Tag: The Climate Reality Project

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Living in Society

O’Malley in Mount Vernon in Caucus Season

Listening to Martin O'Malley in Mount Vernon
Listening to Martin O’Malley in Mount Vernon Photo Credit O’Malley Campaign

MOUNT VERNON—In his family’s modest living room, Nate Willems introduced former governor Martin O’Malley to about 75 guests on Thursday.

O’Malley announced for president May 30 and was a regular presence in Iowa during the run up to the 2014 midterm elections. Because of that, Democratic activists are sympathetic to his message and polite. Not a lot signed support cards at the end of last night’s speech. It may be too early for that.

The message was about O’Malley’s 15 years of executive public service as mayor of Baltimore, Maryland from 1999 until 2007, then as governor until January 2015. Among his twitter hashtags is #newleadership, presumably differentiating himself from the Clinton/Bush dynasties. He was concise and repeated those points during the house party.

In my April 11 post I asserted, “O’Malley is a story teller. Will we like the narrative?” That observation was borne out last night.

O’Malley stumped on core Democratic issues, similar to the April speech. It’s hard to find fault with his broad positions. On climate change, I don’t like the narrative.

An audience member asked O’Malley what he would do as president about CO2 and methane emissions. The answer to this is easy. President Obama presented the U.S. plan for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris this December. The U.S. plan relies upon the Clean Power Plan advanced by the Environmental Protection Agency for most of the proposed reductions. All O’Malley had to say was, “I support the Clean Power Plan” to satisfy climate voters. He didn’t.

Instead of a simple answer, he changed the question to one about “climate change.” He enumerated 15 things he did as governor to address climate change. It was an admirable punch list, but reducing CO2 and methane emissions is not the same thing. He missed the point of the question.

His brief statement on the campaign website did not provide much depth either:

Launch a Jobs Agenda for the Climate Challenge

Clean, renewable sources of energy represent one of the biggest economic opportunities in a century. And the threat of climate change is real and immediate. We must make better choices for a more secure and independent energy future—by limiting carbon emissions, setting renewable energy targets, driving innovation, seeding new industries, and creating good local jobs.

My take away from the event is that before I sign an O’Malley card for the February caucus, I need to get beyond the superficial narrative created for the campaign. Not just about climate change, but about each of his positions. This is Iowa, so that’s possible.

Some of my regular political companions were dismissive of O’Malley last night. I’m not ready to cast aside any of the five in the game at this point.

Political Miscellany

For the first time I interacted with a candidate’s D.C. staff via twitter. I posted this message:

A DC campaign staffer sent me this email after that post:

“You should go see O’Malley! Saw your tweet. You might like him.”

I gave the staffer a shout out on twitter:

Haley Morris, O’Malley’s national press secretary, liked my tweet.

While I was at the house party, first congressional district Democratic candidate Monica Vernon called. It was very noisy, so I explained I didn’t have money to donate, and when she was still interested in talking to me, asked her to call back in an hour after the O’Malley event.

I called her and we talked about ways I could help her campaign, even though I live in the second district. Of the three Democrats in that primary, she seems to be the only one really working.

I track how many views each post gets when I am live tweeting an event. It tells me whether or not there is an audience. Curiously, the following tweet had not been viewed by anyone. Could that mean someone is moderating the twitter without us knowing and behind the scenes?

Finally, I appear in the right side of the frame of the photo above. The women who took it almost knocked a lamp over getting into position with me behind the Willems’ couch. Note my ear seems very large compared to the image of the candidate. At least with that big ear I was listening.

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Environment

Finn Harries Came to Iowa

Photo Credit: @FinnHarries
Photo Credit: @FinnHarries

Last month Finnegan Harries came to Iowa to attend the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Cedar Rapids. If you don’t know Harries, you should.

With his identical twin brother Jackson Harries, he co-founded Jacks Gap, a YouTube channel, which is a story telling project inspired by travel.

Finn was assigned to my mentoring group by the organizers, but the idea he could learn more from me than I him borders the absurd. I am smart enough to step out of the way and let the next generation blaze a trail to more sustainable living when they can. Finn can.

Right after our training he wrote an article in The Guardian, titled “My generation must save the planet.” Because of his unique celebrity, the post garnered more than 36,000 shares to date. Finn Harries has something to say, and it’s important to listen.

