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ISSUES & FORUMS
Environmental, Energy & Sustainability:
"A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT IS OUR LEGACY TO THE CHILDREN"
This statement is our goal. We will create an atmosphere where discussion, creativity, opposing views, open mindedness, and solutions are all part of our existence. In striving to educate each other on the importance of using fewer resources, the health and economic benefits will come to be seen. How we impact the Earth and each other is of prime importance. This can be done through sacrifice that will teach us all humility. It can be achieved in an honest, loving, fun way. Come join us!
Meetings:
Our next environmental forum meeting will be Monday, March 26th at 7PM at the Unitarian Church, 3707 Eastern Ave, Davenport. We will continue to discuss our booth at the QCCA Expo Center in Rock Island for the Earth Day Coalition's event. This is geared towards youth and we have been discussing how we can creatively encourage them to become sustainable humans.
Environmental Film Fest III
Free and open to the public!
Sponsored by the Davenport Unitarian Church, The Eagle View Sierra Club and Radish Magazine
From 11am-7pm (Doors open at 10:30am)
Film Schedule:
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In the Sanctuary (upper level)
11am - King Corn - 88 mins
1pm - Who Killed the Electric Car? - 93 mins
3pm - Crude Awakening - 85 mins
5pm - Kilowatt Ours - 55 mins
The Community Room (upper level)
11am - Blue Vinyl - 98 mins
1pm - King Corn - 88 mins
3pm - Everything's Cool - 89 mins
5pm - Crude Awakening - 85 mins
The Board Room (upper level) – Kids Films
11am - Walkin' Jim- Come Walk with Me
11:45am - Magic School Bus - Recycling
12:30pm Every Home and Eco Home
1:15pm Magic School Bus - Rain Forest
2pm - Walkin' Jim - Come Walk with Me
2:45pm Magic School Bus - Desert
3:30pm - Where Does My Garbage Go?
4:15pm - Magic School Bus - Recycling
5pm - Walkin' Jim - Come Walk with Me
In the Lounge (lower level) – Resource Tables
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Blue Can Group
Eagle View Group/Sierra Club
ePower Synergies, Inc.
Keep Rock Island Beautiful
Keep Scoot County Beautiful
Oak Hills Acres - CSA
Radish Magazine
Restore
Root Cellar
PACG Environmental/Energy Forum
... and more!
Food provided by Greatest Grains – Donations appreciated!
HF 873 Needs Help!
Despite overwhelming support from citizens and community leaders, HF 873, a bill regulating CAFOs, has seen steady progress but now faces strong opposition.
It seems this bill too, has been sent to a sub-committee with instructions from leadership to "kill" it. Members of that committee are Mike Reasoner (D-chair), Delores Mertz (D), Helen Miller (D), Jack Drake (R) and Steve Olson (R).
Three Democratic House members – Pam Jochum, Mark Kuhn and Marcie Frevert – have been working tirelessly to advocate for VOICE SF 553 and the CAFO HF 873 bills.
We must join the fight. Lack of oversight and regulation of CAFOs will affect the state of Iowa for generations to come! For a detailed explanation on CAFOs, please refer to my statement below, following the contact information for our legislators.
We need to inundate the Statehouse with calls and e-mail the legislative leaders who control the fate of this bill. Please call or write. If your representative isn't on one of the sub-committees, you can still call or write Rep. Pat Murphy (House Speaker), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (House Majority Leader) or Senator Mike Gronstal (Senate Majority Leader). Everyone needs to contact those three leaders. In addition, contact your local reps and encourage them to urge the committee members to pass the CAFO bill (HF 873).
