Some Elders doing something about climate change

 Somehow I found some really interesting climate change links...

Here's one that I subscribed to...1001 Ways monthly newsletter with articles about climate.

I found it through this site Elders Climate Action which I found had the slowest pages to load onto my laptop. It could be they are really big, or my internet is really slow. But when they finally loaded, there were lots of links to look at.

There is no Elders Climate Action Chapter near me. That's OK. I am more interested in reading about things and sharing them here on my blog. But I just knew all the grey and white haired and bald people of my generation represented a lot of great thinking, and should be speaking up about climate change.

Don't you think?

Now I have to check out Elders Action Network. Is it just another AARP? I haven't been a member of that organization for years. This EAN group seems interested in current events, and having actions on the things of interest. More than just armchair reading materials, perhaps.

Of course the Unitarian Universalist Association has a lot of action that is happening on climate justice. I may plug into some of that soon too.

Collaboration instead of competition!

 The following excerpts are from a Facebook posting as advertising. But whether it's just blarney, it's good ideas. And for Harvard Business Review (HBR) to publish such, is a good sign of working against Climate Chaos.

"... The global food system is facing the imperative to produce more with less, balancing the need to feed a growing population with the need to protect the environment and address climate change.

At the same time, business leaders face pressure from shareholders, regulators, and consumers to demonstrate progress on sustainability goals while continuing to meet financial targets.

Most organizations are taking on these challenges the traditional way: individually and competitively, seeking their own solutions as fast as they can. But there is growing realization that given the scale of the environmental issues society faces—including climate change, deforestation, and plastics pollution—this may not deliver the wide-scale change needed at the speed needed.

That’s why some future-forward leaders are using a different approach: collaboration. Working together offers the potential for organizations to expand capacity, share the costs of innovation, decrease risk-trialing multiple approaches, and increase the chance of finding solutions and adapting much faster.

The farmed-salmon sector has used this approach for the past decade, illustrating how a model of collaboration can enable change at speed and scale. Could this be the sort of transformation model the food sector needs to implement so it can address the vast nutrient and climate risks it faces?"

"... In 2013, CEOs of salmon aquaculture companies from around the world formed the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) to make the industry more sustainable. Recognizing their responsibility to advance the environmental performance of the sector, they chose to work together to pool their knowledge and resources to directly tackle the primary environmental challenges they faced."

"...Within the GSI model, members continually return to the foundation of aligned data and knowledge sharing to support changes in operations. With their commitment to working with the widely acknowledged “gold standard” for certification in aquaculture—the Aquaculture Stewardship Council—and in monitoring the impacts of a changing climate on fish welfare, GSI’s model of bringing companies and CEOs together is to find the common sustainability issues where each company is dependent on improving a shared ecosystem. At its core, this is an intuitive model that other sectors facing shared environmental challenges could easily replicate.

GSI’s model is founded on the premise that if you convene technically adept leaders, give them sufficient data, and allow them to discuss and share ideas, they are likely to find a solution—or at least open the door to new approaches.

One intended consequence of the GSI model is that collaboration doesn’t stop at industry walls. Other stakeholders and nongovernmental organizations recognized GSI for its model of working together and setting clear goals with pragmatic plans by acting as a united voice and inviting both supporters and critics to guide GSI in the right direction. GSI has built partnerships with groups, including World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to develop industrywide improvement programs that strengthen the sector’s environmental performance and credibility. Not all sectors succeed at using this multi-stakeholder approach, but the scale of current global challenges makes collaboration among industry, academia, environmental groups, and policymakers crucial in supporting sectors prioritizing the right initiatives and everyone working off the right information. The salmon sector has not always had many allies in different sectors, but GSI shows that through a commitment to open dialogue and partnership, it is possible to unite groups on a sustainable journey.

Embrace Pre-Competitive Collaboration

GSI calls the collective insight-sharing strategy of its salmon-farming member companies “pre-competitive collaboration”—a term that seems to be gaining traction in the aquaculture sector following the work of GSI. But now the question is how the benefits of collaboration can be expanded in other sectors.

