News Feeds | ecology.iww.org (2024)

Ohio River Valley Institute - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 13:51

Heavy industry is Pennsylvania’s biggest source of climate pollution and a principal cause of variousenvironmental health concerns in frontline environmental justice communities. A new program known as Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania, or RISE PA, could help curb hazardous pollution while creating jobs and drawing new investment to the Commonwealth.

RISE PA is Pennsylvania’s ambitious implementation application for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program and a critical step toward helping communities in the region advance a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia. The programwould reduce climate-change-causing greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources by providing grants to promote investment into emissions reduction equipment and technology and energy efficiency upgrades.Up to 5.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxideor carbon dioxide equivalent emissions could be reduced between 2025 and 2030 under the program, which would also create upwards of 6,000 new jobs installing and maintaining the equipment.

On Tuesday, at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) DC 57’s Union Hall in Carnegie, PA, I joined DEP Interim Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley, Office of the Governor Critical Investments Executive Director Dr. Brian Regli, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, and leaders of IUPAT DC 57, Moms Clean Air Force Pennsylvania, and Evergreen Action in support of RISE PA.

Initiatives like RISE PA will drive meaningful pollution reductions while creating good jobs, a durable career pipeline for workers, and improved quality of life in local communities.In Pennsylvania, the industrial sector has been a central economic driver for more than a century, producing critical goods – including steel, cement, and glass – that helped build and grow the modern U.S. economy. Today, manufacturing contributes more than $113 billion in state domestic product and provides 11% of the Commonwealth’s jobs. This significant manufacturing footprint also means that industry is responsible for one-third of Pennsylvania’s GHG emissions, making it the largest-emitting sector in the Commonwealth’s economy.

Earlier this year, we released a new report with Strategen titled A Roadmap for Industrial Decarbonization in Pennsylvania, detailing how the state could cut carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions in the industrial sector by 84% by 2050, yielding significant benefits for local economies, public health, and the environment. Energy efficiency measures and electrification stood out as the highest-impact approaches in the short-term, with significant potential for job growth. Investing in near-term strategies like energy efficiency and electrification to decarbonize our industrial sector will help us build a better future for all Pennsylvanians, and RISE PA charts a path for how we can achieve unprecedented emissions reductions with an appropriate sense of urgency.

I was inspired by the press event because these are the exact ingredients we need to make this program as successful as we know it can be – representatives from state and local government, labor, environmental organizations, and local communities coming together in support of a plan to maximize the historic investment the Biden Administration secured through the Inflation Reduction Act in service of addressing harmful pollution from one of the most important sectors to decarbonize. Full funding for RISE PA would give us the opportunity to make significant steps forward in decarbonizing our industrial sector in Pennsylvania while boosting good paying union jobs and protecting our neighbors.

RISE PA

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) Program, designed to incubate a wave of state climate action, is tailor-made for Pennsylvania. New investments from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) are catalyzing a clean energy boom across the country. The CPRG program is a critical “force multiplier” that can empower subnational leaders to seize these opportunities and leverage greater public and private sector investments in climate solutions. Importantly, the program is designed to achieve near-term reductions in climate pollution that would not otherwise occur absent this federal investment—and effective applications in individual states can create scalable, replicable models for climate action.

Pennsylvania seeks to take full advantage of the CPRG’s Implementation Grant competition, applying for the largest funding tier to tackle a heavily polluting sector that would otherwise keep polluting at unsustainable levels. In its proposed RISE PA grant program, the Shapiro administration would allocate $440 million in flexible grants for industrial facilities to pursue decarbonization projects from 2025 to 2030 with three stipulations:

1. For medium- and large-scale industrial decarbonization projects, the grantee must achieve pollution reductions of at least 20 percent
2. Every project must pay at least the local prevailing wages for construction, alteration, or repair
3. At least 15 percent of the labor hours on most projects must be completed by apprentices

RISE PA would also offer a Community Benefits Bonus for projects located in disadvantaged communities that submit a community benefits plan, and a Fair Labor Bonus for projects that make collective bargaining commitments and dedicate resources for local hiring and workforce development.

Taken together, these requirements and incentives ensure that RISE PA would drive meaningful pollution reductions while creating good jobs and a durable career pipeline for workers. Analyses of the full potential of those climate and economic impacts show that CPRG funding for RISE PA would have sweeping benefits for both climate and jobs across the Commonwealth.

Decarbonization of Pennsylvania’s Industry

Heavy industry is a complicated sector to decarbonize, with processes requiring burning fuels for high heat, producing climate pollutants through unavoidable chemical reactions, and more. Despite those challenges, Strategen has identified several key decarbonization pillars that could drive pollution reductions in Pennsylvania’s industry.

Energy efficiency measures and electrification stood out as the highest-impact approaches in the short term with significant potential for job growth. Both pathways incorporate established market-ready technologies, including industrial heat pumps and thermal energy storage with significant co-benefits. Increased efficiency will bring significant cost savings for manufacturers, given that a typical industrial plant spends 30-50 percent of its operating budget on energy, while electrification will continue to drive decarbonization as the grid grows cleaner. Together, industrial efficiency and electrification would cut nearly 3.5 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide-equivalent pollution (CO2e) from 2025 to 2030 and nearly 7 MMT CO2e from 2025 to 2050.

All told, RISE PA would cut pollution by more than 5.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent from 2025 to 2030 and nearly 9.2 million metric tons from 2025 to 2050.

