People Before Profit blog

Historic environmental victory for L.A.’s Century City Center

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 15:01:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - After years of refuting thoroughly debunked arguments against it, the Century City Center has been approved by a Jan. 27 unanimous 12-0 vote of Los Angeles City Council. This victory was the result of a massive, several years-long organizing campaign involving environmental groups, unions, and concerned citizens. Sustained leadership came from Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), a pro-labor coalition of faith movements with deep community roots.

The Century City Center will be paramount in leading the way for the private sector to adopt premier environmental LEED standards while still creating over 6,000 union jobs for workers. This will ensure that working families will have a living wage and healthcare while it protects the environment. This project, and the campaign to support it, puts Los Angeles at the forefront of justice-oriented city planning for the nation.

What is LEED? LEED is the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED certification means that the construction conforms to the current best practices in conservation, access, sustainability, environmentally friendly materials, and wise energy use. It is the building industry's green stamp of approval, granted on four levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

The Century City Center will be the first LEED Platinum-certified high-rise building in Los Angeles and only the sixth in the nation. Here are just some of the features that the City Council approval has guaranteed:

* Century City Center will create 6,000 good jobs, some during construction and others permanent. A Project Labor Agreement ensures that the project is built with union labor.

It will also generate $4.3 million to the City of Los Angeles every year and generate $400 million in annual economic activity throughout the county.

* The environmentally friendly aspects of the project include: 7,000 square feet of solar photovoltaic panels; one of the largest habitable green roof spaces in California; a high-performance central plant that produces ice at night to melt during the day and provide efficient cooling; a passively cooled lobby using windows, fresh air, and a chilled lobby floor with a high-tech water feature that rejects heat; and reclaimed water from the building for landscape irrigation.

* Century City Center will feature a large public plaza. with shops, kiosks, and plentiful plantings, trees and shade, that will take advantage of existing transit options, as well as provide a ready connection to future advances as a potential portal location for the planned Purple Line mass transit Metro station. One of the key ways that the project will encourage transit use is the inclusion of a 1,300 square-foot mobility hub to assist the 50,000 employees who work in Century City and who want to get out of their cars and use alternative commuting strategies.

The project is a good example of the vertical growth of cities along the routes of major transit systems.

Century City is a large outcropping of modern commercial buildings in West Los Angeles built on a tract that once served as Twentieth Century Fox movie lots. Its towering office buildings housed the offices of retired President Ronald Reagan. Its fancy hotels were the scene of militant demonstrations - and a famous L.A. police riot - during the Vietnam War years when Lyndon Johnson would come to town.

So why was the City Council approval such a victory? The project would likely not have been controversial at all, except for the fact that JPMorgan Chase & Co., a leading global financial services firm and one of the largest banking institutions in the world, has a high-rise office building just across the street from the proposed building site. A handsome new LEED-certified office building would inevitably pose strong competition for office rental space.

A major effort was made in well-to-do neighborhoods near the project, many presume with funding from JPMorgan Chase, to oppose authorization for building, on the grounds that traffic patterns in West Los Angeles would be profoundly affected, and that streams of commuters in their single-occupancy cars would be barreling through quiet, tree-lined streets where children play stick ball. Homeowners, fearing for their safety and property values, plastered their lawns with signs opposing the project.

Fortunately, this argument proved specious to the City Council members who voted on Tuesday. They held hearings during the attenuated approval process at which representatives of the Catholic Church, various Protestant churches, the Jewish Labor Committee, Faith to Green, CLUE, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations testified to the excitement and wisdom of building green and fair.

Rabbi Jonathan Klein, executive director of CLUE, mused somewhat sadly on the fate of Van Jones, President Obama's early "Green Czar," whose mandate was to bring environmental awareness to federal policy and create "an entire new green sector for new jobs." But Jones was drummed out of office by a concerted GOP-led attack, meaning that green leadership necessarily passed back into the hands of the private sector.

It is expected that the City Council approval may yet be subject to dilatory lawsuits and appeals, but for now the victory is being savored.

