lack, even after decades of the accumulation of knowledge and understanding of these climate phenomena, is the political will.
It all starts with public policy. The Inflation Reduction Act was a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t and isn’t enough. More has to be done to fully deploy all of the technology, financial and resource needs and habitual changes necessary to avoid catastrophe. We have the most dire and consequential of choices to make, and those choices cannot and must not be entrusted to myopic extremists hellbent on upholding a calamitous status quo (like virtually all of the Republican Party or Democrats who are anything like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.).
The crisis is here. The best time to act was 40 years ago, but the second-best time to act is now. If we won’t act for posterity to avoid being criminal ancestors, hopefully we will at least act to spare ourselves.
Eric Engle, of Parkersburg, is board president of Mid Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Corner (Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)
This month, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action (MOVCA) is observing plastic-free July, a global event coordinated by the Plastic Free Foundation to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of single-use, “disposable” plastics, starting with committing to change our habits for the month of July. Single-use plastics are items like the water or pop bottles you get from a vending machine, plastic utensils, plates, drinking cups, shopping bags, yogurt or pudding cups, Styrofoam containers, candy wrappers, fruit and vegetable bags you pull off the roll at the grocery store, bread bags and other plastic food packaging.
MOVCA will have billboards at four locations, two in Parkersburg and two in Marietta, run TV and radio public service announcements, and I myself recently appeared on an interview with WTAP to serve as reminders of these July efforts. You can find a monthly calendar of events and ideas, including three presentations and two film showings on the issue of plastics pollution, on our website at movclimateaction.org. You can also visit plasticfreejuly.org to sign-up to take the global challenge along with millions of others (a link is on day one of our calendar).
Plastics are ubiquitous in our lives. They’re everywhere. But we focus on single-use plastics because these make up about 40% of the global plastics market and could be eliminated, with the right consumer choices and public policy incentives and mandates, relatively quickly. Recycling is pushed by industry and sycophantic politicians as a long-term or even permanent solution to global plastics contamination, but it simply isn’t. Plastics recycling is a worthwhile endeavor to try to limit the plastics going into landfills and entering our waterways and oceans for as long as possible, but it’s a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, at best.
There are seven types of plastic: Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE or PET); High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE); Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC); Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE); Polypropylene (PP); Polystyrene or Styrofoam (PS); and miscellaneous plastics that include polycarbonate, polylactide, acrylic, acrylonitrile butadiene, styrene, fiberglass and nylon. The only types of plastic that actually get recycled on any consistent basis are labeled as types 1, 2 and 5 in those now highly recognizable triangular arrow symbols–#1 is PETE or PET, #2 is HDPE and #5 is PP. The Marietta Recycling Center accepts #5 because there is a local business that makes use of it, but the Parkersburg Recycling Center does not. Parkersburg only accepts #1 and #2.
Even recyclable plastics can only be recycled once or twice, at most. Beyond that they go right into the waste stream recycling is said to avoid. Producing “virgin” or new plastics is cheaper than using recycled plastics the vast majority of the time (an issue public policy must address). Globally, only 9% of the plastics produced annually get recycled. Over 800 billion pounds of plastics are currently produced across the globe annually, and this production level is set to double or even triple by mid-century!
So, what’s the big deal? Why should we be so focused on this plastics pollution crisis? Why do we even refer to it as a crisis? Plastics take centuries or even millennia to break down. As they do, they don’t simply disappear, but become what are referred to as microplastic and nanoplastic particles. These particles have entered our water cycle (it literally rains plastics) and can be found virtually everywhere on our planet, from the most remote regions of the Artic and Antarctic to the bottom of the Mariana Trench over 36,000 feet into the Pacific Ocean’s depths.
To understand the dangers of the presence of these synthetic materials, I will quote extensively from a piece in The New Yorker by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist, Elizabeth Kolbert:
“Plastics are made from the by-products of oil and gas refining; many of the chemicals involved, such as benzene and vinyl chloride, are carcinogens. In addition to their main ingredients, plastics may contain any number of additives. Many of these–for example, polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, which confer water resistance–are also suspected carcinogens [I interject here that the almost 70,000-person DuPont Health Study on C8, a PFOA in the PFAS family, definitively linked C8 exposure to six debilitating and deadly diseases]. Many of the others have never been adequately tested.”
Kolbert continues, “As plastics fall apart, the chemicals that went into their manufacture can leak out. These can combine to form new compounds, which may prove less dangerous than the originals–or more so.” Kolbert then discusses a study by American scientists who exposed CVS and Walmart shopping bags to the conditions they would encounter in our oceans and found that the CVS bags leached more than thirteen thousand compounds and the Walmart bags leached more than fifteen thousand!
Plastics and petrochemicals are a major focus of investment by the fossil fuels industry going forward as they lose revenue to renewables, EVs, sustainable agriculture and greater energy efficiency measures. We’ve each got to do our part to address this global crisis by eliminating single-use plastics and changing policies so that we can engineer safer and cleaner alternatives to the rest!
***
Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
June 21, 2023 Zoom webinar: “Recording: PFAS Lunch and Learn” Speakers: Jeanna Dobson, Scientist; Dr. Alan Ducatman, Professor WVU; Delegate Evan Hansen, Downstream Strategies; Scott Mandirola, WV Dept. of Environmental Protection
“Looking at the White House Through Wildfire Smoke” This week, elected officials can see for themselves why they must get serious about climate Change.
Last Updated: August 5, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: House of Denial
Aug 5, 2023
Aaron Dunbar
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
The flames rise.
In a gated community not far from the beltway, twin fires rage toward the heavens. On either side of the street, two sprawling McMansions kindle into ash, sparks pirouetting upward into the night sky. The blazing homes belong to two well-known and respected families, the Dempseys and the Remingtons.
“Daddy, the house is on fire!” cries the youngest Remington child, running up to the head of the family with his siblings in tow.
Mr. Remington, sitting in his armchair, uncrosses his legs and lowers the newspaper in his lap.
“On fire?” he asks.
The youngest child pauses for a moment, then turns to look at his siblings, as though for confirmation of this obvious fact. A few of them nod.
“Yes!” he reiterates, “The whole house is burning down!”
Mr. Remington lingers on his newspaper for a moment, then brushes the ash from the shoulder of his smoker’s jacket.
“No it’s not,” he says finally.
The children gape at him. “But… The fire and smoke,” says an older brother, gesturing around the room, “They’re everywhere!”
“Wrong,” Dad says. “There is no fire, and there never has been. That’s just a lie from our enemies to try and threaten our way of life.”
The kids stand there, slack-jawed. Eventually though, a few of them nod. “Yeah,” they say. “Yeah, that sounds right.”
Though not everyone is convinced. “Can’t you hear the fire alarm?” asks one of his daughters.
Mr. Remington waves a dismissive hand. “There’s always been fire,” he says. “Fire comes in cycles. That’s how God made it!”
There’s some grumbling from his audience, though by now several of them have come around.
“Even if there was a fire, we have to take into account the possible financial benefits this could bring about!” says one son.
“Exactly!” says Mr. Remington.
“Humans have always adapted to fire,” says his youngest boy, nodding vigorously.
“If it’s a legitimate fire, the body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down,” says another.
His youngest daughter, standing in the doorway, spontaneously combusts.
“Close that, will you?” says Mr. Remington, nodding to the door. They seal themselves into the den, ignoring her screams.
“Gee dad, I guess you were right,” says his eldest son.
“Your old man’s learned a thing or two in his day,” says Mr. Remington proudly. “But I will say, it’s getting a little bit hot in here. Why don’t you kids wait here while I head upstairs and crank up the AC?”
He leaves the circle of children sitting cross-legged on the floor of the den, and shuffles up the stairs with no intention of returning.
Meanwhile, a similar scene unfolds across the street.