Pre-competitive collaboration is especially effective in industries whose companies use shared resources or face shared challenges. “The private sector can’t just say, ‘I’m doing my part and in my silo,’ without realizing they’re part of a global system,” says Jason Clay, SVP, markets, and executive director, Markets Institute at WWF.

In a time when the global food system is facing mounting pressure, natural resources are being exhausted, and climate change is reaching critical mass, the planet can’t afford to inch toward sustainability one enterprise at a time. Organizations need to embrace collaboration not as an idealistic buzzword, but rather as a critical strategy to make their businesses thrive for the long term.

If more organizations in more sectors embrace the pre-competitive collaboration model that’s succeeding in salmon aquaculture, there is a stronger chance that humanity can make massive strides in our ability to feed the world with nutritious, climate-resilient food."

---

Learn more about GSI’s work.

SOURCE: Harvard Business Review posted on Facebook

I still purchase wild-caught salmon rather than farmed. Just my choice. Pay a bit more.

Someone posted this great shot of a roadrunner. I'm reminded my car is the Blue Ridge Roadrunner! We need to be running up there again soon!

"Silent Spring" has it's birth anniversary

Here's what Writer's Almanac Newsletter published on Sept. 27, 2017. I think it should be memorialized as a holiday, when Silent Spring was published. What changed so much!

" Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book Silent Spring was published on this date in 1962.

 Carson was a marine biologist, but she was also a crafter of lyrical prose who contributed to magazines like The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly, and who had already published three popular lyrical books about the sea. One of these — The Sea Around Us (1951) — had won the National Book Award. In the course of her work, Carson became aware of the ways that chemical pesticides were harming plants and wildlife. She felt it was important to make the public aware of this, but she was not an investigative journalist and didn’t feel confident enough to write what she called the “poison book.” She began trying to interest magazines in the subject as early as 1945. In 1958, Carson’s friend mentioned that she was finding a lot of dead birds in her Massachusetts bird sanctuary. Carson, in turn, wrote to E.B. White, who was an editor at The New Yorker. She suggested that White write an article about pesticides. He said the magazine would be keen to publish such an article, but he encouraged her to write it herself. The article became a multiyear project that Carson pursued through personal tragedies like the death of her mother, and her own diagnosis with breast cancer in 1960.

By 1962, many scientists had published work that questioned whether the widespread and indiscriminate use of pesticides like DDT was safe. Carson gathered these reports in one place, and then used her literary talents to bring the issue to vivid life. The New Yorker serialized Silent Spring in the summer of 1962, and it was published in book form in September. The title comes from one of the book’s chapters, in which Carson paints a picture of a future spring morning without birdsong. “No witchcraft,” Carson writes, “no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.”

The book was a huge best-seller, and although she was dreadfully ill from her cancer treatments, Carson appeared on many television shows to defend her research. Eric Sevareid, who interviewed Carson for CBS Reports, later said he was afraid she wouldn’t live long enough to see the broadcast of their interview. In June 1963, she appeared before a Senate subcommittee and gave policy recommendations that she had worked on for five years. She didn’t advocate a ban on all pesticides, but recommended that they be used more judiciously. Aerial spraying was the worst culprit, because it could end up on people’s private land without their knowledge or consent. “If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem,” Carson said.

Chemical companies, backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were not fans of the book. They tried to sue Carson, her publisher, and The New Yorker. They spent $250,000 on a smear campaign, calling her a “hysterical woman” and a communist, and casting doubt on her scientific bona fides. A former secretary of agriculture wondered publicly why a spinster with no children cared so much about genetics. But all the scandal only helped the book become a household name. President Kennedy read it with interest, and instructed his science advisors to look into Carson’s allegations against DDT. They determined that her claims held up, but it was still 10 years before the widespread use of DDT was banned in the United States. Carson still has her detractors today who say that the banning of DDT killed more people — due to malaria-carrying mosquitos — than Hitler.

Carson died of breast cancer in April 1964. She lived to see the book’s commercial success. She didn’t live to see the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, or the Environmental Protection Agency — all of which came about due, in large part, to Silent Spring."

Photo by fellow blogger, Beyond the Fields We Know

And for those who like Playing for Change (as I certainly do) here's a beautifully done bluesy rendition with lots of beautiful scenery, as well as climate change effects.

John Paul Jones on "When the Levee Breaks

Prevention of Emotional Depression

Since winter is when I tend to become depressed, especially around the holidays...I'm interested in learning how to avoid it! There were years I tried not celebrating...which made me depressed in doing so.

And there is a definite difference between being sad and being depressed. What do you think of that? For me I have sadness which can pass, an emotion often brought on by learning of a sad event, a death, a catastrophe, or even potential bad news. Depression happens more gradually and I lose energy, have different sleep patterns, appetite changes, and general loss of interest in the things/people in my life. I will realize it sometimes after weeks, that I'm really depressed again.

So I read things about how to avoid depression in the first place. And hope by doing 5 of the things listed below, I might make it through the winter this year.

SOURCE: NPR Health News

 Serious depression should be treated with medication and/or therapy. But a new study adds to a growing body of evidence tying behaviors to mental health. Researchers at Cambridge identified seven healthy habits that affect your mood. They looked at nearly 300,000 people in the UK Biobank database initiative and found that maintaining at least 5 of these habits could cut the risk of depression by 57%. Try adding some of these daily habits to your life: 

 Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night on average.

 Add more physical activity to your routine.
 Eat a balanced diet focused on plants, whole grains and lean proteins.
 Limit alcohol intake and don't smoke.
 Limit screen time to avoid being sedentary.
 Cultivate friendship and community through hobbies.

From the internet, when I searched for depressed elders. First search for depressed people only gave me young people.

Today's quote:

We have all built up a toolbox of unique tools to help us navigate life, we just need to use them.

Thanks Inge Look for the card painting

New White House office for Gun Violence Prevention

Sorry I didn't end up posting this last week when it was hot news...

President Biden is creating a new office for gun violence prevention to coordinate his administration's efforts to reduce gun violence and elevate an issue that — while stalled in Congress — remains important to Democratic activists and young voters.

Biden will formally make the announcement at the White House on (probably last) Friday. Vice President Harris will oversee the office, and White House staff secretary Stefanie Feldman will direct its work.

"This office will dig deep to find additional life-saving actions that this administration can take," Feldman told reporters, explaining that it will aim to coordinate support for communities hurt by gun violence.

Gun-control activists have been privately advocating for such an office for years and it comes as hopes of additional gun reform legislation seem unlikely. Two activists are joining the new White House office: Greg Jackson, a survivor of gun violence who has led the Community Justice Action Fund, and Rob Wilcox, who has worked at the groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady.

Activists hope the office will enable Biden to make more use of his presidential bully pulpit to push for more gun safety measures.

[ Robb Elementary School shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas, United States, when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos,^[5][6] a former student at the school, fatally shot 19 students and two teachers, while 17 others were injured but survived.]

"We need a White House team to focus on this issue on a daily basis," said Po Murray, chair of the Newtown Action Alliance, a grassroots organization started after a 2012 mass shooting at an elementary school killed 20 children and six adults.

"It is a national crisis," Murray said.

Murray argued that public opinion is on Biden's side. In a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, a majority of Americans said it's more important to curb gun violence than protect gun rights.

"I do believe that the president is aware that this is a winning issue for him, and it is the high political ground. And obviously it's a high moral ground," she said.

Gun violence is a top-of-mind issue for Gen Z voters

The president has called for "common sense" regulations and a ban on assault-style weapons. Republicans and a small number of Democrats oppose the measures.

Advocates say Biden's new announcement helps show he is willing to act unilaterally on an issue important to young voters — at a time when he needs to energize this crucial voting bloc ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

During the 2018 midterm elections, addressing gun violence became a major part of the national Democratic campaign playbook. That was the first time gun control groups spent more money than gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association.

