Happy holidays from CCAA! Thank you for reading and sharing our newsletter throughout 2021. Very warmest wishes to you and your loved ones.
A Journey to Plastics
By Kim Cameron
Having just returned from a trip to Oahu, the island of Honolulu, infrastructure is foremost in my mind. I mean, how do 974,563 people live on an island that is only 600 square miles in size and located 2,390 miles from the continental United States? Pulling out my handy calculator, I determined that equates to approximately four tenths of an acre per person. That’s not much space!
Looking around I asked myself, “How does Oahu deal with fresh water, sewage, electricity and garbage?” Yes, how DOES Oahu deal with garbage? I went delving into Wikipedia to answer some of my questions. I discovered Covanta.
We are familiar with waste-to-energy technology here in Central New York. We have our very own facility on Rock Cut Road in Jamesville. And much to my surprise, it is run by the very same company that runs the waste-to-energy plant in Honolulu, and New York City, and in lots of other states! The spiel goes something like this: “We reduce greenhouse gases by burning trash instead of putting it in landfills where it will produce methane. Because methane is worse for the environment than carbon dioxide, we’re actually playing an important role in addressing climate change. We’re also producing reliable energy by converting the trash to electricity, and we recover tons of metals each year for recycling.”
I am pleased for Covanta. They have come up with a winning mantra and they are certainly making a profit and are promoting green technology. I mean – they are a success story if there ever was one! They started in 1986 and they are proud of their forward thinking approach to how we, as a society, can deal with trash. Unfortunately, the story is a bit more complicated than they let on. Yes, methane is much more damaging to the environment in the near term, but because it is short-lived (lasting about 12 years in the atmosphere as opposed to between 300 and 1,000 years for CO2) the equation doesn’t look so positive over time. Methane being released slowly over a long period versus CO2 spouting into the atmosphere 24/7, burning trash? Hmm…
But what about plastic waste? In 2015 less than 10% of discarded plastic entered the recycling stream in the United States and 15% is burned in waste to energy plants (thank you, Covanta), but the remaining 75% goes to landfills and sits there. Slowly—ever so slowly—it breaks down into smaller pieces. Other countries are better, worse, or the same as us. No need to point the finger; we’re all terrible when it comes to plastic.
Plastic is everywhere now. Land and ocean abound with the stuff. Every morning in Oahu I’d walk the beach and pick up pieces of plastic newly arrived on the tide. A new friend recently sent me a picture of the beach after a particularly high storm tide. Locals come out and clean up the mess, so the beaches always look wonderful, but the work is never-ending.
There is a movie I encourage you to watch when you are in the right frame of mind: A Plastic Ocean. It is tough, but important. I have been to aquariums with whole displays on plastic in the ocean; I have been upset by how much plastic farmers use, and how much plastic is in my local Wegmans grocery store, but I had no idea how much was really out there. To put it bluntly, we are drowning in plastic.
-Photo courtesy of Christy Brocato
Plastic is the fossil fuel’s fallback plan. Even if we manage to get rid of gasoline, we will still need petrochemicals to produce plastic. CO2 is a pollutant that is destroying our atmosphere. Plastic is a pollutant that is destroying the living organisms on earth.
It is now virtually impossible to imagine life without plastic, but we’re going to have to change. Maybe we need to imagine what will replace oil-based plastics. How did we live without plastic before? At some point in the future, someone will ask, “How did we ever live without “???” Fill in the blank for yourself, because I’m certainly not smart enough to know what that product is, but I do know there will be a “???” sooner or later. What is it? How is it made? I’m so curious to look into the future and find out!
Alas, right now, our job is to push and push and push. Educate, implore, yank people’s chains, do everything we can to make people realize that plastics have to be replaced with something better: something more sustainable, more environmentally friendly. It’s not our job to figure out what that product is; it is simply our job to inform and be politically active to change our current trajectory. We are up against a formidable foe: the fossil fuel industry.