Mr. Dempsey can be seen lounging in his recliner, staring off into the distance as the golden flames close in on all sides.
His children run up to him. “Dad! Dad, the house is on fire!”
“Huh? What’s that?” he asks confusedly.
“Our house is burning down!” repeats his middle daughter.
“Good gracious!” he exclaims, rising to his feet. “You’re absolutely right, kiddo! Quick, we gotta do something!”
The children prepare to bolt from the house and escort their elderly father as needed. But to their surprise, they see him instead shuffling in the direction of the kitchen sink. He turns on the faucet, and starts filling up glasses from the cupboard with water. He hands them one by one to the children crowded around him.
“Here, start dumping these on the fire!” he commands his youngest son. The boy doesn’t immediately comply, his gaze transfixed on the freezer full of melted Jeni’s ice cream now spilling out onto the linoleum.
“Dad, I don’t think this is enough,” says the middle daughter, watching as her younger sister splashes the contents of her glass onto the conflagration. The flames blink, then roar back to life more furiously than ever.
“Listen Jack, at least we’re doing something about it,” he counters. “If you’ve got a problem with how I do things, why don’t you go live with the Remingtons instead? I’m doing more than they are!”
“Dad, this is an emergency!” she pleads. “We need to call 9-1-1!”
He winces. “Emergency isn’t really the right word for it,” he says. “I think that the concerns are based on what we should all be concerned about, but the solutions have to be, and include, what we are doing in terms of going forward in terms of investments. There’s a process for these things. We have to go about this the right way, or else we’re no better than the Remingtons.”
At first the children continue to plead. But as they fall into the steady rhythm of activity, feebly splashing water at the flames and then returning to the sink, their complaints gradually subside.
“This isn’t really having much of an effect,” says the middle daughter, “but at least we’re doing something.”
“Keep it up!” says Mr. Dempsey, giving them a thumbs up through the haze. “This is the only way to change things! Now you kids stay with it, I’m gonna go upstairs and see if I can find some more glasses!”
Like his counterpart, Mr. Dempsey has zero intention of returning.
The two neighbors emerge into the center of their shared street, locking eyes against the backdrop of their burning homes. They cross to the center of the road, shaking hands.
“Looks like some excitement going on at your place,” says Dempsey.
“A bit more than I’d like, I’m afraid,” chuckles Remington.
Though they love to play-act as fierce ideological rivals, the two of them really aren’t so different from one another.
They stand there chatting for a few minutes, until at last a pair of private jets descend through the sizzling updraft of smoke, landing in their neighbors’ yards.
“That looks like my ride,” says Remington. They shake hands again, and the two men depart for their second homes, many miles away from here, and from the angry inferno of the desecrated world they’ve left behind.
The children are burning.
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: August 8, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Suggested Readings for August 2023
MOVCA Selected Media Postings July 2023 (and a few articles omitted from last report)
Compiled by Cindy Taylor
Appearing online in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel:
July 20, 2023 Editorial
“GreenPower: Electric bus program shows positive savings”
https://www.newsandsentinel.com/opinion/editorials/2023/07/greenpower-electric-bus-program-shows-positive-savings/
Appearing on-line on WTAP:
July 31, 2023 Feature by Chase Campbell text and video (Dr. Eric Fitch, Marietta College interviewed)
“Regional impacts of climate change: What does climate change mean for the Mid-Ohio Valley?”
https://www.wtap.com/2023/07/31/regional-impacts-climate-change/
July 31, 2023 Feature by Sam Gottfried
“Athens makes drastic reductions in carbon emissions”
https://www.wtap.com/2023/07/31/athens-works-towards-reducing-carbon-emissions/
July 27, 2023 Feature by Chase Campbell Text and video (Eric Engle interviewed)
“U.S. Supreme Court permits construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline”
https://www.wtap.com/2023/07/27/us-supreme-court-permits-construction-mountain-valley-pipeline/
July 18, 2023 Feature by Chase Campbell
“Regional advocates encourage federal funding Ohio River Restoration”
https://www.wtap.com/2023/07/18/regional-advocates-encourage-federal-funding-ohio-river-restoration/
July 2, 2023 Feature by Chase Campbell Text and video
“Local advocate shares tips for having a Plastic Free July”
https://www.wtap.com/2023/07/02/local-advocate-shares-tips-having-plastic-free-july/
July 1, 2023 Feature by Laura Bowen Text and video
“Local meeting breaks down energy-related issues”
https://www.wtap.com/2023/07/01/local-meeting-breaks-down-energy-related-issues/
Available on WTRF- 7 Newsbreak:
July 12, 2023 Feature by John Lynch Text and video
“Gas released from well in Ohio Valley; 450 people evacuated”
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3086483383676-gas-released-from-well-in-ohio-valley-450-people-evacuated
Available on the Charleston Gazette-Mail:
See articles by Mike Tony, Environment and Energy Reporter: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/users/profile/mike%20tony/
July 27, 2023 Article by Mike Tony, Energy and Environment Reporter
“Gasping for air: State oversight triggers EPA disapproval, air quality advocate frustration in asthma-heavy WV”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/gasping-for-air-state-oversight-triggers-epa-disapproval-air-quality-advocate-frustration-in-asthma-heavy/article_15689a52-b8e3-515c-b31d-f4d0c708ff52.html
July 27, 2023 Article by Mike Tony, Energy and Environment Reporter
“Supreme Court chief justice clears way for Mountain Valley Pipeline construction to resume”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/supreme-court-chief-justice-clears-way-for-mountain-valley-pipeline-construction-to-resume/article_19e56471-a741-536d-b28f-6f98f5de9fc2.html
July 18, 2023 Article by Mike Tony, Energy and Environment Reporter
“Coal-fired Pleasants Power Station closer to hydrogen switch after purchase agreement signed, county commissioner says”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/coal-fired-pleasants-power-station-closer-to-hydrogen-switch-after-purchase-agreement-signed-county-commissioner/article_c4b8601b-cdbe-5f02-a936-28283a5182fd.html
July 15, 2023 Article by Mike Tony, Energy and Environment Reporter
“ ‘We have to move on’: WV leaders pushing state flood risk upward by favoring resource extraction over climate action”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/we-have-to-move-on-wv-leaders-pushing-state-flood-risk-upward-by-favoring-resource/article_125003fa-8da1-5bf1-b201-063fe54c43e3.html
Available on Ohio Capital Journal:
July 28, 2023 Article by Susan Tebben
“Wind farm project allowed to go forward after Ohio Supreme Court ruling”
July 28, 2023 The Rundown Article by Jacob Fischler
“Democrats push more resilient, lower-carbon infrastructure at U.S. Senate climate hearing”
July 21, 2023 Article by Kathiann M. Kowalski (First appeared on Energy News Network)
“Declaring natural gas ‘green energy’ in chicken bill violated Ohio constitution, groups argue”
July 18, 2023 Article by Kathiann M. Kowalski (First appeared on Energy News Network)
“Ohio commission considers state park drilling requests under expedited timeline”
July 10, 2023 Article by Kathiann M. Kowalski (First appeared on Energy News Network)
“Hydrogen, nuclear among winners in last-minute changes to Ohio budget bill”
Available on The Allegheny Front:
July 28, 2023 Article by Julie Grant
“Ohio Activists Join National Groups to Deliver Petition to EPA to Ban Vinyl Chloride”
July 7, 2023 Article by Julie Grant text (Aaron Dunbar, MOVCA, is quoted) and audio link
“Activists Rally to Prevent Fracking Under Ohio’s Largest State Park”
Available on Public News Service:
June 29, 2023 Feature by Nadia Ramiagan, Producer
“WV Among Top States for Public Harms from Fossil Fuels”
https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2023-06-29/energy-policy/wv-among-top-states-for-public-health-harms-from-fossil-fuels/a85127-1
Available on Save Ohio Parks: https://saveohioparks.org
July 29, 2023 Article by Randi Pokladnik
“Activists Are Just Citizens Who Care About Ohio’s Parks”
July 21, 2023 Article by Ben Hunkler
“Ohioans are on the Fence About Fracking, Why is the State Pushing for More Drilling on Public Lands?”