The Jewish New Year for trees comes on Feb. 3 this year

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 14:31:00 +0000

Ancient sages of the Jewish religion established a special new year for trees. Yes, trees! The New Year of the Trees in 2015 begins on the evening of Feb. 3 (the Jewish day runs from sundown to sundown). It's called Tu b'Shvat, meaning the Full Moon (15th day) of the midwinter lunar month of Shvat. The holiday occurs just as the days are starting to lengthen, the life-juice begins to rise again in many trees, and a few begin to blossom, and represents not just the rebirth day of trees in general but of the divine Tree of Life itself.

This Jewish holiday had long fallen into obscurity, or at best a minimal observance consisting of distributing little packets of tree fruit and nuts to children. But in more recent times Jewish environmentalists have seized on this day to symbolize a greater identification with the fate of the Earth.

Just as the Passover Seder meal in the spring celebrates the liberation from slavery, a special Seder has emerged for Tu b'Shvat as the meal of the Garden of Eden. This repast comprises fruit and nuts that do not require the killing of any creature, not even a carrot or radish yanked up by its root from the earth. Around the world, Tu b'Shvat has been restored to the modern Jewish repertory of "politically correct" observances.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow of Philadelphia's Shalom Center, has devised a hagadah, a book of readings, for use during the Tu b'Shvat Seder. It focuses on major policy questions facing the human race in the midst of a great climate crisis and massive extinctions of species. In successive sections of the meal there are traditional, mystical, musical, and poetical passages, as well as contemporary quotations on four major aspects of concern: Earth (food and forest); Water (fracking and pollution); Air (climate); and Fire (alternative and renewable energy sources). Discussion among participants is strongly encouraged.

One small example of the content of the hagadah is an old African-American spiritual retooled for the environmental movement:

We've got the whole world in our hands.

We've got the rivers and the mountains in our hands.

We've got the trees and the tigers in our hands.

We've got the whole world in our hands.

We've got the wind and the oceans in our hands.

We've got our sisters and our brothers in our hands.

We've got our children and their children in our hands.

We've got the whole world in our hands!

Jewish tradition (Leviticus 25: 4, 23) mandates that every seventh year there shall be a "Sabbath" for the land, a one-year pause for replenishment, a break from overcultivation. "Your field you are not to sow; your vineyard you are not to prune." As an early culture of farmers and herders, the Hebrews learned the value of giving the land a rest. In a passage adapted from "The Gift of the Good Land," American writer Wendell Berry says, "Agribusiness does not love the land. It treats soil as a raw material to use up. The result of the exploitation of the soil is soil erosion, soil compaction, soil and water pollution, pests and disease due to monoculture, depopulation of the country, decivilization of the city."

If the Bible teaches good stewardship of the Earth, companies like Monsanto - that impose genetically modified crops on more and more farms that also require 25 percent more herbicides than farmers need with traditional seeds - threaten the whole principle of sustainability. Modern agriculture uses far larger quantities of water and fossil fuels than traditional farming.

An ideal holiday for vegetarians

Tu b'Shvat has also become the self-evident Jewish vegetarian holiday. Vegetarians say that a shift toward plant-based diets is essential, and like to cite the 2009 cover article in World Watch magazine, "Livestock and Climate Change," by two environmentalists associated with the World Bank, who argue that the livestock sector is responsible for at least 51 percent of all human-induced greenhouse gases. This is largely due to the massive destruction of tropical rain forests and old growth forests to produce pasture land and land to grow feed crops for animals and the emission of methane from farmed animals. As a result, thousands of creatures are at risk of extinction.

Many progressive Jewish organizations, such as the Central Conference of American Rabbis, have issued calls to their constituents to recycle what can be repurposed; use for all construction only wood certified as sustainably harvested; divest from corporations whose activities contribute to the destruction of forests; strengthen government regulation and environmental study; and dedicate time, such as Tu b'Shvat and the autumn harvest festival of Sukkot, to learning about environmental issues and Jewish ethics.

While there is no single prescribed Tu b'Shvat Seder meal beyond tree fruits and nuts, it may also include the foods that are mentioned in Deuteronomy 8: 7-9, which refers to "a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil, and honey; a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness."