CAFO Regulation – HF 873
Agriculture Sub-Committee:
Rep. Mike Reasoner (D)
House District 95 – Union County
Mike.Reasoner@legis.state.ia.us
Home Telephone: 641-782-2693
Dolores Mertz (D)
House District 8 – Kossuth County
Dolores.Mertz@legis.state.ia.us
Home Telephone: 515-887-2952
Rep. Helen Miller (D)
House District 49 - Webster County
Helen.Miller@legis.state.ia.us
Rep. Jack Drake (R)
House District 57 -- Pottawattamie
Jack.Drake@legis.state.ia.us
Home Telephone: 712-784-3538
Rep. Steve Olson (R)
House District 83 – Clinton County
Steven.Olson@legis.state.ia.us
Home Telephone: 563-659-9096
Statehouse Leaders:
Speaker of the House
Rep. Pat Murphy (D)
House District 28 – Dubuque County
Pat.Murphy@legis.state.ia.us
Home Telephone: (563) 582-5922
House Telephone: (515) 281-5566
House Majority Leader
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D)
House District 67 – Polk County
Kevin.McCarthy@legis.state.ia.us
Home Telephone: (515) 953-5221
House Telephone: (515) 281-7497
Senate Majority Leader
Senator Mike Gronstal (D)
Senate District 50 -- Pottawattamie
michael.gronstal@legis.state.ia.us
Home Telephone: (712) 328-2808
Business Telephone: (515) 281-3901
House Switchboard to reach all State Representatives: (515) 281-3221
Call your local reps and ask them to urge committee members and House leaders to pass this bill!
Please call TODAY!!!
According to the IOWA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (IDNR), an AFO is an ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATION.
A CAFO is a CONFINED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATION . The difference is that in a CAFO, the animals are subjected to close, sometimes unhealthy quarters and their waste stays within the confinement until such time it is removed. In the case of hogs, that may only be several times a year.
The IDNR also states on its web site: www.iowadnr.com : "Confinement feeding operations that plan to build, modify or expand must meet state requirements for the new construction. It is important to determine as early as possible, at least 120 days before you plan to begin construction, what size the proposed operation will be and the type of manure storage that will be used. Once size and type of storage are known, you can determine which state requirements must be met...." Also per their website:
"Master Matrix"
The master matrix is a scoring system that can be used to evaluate the siting of permitted confinement feeding operations. Counties that have adopted a construction evaluation resolution can use the master matrix. Counties must re-adopt the construction evaluation resolution annually between January 1 and January 31, starting in 2004, to continue to use the master matrix.
Producers in counties that have adopted the matrix must meet higher standards than other permitted facilities. Before they can be approved for construction, they must earn points on the master matrix for choosing sites and using practices that reduce adverse impacts on the environment and the community. Producers must have 50% (440 points minimum) of the total score and at least 25% of the available points in each of the three subcategories of air, water and community impacts to pass the master matrix...."
Scott County happens to be one of the many counties that has chosen to partake in the permit process. ( Its Board of Supervisors has agreeded to this every year since 2004.) . Part of what that means is that if a farmer wants to build new or add to their existing operation, a permit may be needed depending on the total number pigs, cattle, etc said farmer is going to raise. There is a formula that says if you have over 1666 animal units (thats one bovine equals one unit, 2.5 hogs equals one unit....see IDNR site for other animals) they you need to fill out the Master Matrix. If your county does not partake in the permit process, it goes directly to the IDNR and bypasses any local public input time.
Environmental/Energy News:
Timing is everything, and we all need to act now. Please take time to find information on the recently published report by the INTERNATIONAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE.
From the website: "...Recognizing the problem of potential global climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. It is open to all members of the UN and WMO..."
One more suggested reading is to view the November/December 2006 issue of Mother Jones. (It publishes every other month.) We will be discussing the article entitled "The Thirteenth Tipping Point/12 Global Disasters and 1 Powerful Antidote" by Julia Whitty.
A tribute to our darling MOLLY IVINS can be found in the January/Febuary issue.
Also find:
"How Many Legislators Does it Take to Outlaw a Lightbulb?"