Heavy industry’s varied decarbonization pathways also offer an exciting opportunity to pursue community benefits. RISE PA will place a high premium on projects that positively impact the surrounding community through its Community Benefits Bonus. Strategen’s report details those potential benefits for each industry. For example, decarbonizing fossil fuel extraction would have meaningful health benefits for nearby residents, as those facilities are heavily concentrated in frontline communities that suffer from increased rates of asthma, heart disease, and other illnesses as a result. RISE PA offers an opportunity to rectify these injustices.

Industrial Decarbonization Means Jobs

In addition to reducing pollution, RISE PA will bring significant economic benefits to the Commonwealth. In a recent analysis, BW Research found that RISE PA would create 6,000 new direct and indirect jobs (in job-years). The retrofits and new construction funded by RISE PA would require painters, electricians, pipefitters, carpenters, and more.

Fulfilling this new workforce demand will be a key challenge for the Commonwealth, but RISE PA is well-positioned to meet that challenge. Many of those critical occupations are heavily unionized, which will help employers connect with skilled workers. The program’s Fair Labor Bonus will also help meet project labor demands and cultivate a new generation of workers in construction and retrofit fields. These key programmatic details ensure that RISE PA will effectively create jobs while cutting climate-warming pollution.

What’s Next for Pennsylvania

In accordance with the April 1 deadline, Pennsylvania has submitted its application for a $475 million CPRG Implementation Grant to fund RISE PA. Our organizations were pleased to provide independent technical assistance and stakeholder engagement support to help inform the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Implementation Grant application.

EPA will be making award decisions this summer based, in part, on the below key criteria:

1. Funding need
2. Emissions reduction potential between from 2025-2030 and 2030-2050
3. Community benefits, centered on low-income and disadvantaged communities
4. Job quality
5. Stakeholder consultation and readiness to implement proposals

Based on these criteria, Pennsylvania’s application should be extremely competitive and deserves full consideration from EPA.

The post Pennsylvania’s Opportunity to Cut Industrial Pollution and Create Jobs appeared first on Ohio River Valley Institute.

Categories: G2. Local Greens

Food Tank - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 13:25

Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute (FTPI) is a Native-American women-run organization dedicated to teaching sustainable indigenous ways of living in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. The Institute provides resources that support the Pueblo people through knowledge preservation and education.

Roxanne Swentzell created FTPI in 1987. Swentzell tells Food Tank that before creating FTPI, she learned about permaculture and built her own sustainable homestead. By doing this, she discovered what farming techniques worked in her area and then began sharing this knowledge.

“The name, Flowering Tree, came from the novel “Black Elk Speaks,” in which there is a prayer to make the tree of life bloom again,” Swentzell explains. “We felt that this was what we were trying to do also. Flowering Tree would be our living prayer.”

Today, FTPI offers workshops and resources to promote healthy and sustainable lifestyles and to pass on traditional knowledge. While the programs are designed for the Santa Clara Pueblo Tribe, the Institute also opens them up to other members of the community. The Institute has three seed banks, a greenhouse, ceremonial women’s house, restored adobe, and more. It offers classes on how to lead healthy and sustainable lifestyles and facilitates seed saving and other cultural practices. These include farming and gardening, composting, animal husbandry and processing, adobe construction, mud plastering, pottery, and weaving.

“As a native-, woman-run organization that focuses on the health of the local communities, Flowering Tree has been impactful around areas of home, food security, teaching youth, and empowering women of color,” Swentzell tells Food Tank. She explains that there is a limited understanding of the sustainable life-ways of Native American knowledge but that there is also a growing interest in the subject.

“Indigenous knowledge is needed more than ever to find balance and meaning in these challenging times,” Swentzell says.

One important indigenous practice is seed saving which, according to the First Nations Development Institute (FNDI), has been historically necessary to preserve seeds critical to indigenous culture and food systems. According to the FNDI, many indigenous communities have developed ways to save seeds for hundreds of years.

At FTPI, Swentzell says the seed banks are an important resource for the health of the planet. The Institute has facilitated seed saving and sharing for decades. By saving seeds, she tells Food Tank people can ensure that these seeds continue to exist and increase biodiversity.

“Industrial farming has shrunk and depleted so much of the food diversity and stability of ecosystems that we are in grave danger of having it all collapse,” Swentzell says. “Instead of our food systems being in millions of hands caring for crops they love, it’s in a few mega corporations that don’t care about individuals but only about making money.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, four companies control the majority of crop seed sales in the U.S. Two of these companies provided more than half of the United States retail sales of corn, soybean, and cotton seeds from 2018-2020.

Swentzell believes heirloom seeds can serve as “helpers” for a biodiverse healthy future and saving them does not necessarily take a lot of effort. By saving and sharing seeds, she believes, people also develop community and a shared appreciation for the planet.

“If we all saved seeds of one variety of plant we loved, there would be so many cool diverse plants being nurtured because of all our unique tastes,” Swentzell tells Food Tank.

For the Pueblo people, Swentzell says their tribes have survived because the community continued passing on of knowledge. She tells Food Tank that FTPI is working to preserve this knowledge and that doing so could provide an alternative and more sustainable way of life.

“It is so important for us to understand our traditional tribal ways in order to continue as Pueblo people,” Swentzell tells Food Tank. “It’s something we love and as a diverse culture within the USA, it seems vital that there be different views on how to live that might be better than the mainstream cultures that are proving to be self-destructive.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Shelley Pauls, Unsplash

The post Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute: Sowing Seeds of Sustainability appeared first on Food Tank.