Trees in whose homeland?

The more than century-old Zionist project to establish a Jewish homeland in Israel has for many years been accompanied by a vigorous campaign to plant trees in Israel, to provide food, shade, and vegetation to halt the desertification that comes with climate change and a growing population. In recent years Jewish peace and solidarity activists, including rabbis and future rabbis and cantors studying in Israel, have taken part in human rights projects involving trees. They have worked alongside Palestinian families to plant trees at the Tent of Nations, a Palestinian family farm where the Israeli government has bulldozed fruit trees.

Jews seeking fair answers to the Israel/Palestine conflict have expressed outrage at Jewish settlers on Palestinian lands, and at the Israeli government itself, who over a span of many years have adopted policies of uprooting, burning, cutting down or poisoning Palestinian trees. New plantings have been torn from the soil, and mature trees providing a livelihood to families have been destroyed. In other cases, the high separation wall has divided Palestinian farmers' homes from their orchards. Since 2001, Rabbis for Human Rights, alongside other progressive Jews, have been showing a different face of Judaism by planting trees both in areas where trees have been destroyed, and in areas where the presence of trees might help prevent those lands from being taken over.

You will find a version of the hagadah for Tu b'Shvat here that addresses how to heal the wounds that Mother Earth is suffering in our own generation. Rabbi Arthur Waskow of The Shalom Center adapted it in large part from one shaped by Ellen Bernstein, as published in "Trees, Earth, and Torah: A Tu B'Shvat Anthology." (This article for People's World is itself derived in part from these writings.) If you're interested in possibly attending a Tu b'Shvat Seder, ask a local temple, synagogue or Jewish community center if they can direct you to one, or maybe find it through an online search.

Photo: Almond tree in blossom on Tu b'Shvat. | Wikipedia (CC)

Fukushima-type reactor in Vermont gets the axe, concerns remain

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 15:01:00 +0000

A nuclear power plant near the town of Brattleboro, Vermont is being shut down thanks to local environmental activism. The Vermont Yankee plant ceased splitting atoms on Dec. 29 after more than 42 years of activity. The victory is one that will surely bring relief to activists and citizens alike, as the plant's reactor was the General Electric Mark I, the same design as that of Fukushima, which infamously melted down and exploded, spewing radiation into the atmosphere.

Due to a hefty push-back in 2010 from Citizen's Awareness Network, the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 on Feb. 24 that year to phase Vermont Yankee out of operation after 2012. That has now come to pass, but it was largely the result of activists raising awareness of the possible negative health effects of the reactor. At the time of the vote, the plant was leaking radioactive tritium into the air following the collapse of a cooling tower back in 2007.

The structural dismantling of the plant, meanwhile, will not be completed until 2040.

The plant is owned by Entergy, a corporation that has a history almost as toxic as the fossil fuel it deals with. The company has a number of alleged misdeeds including stealing overtime wages from workers, overcharging customers, and having a general lack of regulatory oversight that likely contributed to the 2007 mishap.

A similar fiasco recently occurred at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant near Athens, Alabama, from which a leak of radioactive water released tritium into the environment sometime during the week of Jan. 5. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the plant, maintained that the leak was quickly stoppered and no significant public risk was presented. One could be forgiven, however, if he or she still had qualms about the integrity of the reactors, particularly as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined that the plant's three units are at some risk from potential earthquakes. In the midst of climate change, that serves only to exacerbate already existing concerns.

The plant has long been in the crosshairs of Mothers Against Tennessee River Radiation, a group representing concerned citizens, environmentalists, and workers. Garry Morgan, a retired U.S. Army medical officer who has monitored radiation around Browns Ferry for the group, remarked, "Any leak of radionuclide contaminant into the environment indicates a failure of oversight and/or attention to detail, maybe both, on the part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Tennessee Valley Authority." He added that cancer mortality rates have increased by 20 percent above the U.S. average since Browns Ferry began generating power in 1974.