July 23, 2023 Opinion piece by Austin Warehime (originally published in The Daily Jeffersonian on July 23rd)
“Eastern Ohio Must Fight to Preserve Natural Resources, Stop Salt Fork Fracking”
July 12, 2023 Article by Cathy Cowan Becker
“Two Eastern Ohio Oil and Gas Accidents Highlight Hazards of Fracking State Parks, Wildlife Areas”
July 5, 2023 Article
“Meet The Oil and Gas Land Management Commission”
July 2, 2023 News feature about anti-fracking rally with photos (Randi Pokladnik and Aaron Dunbar are featured)
“Save Ohio Parks and Allies Rally to Fight Against Fracking at Salt Fork State Park”
July 5, 2023 an abbreviated version of this article also appears in The Times Leader:
https://www.timesleaderonline.com/news/local-news/2023/07/save-ohio-parks-allies-rally-to-fight-against-fracking/
Available on-line on WV Rivers https://wvrivers.org :
July 26, 2023 Webinar Recording
“Legislative Update & Advocacy that Works”
June 29, 2023 Information from WV Rivers’ “Pipeline Visual Assessment Training”- links to recording and resources
Appearing on-line on Ohio River Valley Institute https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org
July 25, 2023 REPORT by Claire Kovach, Stephen Herzenberg, Amanda Woodrum, and Ted Boettner
“Targeted Employment: Reconnecting Appalachia’s Disconnected Workforce”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/targeted-employment-reconnecting-appalachias-disconnected-workforce/
July 20, 2023 Article by Ben Hunkler, ORVI
“Ohioans are on the fence about fracking. Why is the state pushing for more drilling on public lands?”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/ohioans-are-on-the-fence-about-fracking-why-is-the-state-pushing-for-more-drilling-on-public-lands/
July 6, 2023 ORVI staff report
“True Transition: If RGGI Goes Into Effect, Pennsylvania Should Use Its Proceeds to Make PA Fossil Fuel Workers and Communities Whole”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/true-transition-report/
Appearing on-line on ReImagine Appalachia: https://reimagineappalachia.org/events/
August 1, 2023 Coalition Biweekly Lunchtime Update:
Learn about the Appalachian Sustainable Potential Map
July 25, 2023 Event- Panel discussion Annie Regan, ReImagine Appalachia moderator, with Kimberly Ishmael, Policy Campaign Coordinator at Community Farm Alliance and Lindsey Shapiro, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.
“Instagram Live: How Can We Support the Farm Bill?”
July 25, 2023 Event- Article with description of speakers, link to recording, presentations, report and resources
“Targeted Employment – Re-Connecting Appalachia’s Disconnected Workforce: Report Launch”
July 10, 2023 Article by Violet Affleck and Dana Kuhnline with link to download toolkit
“Check out our New Toolkit: Bringing the Farm Bill to Your Farmers Market”
June 28, 2023 Part 3 of ReImagine Appalachia’s Communications Workshop. Recording available
“Creating Engaging Zoom Webinars”
Appearing on-line on WV Public Broadcasting or WOUB (PBS) or WVXU:
July 27, 2023 Article by Curtis Tate Text and audio
“’It’s Over.’ Supreme Court Has Had Final Word On Pipeline, Capito Says”
July 25, 2023 Article by Curtis Tate Text and audio
“FERC Approves Transfer Of Pleasants Power Station To Omnis Technologies”
RELEVANT TO OUR REGION
Available from Center for Biological Diversity : https://www.biologicaldiversity.org
July 31, 2023 Press Release Nina Bell, Northwest Environmental Advocates & Hannah Connor , Center for Biological Diversity
“EPA Petitioned to Update 47-Year-Old Toxic Pollutant List”
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/epa-petitioned-to-update-47-year-old-toxic-pollutant-list-2023-07-31/
Available on 350.org:
July 28, 2023 Press Release
“Anger and Shock as ExxonMobile announces Further Profits Amidst Soaring Temperatures and Energy Prices”
https://350.org/media/
July 27, 2023 Press release
“350.org Responds to U.S. Supreme Court Allowing Construction to Continue on the Mountain Valley Pipeline”
Available on Newsweek.com
July 3, 2023 Article by Judith Enck, President, Beyond Plastics
“Plastic’s Health Impacts Are Becoming Impossible To ignore”
https://www.newsweek.com/plastics-health-impacts-are-becoming-impossible-ignore-opinion-1811050
Available from Beyond Plastics:
July 27, 2023 Press Release Contacts – Melissa Vallient and Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics
“Environmental Leaders Deliver 27,570 Petition Signatures to EPA Calling for Ban on Vinyl Chloride”
https://www.beyondplastics.org/press-releases/epa-ban-vinyl-chloride
MORE EDUCATIONAL ARTICLES, PERSPECTIVES , RESEARCH and RESOURCES
Available on Environmental Working Group (EWG): (missing from June report)
June 28, 2023 News Release
“EWG applauds Biden EPA’s historic $7B investment in low-income residential solar”
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2023/06/ewg-applauds-biden-epas-historic-7b-investment-low-income
Available on United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
June 30, 2023 Press Release (missing from June report)
“U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy Announce Partnership to Provide More than $1 Billion to Reduce Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Sector”
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/us-environmental-protection-agency-and-us-department-energy-announce-partnership
July 13, 2023 (updated) EPA’a site Investing in America
“EPS Funding Announcements from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act”
https://www.epa.gov/invest/epa-funding-announcements-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-and-inflation-reduction-act
Available on The Guardian:
July 31, 2023 Environment article by Oliver Milman
“One man his drone: ‘My hope is to shut down the coal industry’
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/31/west-virginia-mining-coal-industry
July 25, 2023 Climate crisis opinion feature by Rebecca Solnit
“We can’t afford to be climate doomers”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/26/we-cant-afford-to-be-climate-doomers
July 10, 2023 Environment article by Guardian staff and agencies
“ ‘Unchartered territory’: UN declares first week of July world’s hottest ever recorded’”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/11/uncharted-territory-un-declares-first-week-of-july-worlds-hottest-ever-recorded
July 6, 2023 Article by Guardian staff and agencies
“UN says climate change ‘out of control’ after likely hottest week on record”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/07/un-climate-change-hottest-week-world
July 5, 2023 Climate Crisis article by Damien Gayle
“Tuesday was world’s hottest day on record-breaking Monday’s record”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/05/tuesday-was-worlds-hottest-day-on-record-breaking-mondays-record
July 5, 2023 US news article by Stephen Starr in Fayette county, WV
“From coal to kayaking: West Virginia’s miners turn to tourism to pay the bills”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/05/west-virginia-coal-miners-tourism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
July 4, 2023 Climate Crisis article by Fiona Harvey, Environment editor
“Improving soil could keep world within 1.5C heating target, research suggests”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/04/improving-farming-soil-carbon-store-global-heating-target
Available on Common Dreams:
July 7, 2023 Article by Jessica Corbett
“ ‘Nothing Short of Outrageous’: Attorneys for Youth Climate Plaintiffs Blast Biden DOJ”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/doj-dismiss-juliana-climate
July 3, 2023 Article by Olivia Rosane
“ ‘We’ve Run Out of Time’: Experts and Activists Urge Climate Action Amid Summer of Extremes”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/experts-urge-climate-action-amidst-extreme-summer
Available on E&E News ENERGYWIRE:
July 7, 2023 Article by Carlos Anchondo, Jason Plautz, & Zach Bright
“EPA says carbon capture is within reach. Utilities aren’t biting.”