Here’s the article. I recommend you click through and read the whole thing, including the videos linked from it. Follow @FinnHarries, @JackHarries and @JacksGap on twitter and check out JacksGap.com. Don’t forget the YouTube channel.

My generation must save the planet

YouTube star says his is the first generation to grow up with climate change and the last that will be able to do anything about it – unless we act now

As architecture design students we are taught to constantly question and reimagine the way things are. We’re taught that the world we live in is not a given. It’s the result of the best efforts our ancestors could muster at that time. If it has flaws, it is up to our generation to pick up where they left off and create the world we want to see for ourselves and our children.

I’ve grown to understand that the society and culture I was born into is damaging the planet we live on at a greater scale than ever before. We put profit above people, economy above environment, progress above purpose. As a result, climate change has become the most important issue of our generation.

But it’s such a meaty, complex problem that we’re not sure how to approach it. It doesn’t seem to pose an immediate threat to our everyday lives, and most of us assume that there are surely some very clever scientists somewhere who will solve the problem for us.

I became curious. If climate change is as big a threat as I’m being told, then my work as a designer and an architect should focus on helping address the issue. I wanted to really understand, in layman terms, what it is that’s causing our climate to warm. Why is a warmer climate dangerous? And how can I make a positive difference?

I started by attending classes on sustainable design at my university. I spent a weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to watch former US vice president Al Gore present his famous slide show and explain it in-depth at one of his “climate reality” workshops; I picked up a copy of Naomi Klein’s book This Changes Everything and downloaded as many climate-change related documentaries as I could get my hands on.

To continue reading on the Guardian site, click here.

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Environment

Mixed Greens Not Salad Days

Basket of Mixed Greens and Radishes
Basket of Mixed Greens and Radishes

Street asphalt melted in Delhi, India as the country endures intense heat. In some cases, temperatures reached 122° Fahrenheit. The human death toll exceeded 1,100 as residents wait for the Monsoons to begin next week.

Closer to home in Hays County near Wimberley, Texas, the Blanco River rose from its banks to sweep a vacation home off its foundation and slam it into a downstream bridge. Family members remain missing.

“More than 11 inches of rain fell in some spots of Houston overnight into Tuesday—inundating byways and highways, slowing first responders, knocking out power and generally bringing the southeast Texas metropolis to a standstill,” according to CNN.

“You cannot candy coat it. It’s absolutely massive,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said after touring the destruction.

Abbott’s views as a climate denier came to the surface during the 2014 gubernatorial election campaign against Wendy Davis, when he said, “Many scientists believe that certain human activities impact the climate. Others dispute the extent to which any activity has a particular level of influence on the climate, which is why this matter needs to continue to be investigated.”

Abbott’s skepticism about climate change didn’t stop him from requesting federal assistance from President Obama in the face of real-world impacts of global warming in Houston and Hays County.

These are not the salad days of extreme weather—it’s likely to get worse.

It bears repeating that global warming may not have caused these specific weather events—it made them worse. Because the greenhouse effect makes the atmosphere and oceans warmer, the hydrological cycle changed. Our heat waves are hotter, our storm systems are stronger, and our droughts are deeper. There are simply too many “record breaking” rainfalls, floods, heat waves, droughts, fires, and other disasters to deem them to be random exceptions. What Texas and India are experiencing may be the new normal.

It’s not just me saying this. The New York Times posted an article by Andrew Revkin yesterday that presented the consensus. “Among the clearest outcomes of global warming are hotter heat waves and having more of a season’s rain come in heavy downpours,” he wrote.

The problem isn’t as much that Texans like Abbott ignore the science of global warming, it’s what their repudiation of facts led them to do.

“What’s vividly clear is the extreme vulnerability created by the continuing development pulse in some of the state’s most hazardous places—including Hays County, in the heart of an area that weather and water agencies long ago dubbed “’Flash Flood Alley,’” said Revkin.

“The main challenge to rational planning for flood risk in the country is that private property rights trump even modest limitations on floodplain development,” said Nicholas Pinter, an expert on floods, people and politics at Southern Illinois University to Revkin. “And that sentiment runs deep in Texas. The result is unchecked construction on flood-prone land, up to the present day and in some places even accelerating.”