We can do a lot at the local level. Reply to this newsletter or write to CCAA at cc.awareness.action@gmail.com or via private message to CCAA’s Facebook page if you would like to join me in fighting plastic locally. I have some projects in mind, but I’d like to form a subcommittee that will bring multiple minds together to develop some projects that will call attention to the plastic tsunami. Personally, I’ve decided, starting Jan 1st, 2022, that I’m going to start keeping track of all the plastic my husband and I throw away. Ten other households joining us in this endeavor will provide some data of just how much plastic we are disposing of annually. Are you with me?
CCAA Members Support Winners!
By Roseann Lorefice
CCAA is delighted to announce that the majority of the candidates that we supported for office in the November 2021 election were successful in their endeavors! In Manlius, Town Board members Sara Bollinger and Katelyn Kriesel were re-elected to four year terms; John Deer was elected as town supervisor for a two year term; and in Dewitt, Max Ruckdeschel was elected to the Town Board.
This year as in the previous elections, CCAA sent out surveys to candidates to discern their positions on climate change and find out how it would affect the offices they were campaigning for. These candidates’ responses indicated their strong support for positions that we promote, including prioritizing the use of solar; integrating sustainability elements into town comprehensive planning; advocating for flood mitigation projects and storm water runoff controls; expanding renewable energy production and storage; and pursuing the designation of “Climate Smart Communities,” to name just of few of the topics expressed.
We congratulate these candidates and look to partner with them in the future as we all strive to make our communities as Climate Smart as possible.
An Unusual Summer leads to Unusual Mold
By Jacob Stewart
The summer of 2021 was the hottest on record in the United States in 126 years, averaging temperatures of 74 degrees Fahrenheit in the lower 48. This increase in temperature brought along unexpected consequences that are beginning to be seen by some residents of Syracuse in the form of black mold. Tim and Joanne Starkey have been forced to pack up 25 years worth of belongings and move to Louisburg, Pennsylvania to escape this problem. During the summer, Tim first started noticing mold growing in the corners of their house. The mold spread and began being seen on the living room ceiling, corners of the closets, cracks on the windowsill, the walls of their shower, and even began growing on furniture. The mold infestation got so bad that the couple had to wear masks indoors and sleep in the living room. This type of mold is dangerous to be around, and was taking such a toll on Tim and Joanne’s health that they were forced to move. A woman by the name of Brianna Taggart was also forced to move out of her apartment in Syracuse after finding black mold growing on her closet walls at the start of September. She was surprised that she had not noticed it during the summer, and wondered what could’ve happened?
Weather experts equate this increase in black mold growth to the increased amount of precipitation that Syracuse received this year. According to the National Weather Service, Syracuse got twice as much rainfall than a typical summer with over 6.5 inches of rain in August alone. This extra precipitation paired with the record breaking heat of July and August created the perfect breeding ground for black mold. This was confirmed when Josh Mattingly, the owner of Green Home Solutions, received a drastic increase of mold inspection requests over the summer. But with the heat of the summer gone, and winter about to go into full swing, will this problem continue? The answer is unfortunately yes. Although mold does grow slower in winter due to the lessened temperatures and precipitation, what has grown will not go away on its own.This is dangerous because exposure to mold can lead to allergic reactions in the lungs, eyes, and skin. This can be even more dangerous to those who have underlying health conditions or are immunocompromised, such as the Starkeys.
Moving is just a band-aid solution to the bigger problem of mold growth itself. As climate change progresses, increased mold growth will become a new normal. As temperatures continue to increase, the capacity of warmer air to hold more precipitation will increase with it. This will lead to a trend of heavier rainfalls paired with high temperatures, making the perfect mold growth conditions a yearly occurrence. Some solutions to this rising issue would be for cities to invest in planting more trees or green space to help absorb and evaporate more moisture to counteract increased rainfall. Individual solutions would be to install ventilation systems in homes to maintain drier air to prevent mold growth. This isn’t feasible for lower income homes, though, and so it largely lies on the cities to take the first step to protect public health.