"There's been a paradigm shift, I think, in American politics around guns," said David Hogg, who co-founded March For Our Lives after a mass shooting at his high school in Parkland, Fla., five years ago.

"[Democrats are] no longer running from this issue. They're running on it and proudly," he added.

Hogg said Biden needs young voters to win reelection. "That's not even my opinion. That's just objectively true. He needs young voters to win again, he especially needs younger voters of color that were critical to his election in 2020," he told NPR.

SOURCE:
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200712487/biden-is-creating-a-new-white-house-office-focused-on-gun-violence-prevention?ft=nprml&f=1002 by By Asma Khalid,and Elena Moore Sept 21, 2023

---------------------------------------

AND from info@everytown.org

"...we're making critical progress in the movement to end gun violence.

For decades, gun sellers have exploited loopholes in federal law that let them sell guns online and at gun shows without conducting background checks—and now we have a chance to change that. In a newly proposed regulation, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) under the Biden Administration's leadership is setting a clear and common-sense standard for when gun sellers must become licensed dealers and run background checks. It's the next step in building on the life-saving Bipartisan Safer Communities Act we helped pass last summer. Closing this loophole would be a huge victory for gun safety.

And we're celebrating more big news from the White House! Just last week, the Biden-Harris Administration unveiled a new Office of Gun Violence Prevention that will be based in the White House and advance the Administration's ambitious gun violence prevention agenda.

At the same time, we're making important progress at the state level: so far this year, state legislatures have passed more than 80 new gun safety policies and blocked more than 95% of the gun lobby's agenda.

"... fighting for gun safety at all levels of government would be impossible without our thousands of incredible Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers.

Then they ask for donations...to combat the gun lobby. Probably needed!

----------------------------

I also receive news from :

Gabby Giffords organization to control gun violence.

Ethical Space

James Rattling Leaf, of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe gave information to Katharine Hayhoe for her newsletter:

"...through his work at the Wolakota Lab, James supports Indigenous peoples’ nation rebuilding efforts through the application of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science.

James introduced [her] to the concept of Ethical Space, a framework designed to support the reconciliation of indigenous and Western worldviews with the goal of helping to co-create a better future together. 

Ethical Space - for a dialog between indigenous peoples and Western science.

The YouTube video (3:40 min.) has this description:

"Dr. Reg Crowshoe, Danika Littlechild, and Eli Enns cultivated principles of Ethical Space at all levels of the Pathway to Canada Target 1.

This led to the conceptualization of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) in 2017. IPCAs promise to become the future of conservation in Canada as we collectively strive to protect and conserved 30% of lands and waters by 2030, nearly tripling Canada's protected areas in fewer than ten years."

 Katharine  goes on to say:

 "The Ethical Space website above has links to many ways you can engage and support Indigenous people’s rights to manage their own lands sustainably, starting with learning (and unlearning) about the value of Indigenous lands and conservation practices.

If you don’t know much about this topic, check out Braiding Sweetgrass, Sand Talk, or An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. If you’d like to dive deeper, the Strong Nations Indigenous book store has a much more comprehensive reading list here. Prefer watching a video? Here's a list of documentaries, short and long, you can choose from. And as always – share what you learn!"

And if you live in the Asheville NC area, on Sat. Sept. 30, at UNCA will be a seminar by the Eastern Band of Cherokees - reservations required, but there's also a webinar available.

 From NPR Newsletter 9.24.23

"What do you get that special someone?

When North Korea’s Kim Jong Un recently left Russia, he was given several drones and body armor, “with protection zones for the chest, shoulders, throat and groin,” according to TASS, the Russian state news agency.

This act of Russian largesse inspired me to ask our friends in NPR’s research and development to find previous gifts between heads of state.
 
 In 802, Harun al-Rashid, Caliph of Abbasid, gave Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne an elephant. I wonder if Charlemagne said thanks, then wondered, “How do I feed him?”

 In 1512, Venice sent 50 blocks of cheese to the Sultan of Egypt. Before there were Triscuits?
 
 The huge carved desk made from timbers of the HMS Resolute that is still used by U.S. presidents was given to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880. But in 2012, British P.M. David Cameron gave President Obama a Dunlop ping-pong table. 
 
Dunlop is a British company. So are Bentley automobiles. Might the Obamas have preferred a gift from the car company to a ping-pong table? But those pesky U.S. ethics laws!
 
 President Nixon knew Leonid Brezhnev was a car enthusiast. And so, at a summit meeting, he gave the Soviet premier a 1973 blue Lincoln Continental, replete with custom black velour seats. Russian heads of state don’t have to fret about ethics laws.
 
 But in the annals of official gifts, it is hard to top what the French people gave the U.S. in 1886: the Statue of Liberty.

From the Climate Week activities...

Katharine Hayhoe's weekly newsletter gives us these (just snippets from her three point presentation, focusing on now, the good new, the bad news, and what we can do.)

"Who's stepping up to address the climate crisis? After spending the last week at #ClimateWeekNYC, it’s clear the answer is -- nearly everyone. Journalist Cara Buckley describes Climate Week as “a showcase of human innovation, the countless ways people in many industries are working to slow and potentially reverse the enormous harms humans have done to the planet” -- and I agree!
 
You can listen to my conversation with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, facilitated by Juliet Eilperin from the Washington Post, on recent weather extremes and how we can fuel action; explore ideas on how to accelerate the global energy transition with Columbia University’s Jason Bordoff, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, and Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen; and join Dan Costa from Worth Magazine and I as we discuss how to get everyone involved in tackling the climate crisis.

The Good News:

There was plenty of good news to be had at Climate Week this year. I’m convinced we are at the cusp of a clean energy revolution, with renewable options becoming increasingly accessible and affordable with each passing month. I also heard about countless innovations in energy storage, sustainable agriculture, and transportation that I’ll be highlighting in newsletters to come.

 
On Wednesday, President Biden announced that he was creating a Climate Corps. It’s a green jobs training program that will employ 20,000 young people to plant trees, build solar panels and wind turbines, help restore wetlands, and implement sustainable agricultural solutions. And that’s not all. The state of California already had a state Climate Corps, and this week the governors of Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah announced they’d be launching their own programs too.
 
Also this week, Germany pledged 40 million euros to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund. This amount is enough to make the fund, which was ratified in August, operational. The aim of the fund is to stop and reverse global biodiversity loss by the end of this decade.
 

AND also (not in her newsletter):

In a new lawsuit, California is claiming that the five largest oil and gas companies have long been aware of how their products contribute to climate change, and worked to hide those truths from the public for decades.

It also argues that companies should pay for some of the billions of dollars of damage caused by extreme weather in that state, which is fueled by climate change.

AND (from PBS Science News):

Massachusetts banned the purchase of single-use plastic bottles by state agencies.

The Bad News:

This month the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change released its first "global stocktake," a report card that measures our collective progress since the Paris accords were signed.

 
"The Paris Agreement has driven near-universal climate action by setting goals and sending signals to the world regarding the urgency of responding to the climate crisis. While action is proceeding, much more is needed now on all fronts,” it concludes. Specifically, the world must reduce carbon emissions 43 percent by 2030 if we still want to meet the 1.5 degree warming target set in Paris in 2015.
 
At the UN Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that "the move from fossil fuels to renewables is happening — but we are decades behind. We must make up time lost to foot-dragging, arm-twisting and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels."

What You Can Do:

How do we spur social change? Educate yourself with books, podcasts, and documentaries (here’s my recommendation list!). Engage on social media. Join an organization who shares your values (I have a list of those too); support their work, spread their message, and volunteer your time. Share your concerns with your elected representatives at every level, not just federal, and vote.

 
Talking about climate risks and climate solutions at every opportunity is essential. Every voice, including yours, contributes to this global conversation. As my TED talk explains, it’s not about overwhelming people with the science. It’s about helping people connect their head (what they know) to their heart (why they care) to their hands (what they can do about it). Around the world, this simple message is what we most need to know, to act: Later is too late."