What to do?

“You can’t fix stupid,” said comedian and Texas native Ron White. “There’s not a pill you can take; there’s not a class you can go to. Stupid is forever.”

Iowa is connected to global weather systems. The spring rain we received as part of the storm system that soaked Houston was needed. Farmers now need a dry spell to get the first crop of hay out of the fields, and to plant soybeans before it gets too late. A radio commentator said soil moisture is good in most of Iowa.

Take the lessons from India into consideration. If we have a repeat of the 2012 drought, drink plenty of fluids, wear a hat, and maybe take an umbrella outside with you. If you are building something, pay attention to the flood zones re-drawn by our recent experience.

If you can do one thing about climate change, support the Clean Power Plan in your state. It is a real world solution to mitigate one of the leading causes of global warming. Contact your governor today—especially Governor Abbott.

Categories
Environment Living in Society

Why Reducing Air Pollution Matters

WHY-WHY-NOT-MELBOURNE2-4_0We hear plenty of political chatter including the words “climate change.” This discussion among politicians isn’t about science. It’s about the power of money in politics.

The tactics of the moneyed class have been to attack the messengers who would reduce air pollution, presenting so many falsehoods about climate change it’s hard to keep up. (Here’s a list of 175 global warming and climate change myths and brief responses to them). By the sheer volume and repetition of falsehoods, people are beginning to believe there is doubt about the science of climate change. There isn’t much, if any, cause for doubt.

A lot is at stake. In Iowa more than half of our electricity is generated by burning coal, which creates a sickly brew of substances breathed in by people who live near the plants, and those down wind. These substances have names: oxides of sulfur, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, mercury, nickel, dioxins, fine particulate matter, and others.

Air pollution is directly linked to the leading causes of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. A reduction in coal burning would yield an improvement in health outcomes, including a reduction in mortality from heart disease, malignant neoplasms, respiratory disease and stroke.

The latest target is, and has been for a while, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Power Plan. First proposed on June 2, 2014, the plan represents a common sense approach to cut carbon emissions from power plants, setting rules for the first time. While the political class pursues an agenda that would weaken the plan, and at worst continue to allow coal burning operations to dump an unlimited amount of carbon pollution into the atmosphere, their actions are based on moneyed interests, not science or the benefits to people living in society.

While eyes focus on the Clean Power Plan, what is missed is it is only the first of multiple actions needed to reduce air pollution in a way to improve human health. In particular, EPA should develop strong standards that would reduce the leakage of methane from oil and gas operations.

Because the discussion is about the power of money in politics, and not about developing rational or logical approaches to solving problems that affect real people, the EPA’s efforts under the Clean Air Act are under constant attack from the supporters of the fossil fuel industry and their ilk. The plain truth is intransigent interests have a lot of money and are willing to spend it on protecting their assets.

“God’s still up there,” said U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) on Voice of Christian Youth America’s radio program Crosstalk with Vic Eliason, March 7, 2015. “The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.”

Because corporate media is obsessed with conservative politics we hear more about the arrogance of environmentalists than about the influence of money in politics. This summer Pope Francis is expected to release his encyclical about the need for climate action to protect our home planet. We don’t need religious leaders to see the obfuscation of the truth that air pollution is having a deleterious effect on human health. We can and should do something about it, and it begins with developing the political will to take action.

Nov. 30 the United Nations will convene the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in Paris in hope of reaching an international agreement on climate. Each country is to create its own goals to mitigate the causes of climate change. Whether the U.S. will be able to develop meaningful goals and ratify an agreement made in Paris is an open question. If the current U.S. Senate has their way, little or no action would be approved coming from COP 21, just as the preceding Kyoto Protocol was never ratified.

Robert F. Kennedy famously said, “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” The scientific knowledge and technology to address the climate crisis has been emerging. Because cost-effective solutions to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels are rapidly becoming reality, it is time to use our power as an electorate to demand our elected officials take action.

It can start with a phone call or email to our U.S. Senators urging climate action. Importantly, we can challenge the myths we hear in our daily lives, and work toward reducing the influence of money in politics. There is plenty we could do, and Earth is hanging in the balance, waiting for us to act.