Categories: A3. Agroecology

Clean Air Ohio - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 13:15

Since 2017, Feet First Philly (FFP) has been documenting illegal parking on sidewalks, crosswalks, curb cuts, and bike lanes. Through their #NotAParkingSpot Twitter (now X) campaign, FFP has drawn attention to this issue for many years. Finally, we are excited to announce that the Philadelphia Parking Authority is planning to crack down on illegal parking that blocks crosswalks and sidewalks, inhibiting the mobility of and creating safety issues for pedestrians all over Philadelphia.

Over the years, FFP received thousands of reports of illegal parking, and has documented them, forwarded individual reports to the appropriate Police districts and the Parking Authority, and generated maps to show the extent of this problem. Until now the problem has never been a priority for enforcement agencies and the dangerous behavior has gone largely unchecked.

Map showing the number of #NotAParkingSpot violations reported in 2019

Now that the PPA is cracking down on illegal parking, they and their partner Variety will officially announce in mid-April the new program the “Mobility and Access Initiative” to the public. This new program will draw more attention to the issues that result from illegal parking. Hiring more enforcement officers is needed to get this program running, and we applaud the Philadelphia Parking Authority for committing to hiring 30 new enforcement officers to focus on vehicles illegally parked on sidewalks and blocking ADA-accessible curbs. Enforcement will begin in May, therefore providing a warning period of approximately four weeks after the official announcement.

Community members are aware of the issues created by illegal parking and have used Feet First Philly’s Public Space Enhancement Mini-grant program to help resolve them in their neighborhoods. For example, Friends of Adaire used funds from the Public Space Enhancement Mini-grant program to install planters and bike racks along the sidewalks of Earl Street and Palmer Street to prevent illegal parking and protect children and parents walking to and from school.

Illegal parking greatly affects pedestrians, with an even greater impact on vulnerable populations including people with disabilities, older adults, and children. With this new enforcement program in place, we hope to see a shift in culture from one that has allowed illegal parking to be pervasive in our city for so long to a place where pedestrians of all ages and mobilities can travel safely.

Categories: G2. Local Greens

Audubon Society - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 12:54

Categories: G3. Big Green

Global Justice Ecology Project - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 11:39

In the Brazilian Amazon, the uncontacted Kawahiva Indigenous people are fighting for their survival. Invasions force the tribe to live on the run, fleeing violence from loggers and ranchers. Attacks and disease have killed their relatives. These are the Last of the Kawahiva, and their genocide will be complete unless their land is protected. For […]

The post Survival International: Stop the genocide of the uncontacted Kawahiva appeared first on Global Justice Ecology Project.

Categories: B4. Radical Ecology

Centre for Future Work - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 11:28

Rapidly rising food prices have been a major component of the cost-of-living crisis affecting Canadian households in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. Food price inflation was significantly faster than overall inflation in 2022 and 2023. Food inflation has slowed more recently (to 2.4% year-over-year by March 2024, the slowest in 3 years), but food affordability is a major concern.

Low-income households spend a much larger share of their total income on food than higher-income families: the lowest-income quintile of households spends 12.8% of total spending on groceries, versus just 6.5% for the highest-income quintile (data from Statistics Canada Table 11-10-0223-01). High food prices thus impose a particular burden on low- and middle-income households. Similar inequalities are visible across the various regions of Canada – none more so than in Canada’s north, where limited competition and very high transportation costs contribute to shocking grocery prices.

These factors were explored recently in a powerful documentary, “Who’s Minding the Store?”, produced by CBC’s flagship investigative program, The Fifth Estate. Led by veteran correspondent Steven d’Souza, the documentary covered several dimensions of the food price crisis. Working in partnership with reporters with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), the program revealed shocking details of food-price-gouging in isolated northern communities. It also featured detailed discussion with Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford on the economic and financial forces driving food prices – including the record-high profits being captured by the large grocery chains that dominate Canadian food retailing.

The full documentary can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuz5SgcHnrQ.

A summary of the film’s main findings is published at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/rising-food-prices-canada-north-1.7122481.

For the latest on grocery store profits (which set a new all-time record in 2023, despite weakening sales and the slowdown in inflation), see the Centre for Future Work’s recent report on the resilience of corporate profits in Canada in 2023.

The post Documentary Shines Light on Excessive Food Prices in Canada appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

Categories: A2. Green Unionism

Centre for Future Work - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 11:17

The renowned independent broadcasters at CANADALAND have launched a new series of podcasts (part of their Commons series) exploring issues in work, employment, and fairness. The pilot of the series, titled ‘The War on Workers,’ features an extended conversation with Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford, about the epochal changes in labour policies, power relationships, and expectations that have reshaped Canadian work and workers over the past generation.

Speaking with host Arshy Mann, Jim explains how employers came to hold the upper hand in determining the conditions and pay of work – buttressed by policies (like anti-union laws and cutbacks in Employment Insurance) from employer-favouring governments. The rise of gig work and labour-hire agencies reinforce the insecurity faced by workers.

This podcast will have lasting value as an information and educational resource on structural imbalances in Canada’s labour market. Download the full episode here: https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/work-1-the-war-on-workers/.

The post CANADALAND Podcast Explores the ‘War on Workers’ appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

Categories: A2. Green Unionism

Institute for Local Self-Reliance - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 10:39

Centre for Future Work - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 10:34

B.C.’s economy has always depended on its rich forests—from First Nations communities, through the early settler economy, to modern forestry practices and technologies.

