Harvey Broome Group November 2021 Newsletter

 

NOVEMBER 2021 NEWSLETTER

Editor: Julie Elfin
Assistant Editors: Todd Waterman & Judy Eckert
Formatter: Joanne Logan

Contents:

Current Situation

Due to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic situation, we are sensitive to our constituents during this challenging crisis…

Update On In-Person Gatherings
“Based on feedback from employees and in consultation with our safety staff, we have decided to extend the Sierra Club’s current Covid response plans through February 28, 2022.  Given the current Covid situation, we recognize the need to offer continued flexibility for you to balance and manage your individual needs. We will continue on the path we launched in July--slowly reopening our offices, methodically ramping up events & in-person activities, and being cautious in travel planning.  Doing so patiently allows our mission-critical work in these areas to continue.

It is our hope that the expansion of vaccine access to young children this fall and winter will enable us as an organization to quickly ramp back up our operations--and scale back our response--in the spring. Barring any unforeseen complications, we expect to share an update with you all by February.”


Read more about reopening guidelines here

Virtual meetings and events:
Online (via Zoom) Tennessee Chapter ExCom Business meetings
Online (via Zoom) Harvey Broome Group ExCom meetings
Online (via Zoom) Harvey Broome Group Program Meetings - note online program meeting info below
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Snow on Frozen Head Mountain. Image credit Michael Hodge CC BY 2.0

November 2021 Virtual Program
What: Friends of Frozen Head State Park by Jack Sims, President
When: Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 7:00-8:30 PM
Where: Virtual via Zoom.

Please RSVP through this Campfire event link. You will receive information on how to connect to this program and be notified via email if there are any changes.

Learn about the largest forested and mountainous state park and about the friends group that protects it.

 

Note: Consult the HBG website Calendar for updates to our calendar. Questions regarding HBG events should be addressed to HBG Chair Jerry Thornton (gatwilcat@aol.com).

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HBG and Local Issues & Business




Knoxville City Council General Election
The general election is Tuesday, November 2nd! Voters can select their preferred candidate in ALL FIVE RACES, not only in their district. Find out more about HBG’s endorsed candidates here.

More information about the election: https://knoxcounty.org/election/


KUB posts intentions with respect to disconnections for non-payment.

They also include their suggestions for “assistance” for those in need, and how those of us in better circumstances can assist those in need via “Project Help."
 
For utility companies in other counties and municipalities in Tennessee, e.g., Alcoa, LaFollete, Lenoir City, Maryville, Clinton, and more, links to pandemic response policies can be found here.

Federally Funded Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
This federal program provides federally funded assistance in managing costs associated with: home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization and energy-related minor home repairs.


Read about other local events in Tennessee in our Chapter e-newsletters.

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Events and Actions

Half-Earth Day Virtual Summit
October 22nd
2:00 - 3:30 PM ET

Hosted by the Half-Earth Project and the Eden Project
We hope you will join us for a once-in-a-lifetime conversation between E.O. Wilson and Sir David Attenborough on October 22nd as they discuss How to Save the Natural World in the closing plenary session of Half-Earth Day 2021 presented by CBRE. The conversation is joined by explorer and visionary Sir Tim Smit who will moderate, and is hosted in partnership with the Eden Project.

Register here

Knoxville Justice League Get Out the Vote Event
Saturday, October 23rd
11:00 AM -  3:00 PM ET
Adair Park, 1807 Adair Dr, Knoxville, TN 37918

 
We'll be meeting at the covered shelter at the park.
RAIN OR SHINE! Join the Equity Alliance, Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Action Fund, and TIRRC Votes, as we hit the streets and remind our neighbors to get to the polls for the Knoxville City Council Election! Everyone is invited whether you are an experienced canvasser or if it's your first time. No matter your level of experience, we will all go through a brief training at 11AM.
 
*Note: This will be a non-partisan GOTV event. Masks will be required to attend.
Register here.