In the quest to stave off cataclysmic climate change, the compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) seems to be garnering messianic status. (Wal-Mart, for one, hopes to green its image by selling 100 million of the energy efficient, cost saving bulbs by the end of next year). Politicians are behind them too, and no state is doing more than California to encourage consumers to give up their old incandescent bulbs...
But truth be told, CFLs are not all sunshine for the environment, especially in the hands of the wasteful. CFLs contain mercury, and, to date, there is no way to make them without using at least a small amount of the toxic substance. "If you are going to make a massive switch over to compact fluorescents, which would be good for energy conservation, it makes sense to accompany it with the appropriate take-back and recycling provisions," notes Elizabeth Grossman, author of High Tech Trash.
Without a real commitment to recycling, mercury filled CFLs will end up with household garbage, land-filled and incinerated en mass. Which is a shame because assuming proper disposal, CFLs actually reduce the amount of mercury escaping into the environment. According to the EPA Energy Star program, "coal-fired power plants emit 13.6 milligrams of mercury to produce the electricity required to use an incandescent light bulb, compared to 3.3 milligrams for a CFL."
Ensuring Iowa's Leadership in the Bioeconomy
This note is regarding a one-day summit on Iowa's bioeconomy that was held at Iowa State on 28 November and is now featured on Iowa State's web site. This a link to the 19 page formal report plus video of the summit.
It's stated in the report that Iowa State plans to meet with interested Iowa legislators in early January for a discussion of the report's recommendations and specific legislation for 2007.
["The final report from the Nov. 28 summit on "Ensuring Iowa's Leadership in the Bioeconomy" makes more than 100 recommendations to state lawmakers. Those include calls for a state energy policy, investment of state funds to attract federal and industrial research money, policies that encourage consumers to use biofuels and agricultural polices that balance the interests of biofuels manufacturers with crop, biomass and livestock producers. The report states, "An overarching recommendation from the summit is that the State of Iowa will develop a broad and comprehensive bioenergy policy that will demonstrate its commitment and support for the bioeconomy and help us make the most of the emerging new technologies to ensure Iowa's continued leadership in the area of bioenergy."]
Beyond the usual utopian statements about the bioeconomy needing to be balanced, the report recognizes that for ethanol production to be an effective energy source it must be expanded from the current sole use of the corn kernel (starch ethanol) to cellulosic ethanol -- which would use corn stocks as well as other biomass crops that could be grown in the Midwest. This transformation will require urgent legislation that supports continuing research and development, and subsidies where appropriate, because we are in competition with other states.
I strongly recommend that you read the report and watch the videos.
Regards,
Cliff Day
PACG Environmental/Energy Sustainability Forum
563-650-8755
Livestock Operations Decrease? Oh, Say It's So!
ISU professor predicts manure value to rise
by O. Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa
November 23, 2006
An Iowa State University animal science professor predicts fewer large-scale livestock operations will be springing up in Iowa.
Maynard Hogberg, the head of Iowa State's animal science department, says an ISU report released this week concludes the demand for manure as fertilizer for farm fields may change the structure of the livestock business. "There isn't going to be unbridled growth of the size of units mainly because on the environmental side the price of energy has gone up which has driven the price of commercial fertilizer up," Hogberg says. "The manure is going to be looked upon as a resource rather than a waste."
Current Iowa law requires that large-scale hog confinements draw up "manure management plans" which specify where that manure will be spread on farm fields.
Hogberg suggests the "recycling" of manure will become even more important in Iowa as the price of commercial nitrogen rises, so that farmers who're now just raising crops may raise livestock again just to get the manure as a byproduct. "By and large what we see, and it may be kind of a subtle thing, we see livestock production systems for the most part are going to be sized according to the land availability, so you have more of an integrated crop production/livestock production system," Hogberg says.
Hogberg predicts there'll be a "few larger units" but he says the "main thrust" of animal agriculture in Iowa will shift to medium-and small-sized operations -- a dramatic reversal from previous trends.