https://www.eenews.net/articles/epa-says-carbon-capture-is-within-reach-utilities-arent-biting/
Available on Inside Climate News:
July 31, 2023 Science Article by Keerti Gopal
“Mike Huckabee’s “Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change” shows the Changing Landscape of Climate Denial”
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31072023/huckabees-kids-guide-to-climate/
July 29, 2023 Politics & Policy Article by Kathiann M. Kowalski
“New Report Card Shows Where Ohio Needs to Catch up in Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions”
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29072023/ohio-behind-meeting-greenhouse-gas-emissions-cuts/
July 25, 2023 Politics & Policy article by Bob Berwyn
“This Summer’s Heatwaves Would Have Been ‘Almost Impossible’ Without Human-caused Warming, a New Analysis Shows”
July 5, 2023 Clean Energy article by Kathiann M. Kowalski
“Country’s Largest Grid Operator Must Process and Connect Backlogged Clean Energy Projects, a New Report Says”
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05072023/pjm-grid-clean-energy/
See June REPORT by Noah Strand, Policy Associate American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
https://acore.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/ACORE-Power-Up-PJM-Report.pdf
July 4, 2023 Science article by Bob Berwyn
“June Extremes Suggest Parts of the Climate System Are Reaching Tipping Points”
July 2, 2023 Fossil Fuels article by James Bruggers
“Little Publicized but Treacherous Methane From Coal Mines Upends the Lives of West Virginia Families”
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02072023/methane-coal-mines-west-virginia/
Available on Science & Environmental Health Network:
July 17, 2023 Article by Sandra Steingraber, SEHN senior scientist
“The RePercussion Section: On Fracking and Food, Part 2: Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia”
https://www.sehn.org/sehn/2023/7/17/the-repercussion-section-on-fracking-and-food-part-2-green-hydrogen-and-green-ammonia
July 2023 Article by Peter Montague, SEHN Fellow
“Goals for Ending the Climate Emergency: A letter to My Friends”
https://www.sehn.org/sehn/2023/7/17/goals-for-ending-the-climate-emergency-a-letter-to-my-friends
Available on Climate Emergency Declaration: https://climateemergencydeclaration.org
June 24, 2023 posting
“Climate emergency declarations in 2,336 jurisdictions and local governments cover 1 billion citizens”
https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/climate-emergency-declarations-cover-15-million-citizens/
Available from Yale Climate Connections:
July 28, 2023 Review by Samantha Harrington
“Yale Climate Connections book club: Centering hope and possibility”
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/07/yale-climate-connections-book-club-centering-hope-and-possibility/
July 26, 2023 Review by Michael Svoboda
“For this smoky summer, 12 new books and reports on wildfires”
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/07/for-this-smoky-summer-12-new-books-and-reports-on-wildfires/
July 14, 2023 Article text and audio by YCC team
“Activist Bill McKibben rallies adults over age 60 to fight for climate action” McKibben’s organization, Third Act, organizes seniors to write letters, hold sit-ins, and more.
See also June interview with McKibben:
June 20, 2023 Article/Interview by Bridget Ennis
“What baby boomers can do about climate change, according to Bill McKibben”
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/06/what-baby-boomers-can-do-about-climate-change/
July 12, 2023 Article by Jeff Masters
“How fast are the seas rising?”
Last Updated: July 31, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Transition to renewable energy — environmental and economic renewal
Jul 29, 2023
George Banziger
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
A recurrent myth in the Mid-Ohio Valley is that the transition to renewable energy from fossil fuels has to be painful and fraught with job loss, economic decline, and sacrifice. This assumption cannot be further from the truth. It is possible and within our grasp to take charge of our economy and promote job creation with new manufacturing powered by renewable energy while also addressing the accelerating problem of human-caused climate change. The need to address climate change is strikingly compelling in light of the extreme weather being experienced all around the northern hemisphere this summer.
For too long advocates of fossil fuels have led us to believe that coal and oil and now natural gas will lead central Appalachia (western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio. West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky) to economic prosperity. This promise has not been fulfilled in the past and will not in the future. Very little of the billions of dollars invested and revenue generated in natural gas extraction have helped the local economy in this region. A study by the Ohio Valley Research Institute (O’Leary, 2021) has shown that central Appalachia trails the U.S., in general, on measures of economic prosperity such as personal income and net economic growth. This pattern is largely due to the fact that oil and gas extraction is a capital-intensive business. The revenue, community benefit, and jobs with natural gas have not accrued to our region.
Opportunities exist which build upon recovery from extractive industries and align with new growth in renewable energy to benefit our local communities. One example is the manufacture of “eco bricks,” which are produced from coal ash, a biproduct of burning coal. It is estimated that there are 161 coal ash ponds in Appalachia (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2021). This coal ash, if left untended can lead to acid mine drainage and sulfuric acid. When coal ash is combined with some sand, lime, and gypsum, it can produce a composite construction material (aka “eco bricks”) that is stronger and has less of a carbon footprint than standard Portland cement (Ohio River Valley Institute, 2021).
Another opportunity for economic growth involving coal ash relates to the demanding need for rare earth elements (REE) for battery production and other applications needed for the new renewable energy technologies. Currently, 70% of REE come from China. It is possible to derive REE from coal ash (Water Research Institute, WVU, 2022), it is difficult to extract, but it is likely that research directed at the issue can address this problem in the near future.
There is also “mass timber,” a sustainable alternative to concrete and steel; mass timber is made from solid wood panels (derived from trees that are sustainably harvested) nailed or glued together; they are fire resistant, strong, sustainable, and cost efficient. There is industrial hemp, an alternative to plastic, which can be grown on damaged lands. And there are many options for industry around waste recovery, such as using recycled glass to make insulation. The science of battery technology is growing rapidly, and large batteries are in great demand for the rapidly expanding production of electric vehicles. There is also the need to cap orphaned oil and gas wells–a labor-intensive enterprise.
All of these ideas can be developed in West Virginia and throughout Appalachia with locally owned businesses and with the help of federal stimulus programs that are currently available.
There is an innovative project right now on our own doorstep in Mid-Ohio Valley. Thanks to the foresight and diligence of Jesse Roush, executive director of the Southeast Ohio Port Authority, and an innovative international company called SAI, a research and development center focused on heat exchange is being established just south of Marietta. The new center is based on the utilization of heat generated from computer chips, which is recycled to replace natural gas as a heat source for applications in agriculture, fish hatcheries, and residences. Tao Wu, Director of the Heat Recycling Center, is leading efforts to develop multiple computing heat recycle projects, which will benefit the community. The new facility, located on Gravel Bank Road in Warren Township, already has a greenhouse under construction, which can provide vegetables and other crops during winter months for the local community. The opening event for the center will take place on Aug. 9 from 2-5 p.m. (check local news media for details).
***
George Banziger, Ph..D., was a faculty member at Marietta College and an academic dean at three other colleges. Now retired, he is a volunteer for Harvest of Hope and a member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, Citizens Climate Lobby, and of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.
Last Updated: August 5, 2023 by main_y0ke11
WV needs leaders who will move past fossil fuels (Opinion)
By Eric Engle
Jul 26, 2023
Charleston Gazette-Mail
窗体顶端
窗体底端
While homes and businesses in states like Florida, California and Louisiana become uninsurable from the effects of climate change, the fossil fuel industry contributing most to the climate crisis has no problem getting all the insurance and reinsurance it needs.
To quote from a piece by journalist Taylor Kate Brown writing for Floodlight and also published in The Guardian, “Each of the world’s largest insurance companies receive annual premiums from fossil fuel projects between $250 — $800 million a year, according to an internal study commissioned by Insure Our Future by market intelligence firm Insuramore.” Brown continues, “For large projects such as LNG terminals, risk is spread among many insurers, as well as the developer itself through financial mechanisms like capital reserves, debt and equity.”