Public Comment Opportunity: Foothills Parkway Extension
Foothills Parkway overlook. Image credit jjjj56cp via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

The National Park Service (NPS) is seeking public input concerning the proposed construction of the next section of the Foothills Parkway and access improvements between Wears Valley and the Metcalf Bottoms area in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A virtual public meeting will be held on October 14 and comments may be submitted from October 1 through October 31.
 
The new proposed Foothills Parkway section, 8D, would extend the parkway for 9.8 miles from Wears Valley to the Spur near Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. This proposed action would provide direct access to one of the primary entrances to the park. In addition, the NPS is seeking comments about developing better access to the Metcalf Bottoms area to address safety concerns along Wear Cove Gap Road, improve the overall visitor experience, and protect park resources. Both these efforts could alleviate existing and future motor vehicle congestion to complement overall visitor access and traffic flow on the Tennessee side of the Park.
 
“We are pleased to offer this opportunity to inform the public about the planning process and to receive input on these important projects,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash. “With growing visitation trends, considering these improvements is imperative in helping assure safe vehicle access to the park.”  
 
The civic engagement public comment period for the proposed projects is open from October 1 through October 31 and includes opportunities to submit written comments and participate in a virtual public meeting. The information obtained during this civic engagement period will be used to identify and refine the design elements and alternatives under consideration.
 
The NPS will accept written comments regarding the proposed projects online or by postal mail. Comments may be submitted:              
 
Online (the preferred method) at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/Section8D. Select “Open for Comment” on the left menu bar, open the Foothills Parkway Section 8D/Metcalf Bottoms Newsletter folder, and click on the green “Comment Now” button to access the online commenting form; or
By Postal Mail at:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Section 8D/Metcalf Access Civic Engagement
107 Park Headquarters Rd.
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
Written comments on the proposed projects must be submitted online or be postmarked by October 31, 2021 to be considered.  
 
For more information about the proposed Foothills Parkway Section 8D/Metcalf Bottoms Access Improvement projects, including public meeting details, virtual log-in instructions and more, visit the planning website at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/Section8D.


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Environmental Newsflash

*** Note to readers about accessing these articles

Sierra Club Action: Pass the Build Back Better Act! For our climate. For our communities. For a future where we all can thrive.

https://www.sierraclub.org/2021-Fed-Organizing?homepage
 

Key to Biden’s Climate Agenda Likely to Be Cut Because of Manchin Opposition. The West Virginia Democrat told the White House he is firmly against a clean electricity program that is the muscle behind the president’s plan to battle climate change. Coral Davenport, The New York Times, October 15.

“The most powerful part of President Biden’s climate agenda — a program to rapidly replace the nation’s coal- and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar and nuclear energy — will likely be dropped from the massive budget bill pending in Congress, according to congressional staffers and lobbyists familiar with the matter.
“Senator Joe Manchin III, the Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia whose vote is crucial to passage of the bill, has told the White House that he strongly opposes the clean electricity program, according to three of those people. As a result, White House staffers are now rewriting the legislation without that climate provision, and are trying to cobble together a mix of other policies that could also cut emissions.”

The AP Interview: Kerry says world short of climate goal. Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press, October 14.

“Crucial U.N. climate talks next month are likely to fall short of the global target for cutting coal, gas and oil emissions, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry says, after nearly a year of climate diplomacy that helped win deeper cuts from allies but has so far failed to move some of the world’s biggest polluters to act fast enough…
“Scientists warn the damage is irreversible and headed to catastrophic levels absent major cuts in emissions…
“Asked how the administration’s troubles delivering on its own climate promises affect his work rallying climate action abroad, Kerry said, ‘Well, it hurts.’”
 

Biden Administration Plans Wind Farms Along Nearly the Entire U.S. Coastline: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that her agency will formally begin the process of identifying federal waters to lease to wind developers by 2025. Coral Davenport, The New York Times, October 13.

“The announcement came months after the Biden administration approved the nation’s first major commercial offshore wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and began reviewing a dozen other potential offshore wind projects along the East Coast. On the West Coast, the administration has approved opening up two areas off the shores of Central and Northern California for commercial wind power development. Taken together, the actions represent the most forceful push ever by federal government to promote offshore wind development.”
 