-------BUT-------
Just 2 days before, the same department head talked about a different ISU report:
Growth dependent on corn prices
An Iowa State University report concludes there'll be significant growth in Iowa's livestock industry, as long as corn prices remain reasonable. For the past year, researchers in I-S-U's Department of Animal Science and representatives of livestock groups have been evaluating the state's "animal agriculture" industries -- beef, pork, dairy, pork, poultry, sheep, goats and horses.
I-S-U animal science professor Maynard Hogberg says Iowa currently has about 26 percent of the nation?s hogs and six percent of the beef cattle in the country. "I think one of the things we were trying to do was say 'O.K.: what is the picture really like of the future?'" Hogberg says. "Depending on who you talk to, you could get one extreme to the other and our feeling was that we were trying arrive at more of a consensus viewpoint of where we thought things would end up."
The I-S-U study concludes beef cattle sales have the potential to increase 50 percent by 2016. Hogberg says one reason for that prediction is because one of the rather inexpensive by-products from ethanol production is fed to cattle.
"Right now, we have one of the lowest feed costs in the country," Hogberg says. In addition, the report suggests that in 10 years the number of swine in the state will grow by 15 percent. But the most significant growth is predicted in the poultry industry.
The I-S-U analysis concludes the number of hens in Iowa laying hens will increase at least 37 percent within 10 years, and there'll be a 40 percent increase in the number of turkeys raised in Iowa, too. "The egg industry has been growing significantly (in Iowa) over the last 10 years," Hogberg says.
That's a complete turn-around for the poultry industry in Iowa. In 1958, Iowa was the number one egg-producing state in the nation, but because of the increased cost of transporting eggs from Iowa to the nation's metropolitan areas, hen-laying operations sprung up in many other states. What has now helped Iowa regain ground in the industry is the advent of on-the-farm egg-cracking facilities. That means mostly raw eggs are now shipped in tanker trucks, instead of individual eggs in cartons.
Hogberg says the uncertainty ahead for the livestock industry depends largely on the ethanol industry. "That is...kind of a wild card because we don't know the impact the bio-economy's going to have on the eggs and pork systems because eventually they're going to compete for an energy or starch or energy feed-stuffs," Hogberg says. It means livestock farmers will be trying to buy the same corn that ethanol plants are trying to buy, driving up the price of corn perhaps beyond what's profitable for those segments of the livestock industry.
The report shows Iowa farmers earned nearly eight-billion dollars in 2005 from the sale of eggs and livestock. If the report's predictions are on target, Iowa farmers would reap another two billion on top of that in livestock sales -- and 10-thousand new jobs would be created.
Which way will things go? Who Knows? Good topics for discussion though.
Past Events:
The ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
As the issue of Global Warming continues to heat up, EVERYONE is encouraged to attend this year's ECO-FILM FESTIVAL hosted by the Davenport Unitarian church and the Sierra Club's Illinois Eagle View Group:
Don't miss this opportunity to expand your understanding of an array of environmental issues and help to raise community awareness (knowledge is power) by inviting your friends, family members, and co-workers to attend!
Saturday, February 24th - 2:00pm to 8:00pm
Davenport Unitarian Church, 3707 Eastern Ave.
(just north of Kimberly Rd)
FREE ADMISSION & FREE FOOD FROM GREATEST GRAINS
Donations appreciated!
Illinois Sierra Club
ROBERT KENNEDY, JR. ENLIGHTENS CROWD AT AN IOWA COLLEGE
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2006
CLARKE COLLEGE, DUBUQUE, IOWA
-By Molly Regan & Kriss Wells
Stating that our indigent press has contributed largely to the suppression of Democracy, ROBERT KENNEDY, JR gave a scathing speech about the status of America’s current physical environment and our political landscape.