Categories
Environment Living in Society

Al Gore Comes to Iowa

Earthrise 1968
Earthrise 1968

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa– Al Gore held up a T-shirt presented by a youth group from Indiana that said, “Ask me about my future.” The context can be political, even if the presenters intended the question be about the environment.

Gore joked about wearing the T-shirt in Iowa and what it might mean during the run up to the 2016 Iowa Caucuses. During the 28th training of climate activists for The Climate Reality Project, he made clear he was a “recovering politician” and had no plans to run for president again.

Why did Gore pick Cedar Rapids for his first North American training since 2013? Five reasons.

It is partly about influencing the presidential selection process related to Iowa’s first in the nation political caucuses. By training Iowa activists, he hopes to make the voice for climate action heard by candidates for president.

It’s about extreme weather events including the 2008 Iowa flooding and recovery. The conference used space that was under water during the flood and heard from Mayor Ron Corbett about what the city did to repair the damage of the flood.

It’s about bringing a focus on the impact of climate change on agricultural issues in the breadbasket of the world.

It’s about Iowa’s success in development of renewable sources of electricity, wind energy in particular, but solar as well.

It’s about advocating for world governments, including the U.S. government, to make meaningful commitments to climate action at the United Nations 21st conference of the parties in Paris, France this December.

There was a lot to discuss and Gore was generous with his time, speaking multiple times each day of the conference. The significance of its 350 attendees from around the world, 75 of whom were from Iowa, is hard to miss. The movement for meaningful governmental action to mitigate the causes of global warming and related climate change is gaining momentum worldwide.

Here are some takeaways from the conference:

The people at my table, and attendees generally, are already doing a lot to raise awareness of the need for climate action. They are possessed of a high level of energy and are really smart people devoted to taking climate action.

The price of solar electricity is plummeting and installation of photovoltaic arrays is growing exponentially. In some parts of the world solar reached grid parity, and this, coupled with other sources of renewable energy, will drive the end of the era of fossil fuels.

The Iowa Soybean Association had a seat at the table, which a few years ago would not have happened. Christopher Jones, an environmental specialist for the group, said they had begun to change their thinking about global warming during the last year. If this is borne out by their actions, it would be a tidal shift for the big agricultural organizations.

Gore added information about Iowa to his already encyclopedic knowledge of global warming and related climate change. He spoke about everything from extreme floods and droughts that have hit Iowa, solutions implemented here—particularly wind and solar electricity generation, and current political issues, including the eminent domain legislation working its way through the last days of this Iowa legislative session.

A member of Citizen’s Climate Lobby asked Gore why he hasn’t endorsed the fee and dividend scheme they propose. Gore responded he favors putting a price on carbon, there are multiple mechanisms to do so, and he hasn’t finished research to determine which one(s) to endorse.

The political will to take climate action is building worldwide. The election this week of Rachel Notley as provincial premier in Alberta, Canada, where the long ruling Progressive Conservative party was oustered by her New Democratic Party is a prime example. “During the campaign, Notley promised to withdraw provincial support for the (Keystone XL pipeline) project, raise corporate taxes and also potentially to raise royalties on a regional oil industry already reeling from the collapse in world prices,” according to the Guardian.

Finally, there is hope. The solutions to the climate crisis are working. Renewable energy is beginning to take off, gain broader acceptance, and reach toward grid parity. Almost no new coal-fired electricity generating stations are planned for North America and old ones are being shuttered. We are not there yet, but Gore’s training and inspiration made the journey easier for us, and encouraged us to tell our own story about why it is important to take climate action before it is too late.

There is no planet B.

“We couldn’t even evacuate New Orleans as hurricane Katrina approached,” Gore said.

Earth is our only home, and is hanging in the balance. It’s up to us to protect it.

Categories
Environment

Climate Reality in Iowa – Go Solar

WHY-WHY-NOT-MELBOURNE2-4_0CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa– On the first day of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training founder Al Gore gave his slide show, an updated version of the one used in the film An Inconvenient Truth. It’s the third time I’ve seen him perform in person, and there were differences in emphasis, but the big message of day one came from the panel on renewables and policy.

“Go solar,” said Warren McKenna, president of Farmers Electric Cooperative, Kalona.

In significant ways, these two words sum up what’s needed to meet world energy needs, replace fossil fuels, and move civilization toward sustainability.

