Tag: climate change

Categories
At Large Opinion

Hurricane Blues

Henderson County, North Carolina on September 27 (Photo: NCDOTcommunications | creative commons | via Wikimedia Commons)

Someone created a meme that went viral last Friday, as Hurricane Helene was proceeding to devastate portions of six states. It was a photo of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on a cell phone standing near some trailers and overturned chairs. The caption read: “Hello, President Biden, it’s Ron! May I please have some socialism?”

The meme was being enacted in real life as Helene churned relentlessly across the Gulf of Mexico toward the southeastern U.S. The governors of five of the soon-to-be affected states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina) had declared a state of emergency two or three days in advance of the storm, asked for federal help, and quickly got it approved by President Biden.

The sixth state? That would be Tennessee, where our cosplaying Christian governor, Bill Lee, decided to take a bold alternative course of action. None of that damn socialism for Bill, nosiree. Last Friday morning — the day the Category 4 hurricane made landfall — Lee asked Tennesseans to participate in a “day of prayer and fasting.” Give me a G—damn break. What criminal incompetence!

Friday afternoon, after flood waters in eastern Tennessee had destroyed several towns, threatened dams, and put tens of thousands of people out of their homes, 54 patients and staff huddled atop a hospital in rural Unicoi County, Tennessee, awaiting help. Fortunately for them, Virginia and North Carolina rescue workers were able to provide lifeboats and helicopters and get them to safety. Good ol’ Rocky Top? Not so much. Governor Lee finally got around to declaring a state of emergency Friday night. Guess he was hungry from fasting all day?

On Saturday, Lee and GOP Senator Marsha Blackburn surveyed the damage and destruction from an airplane. (Blackburn had spent the day of the hurricane in Michigan, “interviewing” Donald Trump at a rally.) We can only presume she was also fasting and praying after voting to shut down the government earlier in the week.

As the remnants of Helene began to dissipate, millions of Americans were left without power, water, and phone service across the Southeast. Roads, homes, businesses, bridges, and other pieces of the infrastructure were flushed downstream. As I write this, the storm has been blamed for at least 120 deaths across five states, with that total expected to rise as waters recede.

Asheville, North Carolina, which was absolutely destroyed, is 500 miles from the Florida coastline where Helene made landfall and sits at an elevation of 2,134 feet. For reference, Memphis is 325 miles from the gulf and sits at an elevation of 338 feet.

Climate change is here, and all the fasting and prayers in the world aren’t going to fix it. We need credible research and forecasting, and science-based information about what we’re dealing with.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees the National Weather Service, FEMA, Office of Ocean and Atmospheric Research (OAR), and other climatological agencies, is responsible for keeping state and local officials and the public aware of severe weather and other climate-based threats. Without the updates and forecasts from NOAA, Americans would be, well, up a creek.

That much would seem obvious … unless you’re a devotee of Project 2025, the GOP’s 920-page policy blueprint for the next administration. Candidate Trump has disavowed it, but it was written by several former Trump administration officials. Project 2025 devotes a whole four pages to NOAA and the National Weather Service. The section was written by Thomas F. Gilman, an official in Trump’s Commerce Department. The document calls the NOAA a “primary component of the climate-change alarm industry” and says it “should be broken up and downsized.” Project 2025 also says the National Weather Service “should focus on its data-gathering services” and “should fully commercialize its forecasting operations.”

Yeah, that damn climate-change alarm industry is just more socialism! Wake up and smell the ozone, sheeple! There’s money to be made on the weather! Fox News or X or Newsmax will take over hurricane forecasts and monetize ’em. It will be like fasting and praying about weather emergencies, only with opinions and ads. What could go wrong? 

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Another Drought Causes Transportation Headaches on the Mississippi River

Boats docked at the Riverside Park Marina south of Downtown Memphis are getting cut off from the Mississippi River Nov. 2, 2022. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

For the third year in a row, extreme drought conditions in the Midwest are drawing down water levels on the Mississippi River, raising prices for companies that transport goods downstream and forcing governments and business owners to seek alternative solutions.

Extreme swings between drought and flooding have become more frequent in the region, scientists say, as climate change alters the planet’s weather patterns and inches the average global temperature continually upwards.

“Without question, it’s discouraging that we’re in year three of this. Because that is quite unique to have multiple years in a row of this,” said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, a trade organization representing Midwest soy growers. “We’re obviously trending in the wrong direction.”

Since 2022, much of the Midwest has experienced some level of drought, with the driest conditions concentrated in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas. Record rainfall in June and during part of July temporarily broke that dry spell, forecasters say, only for drought conditions to reemerge in recent weeks along the Ohio River basin, which typically supplies more water to the Mississippi than any other major tributary.