Gee, our homes can’t be insured by multiple insurers. Our small businesses can’t afford to supplement their insurance premiums with their capital reserves or any debt or equity. If you’ve been keeping up with Mike Tony’s incredible reporting in the Gazette-Mail on climate change-induced flood risk in West Virginia, you know that these insurance woes are coming, or may already have come, to a holler or riverfront property near you.
The Taylor Kate Brown piece also says that “While many of the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance companies have emissions targets and no longer insure coal projects, they have resisted calls to stop insuring fossil fuel projects entirely, despite their contribution to the climate crisis and increased global risk.” “At the same time,” Brown continues, “state legislatures and Republican attorneys general have threatened insurance companies for using environmental criteria when setting rates, spooking major insurers away from a UN-backed effort on cutting emissions.”
Sound familiar? This is exactly the kind of thing our own attorney general and gubernatorial candidate, Patrick Morrisey, would happily engage in. Morrisey and state Treasurer Riley Moore have thoroughly enjoyed the spotlight they’ve gotten opposing environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing by fiduciaries, banks and other financial institutions. They don’t want the owners and controllers of capital investing in a safe and healthy climate future; why would they want anyone, except maybe their industry masters and corporate overlords, to be insured against climate calamity?
Sit with the thought of that for a minute. We’re indisputably in the midst of a global climate crisis, with surface and ocean temperature records in the Northern Hemisphere falling like dominoes and with trillions in cumulative damages in this country alone just in the 21st century. And we’ve got one of two major political parties (the GOP) dedicated to making sure we don’t protect our assets, financial or physical, from the almost unfathomable harm to come. The Republican dragon lies on its gold mound while the masses suffer.
Last Updated: August 5, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action examines health impact of plastics
Jul 25, 2023
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
PARKERSBURG — Using less plastic is better for the envvironment and people’s health, according to a retired research chemist speaking at the July 20 meeting of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Randi Pokladnik, a retired research chemist who also has a doctorate in environmental studies, spoke as part of Climate Action’s Break Free From Plastic – Plastic-Free July campaign. Pokladnik’s talk included a description of the life cycle of plastic, starting with fracking for oil and natural gas and ending as trash, generating heat-trapping gases at every stage of the life cycle.
In Pokladnik’s view, using less plastic would lead to a healthier environment for humans.
She spoke about toxic additives to the “basic cookie recipe” for plastic used to create the properties of hardness, flexibility and moisture resistance in the end product. Bisphenol A and phthalates are found in can liners and artificial fragrances and may cause endocrine disruptions or cancer, Pokladnik said.
Persistent organic pollutants found in pesticides and flame retardants may cause neurological damage, the known carcinogens styrene and benzene are present in many food containers and the single-use disposable plastics discarded into the environment and exposed to sunlight degrade into methane and ethane that is released into the atmosphere, she said.
“In some situations, using plastic is the right choice,” Pokladnik said.
However, even in those circumstances, getting plastic recycled is a problem, according to Pokladnik. According to Earthday.org, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled (15% is collected for recycling but 40% of that is disposed of as residues). Pokladnik says we will never be able to recycle our way out of plastic pollution. Even “advanced” recycling ideas like pyrolysis or chemical recycling are not proven to be sustainable, since the processes consume more energy than they produce, the release from Climate Action said.
Instead, Podladnik recommends “turning off the faucet” by stopping production of plastics intended for single use.
“We’re addicted to convenience,” she said. “Some of us remember a world without those convenience plastics, and we got along just fine.”
Alternatives to single-use disposables like plastic water bottles, shopping bags, cups, straws, cutlery, take-away containers and food storage bags and wraps would be easy items for consumers to find, she said. Studies show that 40% of the plastics market could be eliminated today by getting rid of single-use, disposable plastics, Climate Action said.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, writer and researcher Callie Lyons will present “Plastics, PFAS, and You: Forever Chemicals in the MOV” in the social hall of the First Unitarian Univeralist Society of Marietta, 232 Third St., Marietta. The presentation also will be offered over Zoom, registration required. Register by email to “mailto:adesign4199@gmail.com”>adesign4199@gmail.com, with “Callie Lyons 7-27-23″ in the subject line and the Zoom link will be emailed.
Last Updated: July 23, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Wildfires and air quality monitoring
Jul 22, 2023
Jonathan Brier
climatecorner@brierjon.com
Have you noticed hazy skies or the news about the Canadian wildfires, which are causing air quality concerns here in the Mid-Ohio Valley. Wildfires are intensifying and can be tied to 88 major fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers according to the recent publication “Quantifying the contribution of major carbon producers to increases in vapor pressure deficit and burned area in western U.S. and southwestern Canadian forests” (https://tinyurl.com/589vt2cb) The article focuses on the vapour-pressure deficit (VPD) or the amount of water the air is holding vs how much it could hold.
The VPD is a metric for understanding wildfires. Wildfires we may be thinking about may be hundreds of miles away, but these are impacting our lives and health by decreasing our air quality in Ohio and West Virginia and we’ve contributed to their intensity through fossil fuels.
Now wildfires happen nearby, it was only the end of 2022 when the Wayne National Forest’s 1,300 acres burned due to a wildfire. Understanding that wildfire intensity is a result of human behavior is important to understanding what steps we need to take to reduce our impact on the climate and our forests. Not only would reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere contributed by humans, but working to ensure we have clean water and combat invasive species. (More: https://tinyurl.com/2p9cwfds).
We are living in a time where we experience the effects of massive wildfires far and near, we should have tools to help with early detection and make informed decisions for our health. A starting point for our health is EPA AirNow (https://tinyurl.com/w4m3sfvm), but we can help improve the data with local sensors and identify point sources of air quality issues. Many of us may turn to our favorite weather station, website, or app to find out the air quality or the weather forecast. These are good for a rough idea, but with more local data it would change what kind of predictions, decisions, and models we can make.
Many primary monitoring stations may be miles away from your house or location of interest, which means we make the best prediction based on what we know and data. Often the sensors for the data to help make these predictions are based at airports, hospitals, and other sites with regulatory monitoring requirements. We rely on modeling and predictions based on math and statistical estimations to fill in the areas between monitoring stations along with known data about the environment (wind, sun, etc).
The site and app Weather Underground has been filling in their models with low cost sensors to get more local data readings. For instance with personal weather stations, rain, temp, humidity, wind speed and direction are some of the captured data points which can be more local and measured. More important to the current wildfire situation are the particulate sensors to understand the air quality for our breathing. With a rise in popularity of low cost sensors (very relative), PurpleAir sensors can be integrated with WUnderground.
There are only a few PurpleAir sensors in Washington and Wood County, none in Parkersburg and one in Marietta. PurpleAir sensors are not the only low cost air quality sensors out there, but they are the largest deployed globally, studied by the US EPA and contribute to EPA studies/services. The newer Flex model includes an ozone sensor as well as particulate counts. If you enjoy being outdoors, maybe consider sponsoring a low cost sensor for the community at your favorite outdoor location and help build the sensor network for the Mid-Ohio Valley. Detect smoke and fires, high pollution events, share data for better science models and analysis.
Last Updated: July 20, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Baked Alaska?
Jul 15, 2023
Linda Eve Seth
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
“To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.” — John Muir, naturalist
***
Alaska is on the front lines of the climate crisis.
For many people climate change is still an abstract concept. They might experience hotter summers and strange weather patterns, but much of their lives are relatively unchanged. For others, like the Indigenous communities in northwestern Alaska, life is drastically different. The community’s traditional way of life and subsistence living is being threatened by rapidly melting sea ice coverage and a reduced hunting season.
Alaska is larger than Texas, California, and Montana combined. It is vast, remote, and still largely wild, with a land area of more than half a million square miles, and the longest coastline of any state. It is home to an estimated 100,000 glaciers. Its natural features include mountains, tundra, glaciers, lakes, and seas. But as Alaska’s climate is changing, the effects are widespread and sometimes dangerous, even beyond the state’s own borders.
Over the past 60 years, Alaska has actually warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the United States. Average annual temperatures have increased by 3 degrees Fahrenheit and average winter temperatures by 6 degrees Fahrenheit. As a result, Arctic sea-ice is shrinking, glaciers are retreating, the shores are eroding, and the permafrost that underlays much of the state is melting. Record-breaking temperatures, rapidly melting ice, and huge wildfires are all impacting this vast, wondrous state. This reality threatens the security of the state and the entire country.
Rising temperatures may provide some benefits in Alaska, such as a longer growing season for agricultural crops, increased tourism, and access to natural resources that are currently inaccessible due to ice cover, like offshore oil. However, climate change also has adverse effects on many ecosystems and species, and is creating new hardships for Native Alaskans.
Alaska is home to some of the largest glaciers and fastest loss of glacier ice on Earth. Thawing ice, more severe storms, and wildfires are already risking public health, food and water security, and even spirituality and cultural traditions tied to the land. High temperatures are melting snow covers and glaciers. Permafrost is thawing and collapsing. Sea ice is disappearing.
Permafrost is frozen ground that is located a few feet below the soil surface in extremely cold regions. Eighty percent of Alaska’s surface lies atop permafrost. Permafrost temperatures in Alaska are rising. Thaw is already occurring in interior and southern Alaska, and will likely continue. Uneven sinking of the ground in response to permafrost thaw is predicted to add as much as $6 billion to the costs of buildings, pipelines, roads, and other infrastructure over the next 20 years.
The distribution, quality, thickness, and timing of ice on the ocean, lakes, and rivers drive nearly every aspect of life on Alaska’s Arctic coasts, from boating to whaling and seal hunting to the safety of fishing and foraging.
Climate change creates the perfect conditions for extreme wildfire seasons. Warm weather is arriving sooner and sooner in Alaska, increasingly breaking heat records. Ice and snow are melting earlier in the season, too, leaving plant life to dry out and act as tinder for bigger, more destructive fires. Wildfires in Alaska are expected to get more frequent and severe, and the amount of land burned is expected to double by the middle of this century — and then triple by the end of it.
Compounding the problems caused by climate shifts, historical policies of land allotment have forced some Alaska Native communities into areas that are extremely vulnerable to climate change, such as low-lying coastal deltas at risk of storm surges and floods. The cumulative effects of inadequate infrastructure, loss of access to traditional foods, food insecurity, threat of community relocation, impacts to water quality and quantity . . . have challenged the adaptive capacity of many Alaska Natives, particularly in rural areas.
Alaska is built for seasonal cold. Climate change is disruptive to its culture, modern housing, transportation in the vast roadless areas of the state, hunting and fishing, agriculture, and traditional food storage methods. The state’s extraordinary warmth of recent years brings stress, risk, and hardship to many…even beyond Alaska’s borders.
Baked Alaska – It’s what’s for dessert.
Until next time, be kind to your Mother Earth.
Last Updated: August 5, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Now is the second-best time to act on climate (Opinion)
By Eric Engle
Jul 13, 2023
Charleston Gazette-Mail
The hottest days on Earth dating back approximately 125,000 years have all occurred in the recent week between July 4 and July 10, according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and instrument-based global temperature readings, tree rings analyses and ice core samples taken globally.
Data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Inc., as of June 30, and reported by Axios, shows that 3,063 wildfires have burned approximately 20 million acres across Canada. The 10-year average for Canadian wildfire seasons around this time is 2,452 fires burning 1.3 million acres. July tends to be the most active month and wildfire season doesn’t tend to abate until the fall. The U.S. choked on the smoke of these wildfires through much of June, including those of us here in West Virginia, and there may be more to come.
Sea water temperatures around the state of Florida right now are so high as to be off the scale of color contours on some weather maps, according to a piece in The Washington Post, with meteorologist and journalist Bob Henson calling the 92- to 96-degree temperatures of coastal waters in the Florida Keys “downright shocking.” This as hurricane season is fast approaching. Hurricanes and tropical storms are strongly fueled by high ocean temperatures. The intensity of this Atlantic hurricane season could be almost unfathomable in terms of the size, strength and number of recorded storms.
Vermont is enduring an ongoing and massive deluge of precipitation causing devastating flooding and untold damage. Vermont just does not see this much rainfall this quickly. We know a little about that in Central Appalachia, too. Eastern Kentucky recently suffered the same conditions. At least Vermont doesn’t have clearcut and flattened mountains and valleys, courtesy of the coal industry, and widespread poverty (also attributable, in part, to clinging to fossil fuels) to make it worse.
The states of Texas and Louisiana and parts of the American Southeast have been suffering under heat dome conditions that have been causing a stalled out system to boil these states for weeks. The Southwest is facing torturous heat conditions, even by the historical standards of a very hot, dry region. A similar heat dome baked the Pacific Northwest in recent years, driving temperatures far higher than any Oregonian, Washingtonian or Alaskan has ever been accustomed to experiencing. Heatwaves take a larger toll on health and life than any other climatic conditions I’ve discussed.
“This is the last slap upside the head we’re going to get when it might still matter,” longtime climate activist Bill McKibben told The New York Times. “It’s obviously a pivotal moment in the Earth’s climatic history. It also needs to be a pivotal moment in the Earth’s political history.”
Our entire congressional delegation in West Virginia are fossil fuel lapdogs, prostrating themselves before coal, oil, gas, plastics and petrochemical overlords, even as the stability of our shared atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere on our only home in the cosmos collapses.
While these fossil fuels and derivative companies rake in hundreds of billions of dollars annually in revenue from their activities, and billions more annually in government subsidies, our collective ability to safely and healthily inhabit our planet rapidly diminishes because of them. We have the technological means to reduce our carbon dioxide and equivalent greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions in keeping with scientifically agreed upon targets within the shrinking window of time we have left. What we still lack, even after decades of the accumulation of knowledge and understanding of these climate phenomena, is the political will.
It all starts with public policy. The Inflation Reduction Act was a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t and isn’t enough. More has to be done to fully deploy all of the technology, financial and resource needs and habitual changes necessary to avoid catastrophe. We have the most dire and consequential of choices to make, and those choices cannot and must not be entrusted to myopic extremists hellbent on upholding a calamitous status quo (like virtually all of the Republican Party or Democrats who are anything like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.).
The crisis is here. The best time to act was 40 years ago, but the second-best time to act is now. If we won’t act for posterity to avoid being criminal ancestors, hopefully we will at least act to spare ourselves.
Eric Engle, of Parkersburg, is board president of Mid Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: July 20, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Eliminate single-use plastics, starting now
Jul 8, 2023
Eric Engle
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Corner (Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)
This month, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action (MOVCA) is observing plastic-free July, a global event coordinated by the Plastic Free Foundation to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of single-use, “disposable” plastics, starting with committing to change our habits for the month of July. Single-use plastics are items like the water or pop bottles you get from a vending machine, plastic utensils, plates, drinking cups, shopping bags, yogurt or pudding cups, Styrofoam containers, candy wrappers, fruit and vegetable bags you pull off the roll at the grocery store, bread bags and other plastic food packaging.
MOVCA will have billboards at four locations, two in Parkersburg and two in Marietta, run TV and radio public service announcements, and I myself recently appeared on an interview with WTAP to serve as reminders of these July efforts. You can find a monthly calendar of events and ideas, including three presentations and two film showings on the issue of plastics pollution, on our website at movclimateaction.org. You can also visit plasticfreejuly.org to sign-up to take the global challenge along with millions of others (a link is on day one of our calendar).
Plastics are ubiquitous in our lives. They’re everywhere. But we focus on single-use plastics because these make up about 40% of the global plastics market and could be eliminated, with the right consumer choices and public policy incentives and mandates, relatively quickly. Recycling is pushed by industry and sycophantic politicians as a long-term or even permanent solution to global plastics contamination, but it simply isn’t. Plastics recycling is a worthwhile endeavor to try to limit the plastics going into landfills and entering our waterways and oceans for as long as possible, but it’s a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, at best.
There are seven types of plastic: Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE or PET); High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE); Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC); Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE); Polypropylene (PP); Polystyrene or Styrofoam (PS); and miscellaneous plastics that include polycarbonate, polylactide, acrylic, acrylonitrile butadiene, styrene, fiberglass and nylon. The only types of plastic that actually get recycled on any consistent basis are labeled as types 1, 2 and 5 in those now highly recognizable triangular arrow symbols–#1 is PETE or PET, #2 is HDPE and #5 is PP. The Marietta Recycling Center accepts #5 because there is a local business that makes use of it, but the Parkersburg Recycling Center does not. Parkersburg only accepts #1 and #2.
Even recyclable plastics can only be recycled once or twice, at most. Beyond that they go right into the waste stream recycling is said to avoid. Producing “virgin” or new plastics is cheaper than using recycled plastics the vast majority of the time (an issue public policy must address). Globally, only 9% of the plastics produced annually get recycled. Over 800 billion pounds of plastics are currently produced across the globe annually, and this production level is set to double or even triple by mid-century!
So, what’s the big deal? Why should we be so focused on this plastics pollution crisis? Why do we even refer to it as a crisis? Plastics take centuries or even millennia to break down. As they do, they don’t simply disappear, but become what are referred to as microplastic and nanoplastic particles. These particles have entered our water cycle (it literally rains plastics) and can be found virtually everywhere on our planet, from the most remote regions of the Artic and Antarctic to the bottom of the Mariana Trench over 36,000 feet into the Pacific Ocean’s depths.
To understand the dangers of the presence of these synthetic materials, I will quote extensively from a piece in The New Yorker by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist, Elizabeth Kolbert:
“Plastics are made from the by-products of oil and gas refining; many of the chemicals involved, such as benzene and vinyl chloride, are carcinogens. In addition to their main ingredients, plastics may contain any number of additives. Many of these–for example, polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, which confer water resistance–are also suspected carcinogens [I interject here that the almost 70,000-person DuPont Health Study on C8, a PFOA in the PFAS family, definitively linked C8 exposure to six debilitating and deadly diseases]. Many of the others have never been adequately tested.”
Kolbert continues, “As plastics fall apart, the chemicals that went into their manufacture can leak out. These can combine to form new compounds, which may prove less dangerous than the originals–or more so.” Kolbert then discusses a study by American scientists who exposed CVS and Walmart shopping bags to the conditions they would encounter in our oceans and found that the CVS bags leached more than thirteen thousand compounds and the Walmart bags leached more than fifteen thousand!
Plastics and petrochemicals are a major focus of investment by the fossil fuels industry going forward as they lose revenue to renewables, EVs, sustainable agriculture and greater energy efficiency measures. We’ve each got to do our part to address this global crisis by eliminating single-use plastics and changing policies so that we can engineer safer and cleaner alternatives to the rest!
***
Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: July 7, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Suggested Readings for July 2023
MOVCA Selected Media Postings June 2023
(and a few articles omitted from May’s report)
compiled by Cindy Taylor
Appearing online in The Marietta Times:
June 15, 2023 Local News article by Brett Dunlap
“Muskingum Island to have nine orphaned oil and gas well sites closed off and capped”
Appearing online in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel:
June 6, 2023 Business article by Steven Allen Adams
“Commercial energy consumers weigh in on possible Pleasants Power sale.” West Virginia PSC denies petition to reconsider earlier order.
https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/business/2023/06/commercial-energy-consumers-weigh-in-on-possible-pleasants-power-sale/
June 3, 2023 Community News Staff Report
“Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action recognizes Wood County teacher”
https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/community-news/2023/06/mid-ohio-valley-climate-action-recognizes-wood-county-teacher/
May 18, 2023 Business Article by Evan Bevins, Staff Reporter
“Lingering Concerns. West Virginia announces levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in public water supplies” Several in area exceed proposed EPA guidelines”
https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/business/2023/05/lingering-concerns-west-virginia-announces-levels-of-forever-chemicals-in-public-water-supplies/
Appearing on-line on WTAP:
June 19, 2023 Feature by Chase Campbell Text and video
“Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge receives funding for orphan oil well clean-up”
https://www.wtap.com/2023/06/19/ohio-river-islands-national-wildlife-refuge-receives-funding-orphan-oil-well-clean-up/
June 6, 2023 Feature by Kheron Alston
“Wood County Technical Students install first WV charger on WVU-P campus”
https://www.wtap.com/2023/06/06/wood-county-technical-students-install-first-ev-charger-wvu-p-campus/
Search for EV charging stations: https://evstationslocal.com
Available on the Charleston Gazette-Mail
See Articles by Mike Tony, Environment and Energy Reporter: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/users/profile/mike%20tony/
June 29, 2023 Article by Mike Tony
“FERC authorizes remaining Mountain Valley Pipeline construction as environmental groups fight back in court”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/ferc-authorizes-remaining-mountain-valley-pipeline-construction-as-environmental-groups-fight-back-in-court/article_1feb7b1e-f9a0-501b-aeaf-a05f1feace4c.html
June 24, 2023 Article by Mike Tony
“Economic need for Mountain Valley Pipeline questioned”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/economic-need-for-mountain-valley-pipeline-questioned/article_bff0f5ae-a064-5bd4-b4e8-ac416e54cc3f.html
Available on Ohio Capital Journal:
June 29, 2023 Article by Nick Evans
“Environmental experts warn fracking on state lands in Ohio is dangerous, economically dubious”
Appearing online in Southeast OHIO:
May 29, 2023 Article by Liz Partsch,
“The Price of Plastic” (Dr. Randi Pokladnik is quoted)
Available on Save Ohio Parks – No fracking on public lands: https://saveohioparks.org
June 30, 2023 Article by Cathy Cowan Becker (includes links to presentations)
“Experts on Risks, Effects of Fracking Speak to State Commission”
June 24, 2023 Article by Mary Huck
“Fracking in Ohio State Parks and On Public Lands Endangers Us All”
Available on Sierra Club Ohio:
May 30, 2023 Local News and Information
“Fracking Ohio Public Lands Update and Taking Action”
https://www.sierraclub.org/ohio/blog/2023/05/fracking-ohio-public-lands-update-and-taking-action
Available on-line on WV Rivers https://wvrivers.org :
June 21, 2023 Zoom webinar: “Recording: PFAS Lunch and Learn” Speakers: Jeanna Dobson, Scientist; Dr. Alan Ducatman, Professor WVU; Delegate Evan Hansen, Downstream Strategies; Scott Mandirola, WV Dept. of Environmental Protection
Appearing on-line on Ohio River Valley Institute https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org
June 20, 2023 Petrochemicals & Plastics Report by Eric de Place and Julia Stone
“Updated: A Cautionary Tale of Petrochemicals from Pennsylvania”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/updated-a-cautionary-tale-of-petrochemicals-from-pennsylvania/
June 9, 2023 Hydrogen & Carbon Capture Article by Sean O’Leary
“Hint: To do it really, stupidly, you need HYDROGEN!”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/hint-to-do-it-really-stupidly-you-need-hydrogen/
Appearing on-line on ReImagine Appalachia: https://reimagineappalachia.org/events/
June 22, 2023 Webinar description, link to recording and resources
“Make it in Appalachia Listen & Learn: Appalachia’s Competitive Edge in Carbon-Friendly Freight Transportation”
June 22, 2023 Article by Dana Kuhnline about New Research and takeaways after webinar
“New Research: Electrification of Public Transportation Paper Released”
June 20, 2023 Webinar description, link to recording and resources
“Electrification of Public Transportation Paper Release”
June 1, 2023 Article by Annie Regan Includes a description of the Summit, links to recordings and resources
“Debriefing Our Community Benefits Summit” (Jean Ambrose, MOVCA, was panel speaker on May 25th)
May 30, 2023 Event moderated by Jessica Arriens, Senior Program Manager, Climate & Energy of the NWF
Description, links to recordings of Presentations and resources . Links for taking Action.