But in recent years the industry has been buffeted by a perfect storm of environmental, economic, and geopolitical challenges. Total production has declined by up to half in recent years, with devastating effects on employment, output, exports, and taxes. Dozens of remote and regional forest communities are unsure of their future, unless a viable and sustainable future for forestry can be achieved.

The three major unions representing forestry workers in B.C. (including Unifor, the United Steelworkers, and the PPWC) recently came together to host a special Forestry Summit. The Summit aimed to bring attention to the challenges facing the industry, and demand a concerted strategy by government and all industry stakeholders to stabilize and sustain the industry on a sustainable, high-tech foundation. The Summit featured a major report, co-authored by Jim Stanford (Director of the Centre for Future Work) and Ken Delaney (from the Canadian Skills Training and Employment Coalition). The report describes the forestry crisis, and maps out the major elements of a sector strategy to preserve jobs and workplaces – consistent with both conservation objectives and First Nations stewardship of treaty and traditional lands.

The report proposes a series of key reforms to develop and implement a strong sector strategy for a modern, value-added, sustainable provincial forest industry. The strategy consists of four major elements:

1. Creation of a Permanent Province-Wide Forestry Sector Council
2. Development of a Province-Wide Plan for Stable, Sustainable, Economic Fibre Supply
3. Forest Adjustment Bureau to Redesign and Integrate Worker and Community Adjustment Supports
4. Eight-Point Strategy to Maximize Value-Added from Stable Fibre Harvesting

Please see the full 54-page report, A Better Future for B.C. Forestry: A Sector Strategy for Sustainable, Value-Added Forest Industries.

Summary slides highlighting the major findings of the report can be downloaded here. They are also available in French.

For more information on the Fighting for our Future campaign launched by the three unions, please visit https://bcforestryworkers.ca/.

The post Building a Sustainable, High-Value-Added Forestry Sector in B.C. appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

Categories: A2. Green Unionism

On any given day, children play in the dirt area at the center of Bennett Park in Washington Heights, happily digging away.

Rachel Graham Kagan’s 2-year-old daughter is often among them, though possibly not for much longer — if the Parks Department moves forward with plans to replace part of the dirt section with a multipurpose artificial turf field.

“How can they in good conscience put this stuff down knowing there’s PFAS in it?” said Kyla Bennett, science policy director at the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and one of the researchers who discovered PFAS in turf in Massachusetts in 2019. “It boggles my mind. Children will be exposed to this PFAS. These are carcinogens. What are they thinking?”

Read the PEER Story…

The post An Actual Turf War Erupts in Washington Heights as Parents Protest Synthetic Grass appeared first on PEER.org.

Categories: A2. Green Unionism

It's Going Down - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 09:57

Announcing call for tablers at the upcoming Constellation bookfair in so-called Montreal on May 25th. For more information, see the Constellation website.

CONSTELLATION will feature a bookfair on Saturday, May 25th, at the CÉDA and CCGV buildings in Parc Vinet (métro Lionel-Groulx). We invite booksellers, zine distros, artists, and makers of other material of interest to anarchists and the anarcho-curious to table at the event.Tabling will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but you can show up as early as 8:30 a.m. for setup.​​​​​​​

As organizers of CONSTELLATION, we would like to clarify that we see our role as helping facilitate an anarchist bookfair space, not as content arbiters.

If you would like to reserve a table, please complete the form that can be accessed here: https://constellation.noblogs.org/tables

We will make announcements when tables are running low and again when none are left. The reservation form will close when all tables are reserved or at the end of the day on May 10th. You can also always B.Y.O.T. (bring your own table) and set up somewhere.

Both buildings are wheelchair-accessible. We will be setting aside table locations nearest to the entryways for people with limited mobility. More complete accessibility information, including info on childcare, will be published on our website soon. Specific requests related to access can be sent to us via the reservation form, and we will do our best to accommodate them.

We call on the wider anarchist community to help pull this off! Anyone can organize an event; simply add it to the festival calendar. If you’re interested in distributing books, zines, art, or other materials, you can reserve a bookfair table.

Categories: D1. Anarchism

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 09:38

Categories: A2. Green Unionism

It's Going Down - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 09:27

Report from the Atlanta Community Press Collective on surveillance plan advanced by the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) in 2023.

In 2023, the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) quietly advanced what one critic called an “unprecedented” plan to test an invasive individual electronic surveillance program and secure a $1 million city contract for Talitrix, an APF donor company.

Founded in 2020 and with ownership stakes held by several current and former Georgia Republican lawmakers, Talitrix aims to capture a share of the rapidly growing electronic monitoring market. The company uses geofencing and proprietary algorithms to produce a “Talitrix score” that agencies can use to determine whether someone’s behavior on pretrial release or probation should subject them to re-arrest and incarceration.

Talitrix provided a demonstration of the company’s product for APF and Atlanta Police Department (APD) officials in January 2023. During that demonstration, Talitrix CEO Justin Hawkins expressed an interest in integrating his company’s technology with Fusus, the surveillance company that underpins Atlanta’s massive camera network.

The day after the demonstration, APF’s vice president of programs, Gregory McNiff, emailed Anthony Baldoni, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Fusus, to make introductions and express an interest in the integration on behalf of the city. “The Mayor’s office is ready to fund the purchase of Talitrix monitoring bracelets for the purpose of tracking repeat offenders,” McNiff wrote.

The Fusus-Talitrix integration would combine GPS-enabled digital shackles featuring biometric monitoring capabilities with the growing canopy of Fusus-linked video cameras in Atlanta. By integrating Talitrix equipment with AI-powered real-time video surveillance that can trigger multiple public and privately owned “pan-tilt-zoom” (PTZ) cameras at a person’s precise location, APF planned to put up to 900 people under constant video, audio, biometric, and GPS surveillance as a condition of pre-trial release.

“This [proposal] turns the City of Atlanta into an open-air prison for everyone on electronic monitoring,” said Cooper Quinton, security researcher and senior staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Threat Lab.

Several technology and legal experts who reviewed the integration proposal concluded it would be the most sweeping state-run electronic surveillance program in the United States and raised serious legal and ethical concerns.

“We’re seeking huge upticks in the rate of electronic monitoring. It’s gone up tenfold since 2005, and it doubled between 2021 and 2022. It’s already very invasive,” Quinton said, referring to a report released by the criminal justice research and policy nonprofit Vera Institute. “This is an unprecedented expansion of that surveillance. Even if you have not yet been convicted of a crime under this system, you and your family and your friends could be subject to constant, targeted video surveillance.”

Fallon McClure, deputy director of policy and advocacy with the ACLU of Georgia, noted that Georgia’s courts have disapproved of blanket electronic monitoring. “We are gravely concerned about what will be a panopticon for those on pre-trial release,” she said.

Kendra Albert, a public interest technology researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, had a more emphatic perspective.

“Grave concerns would be putting it mildly. My level of concern would be best expressed in expletives,” said Albert.

Albert said that no other electronic surveillance program to their knowledge has subjected people to the level of constant monitoring APF’s proposed Fusus-Talitrix merge would entail. The proposal could subject people on pre-trial release and everyone around them to warrantless wiretapping without notice or consent, they said, a prospect that “functionally upends the relationship under the Constitution that the police are supposed to have when they want to surveil people.”

“This is f*cked,” Albert added.

Black Communities as “unwitting research subjects”

Records show the APF planned to test the Talitrix technology on a cohort of so-called “repeat offenders.” The group consists of 1,000 people convicted of three or more felonies who are arrested again in Fulton County. Over 93 percent of APF-designated “repeat offenders” are Black, according to a 2022 annual report.

Drug offenses are the most common charge, representing 34 to 40 percent of the arrests in the dataset, according to APF’s 2022 report.

Mayor Dickens and APD officials have worked with APF’s Repeat Offender Commission on a multi-year public relations campaign to paint repeat offenders as a scourge whose “life of crime” makes up “40 percent” of the offenses in Atlanta. However, APF’s data characterized 83 percent of repeat offender cases as non-violent.

Notes from an APF Repeat Offender Commission meeting reflect racial concerns amongst stakeholders. President and CEO of the Buckhead Coalition, Jim Durrett, is quoted in the notes questioning the presentation of the commission’s marketing materials. “How important is it to put their picture up on the flyer? Five black males. What is being received? What message are we sending?” Durrett asked.

Those notes reflect an unnamed party responding, “Most of the jail is primarily African-American so the stats support it.”

Testing of “unvetted Talitrix technology appears to align with this country’s history of using Black people and communities as unwitting research subjects,” said Tiffany Roberts, public policy director at the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Laura Rivera, an attorney with Just Futures Law, agreed, saying, “Make no mistake: these draconian measures are meant not to ensure safety, but to control the bodies of Black and Brown people, including immigrants.”

Concerns surrounding the use of Talitrix devices spurred APF to form a temporary task force in June 2023 aimed at responding to objections and allowing the project to proceed.

The APF pushed forward with the plan and paid student volunteers at Georgia State University and Georgia Tech a $50 stipend to install and wear Talitrix devices in October and November 2023 as a “proof of concept” plan for the integration. A month before the pilot program, Talitrix donated at least $25,000 to the APF as a sponsor of the foundation’s “Crime is Toast” breakfast.

Repeat Offenders?

Both the price tag and the process of the Fusus-Talitrix proposal appear to fall outside Atlanta’s procurement rules. Those rules require any solicitation for a city contract over $1 million that would be presented to the city council for approval to run through the city’s procurement department and undergo a review by the city’s Inspector General’s (IG) Independent Procurement Review Division.

The APF planned to fund a 6-month Talitrix pilot for $234,000 and then have the city assume the contract while adding 700 devices for a total cost exceeding $1 million. APF funding would have allowed the initial phase of the plan to avoid any pre-award independent procurement review.

The IG found in March 2023 that the $109 million single-source contract the Atlanta Police Department inked with Axon failed to follow procurement guidelines. APD agreed to revise its procedures and retrain its staff.

As of March 22, the City of Atlanta’s Procurement Office confirmed Talitrix is not listed as a vendor. Despite an email from the APF stating otherwise, APD’s public affairs office told the Atlanta Community Press Collective “the Mayor’s Office did not approve funding for Talitrix” and “there was never a commitment to purchase” the Talitrix technology.

The Atlanta Community Press Collective also inquired about the status of the plan to twelve members of the Repeat Offender Commission. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C. McBurney said the program is not active “at least not as a Court-authorized initiative.”

“Does it pass the smell test?”

Talitrix is no stranger to controversy. In October 2023, the Fulton County Commission voted to terminate a $2.1 million contract Talitrix inked with Sheriff Pat Labat for 1,000 devices. By October, the sheriff had deployed only 15 devices inside Fulton’s Rice Street jail. The decision to pull out of the deal followed revelations that Talitrix donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Sheriff’s campaign committee.

“Some $70,000 from a group of people all associated with this same enterprise and I think quite frankly, it raises questions, it could be perfectly legal, but does it pass the smell test?” Fulton County Commission Chair Rob Pitts said at the time. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) published an investigation in March alleging heavy-handed legal tactics Talitrix used against critics, including legal notices Talitrix’s lawyer served on Forsyth County Commissioners who raised questions about the company. Forsyth Commissioner Todd Levent told the AJC that attorney Robert Ashe—who is also representing the city of Atlanta in its fight against the Cop City referendum—represented Talitrix in public records requests to the Forsyth County Commission following critical statements about the company by some of the commissioners.

The Atlanta Police Foundation did not respond to ACPC inquiries in the weeks before publication.

Local, independent journalism takes time and resources. If you have the capacity, please consider becoming a subscriber or making a one-time contribution to keep ACPC running. Donate to ACPC here.

Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

Categories: D1. Anarchism

Common Dreams - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 09:23

The Biden administration today issued a final rule that protects 2.2 million federal civil service employees from political hirings and firings. Bitsy Skerry, regulatory policy associate for Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“An independent federal workforce ensures that our government works for all of us, not for one party or one person. Our nation’s civil servants, the workhorses of our democracy, deserve strong protections to ensure their jobs are based on a foundation of nonpartisan merit and expertise, not partisan bias and loyalty. Civil servants across the country, not just in Washington, D.C., serve the public interest every day by delivering our mail, ensuring the food and medicine we purchase is safe, and protecting our national security. Safeguarding their jobs protects us all, and the Biden administration’s new rule does just that.”

Categories: F. Left News

Anthropocene Magazine - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 09:00

On Earth Day next year, expert judges will decide who should get the biggest incentive prize in history—$80 million for removing at least 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They can use air, land, oceans or rocks, with a plan to scale up to gigatons annually. The XPRIZE for Carbon Removal is a $100 million effort funded by Elon Musk to help fight climate change and restore the Earth’s carbon balance. Since its launch in 2022, more than 1,300 teams have registered, over 300 of which have indicated they are ready to demonstrate a working system. If all goes to plan, the competitors should remove a total of nearly four megatons of CO2 this year.

Climate competitions and contests have never been more popular, with their number and value growing exponentially since 1970—even Prince William has one. Part of their popularity with funders might be that prizes seem to generate more positive publicity—and attract less critical scrutiny—than traditional research grants.

All of which raises some novel questions. Are prizes really an efficient way to move the carbon needle? Or just a sideshow from the tough business of reinventing economies to be more sustainable?

Source: Kudymowa, J ,B. Tsai, and T. Hird. 2022. How effective are prizes at spurring innovation? Rethink Priorities.• • •Yes—And We’re All Winners

1. That lightbulb moment. History is studded with examples of prizes kickstarting progress. A Parisian confectioner invented canned food in the early 19th century after Napoleon offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could preserve food for his invading troops. And Charles Lindbergh’s epic trans-Atlantic flight in 1927 was inspired as much by a $25,000 prize (worth about half a million dollars today) as by the thrill of exploration. Prizes can help the climate, too. In 2008, the US Department of Energy launched the $10 million L Prize to replace the 60-watt incandescent bulb. Within three years, Philips developed an LED bulb that consumed 83% less power. Within four, the bulb was on shelves and within five, it was already being outclassed by more efficient rivals.

Source: L Prize 60W Replacement Competition
Solid-State Lighting. Energy.gov

2. Double your money. Open Philanthropy commissioned a readable and insightful meta-study into prizes in 2021 that focuses on the rise of inducement prizes (like the XPRIZE) at the expense of recognition prizes (such as the Nobels). Rare before 1990, inducement prizes now outnumber recognition prizes nearly four to one. The researchers estimated that inducement prizes of over $100,000 leverage at least twice their cash purse in private capital—and in the case of one low-carbon prize as much as nine times. Recognition prizes are better at shifting the conversation, however, with prizewinning topics producing 40% more scientific papers and retaining 55% more scientists, in the years after the prize.

3. Bridging the valley of death. The US Department of Energy thinks it has hit on a winning formula for competitions—hyper-focused requirements, short deadlines, and progressively increasing cash prizes. For example, all successful entrants might get a small award, then a little more when they hit a performance milestone. These awards bridge the so-called “valley of death,” where poorly funded startups run out of money just when they need it most. This four-part blog is packed with cleantech success stories, such as three wave power companies that used competition cash to raise outside money and speed towards commercialization.

• • •No—The Money Could Be Better Spent

1. Who’s setting the research agenda? Zorina Khan, professor of economics at Bowdoin College, points out in this entertaining podcast that prizes of all sorts were very popular in elitist societies. One problem is that prizes enable rich individuals and organizations to bump their interests, however self-serving, to the front of the line. Another is that they are inefficient and result in the unnecessary and wasteful duplication of work. She describes a coding prize from Netflix that attracted about 50,000 competitors—all of whose work was made redundant by technological advances before the contest even closed. “What I find is that in almost all prize competitions, the investments of time and resources on the part of the competitors generally exceed even the absolute value of the award,” says Khan.