Picturing Our Future: Today’s climate and energy choices shape tomorrow’s shorelines. Climate Central Website, October 12.

Shocking Interactive before-and-after images and videos are linked for a great many cities, many well inland - like DC, Houston, and Philadelphia. Were the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow taking place eighty years from now, participants might be getting around by boat.
“New Climate Central research shows that under the current emissions pathway leading toward 3°C global warming, about 50 major cities around the world will need to mount globally unprecedented defenses or lose most of their populated areas to unremitting sea level rise lasting hundreds of years but set in motion by pollution this century and earlier.”
“We have the opportunity now to change this future. Meeting the most ambitious goals of the Paris Climate Agreement will likely reduce exposure by roughly half, allowing nations to avoid building untested defenses or abandoning many coastal megacities.”
 

Earth’s Largest Extinction Event Saw Toxic Algal Blooms at CO2 Concentrations Observed Today. Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch, October 8.


Algal bloom on Lake Erie. Image credit NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory via Creative Commons CC PDM 1.0
 
"'[The Great Dying] seemed to be a very, very, very fast extinction,' Vajda said, and this is evident in the fossil record."
 

Google launches new features to help users shrink their carbon footprints: There are updates to Search, Maps, Travel, Nest, and more. Justine Calma, The Verge, October 6.

The changes applied to Googling "Climate Change" - but not to YouTube videos, a major source of climate propaganda.
 

A world burning up and under water must finally act on climate change | Opinion
Reps. Burchett and Fleischmann deserve credit. Now Sens. Blackburn and Hagerty should go big and support the indispensable tool of carbon pricing.
Jan Berry and Mark Reynolds (guest columnists), Knox News, October 5.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby Tennessee State Co-Coordinator Jan Berry and CCL’s executive director, Mark Reynolds, contextualize this year’s climate chaos in the United States and present a political solution: carbon pricing.                                                                     
“To ensure that the indispensable tool of carbon pricing is included in upcoming legislation, we ask U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty to support a price on carbon as part of the budget reconciliation negotiations. U.S. Reps. Tim Burchett and Chuck Fleischmann have both joined the Conservative Climate Caucus and support action on climate. Burchett introduced the Carbon Capture Improvement Act, H.R. 3861, while Fleischmann is a strong proponent of energy efficiency and nuclear power.”

 

Sierra Club pushes against the possibility of Memphis natural gas plants. Samuel Hardiman, Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 5.

“Local environmental advocates want to make sure Memphis Light, Gas and Water is considering the potentially existential threat of climate change while the city-owned utility is bidding out its power supply.”
“The Chickasaw branch of the Sierra Club wrote MLGW leadership and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland a letter that raises issues with a key piece of Memphis' planned electricity strategy — natural gas.”
“If Memphis were to leave the Tennessee Valley Authority and be on its own for its electricity supply, MLGW would rely on what could be several natural gas plants for much of the city's power and much of the reliability. MLGW is also seeking bids on renewable energy and battery storage. That planned reliance on natural gas is not what the Sierra Club would like to see.”
 

Nobel Prize in physics awarded to scientists whose work warned the world of climate change. Rob Picheta and Katie Hunt, CNN, October 5.

“The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to scientists Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi, whose groundbreaking work over the past 60 years predicted climate change and decoded complex physical systems. Manabe, 90, and Hasselmann, 89, were jointly honored for "the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming," according to the news release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Both men carried out pioneering work in the 1960s and 1970s that sounded an early alarm on human-made climate change.”
 

Biden officials finalize a rule making it harder to kill birds, reversing Trump. The move restores protections under the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which imposes penalties for unintentionally causing bird deaths through drilling, construction and other activities. Maxine Joselow, Washington Post, September 29.


Migrating birds. Image © Ron Shrieves.
 