The problem of leaking tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, does not end there. According to the Associated Press, the contaminant has leaked from at least 48 reactors - and perhaps as many as 65 - across the U.S., and often ends up in groundwater. This information was taken by AP from Nuclear Regulatory Commission records as part of their coverage on the matter. Furthermore, tritium from at least three of those sites - two in Illinois and one in Minnesota - has actually seeped into the drinking wells of residential homes, said the report.

In conclusion, while one plant with Fukushima-type reactors has been defeated, others remain, and are contributing to environmental toxicity. Greenpeace noted, "The world is still running more than 400 inherently dangerous nuclear reactors. Millions of people are at risk. Nuclear energy is not a necessary evil, because affordable, safer, and cleaner energy solutions exist. They are only a matter of political choice."

Photo: Vermont Yankee plant. | AP

Connecticut activists gather to prevent a climate crime

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:02:00 +0000

It was a crime scene we have become all too familiar with in 2015. Yellow police tape encircled the area of the dastardly deed. People milled about somewhat dazed but also angry. Media scurried after them. But there was a critical difference. It was a gathering to prevent a climate crime.

The picture drawn above happened in Naugatuck, Connecticut on Sat., January 10, 2015. The main participants were leaders of the Naugatuck Environmental Network. It was a press conference. They were indeed angry but also determined to prevent a proposed climate crime by Competitive Power Ventures (CPV), a company stationed regionally in Massachusetts and whose financial backing has an international reach. CPV's objective was to build yet another dirty fuel energy plant powered by methane gas, a polluting, climate-changing fossil fuel.

What these CPV multimillionaires want, in part, are the waters of the Naugatuck River that ran swiftly in back of the activists. These waters swept alongside metal, chemical, and rubber industries during the 20^th century. The river was so polluted that it was declared dead by the 1970s. Dedicated environmental and political work saw it spring back to life by the 21^st century with work still to be done. Now CPV was looking again to use the river as a free dump for some mysterious grey water effluent.

The coupon clippers behind this proposed climate crime are Warbug Pinkus, an American Venture Capital private equity investment firm, with Indian, Asian, and Brazilian hedge fund big bucks. If you are looking for an example of globalized financialization, this is it. You can rest assured these ruling class elements don't have their families living anywhere near these fossil fuel polluting machines.

Paraphrasing the press statement of the Naugatuck Environmental Network, CPV's favorite words are "clean, natural and bridge." They explained the smoke screen behind these words.

"Just how 'clean' will this proposed energy plant be? Nitrous oxides will be spewed from its smoke stacks. Those chemicals are associated with birth abnormalities, depressed blood cell formation, and kidney and liver diseases. Nitrogen dioxide is linked to airway inflammation and aggravates symptoms of asthmatics. That's just for starters.

Fine particles, about 1/30 the width of human hair, are also a byproduct. These microscopic, soot-like particles make their way from our lungs to the circulatory system and to all parts of our bodies. While science doesn't know the source of many cancers, these pollutants are prime suspects. A recent Harvard 12-year study concluded that there is a direct link between power plant particulate exposure in third trimester pregnant women and children being born with autism.

Oil will be used to back up gas usage. Sulfur dioxide then will emerge out of those 'clean' stacks. It causes respiratory problems especially in children and the elderly. Sulfur dioxide is an acid. Globally, it is in the mix of those chemicals that are killing coral reefs.

Gas is 'natural' all right. So is arsenic. CPV would have us believe using 'natural' gas is akin to eating an organic apple. Fracking is what has led to the "natural" gas boom. It involves shooting water and chemicals under high pressure deep into the earth. It leads to 30 percent more emissions of methane gas than conventional extractive methods.

Methane gas traps the sun's energy in our atmosphere at a rate 34 times more effectively than carbon dioxide. It is a climate change multiplier. Ninety seven percent of climatologists recognize the reality of climate change. People impacted by the extra violent super storms like Katrina and Sandy know first hand.

The idea that gas is a "bridge" to a renewable future is a mirage put forward by fossil fuel companies. Why? So they can keep on drilling for this dirty fossil fuel and keep their big-time shareholders happy. Of course the pollution continues.

The water for this dirty fuel power plant endangers the water level of the Pomperaug River. The proposal threatens the Naugatuck River with pollutants, and puts the wildlife of both at risk.