In an hour, sun shining on Earth provides enough energy to meet our collective needs for a year. Whether we realize it or not, fossil fuels represent ancient sunlight stored for millennia in the ground. According to multiple speakers yesterday, most of proven reserves of fossil fuels cannot be burned if we seek to retain Earth’s livability.

What makes solar an attractive solution to the climate crisis is the cost of installation is plummeting. At the point solar electricity generation reaches grid parity it will be an easy financial argument to make that fossil fuels should stay in the ground in favor of the less expensive alternative.

Companies such as Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) already like solar, wind and other renewable energy generating capacity.

BHE accounts for six percent of U.S. wind electricity generating capacity and seven percent of solar according to Warren Buffet’s 2014 letter to shareholders.

“When BHE completes certain renewables projects that are underway, the company’s renewables portfolio will have cost $15 billion,” Buffet wrote. “In addition, we have conventional projects in the works that will also cost many billions. We relish making such commitments as long as they promise reasonable returns–and, on that front, we put a large amount of trust in future regulation.”

Solar is not without it’s problems. Natural resources must be exploited to make photo-voltaic panels, and the issue of conflict minerals continuously gets pushed aside. There are manufacturing, labor and transportation issues with solar. Problems notwithstanding, the argument for solar boils down to do we want a future, or not?

What we know is dumping 110 million tons of CO2 pollution into the atmosphere every day is not sustainable, and already we are seeing the impact of global warming and related climate change damage the lives of tens of millions of people.

There are no simple answers to solving the climate crisis. As industry demonstrates the viability of renewable energy, the only thing holding us back is a lack of political will to take unavoidable steps to mitigate the causes of global warming.

The economic argument provided by declining solar electricity generating costs will be a potent weapon in the political fight.

Categories
Environment

Climate Reality Project Returns to North America

the-climate-reality-project-logoCEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa– More than 350 people from around the globe convene here for the Climate Reality Leadership Corps’ 28th training beginning Tuesday, May 5.

The group is kicking off its North American advocacy effort for firm and substantial governmental commitments to climate action at the 21st United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP-21) to be held in Paris, France on Dec. 11., said Mario Molina, director of the 7,500-member international group of climate activists. Additional trainings are being held this year in Florida and Toronto, Canada to jump-start the effort with 1,000 newly trained climate leaders in advance of COP-21.

They are also here because of Iowa’s first in the nation political caucuses to make sure the need for climate action is heard by the field of presidential hopefuls traversing the state.

On Monday, May 4, State Senator Rob Hogg, a speaker at the training, pointed out in an email that three presidential candidates will be visiting Cedar Rapids this week. He encouraged readers to question the candidates about climate change.

“This gives us an opportunity to tell the candidates that Iowans are concerned about climate change and perhaps even ask the candidates questions about climate change,” Hogg said.

He provided a schedule and possible questions for the candidates.

Tuesday, May 5, 4:30 p.m. – Candidate Ben Carson of Florida (formerly of Maryland and Michigan) will be speaking at the Cedar Rapids Marriott, 1200 Collins Road NE, on Tuesday, May 5, at 4:30 p.m. He will be joined by Congressman Rod Blum. This is a chance to speak with Congressman Blum as well as Carson.

Thursday, May 7, 7:30 a.m. – Candidate Carly Fiorina of California is scheduled to speak Thursday, May 7, from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at the Blue Strawberry, 118 2nd St. SE, in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Thursday, May 7, noon – Candidate Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, is scheduled to speak at the Pizza Ranch, 2450 Westdale Dr., in southwest Cedar Rapids, on Thursday, May 7, at noon.

Hogg suggested these questions for the three Republicans:

Did you agree with President Reagan’s decision to sign the Montreal Protocol on stratospheric ozone depletion, and if so, would you support similar international agreements to fight climate change?

Are you concerned about climate-related disasters like record flooding in Iowa, record drought in California, and sea level rise, and if so, what would you do about it?

Climate Reality Project founder and former Vice President Al Gore is expected to be present for the three days of training. Part of the training is related to his slideshow about the science and human impact of climate change, an updated version of the one used in the movie An Inconvenient Truth. He is also expected to meet with key political figures regarding the need for climate action while in Iowa.

About 75 of the training attendees are Iowans, so there is hope the need for climate action can be kept in front of politicians during the 2016 election cycle.