“The Biden administration finalized a rule Wednesday revoking a Trump administration policy that eased penalties for killing birds, restoring federal protections that had been in place for a century.”
“The Trump administration’s reinterpretation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act ranked as one of its most contentious wildlife policies. It relaxed legal penalties for energy companies, construction firms and land developers that unintentionally killed birds through activities such as construction and oil drilling.”
“The new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule would restore protections under the bedrock environmental law, which prohibits the “take” of migratory bird species — regulatory-speak for hunting, killing, capturing, selling or otherwise hurting them. Under President Donald Trump, officials had sought to exclude accidental deaths from the “take” definition, a move backed by the oil and gas industry.”
 

John G. Stewart, TVA manager and Democrat who helped craft Civil Rights legislation, dies. Tyler Whetstone, Knoxville News Sentinel, September 30.



John Stewart. Image credit Todd Waterman.
 

John Stewart in 2019 established the Kingston Worker Assistance Fund through the East Tennessee Foundation, which pays for medical screening for any Kingston coal ash cleanup worker at UT Hospital (https://etf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=3049). The article includes a video interview with Nashville Tennessean Opinion Editor David Playas.

Related: Stewart 'never lived a day in his life without thinking of others'. Georgiana Vines, Columnist, The Knoxville News Sentinel, October 3.


Federal Climate Bill Would Clean Tennessee’s Air. Caroline Eggers, WPLN News, September 30.

“Under this program, utilities would need to increase their renewable energy capacity by 4% each year to receive Department of Energy grants, which would be used on customer-focused programs like bill assistance, energy efficiency and worker retention. Otherwise, utilities would have to submit a payment — $40 for each megawatt-hour that the utility falls short of the 4% target.”
“This would force utilities to replace fossil fuel capacity with renewable energy, which would deliver immediate and substantial health benefits due to lower emissions of fine particulate matter and ozone pollution.”
 

Read about other events in Tennessee in our Chapter e-newsletters.

*** A democracy with informed citizens requires the professionalism that we have historically expected of credible news sources. Most “local" newspapers today are asking folks who access their online news stories to purchase a subscription to their paper. This is understandable generally, and reminds us that we should do our part to pay for the resources that result in publication of local news. Those of us who use summaries of published print news, as we do, are no exception, and we ask the same of our readers. However, we also believe that a person who only wants to see an occasional article published in a newspaper should not be required to subscribe. So if you believe that you are in the latter category - only an occasional reader - you may be able to read an article without a subscription if you "browse anonymously" or clear your browser cache before activating a link to an article. This may help you avoid many "pay walls" at these news sources (some sources restrict access even with anonymous settings). Another approach is to search for alternate source on the particular news item. But we recommend that our readers who find themselves accessing an online news source on a regular basis subscribe to an online version of the paper, which is generally much cheaper than a  print version.

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HELP THE HARVEY BROOME GROUP
PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT

 
Donate

Can't donate now? Sign up for Kroger Community Rewards. Kroger donates a portion of what you spend to the Harvey Broome Group as long as you designate HBG as your preferred charity.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Kroger Community Rewards web page
2. Register (or Sign In if you already have an account.)
3. Enroll in Community Rewards (or Edit if you're already enrolled.)
4. Enter HBG's Community Rewards Number 27874.

That's it. Swipe your Kroger Card when you shop and know that you're helping protect your environment.

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Who We Are

Founded by legendary conservationist John Muir in 1892, the Sierra Club is now the nation's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization -- with more than two million members and supporters. Our successes range from protecting millions of acres of wilderness to helping pass the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act. More recently, we've made history by leading the charge to move away from the dirty fossil fuels that cause climate disruption and toward a clean energy economy.

The Harvey Broome Group (HBG) is one of four Sierra Club Groups within the Tennessee Chapter. HBG is based in Knoxville and serves 18 surrounding counties. HBG's namesake, Harvey Broome, was a Knoxvillian who was a founding member of the Wilderness Society and played a key role in the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Visit our website
Join HBG
Donate
(click the Donate button on the HBG home page)

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