And I'd add to her need for conversation and education, the need for each individual, each family, to adapt to some way of living that's better for the earth. That's up to each of us to find ways we can do something, which will remind us of why we're doing it!

PS. I'm so glad to hear that our North Carolina governor, a Democrat, is launching a climate corps. With the Republican legislature, it may take some doing to get it financed!

More about the follow-up of Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii

 "Adopt a Maui Family" is now a Facebook Group HERE

This is the kind of follow-up that a global compassionate civilization can engage in.

I wonder what I could give...things? Money sent through Venmo which I've never used. I could learn about it though, couldn't I?

Rather than just networking by showing photos to my blog and Facebook friends...maybe this is something I can do a bit more about.

If you don't have FB, it's easy to make a site...and then you have lots of things like, who to have friends with...etc. Yes the site will send ads. And there are those which you can "hide" and not see anymore. But the algorithm does pay attention to what you're interested in, and if it's Hawaii, then some more things about it might come along too.

Anyway, I just thought it was nice that a friend I met here in Black Mountain NC has posted about this link...and feel it's worth sharing so maybe someone else I know can consider joining the group...I did. I'm going to get posts now, but haven't committed to signing up to help yet. 

The American Climate Corps

The Biden administration announced the creation of the American Climate Corps. This will be a group of more than 20,000 young Americans who will learn to work in clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience while also earning good wages and addressing climate change. 

This ACC looks a great deal like the Civilian Conservation Corps established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats in 1933, during the New Deal. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for unemployed young men (prompting critics to ask, “Where’s the She, She, She?”) while they worked to build fire towers, bridges, and foot trails, plant trees to stop soil erosion, stock fish, dig ditches, build dams, and so on. 

While the CCC was segregated, the ACC will prioritize hiring within communities traditionally left behind, as well as addressing the needs of those communities that have borne the brunt of climate change. If the administration’s rules for it become finalized, the corps will also create a streamlined pathway into federal service for those who participated in the program. 

In January, a poll showed that a climate corps is popular. Data for Progress found that voters supported such a corps by a margin of 39 points. Voters under 45 supported it by a margin of 51 points. 

SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson newsletter 9.20.23

After the meeting - plastic ban in Buncombe County

 It comes down to the Republican law makers in Raleigh NC. 

See Update as of 9.21.23 below original post.

However, our County Commissioners didn't even have this proposed ban on their agenda Tues. evening. So members of the public shared their concerns. I'll try to show some clips that may be interesting. But here's the bottom line, as they say...

From Mountain True...an environmental group

Breaking News: A draft conference report of the state budget released to the media includes language that would prohibit counties (§ 153A-145.11) and cities (§ 160A-205.6) from passing ordinances, resolutions, or rules that would restrict, tax, or charge a fee on auxiliary containers — the definition of which includes bags, cups, bottles, and other packaging.

 

This language would preempt local control and undermine existing provisions of the NC Solid Waste Management Act that give counties and cities the authority to ban single-use plastic bags and other forms of packaging and the use of plastic foam (e.g., styrofoam) in foodware.

 

Plastic pollution is a threat to our environment and to the health of North Carolina residents. Email your legislators and let them know that our right to protect ourselves from dangerous pollutants is too important to be traded away to fossil fuel and retail industry lobbyists in backroom deals.

Facts About Our Ban on Single-Use Plastics

 

A ban on single-use plastic bags in Buncombe County would have significant environmental benefits. 

A ban on single-use plastic bags paired with a 10-cent fee on paper bags would reduce Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 43%, fossil fuel consumption by 86%, solid waste by 66%, greenhouse gas emissions by 83%, fresh water consumption by 32%, and energy use by 73.3% compared to plastic. Read more about the environmental benefits of our proposed ordinance here. 

 

Our plastic bag ban would not be overly burdensome for people with lower incomes.

Our proposed ordinance would exempt customers using EBT, SNAP, and WIC from paying the 10-cent fee on paper bags. Even without that exception, the average cost to Buncombe County consumers would only be $3.33 per year, and customers can reduce or eliminate those costs by bringing reusable bags to the store. 