Dee Wisecarver, a commercial fisherman from Hamburg, Arkansas, looks out onto the mud-covered Panther Forest boat ramp in August of 2024. (Lucas Dufalla/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

Water levels have been dropping in the lower Mississippi since mid-July, federal data show, reaching nearly seven feet below the historic average in Memphis on September 13. In October 2023, water levels reached a record-low -11 feet in Memphis. Remnants of Hurricane Francine, which made landfall in Louisiana Wednesday night as a Category 2 storm, “will provide only temporary relief,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a news release Wednesday.

“Rainfall over the Ohio Valley is also not looking to be widespread and heavy enough to generate lasting effects and anticipate that much of the rainfall will soak into the ground with little runoff,” the agency said in the release.

Those conditions have raised prices for companies transporting fuel and grain down the Mississippi in recent weeks, as load restrictions force barge operators to limit their hauls, which squeezes their profit margin. Barge rates from St. Louis reached $24.62 a ton in late August and $27.49 per ton by the following week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Historically low water levels of the Mississippi River have caused massive barge backups on Thursday, October 27, 2022 in Merman-Shelby Forest State Park. . (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

Steenhoek said barge prices during the first week of September were 8 percent higher than the same week last year and 57 percent higher than the three-year average. “It does change that supply-demand relationship,” he said, “because now all of a sudden you’re having to transport a given amount of freight with less capacity.”

A river in flux

Aaron Wilson, Ohio’s state climatologist and a professor at Ohio State University, said the whiplash between this summer’s record wet months and September’s drought conditions appears to fit what could be an emerging climate trend observed by researchers.

The Midwest region has generally gotten wetter over the decades. The Fifth National Climate Assessment, released last year, reported that annual precipitation increased by 5 to 15 percent across much of the Midwest in the 30-year period leading up to 2021, compared to the average between 1901 and 1960.

But evidence also suggests the Midwest is experiencing more frequent swings between extreme wet and extreme dry seasons, with climate models predicting that the trend will persist into the future, said Wilson, who was the lead author of the assessment’s Midwest chapter.

“This was front and center for us,” he said. “One of the main things that we talked about were these rapid oscillations … between wet to dry and dry to wet extremes.”

Research also suggests that seasonal precipitation is trending in opposite directions, and will continue to do so in the coming decades, Wilson added. “And so what you get is too much water in the winter and spring and not enough during the growing season,” he said, referring to summer months.

If that evidence holds true, it could have notable impacts on U.S. food exports moving forward.

Future impacts on shipping 

Transporting goods, including corn, soy, and fuel, on the Mississippi is more efficient pound for pound than ground transportation, business groups say, and gives the U.S. an edge in a competitive global market. According to the Waterways Council, a trade association for businesses that use the Mississippi River, a standard 15-barge load is equivalent to 1,050 semi trucks or 216 train cars — meaning domestic farmers and other producers can save significant time and money moving their goods by boat.

The majority of U.S. agricultural exports rely on the Mississippi to reach the international market, as farmers move their crops to export hubs on the Gulf Coast, said Debra Calhoun, senior vice president of the Waterways Council.

“More than 65 percent of our national agriculture products that are bound for export are moving on this inland waterway system,” she said. “So this system is critical to farmers of any size farm.”

The ramifications could be especially harmful to the soy industry, Steenhoek said, since about half of the soy grown in the U.S. is exported. By the last week of August, grain exports transported by barge fell 17 percent compared to the week before, according to a Thursday report released by the USDA.

Steenhoek said the increased costs to U.S. growers hurt their ability to compete globally. Any price increase to domestic grain could encourage international clients to instead buy from rival countries like Brazil or Argentina, he said.

While it’s typical for water levels on the Mississippi to drop during the fall months, Steenhoek said, the recent years of drought have been a real wakeup call for farmers to diversify their supply chains. Soy growers, he said, have since set up new supply chain agreements with rail lines and have even invested in new export terminals in Washington state and on the coast of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee.

Luckily, Calhoun said, disruptions to river transportation this year haven’t been nearly as bad as they were last year, when the Mississippi’s water levels reached record lows. Several barges were grounded last year and in 2022, she said, referring to when boats get stuck on the riverbed or in areas where sediment has built up. That hasn’t occurred so far this year. 

Dee Wisecarver, a commercial fisherman from Hamburg, Arkansas, walks up the dry, mud-covered Panther Forest boat ramp in August of 2024. The ramp allows boaters to enter the Mississippi River through an old channel. (Lucas Dufalla/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

She chalks that up to proactive efforts this year by companies and federal agencies, like the Army Corps of Engineers, to mitigate transportation disruptions. 

George Stringham, chief of public affairs for the Corps’ St. Louis District, said they started dredging the river a few weeks earlier this year. “We started early to get ahead of things, in anticipation, after having two straight years of low water conditions,” said Stringham. Dredging involves moving sediment on the riverbed from areas where it can cause problems to boats to areas where it won’t. 

Wilson, Ohio’s climatologist, said he has seen stronger cooperation among stakeholders in tackling this issue. “It’s a mix of climate scientists, social scientists and planners and emergency preparedness folks that are really coordinating this effort,” he said.