The Domino Effects of Warming Lakes
By Jacob Stewart
The Great Lakes have experienced unusual warming over the past year. Much of this is due to the record breaking heat that was experienced this past summer. New York recorded one of its hottest summers on record, with Minnesota and Wisconsin recording their third hottest Junes in history. This heat didn’t spare the lakes, with Lake Huron setting a record in late August with a recorded temperature of 74 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat trend continued through the fall, with the average October temperature at 8 degrees Fahrenheit above average. The disruption of these average seasonal temperatures can have adverse effects on the lakes.
The biggest issue with these above average temperatures is that the hard frost was delayed until the last week of October. This is why the allergy season seemed longer than usual, and why the bugs were active past what we normally see. But changes have also been happening that are not as obvious. The lakes have stayed warm, and with that warmer water comes lake effect snow. This is dangerous for the lakes’ health because this mix of warm water and snow delays the formation of ice, a needed occurrence for many of these lakes. The ice is able to lessen the damage of coastal erosion, and the warm water can lead to an increase in invasive species and harmful algae blooms. This is an example of how climate change has a top down effect on the environment that can have lasting effects on natural processes that stretch past when high temperatures seem to have gone down. The Earth itself is one big interactive system, and it is important to recognize with moments like these how climate change can throw this system out of balance. This is why it is important to advocate for climate change awareness, to help people understand the bigger picture of what is happening and the importance of why changes need to be made.
Revealed: Biden administration was not legally bound to auction gulf drilling rights
In November, the Biden administration auctioned off more than 80 million acres of seabed in the Gulf of Mexico for fossil fuel extraction, an area twice the size of Florida. At the time, a claim was made that they were legally obligated to do so because of a court order. But now a Justice Department memo has come to light, revealing that that was not the case.
Sierra Leone names Africa’s first Chief Heat Officer
First Miami appointed one, then came Athens. Now Freetown in Sierra Leona has one: a Chief Heat Officer, who is tasked with combating rising temperatures by finding practical and everyday ways to help the city’s bustling population beat the heat. Eugenia Kargbo’s simple goal is to allow her two children to walk the city without the fear of heart stroke.
A collaboration between Rice University, the Houston Health Department and Houston Wilderness set about find out which trees species were the best ones to plant in urban areas. They looked at how they helped solve four problems: carbon emissions, air pollution, flooding and urban heat islands. The top candidate? The live oak and the American sycamore.
CCAA holds its monthly meetings on the second Tuesday of every month. If you’d like to learn more, email cc.awareness.action@gmail.com.
For a comprehensive list of events pertaining to sustainability and climate change, contact Diane Brandli with GreeningUSA to subscribe to the GreeningUSA listserve or to publicize an event you are organizing. dbdesigninteriors@verizon.net
Member Spotlight
By Jan Kublick
I am a lawyer who has practiced in Syracuse for many years. My wife Kim Cameron and I live in a fully electric home on Song Lake in Tully where I was a member of the school board for almost 20 years. Kim, a scientist with a PhD from ESF who now tutors science and math, is also a member of CCAA.
I became aware of the environmental movement and its concerns in the early ’70s at college. In law school I was active in the Environmental Law Clinic, and have remained involved in environmental law ever since. In the late ’70s I was extremely fortunate to have been part of the formation of the State Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section (now the Environmental and Energy Law Section). At that time it was one of the first in the nation, and I have been on its Executive Committee since then. I am a member of its Climate Change Committee, and a chair of the Adirondacks and Forest Preserve Committee.
I am also fortunate that my best friend David Goodrich is an oceanographer, a retired NOAA climate scientist, a climate activist, and also the author of several books about climate, notably A Hole in the Wind and A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean. Through him I have learned much about climate.
My focus is on finding ways to inform and motivate those who already know about climate disruption, but don’t know what they can do about it. In that way I hope to build a broader and more active political consensus around this critical issue. I look forward to helping CCAA pursue its mission of awareness and action on climate.
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Staff Writer: Jacob Stewart
Publishing and Design: Yvonne Chu, Annalena Davis
Editor: Gavin Landless
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