 

Buncombe County has the legal authority to pass a plastic bag ban under the North Carolina Solid Waste Management Act.

The NC Solid Waste Management Act asserts that it’s North Carolina's policy to prioritize waste reduction at the source and mandates that towns, cities, and counties implement programs and other actions to address deficiencies and “protect human health and the environment.” Because the presence of a pollutant that is harmful to human health and the environment has been documented in our region, the law mandates that local governments act.

BACKGROUND

Microplastics are a dangerous emerging contaminant.

Plastics don’t biodegrade; they break down into smaller and smaller pieces of microplastic that stay in our environment for thousands of years.

 

These microscopic pieces of plastic waste are everywhere.

We all breathe/consume approximately one credit card’s worth of microplastics every week. Microplastics have been found in the human placenta and breast milk. 

 

Plastic production generates as much CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) gas as 116 coal-fired power plants.

As of 2020, the US plastics industry was responsible for at least 232 million tons of CO2e gas emissions per year, which is the equivalent of 116 average-sized (500-megawatt) coal-fired power plants (Beyond Plastics: The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change, 2021).

 

Plastic production is ramping up and much of it is for the purpose of creating wasteful, single-use plastics. 

42% of plastic production is for single-use packaging (Science Advances: Production, Use, and Fate of All Plastic Ever Made, 2017). Half of all plastics created were produced in the last 15 years (NRDC: Single-Use Plastic 101, 2020).

 

Plastic films account for 40% of the microplastics found in the French Broad River. MountainTrue has conducted widespread microplastic sampling throughout the French Broad Watershed. On average, we’ve found 15.5 pieces of microplastic per 1-liter sample of water, with some samples as high as 40 or 50 pieces per liter. The most common type of microplastics in the French Broad River is films (39.5%), the sources of which are plastic bags, food packaging, and candy wrappers.

 

Plastics are harmful to human health.
Plastics contain 7% chemical additives on average. Researchers suspect these chemicals contribute to reproductive health problems and declining sperm counts in Western countries. Phthalates, used to enhance the durability of plastic products, are found in personal care products, food packaging, children's toys, shower curtains, and more. These chemical additives disrupt the endocrine system and harm the reproductive and nervous systems. 

 

Styrofoam contains a likely carcinogen that leaches into food, drinks, and water supplies.
Styrene is used to make styrofoam cups, food containers, and disposable coolers, and leaches into the food and drinks they hold and from landfills into drinking water. It’s classified as a likely human carcinogen that causes liver, kidney, and circulatory problems.

UPDATED 9/21/23

A member of the Plastic-Free WNC coalition shows off a suit of plastic litter at a rally in Pack Square before advocating for a plastic bag ban during the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners meeting Sept. 19. Photo by Greg Parlie

Following a rally of about 50 in Pack Square on Sept. 19, more than a dozen members of the Plastic-Free WNC coalition urged the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners to fight for its right to ban single-use plastic bags with a countywide ordinance.

The group had to change its message abruptly as state legislators added language to the state budget that would bar counties from regulating plastic bags.

“It’s a cynical and shameful ploy to deny you the ability to serve your constituents. It’s anti-democratic, and I look forward to working together with you to reject this encroachment on our rights to protect our health and the health of our mountains, rivers and streams,” Karim Olaechea, deputy director of strategy and communications for MountainTrue. told commissioners during public comment.

A draft of the state budget now includes the following: “No county may adopt an ordinance, resolution, regulation or rule to restrict, tax, charge a fee, prohibit or otherwise regulate the use, disposition or sale of an auxiliary container.” Auxiliary containers are defined as “a bag, cup, package, container, bottle, device or other packaging.”

State Sen. Julie Mayfield, former MountainTrue co-director who has advocated for a single-use plastic bag ban, said she expected the budget to pass with the language intact.

“I think we may have lost this round, unfortunately. But we’re not finished. I mean, I won’t lie; this is an unfortunate setback, but it does not mean that we’re going away on our advocacy around plastic production,” Mayfield told Xpress Sept. 20.