The result, Calhoun said, is that their coalition of groups have been able to handle the disruptions relatively well this year, which leaves her feeling cautiously optimistic. “It’s really hard, you know, to track this and try to figure out is it just normal? Is it getting much worse? Are we going to have to make significant changes, and if so, what would they be? But we’re not there yet,” she said.

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.

Categories
Music Music Features

Alice Hasen’s Dream of Rain

Alice Hasen (Photo: Amurica | Jamie Harmon)

“I guess I learned from Covid what anxiety and depression really were.” Alice Hasen is recalling the genesis of her latest release some years ago, when cabin fever’s creeping trepidation was not only a personal matter, but a generalized fear for all of humanity. All of us went through similar emotions, but Hasen, being a classically-trained violinist and composer, and well-seasoned on the stages of the Mid-South, confronted them through her music. Hearing her EP Dream of Rain now, it’s clear that the stress helped her to produce the most powerful music of her career. 

But if the Covid lockdown era jump-started the musical project, it quickly grew beyond that, thematically. That’s made clear in “Temperature Rising,” the EP’s opener. As she explains, there are multiple dimensions to both the global and the personal stress she’s confronting, and the opening track is about “all of the different ways the temperatures were rising around us. Primarily, the EP is mostly about climate change, wildfires, and the mental response to that. But it’s also definitely a product of the pandemic because our internal temperatures were rising and the political temperature was rising, too. So it’s a musical embodiment of all of those anxieties, for me, coming together and needing to find a way to be expressed.”

Hasen, of course, wouldn’t be the first artist to respond to end-of-the-world angst. Local rock band Heels, for example, released Pop Songs for a Dying Planet a couple of years ago, and that title says it all. But Heels’ “pop songs” were punk-infused barn burners reminiscent of, say, the Clash — exactly what you’d expect from apocalyptic rage. Hasen, on the other hand, takes a subtler approach. While she’s dabbled in funk, classic rock, and other genres in her previous solo work (and in the work of Blackwater Trio, her more collaborative band), this EP reflects a more introspective approach and a lush beauty all its own. Facing up to such anguish, it turns out, can be a very delicate thing. 

The EP’s title song is a prime example. “Dream of Rain” begins quietly, Hasen’s violin meandering pleasantly before the subtle rhythm kicks in and, with Hasen’s conversational musings melodiously unfolding in the verse, it resembles nothing so much as Joni Mitchell. Clearly this is a world where beauty and fear come in equal measures. As Hasen reflects, “Part of me wants to let people interpret it for themselves, but for me, that song is about denialism and being invited into this world where nothing is wrong. It’s not real; it’s not a real world. So there’s extreme beauty and comfort, but also there’s something off about it that you can’t quite place. Yet there’s also sort of a hope that we can just dream of rain. Like in the bridge, where it kind of breaks down and turns into spoken word: If you can dream of rain, pray for rain, sing for rain, and dance for rain, then we can magically manifest it.”

Such magic is therapeutic in a world that seems to be falling apart. As Hasen notes, the vast scale and inexorable march of climate change “makes me feel trapped. But there is some hope in the album, too. Like, ‘Dream of Rain’ is an optimistic song for me because we’re trying to manifest rain to go to the places it needs to go.”

The fine line between hope and despair comes through loud and clear as the song unfolds:

“For generations this has been our home,” she sings, “our hiding place/But now we’re running where we used to play, all burned away/No fire escape, all burned away/Have you heard the news?/Where we’re going there is no more pain, no yesterday/Worrying or arguing on how to play the game/Funny how those words of peace and anger sound the same/When you’re the one in the flames.”

The grim imagery continues through other songs on the EP as well. “Goodnight Moon,” far from an homage to the popular children’s book, describes humanity as “coming in hot/Caught victim by our firelust,” as we become mere “victors of dust, prizes of rust.” But the first single off the EP, “Hold Still,” which drops September 20th, offers a kind of balm to this collective anxiety. Over some of the most delicate music of her career, Hasen sings some sage advice: “Hold still, this won’t hurt a bit/Finding the heartbeat, keeping the magic/Hold still, the world is an eggshell/We’re on the inside, nothing is tragic.”

Leaning into the fragility of the tune, Hasen also plays flute on it, a flourish that complements her arrangements for string ensemble throughout the EP. While she overdubbed herself for the latter effect during recording (with Estefan Perez on cello), she’s looking forward to featuring a live string ensemble and a flutist when she celebrates the EP’s release at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts on October 4th. And, she notes of the Green Room performance, “this will probably be the only show where I do the entire EP front to back, ever. Because this project, being full of emotions and a definite darkness, has been very laborious and emotionally taxing.”

Yet, on the flip side, Hasen’s looking forward to having fun while playing live this season. The first gig on the horizon will be the Mighty Roots Music Festival in Stovall, Mississippi (near Clarksdale), this Friday and Saturday, September 13th and 14th, with Hasen and band appearing Saturday at 2:15 p.m.

“I’m really excited about that,” says Hasen. “I spent four years in Clarksdale, and that was sort of where I was born as an artist, I think, because that was the first place I really got to experience playing non-classical music. And of course, it’s such a musically rich part of the world, I think it really influenced me and the way that I sound, and my particular voice on the violin, my songwriting voice.” 

She pauses a moment, then adds, “And Stovall is an amazing place because it’s the birthplace of Muddy Waters. When I was looking in Clarksdale, I used to ride my bike over to Stovall and just sit under a pecan tree and look out over the fields for a little bit before going home.”

Categories
At Large Opinion

Haunted by Waters

A view of the Mississippi from Loosahatchie Bar in October 2022 (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)

“The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise; it has always torn down the petty basketwork of the engineers and poured its giant floods withersoever it chose, and it will continue to do this.” — Mark Twain

The Mississippi River has long defined the city of Memphis, literally marking its border on the west, and shaping its commerce and its soul throughout its history. But for a city framed by one of the world’s largest rivers, Memphis is woefully underserved when it comes to vehicular bridges.

We have two: The Memphis and Arkansas Bridge, which is traversed by I-55 and perennially under repair. It was constructed in 1949 and is locally known as the “old bridge.” And then there is the Hernando DeSoto Bridge (aka the “new bridge”; aka the “M bridge”), which opened in 1973 and carries vehicular traffic for I-40. It was closed for months a couple years back because of a large crack that developed in one of its I-beams.

The Memphis and Arkansas Bridge is not built to withstand earthquakes, and I wouldn’t put house money on the “new bridge” surviving one either. If we’re being candid, Memphis is one earthquake away from being without a Mississippi River crossing, which would absolutely decimate the city’s economy by diverting 100,000 vehicles a day to other bridges north or south of here. For comparison’s sake, the city of St. Louis, also on the Mississippi River, has 11 bridges.

But Memphis got some good news last week. It was overshadowed by another minor news event involving a presidential candidate’s ear, but, hey, we’re getting a new bridge! A $393.7 million federal grant for a replacement span over the big river was announced for the states of Tennessee and Arkansas. The new “new bridge” will replace the old “old bridge,” and will be designed to meet current seismic standards.

The news was greeted with great rejoicing by GOP Governor Bill Lee: “This unprecedented investment in Memphis marks the single-largest transportation investment in Tennessee state history and will be transformative for our infrastructure.” It goes without saying that almost all Republicans, including Tennessee’s congressional delegation, voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which is funding the construction. Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen was the only Tennessee representative to vote for the act. It will take a few years for Memphis’ newest bridge to be completed, but at least we’re making progress.

Our river was in the news for other reasons last week, as well. Mississippi River cruises, long a financial boon for Memphis and other river cities, have taken a major hit due to drastic river-flow fluctuations caused by climate change. Flooding and drought have led to the cancellation of millions of dollars worth of cruises, according to a New York Times article:

“While operators are building new ships, and towns and cities are investing in infrastructure to welcome boat traffic, cruises on the Mississippi face mounting challenges from an increasing number of droughts and floods. … Memphis made its $40 million Beale Street Landing the centerpiece of a larger redevelopment of parks and trails snaking along six miles of Mississippi shoreline. Last year, more than half of the 128 scheduled cruise ship landings there were canceled, mostly because of low water levels that made it impossible for the boats to reach the dock.”

Forest and wetland destruction, new dams, and dredging have exacerbated the Mississippi’s natural flow fluctuations. And climate change has caused even more dramatic shifts in water levels. It was only two Octobers ago that you could basically walk across the Mississippi at Memphis. River traffic was down to one lane, with barges stacked up single file for miles and miles, awaiting their turn. And it was only last month that the Mississippi River at St. Paul had the eighth-highest crest ever recorded.

No one knows what the future holds, a situation for which the novelist Norman Maclean had wise words: “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” 

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Climate Change Action Moves Ahead Across Tennessee

Credit: Daniel Prado on Unsplash

Climate problems are starting to find solutions, from solar panels at the Memphis Zoo to state officials readying for potential millions of federal dollars to reduce air pollution. 

Memphis:

Zoo officials announced last week it would soon install solar panels on building rooftops, thanks to a $676,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the panels will be the first-ever solar panels installed on any building owned by the city of Memphis. 

The grant will also expand community outreach at the zoo and clean energy education programs. A portion of the grant will fund a waste characterization study and regional solid waste master plan for Memphis and Shelby County. Those programs will be run by city and county officials. 

These programs further the Memphis Area Climate Action Plan. That plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels here by 71 percent by 2050. The latest figures from 2020 show the plan is mostly on track. It met GHG reduction targets in the transportation and waste sectors, but missed the mark on energy.