To learn more, visit ClimateRealityProject.org.

Categories
Environment

Join The Climate Reality Iowa Training

Iowa TrainingOn Tuesday more than 400 people joined a webinar titled, “Change Starts with You: Becoming a Climate Reality Leader,”  hosted by the Climate Reality Project in advance of the May 5-7 training in Cedar Rapids.

The Climate Reality Leadership Corps already has more than 7,000 members from 125 countries since its beginning in 2006. It seeks to add another 3,000 in this year’s North American trainings in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Miami, Florida, and Toronto, Ontario.

Attendees are expected to travel to Iowa from around the globe to be a part of the Climate Reality Project.

“Solving the climate crisis is within our grasp,” said Al Gore, founder and chairman, The Climate Reality Project. “We need people like you to stand up and act.”

Change Starts With YouBlog for Iowa received the following letter about the Iowa training:

I’m following up today from The Climate Reality Project. We are an organization started by former vice president Al Gore and focused on creating a global movement to influence action on the climate crisis. We have an upcoming training opportunity that I believe you and members of your organization will be interested in.

On May 5-7 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we and Mr. Gore will be hosting a training for new Climate Reality Leaders to help grow the movement. As you well know, United States leadership is critical as we travel the Road to Paris in preparation for December’s COP21. There has never been a better time to engage people in the U.S. and around the world on solutions to one of the world’s most important issues.

The training in Iowa will highlight the U.S.’s important and unique role in the COP21 negotiations, climate impacts on agriculture in Iowa, and Iowa’s ability to be a leader in renewable energy sources such as wind.

Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis with the applications due no later than April 13.

To apply, please visit: http://www.climaterealitytraining.org/iowa/apply.php

Please contact me with any questions or more information. I hope you and your colleagues will want to join the network of over 7,000 Climate Reality Leaders from 125 countries taking action on the climate crisis.

Thank you for your time!

Best,

Joseph Moran | Program Assistant-Climate Reality Leadership Corps
Email: joseph.moran@climatereality.com

the-climate-reality-project-logo

Categories
Environment

Climate Reality Project – Iowa Training

Paul Deaton(NB: I submitted this brief bio to The Climate Reality Project to be posted on the web site as part of the promotion of the Iowa training May 5-7). Paul Deaton of Solon, Iowa retired in 2009 after a career in transportation and logistics, seeking a way to sustain a life in the rural community he calls home. He became a Climate Reality Leader in Chicago in 2013 as a continuation of advocacy work he had been doing since his participation in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

“Iowans see the effects of global warming and climate change in their daily lives, but often don’t get beyond discussing the weather,” he said. “The understanding of global warming and its impact on severe weather events I gained at the Chicago training has been invaluable in increasing awareness of how weather is connected to climate.”

Becoming a Climate Reality Leader provided tools and resources to address everyday concerns about Iowa’s record flooding, severe storms and changes in the hydrologic cycle. As an agricultural state this matters.

Home of the first in the nation Iowa caucuses, there is a political tone to many conversations about our environment.

“I’m proud to be a part of the Climate Reality Project and the work of sustaining our lives in a turbulent world.”

This is how The Climate Reality Project edited my submitted comments:

Paul Deaton knows that if you want proof of climate change, all you need to do is ask a farmer. As a native of Iowa, Paul has seen how farmers and rural communities have had to face the devastating effects of climate change. In 2009, Paul retired from his career in transportation and logistics to advocate for sustainable ways to support life in the rural community he calls home.

Paul has played an active role in his community, including being elected as a Township Trustee, serving on the county Board of Health, and serving on the Boards of multiple non-profit organizations.

Paul joined the Climate Reality Leadership Corps at our training in Chicago in 2013 where, he says, he received “the tools and resources to address everyday concerns about Iowa’s record flooding, severe storms and changes in the hydrologic cycle.” Since then, he has given presentations to community groups across Iowa, helping them connect the dots between recent extreme weather events, climate change, and agriculture.

Environmental advocacy is the centerpiece of Paul’s volunteer efforts, and he is “proud to be a part of the Climate Reality Project and the work of sustaining our lives in a turbulent world.”

Categories
Environment

Are Property Rights a Climate Action Tool?