Anyone going for this scheme would have to be a shareholder in fossil fuels, befuddled by the 'bridge' to renewables line or a climate change denier. Power plants make up 40 percent of the carbon pollution in the U.S. and there are no federal limits on how much carbon existing power plants can dump into our air. Translation - dump on our families, our rivers, and our atmosphere at will, while this hedge fund rakes in the profits.

So 'clean', 'natural' and 'bridge' can be wrapped up with an apology to an old song. Fairy tales can come true and it can happen to you, if you are gullible enough."

Activists urged participation in the Jan. 15 mass mobilization at Oxford High School where Connecticut's sitting council will be holding hearings on this dirty fuel proposal.

Photo: Members of four environmental groups hold a press conference by the Naugatuck River, Naugatuck, CT protesting a proposed climate crime - the building of a dirty fossil fuel power plant in Oxford, CT.

Small island nation calls on nuclear powers to disarm

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 10:39:00 +0000

Sometime this year, the International Court of Justice is expected to hear a true David-and-Goliath challenge to the world's nuclear powers.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), a tiny Pacific Ocean nation of 68,000 people where some 67 U.S. nuclear bomb tests were conducted between 1946 and 1958, last year filed lawsuits with the Court, at The Hague, Netherlands, calling out the world's nine nuclear powers for failing to negotiate to end the nuclear arms race and achieve across-the-board nuclear disarmament. Hearings are expected this year.

The lawsuits point out that the U.S., Russia, United Kingdom, France and China, when they signed the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), pledged to "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race and to nuclear disarmament...."

The RMI also says Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea have the same obligations under customary international law, though they have not signed the NPT - or in North Korea's case, have withdrawn from the treaty. Israel has never confirmed that it has nuclear arms, but it is universally understood to have such weapons.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which is supporting the suits, says over 16,000 nuclear weapons still exist worldwide, 94 percent of them in U.S. or Russian hands, despite agreements like the New START treaty the two nations signed in 2010 to reduce their arsenals.

Despite the severe environmental damage the RMI suffered from the tests, and the illness and birth defects that have plagued its people, the island nation is not seeking monetary compensation.

In filing the lawsuits at The Hague, RMI Foreign Minister Tony de Brum said, "Our people have suffered the catastrophic and irreparable damage of these weapons, and we vow to fight so that no one else on earth will ever again experience these atrocities."

Rick Wayman, Director of Programs and Operations at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said the proceedings against the five signers of the Non-Proliferation Treaty "are explicit in regard to Article VI of the treaty. The Marshall Islands is not seeking anything new, it is simply seeking fulfillment of promises already made."

Wayman said the lawsuits also contend that though Article VI requires an end to the nuclear arms race, the arms race "is actually ramping up, in the U.S. and elsewhere."

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation says the U.S., with nearly half the world's nuclear arms, is expected to spend $1 trillion to modernize its arsenal over the next three decades.

The RMI filed its lawsuits last April. The International Court of Justice, also called the World Court, is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations.

One issue in the court proceedings is that only the UK, India, and Pakistan have accepted the court's compulsory jurisdiction. The other countries must choose whether to accept its jurisdiction in a particular case. So far, only China has replied, saying it will not accept jurisdiction in regard to the RMI's suit.

Many question whether the court proceedings will bring concrete results. Besides the need for most of the nuclear powers to state their willingness to accept the World Court's jurisdiction in the case, the court itself doesn't have the power to enforce its decision.

But supporters say the RMI's action is aimed at greatly increasing global concern about the continuing threat posed by weapons which, if used even in small numbers, would have profound environmental and human consequences, including crop failures and global nuclear famine with the potential to kill some 2 billion people.

In October, nearly 90 leaders from around the world addressed an Open Letter to RMI President Christopher Loeak and Foreign Minister de Brum.

"Win or lose in the coming legal arguments," the letter said, "what you, and any who join you, will do has the deepest moral significance, going far beyond the specific interests of any country or government and beyond the usual calculations of national self-interest.... If you stay the course, alone or with a host of others, then what you will be doing is - to recycle a phrase already well-used -'not so much making history, as making history possible.'"

