FaCT Updates Dan Flores, June Speaker by Anne Caruso p6 Time of Renewal by Ron Prosek p7
In this month's newsletter:
Take Action Connecting the Dots p1 Lessons for the Climate Crisis by Margaret Mills p2
April 2022 Newsletter
News & Views Life Support: My Mother's story by Randi Pokladnik p4 Solar Powered Success p2-3
Fact Ohio Faith communities together for a sustainable future
Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio's Environmental Justice Team presents Connecting the Dots on April 24, focusing on community gardens in rural and urban Ohio and their impact on food justice, access to healthy sustainable food, resilience, and mitigation of food deserts. Pam Roberts from Together We Grow Gardens will share resources and ideas for creating community gardens that provide greater equity and food justice at a community level. Come and share your successes and questions about community gardening! Connecting the Dots: Planet, People, Power was launched by Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio in September 2021. We meet monthly to provide a platform for issues of environmental justice along with actions that can be performed during each meeting. Our monthly topics are driven by you and the immediate areas of environmental injustice that you are confronting right now. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/.../tZ0oceygqjkpH9ydbqYstEpEGdfdK... Check the facebook event for updates.
We are people of faith — of all faiths — and some of no faith — but FaCT is an organization that grew out of faith communities. It’s reflected in our name: Faith Communities Together for a Sustainable Future. In almost all of our faith traditions we hear wisdom from prophets from long ago and from recent years. For that reason, I want to share this announcement from the national United Church of Christ. It’s a call to an event titled The Faith of Prophets: Lessons for the Climate Crisis. I think this image of prophets is important to all of the issues of our environment today. The best-selling writer Joan Chittister has written, "What this world needs most right now is a new generation of prophets." This is especially true as we confront the climate crisis today. Yet, we can no longer wait for others to be the prophets that were needed yesterday. We have to find the prophet in each of us. We are the ones who can make a profound difference right now. To answer the urgent call for prophetic action today, this event will focus on what the Hebrews Prophets can teach us as well as what current prophetic leaders have to say. The Rev. Dr. Brooks Berndt, Minister of Environmental Justice for the United Church of Christ will be the Keynote Speaker followed by a panel discussion and local action in your own community. Friends, we can no longer wait. We can all be prophets and we can all create change. This is true of FaCT — we trust we are ones, among many others, who can make a profound difference right now. The UCC is certainly not the only faith community offering events such as this or addressing issues of environmental inequity. Some of you are involved with your faith communities and searching for ways to make a difference. We hope you’ll share those happenings. In our newsletters you’ll find ways FaCT is looking to understand the challenges we face and how to repair our world. You are invited to be part of our work for environmental justice and our efforts to build a healthy, sustainable future. Find the prophet within you. Blessings, Margaret R. Mills
Ohio has never been known for its solar-friendly policies. In recent years fossil fuel lobbyists and energy corporations have pushed unsustainable legislation through our General Assembly, and we all are now paying the price for their illegal political maneuvering. In many parts of our lovely state, however, things are changing. The city of Lakewood has successfully installed 4 major solar arrays on rooftops at various city locations. Lakewood City Council began working with Youngstown-based Enerlogics in 2019 after the company completed installations on a former landfill in Brooklyn under the Cuyahoga County Aggregated Solar Program. Enerlogics engineered, installed, owns, and operates the rooftop arrays on Lakewood city buildings. Lakewood buys the power generated by the systems, covering 10% of the energy use in its municipal buildings and saving the city over $550,000 over the life of the system. In a 2019 interview, then Lakewood mayor Mike Summers noted, “The issues are economic, technical, regulatory and environmental. This complex combination is exactly the type that governments can and should take on to pave the way for the private sector." In Ohio’s General Assembly, momentum for solar and sustainable energy legislation is gaining support. Three bills have been proposed to allow for development of community-owned solar arrays, access to rooftop solar, and an equitable energy future in Ohio. Ohio House Bill 450 will bring community owned solar to small groups who may not be in a position to purchase individual rooftop solar panels. Ohio House Bill 429, known as the energy jobs and justice act takes a holistic view of what we need to do to have an equitable clean energy future along with supporting access to community owned solar. Ohio Senate Bill 61 ensures access to rooftop solar for people in condo associations and homeowner associations. Earlier this month, The Sound of Ideas hosted a conversation detailing these exciting trends in Ohio with Tristan Rader, Ohio Program Director, Solar United Neighbors; Miranda Leppla, Director, Environmental Law Clinic at Case Western Reserve University; Kwame Botchway, Urban Development and Sustainability Consultant, and Director of Community Impact and Innovation, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress; and Tom Bullock, Executive Director, Citizens Utility Board of Ohio. You can listen to a recording of the full conversation here. Keep the momentum moving towards more sustainable energy generation in Ohio! Contact your state senator and representative to express your support for legislation that will bring jobs, a cleaner environment, and energy independence to our Ohio communities.