“We are the best entertained and least informed people on the planet”, Kennedy said. Our sense of community has changed and we need to take better care of our “ENVIRONMENTAL INFRASTUCTURE”. There is a lack of knowledge, and that ignorance is the enemy of democracy. He stated the media is responsible or the leaders who have hamstrung the media.
Environmental Infrastructure includes the air we breathe, our water, soil, as well as the fish and other animals we have been given to take care of and use responsibly. These are all part of the “Public Trust Resources” which are part of the Commons or that which should be available for access by everyone. The airwaves are part of these resources. There is little or no investigative reporting. There are no foreign news reporters any longer. We must listen to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) to receive accurate worldwide news.
Kennedy suggested every time we hear a one-sided story on radio or TV, we should contact the source and demand equal time for an alternate view. The airwaves belong to the people. The aquifers are also part of the Public Trust Resources. It is against the law to pollute these resources with fertilizers. The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act have not been properly enforced. The current and previous Republican administrations over the last 25 years have illegally worked to break their purpose.
In his book “CRIMES AGAINST NATURE / HOW GEORGE W. BUSH & HIS CORPORATE PALS ARE PLUNDERING THE COUNTRY & HIJACKING OUR DEMOCRACY”, Kennedy peels back the ugly veneer of the Bush White House and gives us the truth.
Kennedy pointed out that when Reagan was president, he rescinded The Fairness Act in 1988. This opened the door for the ‘Privatizing Of The Commons’, the first step towards tyranny Kennedy continued. Money paid to politicians by big corporations has lead to this privatization of the Commons. Corporations should not be running our government. In his book he states, “While communism is the control of business by government, fascism is the control of government by business.” Corporations are constrained to the sole purpose of making the most money they can for their shareholders. Thus, they are not allowed to consider the common good and therefore should not be allowed to dominate our government.
Mr. Kennedy said he speaks to Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. Most agree that the Commons should be accessible to everyone and kept healthy. Citing the thoughts of Fredrick Jackson Turner, Kennedy said Nature is the essence of our Creator. Our values and character come from contact with Nature and farms.
He was impressive in his knowledge of Bush cabinet appointees. For example, Phillip Cooney former chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, suppressed 12 major studies on global warming.
These appointees are for the most part, examples of exactly the wrong persons holding their positions. The current president has consistently appointed the fox to guard the hen house. When these appointees speak of their work, the words they use sound responsible and progressive, while their actions and intent are just the opposite. Kennedy described this as Stealth Government. He later asked the question, “How did they get so many draft dodgers in one place?” There followed applause and laughter. Several times throughout the evening, his comments were interrupted by applause and a couple of standing ovations.
The Bush regime has changed the regulatory standards on coal-fired plants so that they can now legally pollute with mercury and carbon dioxide. 1100 illegal coal-burning plants exist. 18,000 people die every year because The New Source Review was abolished by the Bush administration.
It is now legal to dump rock and other solids into a river or stream, he went on. Polluters make themselves rich by making others poor. He stated that 3 of his sons have asthma, a result of these lax regulatory standards on coal-fired industries. There are many studies to substantiate the direct relationship mercury from coal burning has to asthma in children. Also, in the Adirondack Mountains (of New York State), 1/5 of the lakes are polluted by acid rain. Sulfur dioxide has risen by 4% a year there. Every state in the country reports mercury in its fish except Wyoming and Alaska but only because those in power there suppress or change the reports.
Kennedy also explained how confinement hog farming has run many family farmers out of business because the huge producers drive the price down so drastically that the farmers can't raise animals for the lower prices. And the only way that the CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) can raise animals so cheaply is by pushing the excrement off on the public. Since they are not held accountable for their air and water pollution, they end up being subsidized by the public. If those costs were included then they wouldn't make the huge profits. The CAFO system is not sustainable. It is a rip-off, quick and dirty. Another assessment by Kennedy is that the current administration is raping our land.