Signers include South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Nobel Peace Laureates Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland, Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, Jody Williams of the U.S., and Shirin Ebadi of Iran. Also Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs; Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; Alfred Marder, U.S. Peace Council president; Tadatoshi Akiba, former mayor of Hiroshima; and Helen Caldicott, M.D., founder, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Australia.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has launched a petition supporting the Marshall Islands' lawsuits, and calling on the nuclear powers to "fulfill their moral duty and legal obligation to begin negotiations for complete nuclear disarmament."

Photo: Activists in Mumbai protest nuclear energy. | JapanTimes

From Idaho to Utah, "wolf massacre" continues

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 15:16:00 +0000

An organization called Idaho for Wildlife hosted a hunting derby between Jan. 1 and Jan. 4 that resulted in the deaths of two dozen coyotes for the mere purposes of obtaining their fur or for taxidermy. The Idaho event came on the heels of a wolf killing in Utah during Dec., in which "Echo," the first wolf seen wandering about the Grand Canyon in 70 years, was likely the victim after crossing state lines and being mistaken for a coyote. The two tragedies added up to what was a very bad holiday season for wild canines.

The Humane Society's Idaho director Lisa Kauffman called the event, which occurred in Salmon, Idaho, a "wolf massacre." Though no wolves were killed, in which more than 125 hunters competed for cash prizes for whoever killed the most coyotes. Though Idaho for Wildlife did have some positive-sounding aims - they noted "we tailor it around this time of year for family, to let the kids get out to learn to hunt, gun safety, and survival skills" - the purpose of hunting coyotes remains questionable as, despite the group's claims to the contrary, coyotes are not terribly fierce or problematic predators.

The event also gave hunters ample opportunity to kill wolves anyway, as is legal in Idaho - the wolf kills simply would not be worth any "prizes." Many animal rights activists feel that hunts like these toe a dangerous line, as many wolves are mistaken for coyotes and accidentally killed, the most recent case being in Utah on Dec. 28. The wolf, which was believed to be the same one photographed near the Grand Canyon earlier last year, is part of a species that was only just removed from the Endangered Species List in 2011 (as many feel, against better judgment).

Kauffman decried the hunting of coyotes in Idaho, as it was done for pure sport. She remarked, "Rewarding shooters, including young children, with prizes takes us back to an earlier era of wanton killing that so many of us thought was an ugly, ignorant, and closed chapter in our history."

Brian Ertz, president of nonprofit animal rights advocacy group Wildlands Defense, said, "People honestly believe that sterilizing the landscape of 'predators' will enrich their economy and preserve their culture." But "Americans in general are becoming more compassionate toward non-human animals, and our appreciation of ecology and the contribution of wildlife communities is growing. This awareness and compassion threatens any culture that predicates itself on an appalling disregard for the suffering of sentient beings."

Photo: AP

Top 10 environmental stories of 2015: predictions

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 15:18:00 +0000

In a recent column, I discussed my pick for the top 10 environmental stories of 2014. That got me to thinking about the coming year. In some cases, we can already predict some of the top environmental battles of 2015. Of course, other issues and conflicts will arise, so this top 10 list will have to be adjusted at the end of the year, but all of these stories will figure prominently in the headlines of 2015.

1. The Keystone XL pipeline - Republicans have already declared their intention to pass bills in the House and Senate to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. This pipeline, intended to bring large amounts of tar sands oil from Canada down to the U.S. Gulf Coast for refining and shipping overseas, requires the approval of the State Department; in other words, ultimately it requires the approval of President Obama. He has delayed approval of the pipeline several times already, and has indicated that climate change considerations will play a big role in his final decision. Republicans, anxious to serve their fossil fuel company funders, and to pretend to be for job creation, have already pledged to make this one of the first items on their legislative agenda when Congress resumes in January. Though barely defeated last fall, the Republican leadership has made clear their plan to make this struggle a high priority.

2. Global Divestment Day - Around the world, there will be actions on the weekend of Feb. 13-14, to step up the movement for divestment from fossil fuel companies. This movement has already had some notable successes, including the Rockefeller Fund, a number of colleges and universities, and several cities, including Seattle. While by itself this movement is not likely to significantly hurt the targeted corporations in the near term, it has already had an impact on the image of these companies, such that they have stepped up their public relations advertising because they are worried about the future impact. As well, the divestment campaigns have drawn the attention of some investment professionals, who note that much of the current stock value of fossil fuel companies is based on "proven reserves" as if all those reserves will be tapped for future production and profit. But most of the reserves will have to stay in the ground to avoid climate catastrophe. If the companies can't tap those reserves, they become "stranded assets," not available for exploitation, and hence the stock value of the companies is largely fictional. So some investment advisors are recommending dumping such stocks. The divestment movement is only going to force this issue more to the fore.

3. Battles over the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Many Republican-led legislatures are planning on state-specific bills to attack the authority of the EPA to regulate carbon pollution in their state, to prevent their states from submitting required information to the EPA, and other obstructionist tactics. No doubt there will also be efforts in Congress, though these will face the likelihood of a presidential veto. These legislative efforts will require a state-by-state fightback.

4. New and additional science will confirm the reality of climate change caused by human activity - Additional confirmation continues to accumulate. In 2014, new studies of the world's oceans, the ice sheets in Antarctica, and many others added to the already overwhelming evidence that climate change is happening, that it is caused by human activity, that it threatens our common future, and that it has and will continue to lead to resource conflicts. The year 2014 was the hottest yet, and while 2015 may not break any temperature records (or it may), the trend of hotter years, earlier springs, later winters, more extreme weather events, more forest fires, more drought, will continue. Dead zones in the world's oceans will continue to grow, from plastic pollution to agricultural run-off. Species extinction and threats to more plant and animals will escalate.

5. Debates about capitalism as the cause of environmental problems and as obstacle to solutions will intensify - Since the publication of the latest book by Naomi Klein, "This Changes Everything," debates about whether or not capitalism must be eliminated in order to save the planet for developed human existence will become louder and more prominent.

6. Environmental struggles and issues will play a bigger role in the 2016 presidential election - With Republicans determined to prevent action on climate change and other environmental issues, and the base of the Democratic Party and independent voters demanding a stronger stance on these issues, the environment will be a key issue in the 2016 presidential campaigns. All the environmental struggles in 2015 will propel these issues more to the fore, and force all candidates to take a stance. As more and more people are convinced of the need to address climate change, the pressure to step up our efforts will play a bigger role in all political campaigns, including those for Congress as well. Republican efforts (and those of some Democrats from states dependent on the fossil fuel industry) to obstruct the more aggressive policies now being pursued by the Obama administration will also force environmental issues forward.

7. More extreme weather events - Even though no one can predict exactly which kinds of extreme weather events will happen, or where or when, we can predict with certainty that, as has happened over the past decade, there will be unexpected impacts from such events. From Hurricane Sandy to the multi-year California drought to supposedly "hundred-year floods" that happen every couple of years now, each year we have seen exceptional destruction from these events. And they often have unexpected impacts as well, as happened several years ago in Fukushima, Japan, when a rising storm surge knocked out water-cooled reactors, causing a meltdown and release of radioactivity.

8. More confirmation of negative health consequences of environmental pollution and destruction - Also accumulating are studies that prove increasingly harmful effects to human health and all life forms from pollution, extreme weather, warming, expanding ranges for tropical diseases, and so on. Life depends on our environment for food, air, water, and general health, and when we harm the environment, we harm ourselves as well. We can also be certain that over the coming year, the spate of oil and gas leaks and spills, and tanker train derailments and explosions will continue, with negative consequences for human health beyond the immediate impacts of such disasters.

9. International negotiations in Paris - The United Nations-sponsored negotiations, most recently in Lima, Peru, are expected to culminate in Paris in November and December 2015. Building on progress made in Lima and on the bilateral agreement between China and the U.S. last fall, expectations are high for reaching a more far-reaching international agreement to reduce carbon pollution. It seems likely that an agreement will be reached in Paris, and that between now and then more unilateral and bilateral goals and commitments will be announced. It also seems certain that while serious progress will be made, the agreements will not be sufficient by themselves to halt the rollercoaster ride to climate catastrophe the world is on.

10. The global climate movement will grow - Undoubtedly, there will be a massive demonstrations in Paris next December, to coincide with the UN negotiations, accompanied by large-scale solidarity demonstrations around the world in dozens of countries. This will build on the momentum from the People's Climate March in NYC in September 2014. This will be the most visible manifestation of the climate change and environmental movements and their growth, maturity and reach, resulting from campaigns, events, demonstrations, education, and petition drives all year long. Those will address issues from fracking (and the banning of fracking, as in New York State recently), to pollution of water sources, to coping with the long-range consequences of the California drought, to divestment struggles on many campuses and in many cities, to publicizing the conclusions of new scientific studies to educate the public. Large sections of the labor movement will also become more involved in environmental struggles. There will continue to be calls by religious leaders to address climate change.

This year will be crucial for the movement, and also for efforts to protect the planet. Demonstrations will grow in size and scope; scientific studies will expand our knowledge about the causes and effects of environmental destruction and despoliation; the costs of solar and wind power will continue to fall; more politicians worldwide will feel pressured to propose policies to shift our energy economies and pollution practices in a positive direction.

And we can also predict, with certainty, that 2016 will continue all these developments.

Photo: A man lifts up a balloon of the Earth at the 2014 People's Climate March. | Mel Evans/AP

Ohio fracking well drives families out of homes

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 12:38:00 +0000

SARDIS, Ohio - A natural gas fracking well began leaking on Dec. 13, 2014, driving 30 families from their homes. The leak prompted the evacuation of the well's field staff and residents within a 1.5-mile radius around the well near Sardis, Ohio. Sardis is a small community, located along the Ohio River about 160 miles east of Columbus and 40 miles south of Wheeling, West Virginia. The well is located at the Stalder 3UH location, operated by Triad Hunter, LLC outside of Sardis. Triad Hunter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation.

The leak from the well pad shot gas and vapors high into the air, prompting not only the evacuation of nearby residents but causing authorities to impose a 5,000 feet NO FLY ZONE above a three-mile radius around the leaking well. The evacuation and NO FLY restrictions were ordered until the well could be capped and repaired.

Eventually, families were permitted limited access to their homes, Dec. 17, during the daytime - between 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. - with the assistance of the Sardis Volunteer Fire Department. Emergency accommodations had been provided for families and, on Dec. 17, a Family Assistance Center was set up in nearby Lee Township Building to provide a larger and more relaxed place for the evacuated residents. But some residents, according to other reports, have temporarily taken up quarters in hotels/motels as far south as Marietta, Ohio, which is over 40 miles away.

Crews from as far away as Texas (such as, Wild Well Control) were brought in to contain and repair the spewing well. Representatives of the involved companies continued to meet daily with community and government agencies (Sardis Volunteer Fire Department [Sardis VFD], Monroe Co. Emergency Management, Ohio Emergency Management, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas) to discuss ongoing efforts to secure the well site, maintain safety of responders and residents through continuous air monitoring with zero gas detection outside the well pad site.

On Dec. 23, the residents who were hoping to be back in their homes learned that was not to be. They were told that they would have to wait another day. Rocky Roberts, senior vice president of Operations for Triad Hunter, said, "The well head is still blowing gas ... but it is blowing straight up into the air." Roberts went on to say that, when the well is capped, they will still have to do some air monitoring to make sure it is safe.

After the crews had been busy all that day trying to cap the leaking well-head, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said the leak had been brought under control. Bethany McCorkle, spokesperson for the ODNR, said that a new well-head had been installed and was being pressure tested. She added that the ODNR still plans to investigate to determine what caused the well to begin leaking uncontrollably.

By the end of the day, the families who had been forced from their homes for over a week were finally allowed back. Nate Fluharty of WTRF reported that most of the families were happy to be back in their homes in time for Christmas.

Photo: Pictured here is the Texas Barnett Shale gas drilling rig near Alvarado, Texas. (Wikipedia)