Tennessee:  

State officials are working to deliver part of Tennessee’s emissions-reduction plan to the feds by March. That’s the deadline for government agencies to get in line for $5 billion in federal grants to develop and implement “ambitious” plans for reducing GHGs, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The funds come from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Tennessee’s plan is called the Tennessee Volunteer Emission Reduction Strategy (TVERS). It is truly a “volunteer” program. 

”While other states have imposed mandates to reduce emissions, we hope to reach established goals through voluntary measures that may differ throughout the state,” reads the TVERS website.

TVERS will be the state’s first-ever climate plan. Memphis has one, as noted above. So does Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. 

Late last year, the state took public opinion on taking action on climate change. The vast majority (75 percent) said they were motivated to act out of concern for the environment and future generations. The biggest challenge for them to act, though, was the high cost of efficient or sustainable alternatives. 

Credit: state of Tennessee

To be eligible to get the federal funds, states had to identify low-income communities. State officials found that 54 percent of its census tracts were considered to be low-income/disadvantaged communities (LIDACs) by federal standards. Those applying for the funds must show their projects will bring significant benefits to these communities. 

Tennessee Valley

Last month, a new study from the University of Tennessee (UT) found that carbon emissions throughout the Tennessee Valley fell 30 percent since 2005, a decrease of abut 78 million tonnes. The report said half of the decrease was attributable to a 50 percent reduction in emissions from Tennessee Valley Authority’s electricity generation. Another large chunk of the decrease (39 percent) came from agriculture, thanks to the adoption of no-till farming.

The Tennessee Valley region, which covers parts of seven southeastern states, emits about 200 million tonnes of carbon each year, about 3 percent of the nation’s total. Of that, the state said in 2019 it emitted about 112 million tonnes. The Memphis-area emitted about 17 million tonnes. 

In Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley, transportation emitted the most GHGs. The UT report said electrifying light-duty vehicles was the single largest carbon reduction opportunity for the Valley. In Memphis, the top carbon emitter came from the energy sector. 

Categories
News News Blog News Feature Uncategorized

State Developing “Volunteer” Climate Action Plan

Photo by Maxim Tolchinskiy on Unsplash

Tennessee officials are devising the state’s first-ever climate action plan thanks to federal funds through the Inflation Reduction Act. 

So far, 33 states have created and released climate plans, according to Climate Central, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to reporting on the changing climate. Tennessee’s big-four cities — Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga — all have individual plans. 

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is now working with groups across the state for a greenhouse gas emission reduction plan, called the Tennessee Volunteer Emission Reduction Strategy (TVERS). 

The “volunteer” part of the name is more than a reference to the Volunteer State, one of Tennessee’s nicknames. The planning approach so far does not seem to favor any mandates to curb climate change. 

”Through TVERS, TDEC is focusing on voluntary or incentive-based activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants,” reads a website for the plan. “While other states have imposed mandates to reduce emissions, we hope to reach established goals through voluntary measures that may differ throughout the state.”

TDEC won $3 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in July to develop the statewide climate action plan. Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville each received $1 million to develop further plans. 

The state owes the EPA a draft of a greenhouse gas inventory by the beginning of next month, according to state documents. Tennessee has never published (and has maybe never conducted) an inventory of its greenhouse gas emissions. 

When Memphis officials measured the city’s greenhouse gases for its climate action plan in 2016, they found emissions here came from three major sectors: energy, transportation, and waste. 

Energy emissions were 46 percent of the total. The figure includes emissions from energy used in residential, commercial/institutional, and industrial buildings. Transportation emissions (42 percent) included passenger, freight, on-road and off-road vehicles. Waste emissions (12 percent) included solid waste disposal in landfills and wastewater treatment processes. 

The total greenhouse gas output that year here was about 17.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. An EPA calculator says that amount of emissions is equal to more than 44 million miles driven by gas-powered cars, more than 94,000 railcars worth of coal burned, and more than 2 trillion smartphones charged. The Memphis climate plan said “emissions are fairly comparable to, and even lower than, several other peer cities, including Nashville, Atlanta, Louisville, and St. Louis.”

Credit: City of Memphis

After turning in a cursory greenhouse gas emissions inventory, the state will then owe the EPA a draft climate action plan by March. Then, officials will have to turn over a comprehensive climate action plan.

The process mandates states to provide greenhouse gas emission reduction measures. These could include “transitioning to low-or zero-emission vehicles, reducing carbon intensity of fuels, and expanding transportation options (biking, walking, public transit).” For buildings, these could include “increasing energy efficiency through incentive programs, weatherization retrofits, building codes and standards, and increasing electrification.”

Climate change has been a particularly thorny political issue in Tennessee with the state’s GOP-dominated legislature. This year, the General Assembly legally defined natural gas as “clean energy,” fought building codes that would reduce electricity consumption, and blocked a weather infrastructure project that would have given real-time data in every county. 