WHY-WHY-NOT-MELBOURNE2-4_0For many, protecting property rights is high on the list of priorities. It’s the American way, shouldn’t it be so? A related and perhaps better question is whether climate advocates should use eminent domain as a tool to advocate against energy related projects.

Answers are elusive.

When the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Kelo v. City of New London that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified private redevelopment plans as a permissible public use under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, property rights advocates were up in arms. There is a role for eminent domain when governments initiate the process, but private developers should have no such rights, they said.

Kelo may mean that when U.S. infrastructure projects are developed by foreign corporations (TransCanada Corporation’s Keystone XL Pipeline) or by U.S. corporations (Energy Transfer Partner’s Dakota Access Pipeline or Clean Line Energy Partners’ Rock Island Clean Line), foreign or private domestic entities have the right to initiate condemnation process and take easements and other property to build their projects.

In a March 2 article in the Des Moines Register, William Petroski reported, “a majority of Iowans support plans for a crude oil pipeline in Iowa and a wind electricity transmission line project, but they overwhelmingly oppose the use of eminent domain for both projects.”

Politicians have argued that these projects create jobs, decidedly temporary ones, and in today’s economy people should accept such jobs, implying they should also cede eminent domain rights to U.S. or foreign corporations. This couldn’t have been clearer than the Keystone XL Pipeline bill passed in the U.S. Congress, vetoed by President Obama.

Kelo is not without emerging challenges.

On Feb. 18, the Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Clarke County Reservoir Commission v. Edwin D. and Deloris A. Robins Revocable Trust. The case is an appeal of an April 8, 2014 lower court decision wherein “Judge Sherman W. Phipps of the Fifth Judicial District of Iowa ruled in favor of CCRC’s ongoing Squaw Creek Watershed project, confirming it is for a public use, public purpose or public improvement as defined in the Iowa Code,” according to Amy Hansen of the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune. Developers seek to make a recreational lake much larger than the size required to serve water needs for the community to enhance property values as they sell adjacent lots.

Whatever the outcome of challenges to the Kelo decision, climate advocates are damned if they do and damned if they don’t regarding use of eminent domain as a tool. The contrast between the Rock Island Clean Line and the Dakota Access Pipeline exemplifies the problem.

On Aug. 20, 2014 while on the Great March for Climate Action, David Osterberg of the Iowa Policy Project said Iowa needed a way to get wind-generated electricity out of western Iowa to markets. His view is not unique among climate action advocates. The Rock Island Clean Line offers one such solution, but some property owners along the proposed route won’t allow an easement voluntarily. Osterberg said the Rock Island Clean Line wasn’t perfect, but it did offer a solution to shipping electricity to markets. The implication is that eminent domain may have to be used by a Texas company to build the project, although Osterberg did not say that specifically.

Use of eminent domain to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline is favored by climate action advocates. Because Bakken Oil is dirty, advocates seek to obstruct access to market through Iowa. Eminent domain has made unlikely partners in the Iowa legislature, where Senator Rob Hogg, who has given more than 100 presentations for The Climate Reality Project founded by Al Gore and is author of America’s Climate Century, began partnering with Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, a crop and livestock farmer and small business operator who is also a member of the Farm Bureau and National Rifle Association, to oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline on eminent domain grounds.

As the Iowa Utilities Board evaluates the proposal for the Dakota Access pipeline, eminent domain has more traction than the argument that fossil fuels should be left in the ground because of their contribution to anthropogenic climate change. Climate action advocates favor the latter argument, but will support the former.

Property rights advocates like Kaufmann are unlikely to go both ways on the eminent domain issue.

“The Bakken (Dakota Access) Pipeline and the Rock Island Clean Line should pick out baby names and choose a honeymoon destination, because the two issues just got married,” said Kaufmann in a Jan. 31 interview with the Solon Economist. “You’ve got two different companies that want to ship two versions of energy. They’re both private Texas companies and both want to ship a product out of our state without allowing anyone in our state to tap into it.”

Use of eminent domain hinges upon “public use.” Set aside creation of a number of temporary jobs and the public use of conveyances for energy related products is elusive, especially with the Dakota Access Pipeline. In any case, corporations benefit more than people in both Iowa projects and with the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Property rights can be a tool for climate action advocates, but it has been an imperfect one at best.