“Farm Bill Policy Roundtable”
May 16, 2023 Article by Rike Rothenstein, Research Assoc. for ReImagine Appalachia
“Spotlight: Ohio’s Appalachian Community Grant Program – A Blueprint for Appalachia”
Appearing on-line on WV Public Broadcasting or WOUB (PBS) or WVXU:
June 28, 2023 Energy and Environment article by Curtis Tate
“West Virginia Among Top 3 States to Add Clean Energy Jobs In 2022”
Available from Solar Holler
New June 2020 from Solar Holler – Solar Leasing
Available on Environmental Health Project:
June 12, 2023 Resource Directory by Environmental Health Project (EHP)
“Making the Most of Where to Turn: A Resource Directory”
https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/post/making-the-most-of-where-to-turn-a-resource-directory
RELEVANT TO OUR REGION
Available on The New Yorker:
June 8, 2023 Op-Ed by Bill McKibben
“Looking at the White House Through Wildfire Smoke” This week, elected officials can see for themselves why they must get serious about climate Change.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/looking-at-the-white-house-through-wildfire-smoke
Available on Politico:
June 25, 2023 Energy Article by Benjamin Storrow
“West Virginia bets on hydrogen in gamble to save coal plant”
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/25/west-virginia-hydrogen-coal-plant-00102047
Available on EarthJustice: (missing from May report)
May 4, 2023
“Toxic Coal Ash in West Virginia: Addressing Coal Plants’ Hazardous Legacy”
https://earthjustice.org/feature/coal-ash-states/west-virginia
Available from Center for Biological Diversity: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org
June 1, 2023 Press Release
“Debt Ceiling Deal Stains Biden’s Legacy on Climate, Environmental Justice. Legislation Gives Away Mountain Valley Pipeline, Environmental Law Rollbacks”
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/debt-ceiling-deal-stains-bidens-legacy-on-climate-environmental-justice-2023-06-01/
Available on E&E News CLIMATEWIRE:
June 23, 2023 Article by Benjamin Storrow
“West Virginia bets on hydrogen in gamble to save coal plant”
Available on Common Dreams:
June 29, 2023 Article by Jessica Corbett
“360+ Groups Asked Biden to End Oil and Gas on Public Lands by 2035. His Answer? No.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-oil-gas-public-lands-2035
June 29, 2023 Article by Jake Johnson
“ ‘We Need to Declare a Climate Emergency’: Deadly Heat and Toxic Smoke Envelop the US”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/heat-smoke-climate-emergency
June 28, 2023 Article by Jessica Corbett
“FERC OKs Completion of ‘Reckless’ Mountain Valley Pipeline”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/ferc-mountain-valley-pipeline-construction
Available on The Guardian:
June 28, 2023 Extreme weather article by Associated Press
“Global heating making extreme rain and catastrophic flooding more likely”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/28/global-heating-extreme-rain-flooding-more-likely
June 23, 2023 Climate Crisis article by Dharna Noor
“Senate examines role of ‘dark money’ in delaying climate action”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/21/senate-budget-committee-dark-money-climate-action
June 22, 2023 Environment article by Jonathan Watts
“Ecological tipping points could occur much sooner than expected, study finds”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/22/ecological-tipping-points-could-occur-much-sooner-than-expected-study-finds
June 15, 2023 Article by Mario Ariza for Floodlight
“Power companies quietly pushed $215m into US politics via dark money groups”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/15/us-power-companies-political-lobbying-donations-nonprofit
June 15, 2023 Climate crisis article by Oliver Milman
“Fears of hottest year on record as global temperatures spike”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/15/record-temperatures-global-heating
June 1, 2023 PFAS Article by Tom Perkins
“Plastic containers still distributed across the US are a potential health disaster”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/01/pfas-lawsuit-epa-plastic-containers-health-danger
MORE EDUCATIONAL ARTICLES, PERSPECTIVES , RESEARCH and RESOURCES
Available on Inside Climate News:
June 27, 2023 Justice article by Victoria St. Martin
“ ‘Profit Over the Public’s Health’: Study Details Efforts by Makers of Forever Chemicals to Hide Their Harms”
June 24, 2023 Article by Jake Bolster
“Are Legally Acceptable Levels of Pollution Harming Children’s Brain” (New Study)
June 23, 2023 Article by Keaton Peters
“Carbon Credit Market Seizes On a New Opportunity: Plugging Oil and Gas Wells”
May 26, 2023 Article by Bob Berwyn
“James Hansen Warns of a Short-Term Climate Shock Bringing 2 Degrees of Warming by 2050”
Available on United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
Undated June 1, 2023
“Summary of Inflation Reduction Act provisions related to renewable energy”
https://www.epa.gov/green-power-markets/summary-inflation-reduction-act-provisions-related-renewable-energy
Available on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Dept of Commerce:
June 5, 2023 Updates by NOAA
“Broken record: Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels jump again”
https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/broken-record-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-levels-jump-again
Available on SciTechDaily:
June 18, 2023 Feature by University of LEEDS
“An Unprecedented Rate of Global Warming- Greenhouse Gas Emissions at “An All-Time High” “
Check out: Climate Change Tracker : https://climatechangetracker.org/igcc
Indicators of Global Climate Change (IGCC) : https://www.igcc.earth
Available from Our Children’s Trust. Youth v. Gov.:
June 2023 Press Release by Our Children’s Trust. Links to info, view trail Live, videos, actions, etc.
“Historic Climate Trail: Held v. State of Montana June 12-23, 2023”
https://www.youthvgov.org/held-v-montana/#press
Available on BlueGreen Alliance:
June 9, 2023 Article about new REPORT by researchers at Dartmouth and Princeton funded by the BlueGreen Alliance.
“The New Math for Wind and Solar Manufacturing Supports Good Jobs and U.S. Manufacturing”
Report: Effects of Renewable Energy Provisions on the Inflation Reduction Act on Technology Costs, Materials Demand, and Labor
Available from Beyond Pesticides:
June 5, 2023 Article and call to Action- letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Dept. of Interior.
“Take Action: With Butterfly Decline Mounting, EPA Allows Continued Pesicide [sic] Use that Causes Threat”
Available from Third Act:
June 12, 2023 Article by Cathy Buckley
“Public Utility Commissions 101: A Force to be Reckoned With”
Available from Yale Climate Connections:
June 29, 2023 Article by Neha Pathak
“How climate change harms children’s health”
June 28, 2023 Weather Extremes Article by Dana Nuccitelli
“Global warming is disrupting humanity’s ‘Goldilocks zone’ on Earth”
June 26, 2023 Article by Karin Kirk
“The six big surprises in the Montana youth climate trial”
June 21, 2023 Article by Sarah Wesseler
“Gas stoves are even worse for our health than previously known, new study finds”
June 19, 2023 Climate Explained article by Jesse Nichols, Grist
“Should we pull carbon out of the air with trees, or machines?”
June 8, 2023 Transportation article by Sarah Wesseler
“Electric vehicles alone can’t solve transportation’s climate problems”
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