In 2019, Gov. Bill Lee said he was was undecided as to whether climate change was real or not. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has battled companies on climate change issues throughout his tenure. But at least one Tennessee state government official was frank about climate issues during a presentation on the TVERS plan last month. 

“Reducing emissions will result in cleaner air and improve public health,” said Jennifer Tribble, director of TDEC’s Office of Policy and Planning. “Greenhouse gas emissions are also contributing to the warming of our climate and an increase in number and severity of extreme weather events, such as drought, forest fires and hurricanes. These effects have important consequences on human health, such as exposure to extreme heat. Reducing these emissions will improve our resilience to these impacts in the long-term.” 

Categories
News News Blog

Report: Shelby County Among the Most Vulnerable to Climate Change

Photo by Maxim Tolchinskiy on Unsplash

In the U.S., Shelby County is one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change.

That’s according to the new U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index, developed in partnership between the Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University. The study shows, basically, which areas of the country will suffer the most as climate change continues, and continues to get worse.

Climate change vulnerability is more than just susceptibility to environmental disasters like droughts, wildfires, and floods. The new tool considered 184 sets of public data to establish how communities may suffer under climate change.

“Climate change will cause a range of related risks, including increases in infectious and chronic disease, intensified social and economic stresses, and more frequent extreme weather events,” reads the tool’s website. “Vulnerable groups will be disproportionately affected due to greater exposure to climate risks and lower ability to prepare, adapt, and recover from their effects.”

U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index

The U.S. Southeast is particularly vulnerable to climate change, according to the study. Areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and West were scored among the least vulnerable in the country. 

Shelby County scored in the 97th percentile of vulnerable counties in the nation. The score put the Memphis area only slightly behind Louisiana’s Cancer Alley for climate vulnerability. 

U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index

Shelby’s score did not, however, rank it among the country’s top-10 most vulnerable counties. Five of the top 10 counties ranked worse in the study were in Louisiana. Three were in Kentucky. Sites in Texas and South Carolina rounded out the top 10. 

Shelby County did not even rank first for potential climate suffering in Tennessee. It ranked 9th behind counties mostly in East Tennessee. 

Shelby County did earn the top spot in one national metric, however. Shelby had the most census tracts (21) concentrated in one county among the top 100 most vulnerable. 

These at-risk communities are in lower-income areas north of Downtown, like Frayser, Alta Vista, Douglass, and Hollywood. They can also be found in areas of the county south of Downtown like Riverview, Walker Homes, Valley Forge, and Whitehaven. 

Areas inside the I-240 Loop deemed to suffer less during climate change are inside the Downtown business and entertainment districts, and those along the Poplar Corridor. Most areas east of and outside of the Loop are less vulnerable to climate change, the report said. 

U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index

Areas less at risk of climate change vulnerability here are predominately more wealthy. One outlier, however, is a section of Collierville, which is seemingly more at risk thanks to the presence of a Carrier Air Conditioning Co. Superfund site.  

Shelby County scored high (which is bad) for exposures to harmful materials. Overall, the county scored in the 98th percentile of all U.S. counties for the total amount of toxic chemicals released into an area. 

Toxins released in the air are particular threats in Shelby County. The county scored in the 98th percentile for the amount of air pollution regulated by the government. The county scored near the top in categories showing how dangerous those toxic air pollutants and diesel particles are to the body’s nervous system (99th percentile), thyroid (99th percentile), and in increased cancer risk (94th percentile).

The county also scored high for the amount of land that is developed here, the number of payday lenders, affordable housing, traffic congestion, the total number of road miles per person, road quality, indoor plumbing, the cost of climate disasters, residential energy expenditures, and more. 

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Facing Climate Change As One World

Global warming continues unabated. (Photo: Markus Spiske | Unsplash)

“… We need to do everything we can to keep [global] warming as low as possible.”

When it comes to climate change, one two-letter word has me totally perplexed: “we.” There’s an implication of global unity — a transcendent “we,” marching as to war (so to speak) — facing humanity’s greatest crisis, undoing the exploitative, Earth-destroying aspects of our social structure and grabbing control over the planet’s rising temperature. We need to do everything we can!

Yeah, sure. And then it turns out “we” aren’t doing nearly enough. The blame gets passed around — to the rich countries of the global north, to the world’s largest fossil fuel companies. And the ice keeps melting; the wildfires rage; average temperatures keep setting records. Scientists grow ever more distraught. The cry repeats itself: We need to do everything we can!

I don’t disagree with this. I just don’t know who “we” are, and hardly feel like a participant in the process, except in small ways: when I recycle stuff or argue with a climate-change denier or walk rather than drive wherever (achy legs, balance issues — I mostly drive). This isn’t enough, of course. It’s change from the social margins. The global warming — the global “weirding” — continues unabated, as do the warnings from the science community. National promises to change remain minimal, and are ultimately bypassed and ignored.

What I’m trying to say is this: There is a “we” that most Americans embrace and feel a part of, but it has nothing to do with the warming planet and collapsing ecosystem. Before we can begin “doing everything we can,” we have to transcend our limited sense of who we are and what matters. 

The New York Times’ Brad Plumer, for instance, writing about a report recently released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, noted: “Governments and companies would need to invest three to six times the roughly $600 billion they now spend annually on encouraging clean energy in order to hold global warming at 1.5 or 2 degrees, the report says. While there is currently enough global capital to do so, much of it is difficult for developing countries to acquire. The question of what wealthy, industrialized nations owe to poor, developing countries has been divisive at global climate negotiations.”

These words quietly scream for a fundamental shift in the planet’s political infrastructure. “Encouraging clean energy” isn’t really any nation’s first priority, especially if it’s rich and powerful. As I read that paragraph, what popped into my head is this: The planet’s annual military budget is about $2.2 trillion (with the United States accounting for nearly half of that). War is hell, but that’s okay. It’s the primary manifestation of nationalism, the primary expression of power. 

We have treaties and such — some nations are allies — but the essence of the situation is this: We live in an us-vs.-them world. We have to be continually cautious and, if necessary, aggressive. This is a divided world. Any questions?

The problem, of course, is that the divisions are mostly arbitrary, not to mention pragmatic. There’s nothing like a good enemy to help a country maintain its unity, to help a government assert control over the population. (Careful, he may be a commie.) But these arbitrary divisions are also distinct and specific; they’re called borders. Borders have nothing to do with reality, but “we” pretend that they matter — often to the detriment of people who need to cross them. And as climate change continues to create chaos, it makes certain regions uninhabitable. More and more human beings will find themselves being pushed out of the “human climate niche,” which means they’ll have to go somewhere else.

As Anju Anna John and Stefano Balbi write at Common Dreams, regarding a study called Quantifying the Human Cost of Global Warming: 

“In the worst-case future scenario — where the world reverts to fossil-fueled development and has a population of 9.5 billion at the end of the century — the study found that 5.3 billion people would be left behind. We would be looking at a world where about half the world’s population would no longer be able to live in regions they once considered home.”

So they’d have to move. They’d have to become climate refugees, which probably means confronting a foreign bureaucracy at some border or other. Uh oh. That could be a problem, even though, according to The Guardian: 

“… [T]he richest 1 percent of the world’s population is responsible for twice the amount of greenhouse gases as the world’s poorest 50 percent, who suffer the brunt of the harms.

“So far, the rich countries of the global north are regarded as having promised too little — and delivered even less — for climate adaptation efforts in poorer countries.”

We need to do everything we can — to minimize global warming, to deal with its inevitable effects on some. But this will only happen minimally in the context of the present moment, in which the wealthy and powerful are motivated primarily to protect and expand their wealth and power, and who will casually dehumanize those who are in the way or who attempt to cross a sacred border.

This is not the “we” that’s going to do everything it can to save the planet, but it’s the “we” we’re stuck with, at least for now. Truly dealing with climate change — doing everything we can — means transforming who we are and reorganizing ourselves as one world. 

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound.

Categories
At Large Opinion

Lights Out!

These storms are no joke. (Photo: Shara Clark)

While driving through the city in recent weeks, I’ve found myself being re-routed around fallen trees and/or limbs several times. There were at least four big ones restricting access to streets within 10 blocks of my Midtown home. Out east, and up north in the Bartlett area, things were much worse.

It’s becoming the new normal. Over the course of several storm systems this summer, the number of Memphians without power at various times was well over 100,000, often for days.

And if it’s not wind turning off our lights, it’s ice, as heavily coated trees and limbs fall on power lines and leave us in the cold and dark. After February’s ice storm, thousands of people were without power, some for up to 10 days. The winter before, it was the same thing — with the added bonus of making our water undrinkable for several days.

MLGW says its infrastructure is outdated and being upgraded, but there’s no getting around the fact that the magnificent trees that shade us through Memphis’ asphalt-melting summers also shut off our air conditioners (and furnaces). If you add up the number of people in the city who’ve lost power just this year as a result of various weather incidents, it’s well into six figures, certainly well above the 100,000 number I cited above.

This was a tweet from MLGW in response to criticism from city council members during the 2022 ice storm: “It took three years to get our budget with a rate increase to fund our five-year improvement plan approved by City Council. We are in the third year of the five-year plan, which has been hampered considerably by the pandemic.”

So, now they’re in the fourth year of the plan. Forgive me if I remain skeptical — and not because I don’t think they’re trying. MLGW workers have been magnificent, working long hours, doing their best to fix a system not built for the increasing frequency of severe weather. They’re trying to play Whac-A-Mole and the moles are winning — with a big assist from global climate change.

The outcry always arises that we need to put our power lines underground. The utility’s response, and I think it’s legitimate, is that it would take decades and cost several billion dollars. So maybe let’s think outside the Whac-A-Mole box.