I (Regan) asked Mr. Kennedy about an Environmental Impact Statement that I and others are demanding be done on the wetland area in Rock Island County, Illinois where Triumph Foods wants to build the world’s largest hog slaughterhouse. He cited the fight that Don Webb, Rick Dove and others are engaged in to remove the same blighted industry in their state of North Carolina. The Neuse River there has been damaged because of hog slaughterhouses and their associated CAFOs that were built all along its watersheds. Between one and two BILLION fish have died as a result of the hogs’ waste entering these waters. If Triumph is allowed to build a hog slaughterhouse, Kennedy said, small family hog farming in Iowa will die.
Kennedy ended his talk by saying if we don’t return to our children what we were given, we will have some tough questions to answer.
Robert F. Kennedy, JR. is president of Waterkeeper Alliance and senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He also is a clinical professor and supervising attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic in New York City. He can be heard on Air America Radio co-hosting “Ring of Fire”.
Kennedy graduated from Harvard University and studied at the London School of Economics. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He holds a master’s degree in environmental law from Pace University School of Law.
Articles:
Both Scientific American and Technology Review devoted much of their September 2006 hard copy and web editions to the subject of energy and global climate change. The following three articles at Technology Review are worthy of a quick read.
EDITORIAL - The Alternative:
Catastrophic climate change is not inevitable. We possess the technologies that could forestall global warming. Why can't we use them? –By Jason Pontin
The Messenger: The best scientists, scrutinizing atmosphere, ice, earth, and sea, say global warming is approaching a tipping point. But we still have time to keep it from reaching catastrophic levels. – By Mark Bowen
The Dirty Secret: Better technologies exist for extracting coal, a major source of carbon dioxide emissions. The challenge is getting people to adopt them. – By David Talbot
Nuclear Loses Its Cool
One of the greater energy ironies of our modern era is that some of the nuclear power plants we rely on to provide our electricity in times of great heat don't actually handle that heat all that well. The aging nukes that litter the U.S.--and others throughout the world--require vast quantities of water as part of their cooling apparatus. And that cooling water becomes unreliable in the summer heat, just when we need the reactors to be making as much electricity as possible.
Gasoline's Fledgling Rivals: The Race to Power Your Car
The alternative fuels race is on. Again.
After a 20-year hiatus, ethanol, methanol, biodiesel, electricity, and other potential fuels are pushing to challenge king gasoline at the pump.
But the race is a tricky one. The successful fuel not only has to be cheaper than gasoline, it has to be produced in huge quantities and survive future swings in gas prices. There's another potential hurdle: Environmentalists want alternatives with smaller greenhouse-gas emissions than gasoline.
So, it's not clear that any alternative fuel will cross the finish line - let alone beat gasoline - anytime soon. Analysts worry that, in an eerie repeat of the 1980s, alternative fuels will get going just as the price of oil falls to a level where they can't compete.
Among today's alternative-fuel contenders, the early leader is ethanol made from corn. "Corn ethanol is the one to beat right now," says Paul Gallagher, professor of economics at Iowa State University.
Action/Update on An Inconvenient Truth
Thanks to all of you who called the local theaters asking them to feature Al Gore's controversial documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, PACG members and others attended a group viewing of the movie on July 1st at The Great Escape Cinemas 14 in Moline. Progressives filled the entire theater! What a turnout! Folks came from all around the QC and surrounding area, including 2 car-loads that came up from Galesburg! Representative Lane Evans also attended - it was very good to see him! After the movie about 45 of us met for coffee and conversation at Panera Bread across from the cinemas (pics shown below).
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Molly Regan, Facilitator for the Environmental forum, handed out a short survey to help folks identify ways we all contribute to the ecological footprint and what can be done about it. Dick Fallow spoke about the need to keep this issue in the forefront of the public discussion.
Stay tuned for the next group showing of another great documentary entitled, "The Great Warming," tentatively scheduled for August 10th... details pending.
LINKS: