Report from the Climate Change Conference in Peru

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I had the honor of being part of a nurses delegation to the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Peru. These are my impressions as one nurse in Lima.We went as a delegation representing National Nurses United (NNU), the national umbrella for my state nurses union—the Minnesota Nurses Association.  We were there to address the issue of Climate Change and the impacts of pollution generally from a public health perspective. NNU’s official position is that the “Climate Emergency is a Health Emergency”:NNU emphasizes the health impacts of climate disruption. Already, more than 8 million deaths worldwide are directly attributable to air pollution, primarily due to the use of “combustion energy” derived from the burning of oil, gas, coal, biomass and waste, and lack of access to clean energy. Warming temperatures have accelerated the spread of vector-born diseases such as Ebola, malaria, dengue, yellow fever and Lyme’s disease that spike as temperatures increase … desertification, devastation and displacement from severe weather events and sea level rise … will lead to immeasurable human suffering and economic devastation.We were granted official observer status for the conference sessions. Continue Reading

A rural take in defense of Rep. Jean Wagenius

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A farmer friend emailed us yesterday:

Jean Wagenius has been a friend of family farmers in the last two years(and for that matter for a whole lot of years that she has served in the legislature) that she chaired the environment and agriculture finance committee on a number of issues, naming two of which are pollinators and “Forever Green”. She has been a strong defender of environmental review and gets that rural citizens should have rights to have a say about air and water quality in their community. Republican leadership acts like they are going to be bi-partisan but actions are louder than words. Continue Reading

Minneapolis Central Riverfront becomes St. Anthony Falls Regional Park under a new park plan

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Imagine St. Anthony Falls as it looked when Europeans first saw the Mississippi River cascading over limestone rocks four centuries ago in the only natural waterfall on the river.A scene like that could become reality if the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board accepts a proposed update to the board’s master plan for the Central Riverfront Regional Park. The plan is open for public comment for until Jan. 18. MPRB will host a public hearing on the plan on Feb. Continue Reading

Gardens of all sorts can build community

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Todd Larson and Macy Ashby purchased their home in 2008, and one of the first things they did was replace their furnace, putting in geothermal wells – imagine getting rid of the old octopus furnace, then paying only $10 a month in summer for air conditioning – worth it, they say.But the east side of their property (686 24th Ave. NE) along Howard Street took a beating between truck parking and the digging. “Grass is a lot to maintain,” so with the help of landscape architect friend Larry Opelt, they devised a three-year plan “which had about a 1.5 year execution,” Larson said.Read more about how the yard project really started, and what’s next, [here].Their neighborhood group, Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association, teams with Metro Blooms, which awarded Larson and Ashby both the Community Investment Award and the Nate Siegel, their highest honor, at an event Nov. 6.Metro Blooms provides training and subsidizes materials to install rain gardens to hold water on site. For Holland’s projects, they also helped recruit volunteers, some coming from the University of Minnesota’s School of Design and the Conservation Corps of Minnesota.“We had a couple rain barrels,” Ashby said; they fill up fast, “our rain garden works really well. Continue Reading

Minnesota must continue to lead on clean energy

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For the past two months I’ve been furiously working to collect comment cards from Twin Cities area youth in support of the EPA Clean Power Plan before the public comment period ends on December 1. To curb climate change, the plan calls for nationwide emissions reductions of 30 percent by 2030, and would require Minnesota to reduce its carbon emissions by more than a third in that time. Together with my fellow students from Youth Environmental Activists of Minnesota (YEA! MN), the high school program of the Will Steger Foundation, we collected 649 comment cards supporting the plan.

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Will the global climate talks address the challenges for agriculture?

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The 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP), a body under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), started on Monday, at the General Army Headquarters in Lima, Peru. With almost 30 tents set up across the premises, and thousands of representatives from governments and observer organizations running between plenaries, contact groups, and side events, the climate change negotiations are in full throttle. Continue Reading

Support the Minneapolis Clean Energy Partnership on December 10th

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Update: The Minneapolis City Council voted 13-0 on December 10th to restore the full $150,000 for the Clean Energy Partnership into the final 2015 budget.  The City of Minneapolis adopted Goals and Strategic Directions back in March which reads “We sustain resources for future generations by reducing consumption, minimizing waste and using less energy.”This is a Community Voices submission and is moderated but not edited. The opinions expressed by Community Voices contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the TC Daily Planet.Restoring the full funding for the Clean Energy City-Utility Partnership in the city budget this Wednesday will be a great step toward that strategic direction goal. City Council took an unexpected 7-6 vote on December 1st to cut the Clean Energy City-Utility Partnership budget in half from $150,000 to $75,000, before its board meets for the first time early next year.  Already, hundreds of community members have voiced their support for the Partnership, and called on the Council to restore this cut because they realize the following:Minneapolis residents and businesses spend $450 million annually on electricity and gas, and national research shows that at least 30% of our energy use is preventable waste. This Clean Energy Partnership is a long-term effort to move tens of millions of energy dollars annually back into the pockets of Minneapolis families and businesses, while creating local jobs with a special focus on neighborhoods suffering the worst effects of energy poverty. This Partnership has the potential to transform energy management for Minneapolis energy consumers enough to meet very aggressive greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and produce very significant savings to Minneapolis residents and businesses.  These benefits could amount to tens of millions of dollars per year. We don’t want to nickel and dime this work.  Important Opportunity! Take Action!We have a chance to restore funding for this crucial investment in long-term energy prosperity for the city’s residents and businesses! Continue Reading