Some people are already doing it, of course. This has mostly taken the form of buying a gas generator to provide power when storms strike. I get the appeal, but let me suggest another option that came to me when I drove through the back roads of Arkansas last week. I couldn’t help but notice the surprising number of solar panels on rural houses and businesses, many of them new, some even being installed as I drove by. These folks are likely taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act’s solar Investment Tax Credit, which reduces tax liability on solar installation by 30 percent of the cost. In addition, taxpayers will be able to claim a 30 percent bonus credit based on emission measurements, which requires zero or net-negative carbon emissions.

So, instead of getting a generator, maybe consider installing solar panels. The initial cost is higher, but the long-term advantage is significant. In addition to a tax credit, you can even get paid for selling electricity back to the grid. Not to mention, solar panels are quiet and don’t pollute.

And here’s another thought: Maybe the city and/or MLGW could divert some of those theoretical funds for burying power lines into incentives to Memphis home and business owners for going solar.

I’m under no illusion that thousands of Memphians will immediately begin installing solar panels, but some will, especially if the benefits are publicized. It beats snarky tweets between city council and MLGW. And there are similar federal tax incentives for businesses that have solar technology installed, so why not sweeten the pot with local funds? Maybe we could get solar panels on our grocery stores. Or our 10,000 Walgreens.

We have to start somewhere. Continuing to chainsaw ourselves out from under fallen debris and wait to be reattached to the grid after every major weather event is not a plan. It’s time to re-route our approach to keeping the lights on.

Categories
At Large Editorial Opinion

Smoke on the Water

Try saying Naromiyocknowhusunkatankshunk Brook 10 times fast, we dare you.

Greetings from the shores of Naromiyocknowhusunkatankshunk Brook. Not the literal shores, to be honest. I just wanted to work the name of that stream into my column. I’m actually down the road a couple of miles, near the little town of Sherman, Connecticut, where my wife and I rented an Airbnb for 10 days and are being visited off and on by our children and grandchildren who live in and around New York City. 

Sherman is a quaint village (pop. 3,527) named after Roger Sherman, the only person who signed all four founding documents of the United States, but you knew that. (I think he was also one of the stars of Rocky and Bullwinkle, but don’t quote me.) Anyway, Sherman, the town, has one intersection, a nearby boutique IGA and liquor store, and not much else, except lots of swell-looking white clapboard houses and zillions of orange day lilies everywhere.

According to Wikipedia, Sherman is home to Daryl Hall, Jeffrey Toobin, Diane von Furstenberg, and Rob Zombie, though we have not run into any of them during our stay.

Our Airbnb is pseudo-rustic and has lots of beds and futon couches spread over three levels, plus a couple of big decks to sit out on and enjoy the surrounding forest, so it’s been nice. The temperatures have been wonderful — low- to mid-70s — and the rain sparse enough to allow plenty of beach and fishing time in the crystal waters of nearby Candlewood Lake. I have also spent some time fly-fishing in the melodiously named Squantz Pond, which is either a damn lake or the largest pond in America. Anyway, we are having good times.

Except for the smoke, and honestly, it’s only been really bad for one day. It seems we scheduled our vacation to happen just as those annoying Canadians began wafting wildfire detritus into the colonies again. (We really need to secure that border!) But it didn’t last long, so we held our breath and persevered.

We also timed our vacation to coincide with the hottest day on Earth since record-keeping began more than 40 years ago, according to scientists at the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer project, but that was just luck. Over the July 4th holiday, the global average temperature reached an all-time high of 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit. This followed a June that was the warmest on record, worldwide. The heat index 70 miles south of us in New York City was 100 degrees on Independence Day, even though the actual temperatures in Sherman and New York were not that far apart. The difference being that we were in the woods, near cool water, and under tall, shady trees while New York’s concrete-and-exhaust-filled hellscape was exacerbating the sun’s heat to near-intolerable levels.

And, meanwhile in Memphis …

I pull up some local news sources on my laptop and read that things are pretty much in line with the new normal for summer: 100-degree days, one after another. Oh boy, I think, I cannot wait to get back.

I find myself heat-scrolling on what’s left of Twitter and end up reading a vox.com story called “Bus stops and playgrounds are too damn hot.” It addresses a problem that cities will increasingly deal with as temperatures rise over the next couple of decades: a lack of shade. It sounds simplistic, but it’s true. The temperature difference between the corner of Union and Cooper and the center of Overton Park’s Old Forest — four blocks away — can be more than 20 degrees, according to a study conducted a few years back.

While it’s true that Memphis is blessed with a canopy of trees over much of its landscape, we still need to ensure that public spaces such as bus stops and the like are adequately shaded. That would also include our public parks — making sure canopies, picnic shelters, or other shade options are plentiful, as well as water features such as sprinklers and wading pools. The days of frolicking in a big, open, unshaded space during the dog days of summer are behind us, Memphis. And for what it’s worth, the new Tom Lee Park is looking increasingly like genius — a project that’s gotten here just in time. Take it from Sherman.