2. Less glamor, more grind. Glitzy prizes with gargantuan payouts aren’t well suited to tackling systemic challenges like climate change, says Khan: “The real problem is that we have an absence of markets, and we have incorrect prices. We don’t need grand innovation prizes. Instead, what we need to do is the tedious job of setting up mechanisms to ensure that there are correct market prices for emissions.” And even for simpler problems, the effect of inducement prizes is unclear. The Open Philanthropy researchers found little quantitative empirical evidence that prizes actually boost innovation in the long run.

3. Incentivize production, not invention. In 2007, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, wanted to immunize hundreds of millions of children in the developing world against pneumococcal disease. But instead of creating a one-off prize to develop a low-cost vaccine, the Gates Foundation and others funded an advance market commitment (AMC) to buy 200 million doses at no more than $3.50 each. Each entrant would earn a fraction of that payout, depending on how many doses they could produce at scale. Later analysis strongly suggests the AMC accelerated vaccine uptake by about five years. Micheal Kremer, the Nobel laureate who jointly came up with the idea for AMCs, thinks they could also work for climate change. In 2022, Stripe, Alphabet, Meta and others funded Frontier, an AMC to buy over $1 billion of permanent carbon removal by 2030.

• • • What To Keep An Eye On

1. Micro-prizes. Not all inducement prizes are expensive Grand Challenges. There are now plenty of contests for specialized, niche, or local climate needs. For example, the EPA has a modest $30,000 award for stormwater management on college campuses, while the U.S. Department of Energy is seeking photos of the solar power transition for just $2,500. These align with the Open Philanthropy meta-study, which found only a weak relationship between cash amounts and innovative activity and concluded that very large cash rewards are likely unnecessary.

2. Competitions without prizes. The Department of Energy is even planning a Voluntary Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchasing Challenge to encourage private purchases of removal credits by creating a leaderboard of spenders, without providing any funding at all. It hopes that will “enhance market transparency, giving organizations interested in carbon removal credit purchases greater confidence to move forward.” But will the absence of either carrots or sticks lead to any real action?

3. The power of the prize pulpit. While prizes tend to be pretty uncontroversial (except to the losers perhaps), putting winners on pedestals is a risk. Last year, John Clauser, a Nobel laureate in 2022 for work on quantum physics, came out as a climate change denier.

Top image ©Anthropocene Magazine

Categories: B5. Resilience, Third Nature, and Transition

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 08:22

Controversy on Waste: To Burn or Not to Burn?Canada in the Spotlight as Host of Plastics Treaty Negotiations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 4, 2024

While Canada is set to host the next round of the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations April 23-29, Canadian groups are raising an alarm about the expansion of waste incineration across the country. Dubbed “waste-to-energy” (WTE) by industry, burning waste through methods like incineration, gasification and pyrolysis is a practice that would undermine federal climate, plastics, and waste management policies.

“Canada has goals to end plastic pollution and stop climate change. That means we must close the door to polluting and wasteful garbage incineration,” said Karen Wirsig, Plastics Senior Program Manager at Environmental Defence. “Incineration poses real risks to the environment and human health. Plus, garbage is not a clean or ‘renewable’ energy source and incinerators have been found to emit more greenhouse gasses per unit of electricity than fossil fuels.”

The Town of Pontiac, Quebec, is fighting a proposal for a new waste incinerator to burn garbage from the City of Ottawa, where the treaty negotiations will take place. Other incinerator proposals are surfacing in Brampton, Ontario, and Edmonton, Alberta, among others.

The rise in incinerator proposals follows a report released last year by the federal government and shared with municipal officials that suggests incineration is a climate-friendly approach to waste management. That federal report was recently debunked by research commissioned by Zero Waste BC and GAIA.

Incineration threatens efforts to establish Canada as a leader in tackling plastic pollution, climate change and diversion of organics.

Analysis by the Canadian Zero Waste Coalition shows that:

• Waste-to-energy is the most climate-polluting of any waste management approach (including landfilling) (The Whole Picture: Climate Impacts from Waste to Energy)
• Case studies on communities that pursued WTE found that the systems failed to deliver as promised, polluted, resulted in years of delays, wasted huge sums of public funding, and undermined meaningful action on waste reduction (Cautionary Tales: Examples from Across Canada)
• Actions to reduce waste were the most cost-effective and environmentally sound approach. (Metro Vancouver – a Case Study)

Report author and environmental engineer Belinda Li, noted, “it is very important that our government supports real solutions like waste prevention and reduction and not costly distractions such as WTE. If we prevent waste from being generated in the first place, we can extend the life of our landfills and make the best use of our existing infrastructure.”

The floundering of experimental WTE plants offers cautionary tales to other communities. “Across Canada incinerators have proven to be costly failures that waste millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, exceed emission limits, never meet operational targets, and delay municipalities from taking actions that would actually reduce and divert organics and post-consumer goods,” says Liz Benneian, founder of the Ontario Zero Waste Coalition.

For instance, from its inauguration in 2008, until it declared bankruptcy in 2015, the Plasco incinerator in Ottawa burned through $13.5 million in federal and provincial funding plus $8 million per year in municipal subsidies. The plant had numerous operational issues, processed only one third of the waste it promised and racked up 25 records of noncompliance with emission regulations.

More than three-quarters of waste disposed in Canada could have been avoided, recycled, or composted. “Local governments are setting ambitious zero waste targets, but when we burn waste, those goals go up in smoke,” said Sue Maxwell, chair of Zero Waste BC and former municipal councillor. “Proactive municipalities are reducing their waste through zero waste policies and programs.”

