MVCAC January 2021

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Special Issue of CEP, Thinking About Climate
by Duane Nichols 19 Jan '21

19 Jan '21

Thinking About Climate, Editorial, Chemical Engineering Progress, January 2021 Opens in modal lightbox Ithink about climate often. It’s hard not to — I doubt a day goes by that I don’t see an article, news report, or email that mentions climate. The most recent item to cross my desk is an article in Scientific American entitled "Second Scientists’ Warning: The Climate Emergency: 2020 in Review." It is a follow-up to "World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency," by William J. Ripple et al., which appeared in the January 2020 issue of BioScience. The authors begin their original article with this statement: "Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to ‘tell it like it is.’ On the basis of this obligation …, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency." They then call for transformative change in six areas: energy, short-lived air pollutants, nature, food, economy, and population. The new article points out that while 2020 brought a few promising developments, we still "need a massive-scale mobilization to address the climate crisis." The authors say that "aggressive transformative change, if framed holistically and equitably, will accelerate broad-based restorative action and avert the worst of the climate emergency. The survival of our society as we know it depends upon this unprecedented change." Chemical engineers have an important role to play in achieving the necessary transformative change. Climate change is a complex, multidimensional problem that we are well equipped to understand. Our education in chemistry, physics, and math enables us to understand the science, and our knowledge of chemical engineering allows us to address the challenge in a practical and economical manner. But sorting through and keeping up with the climate change literature is a monumental task. A few years ago, I came up with the idea for a series of short, 1–3-page articles that would explore various chemical-engineering-related aspects of climate and climate change. I thought that breaking this complex subject into many small bits and focusing on chemical engineering concepts would make it easier to understand. I envisioned that the title of this series would be "Thinking About Climate." When I mentioned my idea to Mark Holtzapple, a professor of chemical engineering at Texas A&M Univ., he told me about his interest in climate and shared with me the slides of a lecture that he gives on the topic. He also helped me realize that we could not do justice to the topic 2,000 words at a time. He liked my idea of looking at climate through a chemical engineering lens, and he offered to write a series of articles that addressed observations, modeling, impacts, and solutions. This special issue of CEP is the fruit of our collaboration. It provides basic information about climate — including numerous figures and reference citations. It is not meant to be a definitive treatment of the subject. Rather, it is intended to provide an overview that helps you to think about climate without getting lost in the claims and counterclaims. In the interest of minimizing our environmental footprint, we present this as a digital-only issue. And because this topic is of such great importance to society, we are making the issue open access. Please share it widely. Cynthia F. Mascone, Editor-in-Chief Reference: CEP Special Issue on Climate | AIChE https://www.aiche.org/publications/cep/climate-issue

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New West Virginia environmental coalition publishes 'A Citizen's Guide to Climate Change'
by Duane Nichols 16 Jan '21

16 Jan '21

https://www.mybuckhannon.com/new-west-virginia-environmental-coalition-publ… From MY BUCKHANNON, December 26, 2020 New West Virginia environmental coalition publishes ‘A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Change’ BUCKHANNON – A West Virginia field organizer for the Mom’s Clean Air Force recently shared information about a new alliance that has formed around climate action in West Virginia. Leah Barbor said the West Virginia Climate Alliance is an environmental, civil rights and faith-based coalition, and the mission of the young-adults organization is to work together to provide science-based education on climate change in West Virginia to the residents and policymakers. “We seek to advance climate solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while assuring that all West Virginians, especially low-income and communities of color, have adequate resources to transition to a low-carbon economy,” Barbor said. She said a recently released publication called “A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Change,” authored by the West Virginia Climate Change Alliance, explains the science behind the causes of climate change and its impacts, as well as potential solutions. Barbor said the publication was written by West Virginians for West Virginians. “The Alliance is really growing, and it is exciting,” Barbor said. “It makes me feel excited for what this means for West Virginia.” Barbor said the alliance produced the publication to keep the conversation on climate change going. “Basically, the publication is a science-based public education tool for citizens and policy makers. One of the main purposes of the alliance is to seek to advance climate solutions that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What we laid out in the guide are causes and the local impacts as well as global issues resulting from those emissions,” she said. “It also has some potential solutions.” Barbor said the alliance is not endorsing anything particular. “But we have a shared vision for climate action,” she said. “What that contains is three pillars of reform that we want to see included in future policies in order to achieve what we believe will be meaningful climate action. Those are climate justice, a just transition and reduction in greenhouse gases.” Barbor said those pillars were a no-brainer for her. “These pillars align pretty seamlessly with our work at the Mom’s Clean Air Force,” Barbor said. “As parents, we care deeply about climate change and air pollution. One thing we really focus on is justice in every breath – recognizing the importance of equitable solutions in adjusting air pollution and climate change. We need to ensure the needs of low-income communities and communities of color are protected from further inequality as it relates to environmental health.” She said they want to make sure individuals in these communities have their environmental needs met, that they have a voice in how climate change is met, ensure they do not pay a disproportional cost for addressing climate change. “Here in West Virginia the ‘just transition piece’ is really important as we move to a low carbon community. We really want to see that no West Virginians are left behind as we move to a low-carbon community. We want to make sure there are quality job retraining opportunities, that people’s health insurance and pensions are secured because those matter to families,” Barbor said. Barbor said the West Virginia Climate Alliance is an informal collective of groups in West Virginia who have a shared vision for climate action. “We all recognize there is a need for climate justice, a just transition and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. As an alliance, we are in favor of supporting policies and future legislation that include these three pillars and address them in a meaningful way.” The West Virginia Climate Alliance includes the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, Citizens Climate Lobby West Virginia, League of Women Voters of West Virginia, Christians for the Mountains, Mom’s Clean Air Force-West Virginia, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Sierra Club of West Virginia, West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, West Virginia Citizen Action Education Fund, Wet Virginia Interfaith Power and Light and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. People who would like to help or learn more about the West Virginia Climate Alliance can contact Perry Bryant at perrybryantwv(a)outlook.com. To view A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Change, go to wvrivers.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/wvclimate.pdf. >>> To be posted in ...... www.FrackCheckWV.net

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MVCAC January 2021