The LookOut is a
monthly review of climate issues and recent developments in our
neighborhood.
In solidarity
with the international youth movement, Fridays For Future,
350 Humboldt organized a climate rally that took place Friday,
September 23, on the Arcata Plaza. On that day people all over the
world went on strike, marched and protested the astonishing
inadequacy of attention paid to climate change.
This annual event is
an outgrowth of the FFF movement that organizes Friday strikes
throughout the year and all over the world. It was started by one
fifteen-year-old, Greta Thunberg, skipping school and picketing the
Swedish parliament. In 2019 there was a Global Week For Future
during which four million to seven million people all over the world
participated in 4,500 actions.
So far that was the
peak of activity–probably because of the pandemic. The Guardian estimates worldwide participation in this year’s Friday events to
total in the thousands. The biggest event took place in Berlin with
an estimated 20,000 strikers and demonstrators.
Here in Humboldt 75
to 100 people gathered at the Arcata Plaza to hear speakers,
including students from North Coast Preparatory Academy and Humboldt Cal Poly. Topics included climate justice,
environmental stewardship, and the Nordic Aquafarm appeal.
Afterwards, accompanied by a four-piece band, participants paraded
around the plaza.
photo by Dana Utman
More photos of the
rally appear at the end of this email.
§§§
Humboldt county
may opt to convert its food waste into bio-gas instead of
compost. At a joint meeting of the Solid Waste Local Task Force and
Humboldt Waste Management on September 29, Evan Edgar, the consultant
hired by the county to usher it into compliance with state law, 1383, said that building a composting facility would take too
long.
Turning food waste
into bio-gas would allow the county to comply with SB 1383 much
sooner because Miranda Dairy in Ferndale is already setting up a
co-digester that will run on both cow manure and food waste. It needs
a hundred tons of food waste per day to operate. Fortuitously or not, that is roughly the
same estimated amount that county collection would provide.
One big potential
problem with the operation at Miranda Dairy could be caused by the de-packaging machine it plans to deploy. Bio-digesters need food slurry
as their feedstock. With a de-packager, you can toss packaged foods
into the hopper, making slurrification fast and easy. However,
studies have shown that de-packagers create micro-plastics that
become part of the soil. Edgar Evans says the machine built by Scott
does not create micro-plastics.
Some members of 350
Humboldt plan to meet on October 19th at 7 pm to discuss the pros and
cons of sending our food waste to the bio-digester. Please join us if
you’re interested. https://us05web.zoom.us/j/87969551585?pwd=MmUvSHc3dGR2M2txMnpUZGM4dEd5Zz09
In the meantime, for
an interesting grounding on the issues entailed by dairy digesters
you can listen to this episode of Cool Solutions.
Scroll
down to “Got Methane?” on December 12 of 2021. Here’s
an
article
about California double counting
the emissions reductions for dairy digester fuels. And
here’s one about the GHG emissions.
A de-packager. Photo from Ag-Grid presentation
The Board of
Supervisors denied our appeal of the Planning Commission’s
decision to certify Nordic Aquafarms‘ Final Environmental
Impact Report. Co-appellants 350 Humboldt, Redwood Audubon Society,
and Humboldt Fisherman’s Marketing Association had thirty minutes on
September 28 to make their case.
Other agencies,
including the Coastal Commission and California Fish and Wildlife,
will re-address some of the appeal’s ecological concerns–such as the
project’s intake of water from the bay and its outtake into the
ocean. However, the Board of Supervisors meeting was 350 Humboldt’s
last chance to draw attention to the under-counting of the
project’s GHG emissions in its Environmental Impact Report.
A concession from
Nordic addressed the concerns of those who called for either a
smaller facility or a facility built in stages. Nordic agreed that
the building permit for phase two of its project would depend on the
success of phase one. All of the support buildings and an unspecified
number of holding tank modules would be built first. The rest of the
tank modules would be added after the operation is running smoothly
and in full compliance with all of the environmental regulations.
After much prodding from Supervisor Wilson about the need for Nordic to de-carbonize,
the corporation agreed to publish a yearly sustainability report and
hold a public forum about possible ways to reduce the emissions of
fish food and transport–two of 350 Humboldt’s complaints. In
addition, Nordic will provide $25,000 per year to finance local
sustainability projects.
§§§
Thank you to
everyone who donated money during the last month. We’ve successfully
covered the cost of appealing the Planning Commission’s decision. That includes cash donations
from the jar at the rally and checks from 350 Humboldt members and
people on the 350 mailing list. What would we do without you?
§§§
photo by Dana Utman
photo by Dana Utman
photo by Dana Utman
Bonus
Links
Solar
cooperatives may sound vaguely socialist, but Republicans love them too. The most recent episode of Cool Solutions
PG&E can’t
make new connections in southern Humboldt, blindsiding the Climate Action Plan
Offgrid
neighborhoods might be part of the solution.
Hertz
plans to go big on EV rentals.