Solar Powered Success in Ohio by Linda New
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Lessons for the Climate Crisis by Margaret Mills, FaCT President
Fossil Fuel Sacrifice Zones
It’s been 20 years this April since I had to say goodbye to my mother. She lost her battle with cancer two months before she would have turned 70. She wasn’t diagnosed until her cancer had already progressed to stage 3, so the outlook for long-term survival was not very good. At first it was hard to believe that she was sick. She looked perfectly healthy even though her oncologist told us cancer cells had been growing inside her body for many years. Unlike other cells in our body which have specific functions, cancer cells have no purpose other than to grow, and when they grow and spread into other tissues, the host that they are using for energy and food eventually dies. Our family wanted to know what caused my mom’s cancer. Her lifestyle wasn’t one that might have led to the development of cancer. She didn’t drink or smoke, and she exercised and ate relatively well. Her oncologist told us that “unfortunately these tumors do not come with labels,” however, he pointed out that my mom was born and raised in the Ohio River Valley during a time when air and water pollution were especially bad, and there were few regulations in place to protect human health and the environment. The National Institute of Health Sciences reports that more than two-thirds of cancer is from environmental exposures like pesticides, solvents, heavy metals, benzene, UV light, dioxins, and vinyl chlorides. My folks moved from Steubenville, Ohio (a city once noted as being the dirtiest in the nation) to Toronto, Ohio in 1962. In 1972, Weirton Steel started construction of their coke ovens on Brown’s Island just outside Toronto’s city limits. Coke ovens heat coal to high temperatures to remove sticky coal tars. These tarry substances are collected and used to make various aromatic solvents like benzene which are carcinogenic. The remaining lightweight coke is used during the steel-making process. The coke plant drew national attention in 1972 when 19 workers were killed in an explosion at the construction site. Our home, which was located less than a mile away, was rocked by the explosion. For nearly a decade we lived in the shadow of dangerous volatile gasses emitted from the ovens. By 1982, locally produced coke became too expensive and the plant was shut down. We will never know for sure if living in the valley had contributed to my mom’s cancer, but our next-door neighbor died at the age of 14 from leukemia, and one of my grade-school friends died at 11 from stomach cancer. Like many people who are diagnosed with terminal cancer, my mom was willing to try anything to gain a few more months of life. But once tumors spread to her major organs, she had to admit she wasn’t going to beat the cancer. She would not see her grandkids grow up or celebrate another birthday, she wouldn’t grow old. Cancer had canceled my mom’s life. Currently, I am witnessing another death, the death of our planet. This death is primarily being caused by humans. Quoting the movie Matrix, “Humans move to an area and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.” Similar to cancer cells, corporations and CEOs of polluting industries have one goal: maximum growth. The collateral damage of that growth is of no consideration. As fossil fuel corporate profits climb, scientists frantically warn us we have less than a decade to turn the situation around and keep the worst effects of climate change from happening. For years the petrochemical industry has discounted the connection of environmental toxins to cancer and they refuse to admit the major role they play in the climate crisis. We too, as consumers of their products, refuse to see the evidence in front of our eyes. While the effects of climate change and pollution are subtle in some places, other areas such as the polar regions are exhibiting terminal Stage 3 symptoms. Some people claim that the climate crisis is a hoax, but consider this: scientists from over 130 countries including 2500 scientific expert reviewers, and more than 800 contributing authors worked on the assessment reports for the International Panel on Climate Change. Their prognosis for the planet isn’t hopeful and they are begging world leaders to address this crisis. When our doctors tell us our health is in peril, do we ignore them? Why are we ignoring this crisis? Many people, including scientists, have become as desperate as cancer patients; searching for an answer, a cure, some way to stop the death of our planet. It was devastating to watch my mother slip away bit by bit until she was barely recognizable. It is just as devastating to watch as the only inhabitable planet in our solar system, one that harbors so many marvelous creatures and ecosystems, is being killed by one species: humans. Out of frustration, many scientists are now resorting to non-violent civil disobedience. Last week over 1000 scientists in more than 25 countries took part in protests to demand climate action. A NASA scientist, Peter Kalmus, chained himself to the doors of a Chase Bank building. This company invests heavily in fossil fuels. I can understand their frustration. I would have done anything in my power to save my mother and now I find myself contemplating what it will take before we listen to the science? In Kalmus’s words, “The scientists of the world are being ignored, and it’s got to stop.” Governments have to make “rapid and deep cuts” to curb greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late and our lives on this planet are canceled too. Our planet is on life support: it’s time to take action.