“Europe is often cited as a model for WTE but the European Union is turning away from WTE and major European financial institutions have pulled funding from WTE projects,” notes Janek Vähk, Zero Pollution Policy Manager for Zero Waste Europe. “Meanwhile, the EU has established an ambitious target of halving total residual waste by 2030 and WTE would lock in generation of waste over time to keep the incinerators running.”

WTE facilities are often particularly harmful to environmental justice communities.

“Fenceline communities are badly impacted by particulates and other hazardous air emissions, in addition to truck traffic” noted Dr. Neil Tangri, Science and Policy Director at GAIA, “Some of the worst impacts are felt in the far north, where First Nations bear extremely high body burdens of persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins from incinerators that biomagnify in the food chain.”

As all eyes look to Canada later this month, over 40 environmental groups across the country implore the country to be a true leader and reject WTE in favor of zero waste solutions. (link to action page)

For more information about this campaign and to access the coalition’s publications, please visit https://www.no-burn.org/stopping-waste-to-energy-in-canada/

CONTACT

Claire Arkin, Global Communications Lead: claire@no-burn.org | +1 973 444 4869

About the Coalition:

The Canadian Zero Waste Coalition is a coalition of environmental groups including the Ontario Zero Waste Coalition, Zero Waste BC, GAIA, Environmental Defence, Zero Waste Canada, Toronto Environmental Alliance, Durham Environment Watch, Waste Watch Ottawa, and Citizens of the Pontiac.

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The post Controversy on Waste: To Burn or Not to Burn? first appeared on GAIA.

Categories: E2. Front Line Community Green

Pembina Institute News - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 08:09

Categories:

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 07:57

This survey will take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete

Recently the minimum points required to qualify for Express Entry permanent residency programs, like the Canadian Experience Class, have been extremely high.Migrant Workers Alliance for Change will submit a proposal to the federal government on how to fix Express Entry based on the collective priorities of current and former international students like you.

You can choose to stay anonymous, and your answers will be kept confidential.

(function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type="text/javascript",c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src="https://widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd1heFTM7pghh_2FiFeYLJbVssXLQOeFzzfeU_2BZOQcTuoxN.js",a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,"script","smcx-sdk"); Create your own user feedback survey

The post Fix Express Entry: Share the changes you want appeared first on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Categories: C4. Radical Labor

Clean Air Ohio - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 07:45

Recently, we sat down with Alex Bomstein, the Council’s new Executive Director, to learn what makes him tick as well as his ideas for Clean Air Council’s future. Alex candidly answers questions about his work at the Council, being a life-long environmentalist and devout vegan, and a dog/cat dad. Tune in and get to know Alex.
Learn more about Clean Air Council at Cleanair.org.

Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts or listen to all past episodes atcleanair.org/on-air

Categories: G2. Local Greens

Common Dreams - Thu, 04/04/2024 - 07:23

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that three non-profits will manage the distribution of the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF), a $14 billion fund that can help leverage additional private sector capital to significantly expand clean energy projects across the country. The fund—a part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—is designed to increase access to affordable financing for critical clean energy technology and efficiency projects. The EPA also announced that five non-profits will manage $6 billion in awards under the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA). According to White House officials, 70% of the GGRF capital announced today will flow to low-income and disadvantaged communities. Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan will formally announce these award selections later today in North Carolina.

The NCIF builds on the success of over 40 existing state and local green bank programs that are using limited public funding to leverage greater private sector investment in clean energy. These programs have mobilized $21.8 billion in cumulative investments for clean energy projects since 2011, including $7 billion in 2023 alone, according to the Coalition for Green Capital.

Below is a statement by Steve Clemmer, the director of energy research and analysis at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

“Establishing the National Clean Investment Fund is pivotal in catalyzing the transition to an equitable, decarbonized economy. Using seed money from public funding to unlock additional private sector investment and new low-cost financing is a cornerstone in the transition to clean energy, and this program ensures the associated benefits are accessible to all. It is hopeful to see a list of non-profits that have a proven track record of financing clean energy in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

“With the lead nonprofit institutions and a consortium of partners in place, the hard work begins to ensure capital and resources are directed to the communities most in need. This is a unique opportunity to empower all communities, businesses, and families to benefit from the clean energy transition. While the NCIF is a significant step forward, UCS research shows clearly that even more ambition by all levels of government is needed to meet U.S. climate goals and advance environmental justice.”

UCS strongly advocates for the acceleration of renewable energy deployment across the country, with a particular focus on ensuring the transition to clean energy is done equitably and does not leave vulnerable, historically burdened communities behind. UCS is a member of the Equitable and Just National Climate Forum (EJNCF), which put forward joint recommendations on the GGRF urging the EPA to design and implement this fund to maximize investments and benefits delivered to disadvantaged and low-income communities. UCS has also worked closely with the Coalition for Green Capital and state green bank programs, as well as contributing to a joint letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s design and implementation.

A recent UCS study found that for the United States to meet its climate goals—including cutting economywide heat-trapping emissions in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions no later than 2050—wind, solar, and other renewables would need to nearly triple from 22% of U.S. electricity generation in 2021 to 60% in 2030, and 92% in 2050. The analysis also found that the IRA’s clean energy incentives provide important momentum for the United States to make major near-term emissions reductions, but those could be at risk if fossil fuel use is expanded simultaneously. Additionally, while the IRA roughly doubles the current pace of annual emissions reductions to about 3% per year through 2030, the country will need to further accelerate its reductions to roughly 5% per year to achieve its climate targets.

Categories: F. Left News