Life Support: My Mother's Story by Dr. Randi Pokladnik, PhD Environmental Studies
Guernsey County is in the center of beautiful Ohio with rolling fields and a historic state park. Kevin and Marlene Young have owned property in Guernsey for 47 years, investing time, savings, and labor into their 21 acres. They built their home here, with space for horses, stables, a half-mile race track, and workspace to modify street rods. As the Youngs neared retirement they looked forward to enjoying the land that they worked on for so long. In 2016 Caithness Energy took over the land across from their home. The massive Guernsey Natural Gas Power Station is now under construction in their front yard. Read More
Life Support cont.
Daniel P. Simmons Photography Fall 2016 Environmental Defense Fund Magazine Solutions
FactOhio Speaker Series: Dan Flores by Anne Caruso I remember in the early 2000’s when a coyote was spotted at North Chagrin MetroParks in an Eastern suburb of Cleveland. It caused such an outcry and fear that I was not allowed to take my Kindergarten class to what had been an annual field trip to that park. Every year my class loved seeing the abundance of nesting birds from Canadian geese gliding in for a landing on the pond, to male redwing blackbirds feeding their young in the cattails, and weirdly colored loons drying themselves on the pathway. Every spring we saw the beaver swimming to their lodge and beautiful flowering trees, shrubs and wildflowers. Because of this coyote sighting, however, and the perceived threat to children, our field trips came to an end. Contrast the present day fear and mistrust of the coyote with the respect and awe of them that Dan Flores holds. Professor Flores fell in love with coyotes in his childhood after seeing the Disney film, “Coyote Helmet”. This film addressed the demonizing of the coyote in American culture from the perspective of the coyote. Dan’s curiosity and empathy for this animal shaped his lifelong work. As a writer, historian, college professor, and public speaker, Dan has eloquently illuminated the history of the American West focusing on the early animal life that made our Great Plains majestic. FaCT Ohio is honored to present Dan Flores as part of our speaker series on Saturday, June 4th at 3 pm on Zoom. Our speaker series is free to the public. Please join us to hear a gifted speaker teach us about our past and present with passion and wisdom. Register for this online event here.
Spring - A Time for Renewal
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On Easter Sunday, the sermon at my church, East Shore UUC in Kirtland, centered on rebirth and renewal. We were reminded that Jesus didn’t just advocate that we should cure the sick. He went out and cured the sick. Jesus didn’t just say that we should feed the hungry. He actually fed the multitudes. Jesus didn’t just say that we should be inclusive. He went among the poor and the outcast of society and ministered to them. So it is for us, in our time, not just to talk about saving the planet or protecting people from a degraded and poisoned environment. It is for us to DO something it. And FaCT IS doing something – several things. FaCT has started meetings of its Sharing Support Circles to help people in Ohio who have been and are being adversely affected by toxic frack waste and deep shale drilling in and near their communities. FaCT has developed and is about to launch its statewide faith community education program on brine waste and injection wells. FaCT has collaborated with local and statewide organizations to take action against environmental injustice. And FaCT has also hired a highly skilled and experienced consultant to strengthen our programs and our resources that support these programs. Much of FaCT’s work is carried out by volunteers. However, as our programs develop and expand, we have had to hire professional help. And this costs money. Each session of our Sharing Support Circles costs us $400 for facilitators. Our new paid professional consultant costs FaCT $1500 per month. Our waste brine and injection well education program is partially funded by a grant from CHEJ, but FaCT is committed to supplying a quarter of the funding. This is where we, inspired by the theme of new life and renewed commitment, can take concrete action to support the environmental justice work that FaCT is doing. We know you have worked hard for your money, and we ask you now to donate some of that money so that it can work hard to help carry out FaCT’s mission to protect our planet and the health of our communities. We thank you for your continued generosity!
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