Whitney Young town hall meeting addresses global warming issues

By Miriam Cintron 

Global warming and climate change have come under the spotlight across the United States in the wake of severe storms such as Hurricane Katrina, this year’s harsh winter,  and Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. While global warming may spell irreversible doom to some, many local Chicago groups are showing that, while reversing global warming may be far from easy, it is not impossible.

More than 200 people gathered in a gymnasium at Whitney Young High School recently for a town hall meeting to discuss local initiatives global warming initiatives. Co-sponsored by more than 35 organizations, the meeting featured panelists and participants with a variety of interests such as the environment, jobs, economic development, alternate energy, recycling, and sustainable agriculture.

The meeting brought together groups that do not necessarily come to mind when thinking about global warming: health food organizations, faith-based congregations, labor unions, environmental groups, community organizations, and City government. Among participating organizations were the 8th Day Center for Justice, the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, the Chicago Recycling Coalition, Green Chicago Properties, the Illinois League of Conservation Voters, Local 881 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Sierra Club, Protestants for the Common Good, and Shorebank.

An impressive turnout provided a good start for the year-long series of planning meetings and action steps initiated by the Climate Chicago Organization, a new coalition of community, faith-based, labor, and environmental organizations.

Many believe “Americans are less involved in civic life today,” said event moderator the Rev. Calvin Morris, PhD, executive director of the Community Renewal Society. The fact that so many gathered for the meeting proves that is untrue, he concluded.

 

The problem

University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine assistant professor Howard Ehrman, PhD, began his presentation on contributors to global warming with words by folk singer Utah Phillips: “The earth is not dying. It is being killed, and the people killing it have names and addresses.”

            Evidence for global warming is overwhelming, and the problem creates far-reaching effects, from weather disasters to increased food and energy costs. A 1995 heat wave killed more than 700 people in Chicago, and Ehrman said heat wave frequency might increase by 25% in the 21st century.

So far, 2005 ranks as the hottest year on record, and five of the world’s six hottest recorded years have occurred since 2001. Carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas and contributor to global warming, is up 40% from 1960, according to Ehrman. Global warming results from carbon dioxide and other pollutants collecting in the air and trapping the sun’s heat, leading to warmer summers and more extreme winters.

Heat waves increase infectious disease, including the West Nile virus, as fresh water dries up. Diminishing fresh water sources in Africa have forced people to leave their homes in search of water. Atmospheric conditions may even prevent cooling at night, even in the world’s hottest places.

Hurricane Katrina, thought to have been caused by global warming, resulted in more than 1,800 deaths, roughly 700 people missing, and 220,000 evacuees. More than two years later, little has been rebuilt and few evacuees have returned home.

About 65% to 75% of increased carbon gases comes from power plants, airplanes, and cars, Ehrman explained. In 2003, the U.S.’s 1,200 power plants released 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide, with most of it coming from plants built before 1977. Illinois’s 25  plants released 19 million tons of carbon dioxide; the state ranks as the sixth worst for carbon dioxide emissions.

In Chicago, cars, trucks, and buses release 14 million tons of carbon dioxide, while another 5.5 million comes from the only two coal-burning power plants within city limits, Crawford and Fisk, located in Little Village and Pilsen, respectively. Alarmingly, these statistics may worsen if the world’s 750 planned power plants get built; 250 of those are planned for the U.S.

 

The solutions

“Under [Mayor Richard M.] Daley, Chicago will begin to move forward toward the goal of becoming the greenest city in the U.S.,” said Karen Hobbs, first deputy commissioner of the City’s Department of Environment. Already, the city has planted about 500,000 street trees. “Trees play a vital role in improving the city’s air quality,” Hobbs said.

She added the City will step up enforcement of its heretofore spottily enforced building energy code—which is meant to monitor the amount of energy buildings use—with a goal of getting 30% to 40% energy cost savings. The City also is working to build environmentally friendly, or “green,” buildings and improve existing facilities.

Chicago also will phase out the often criticized blue bag recycling program this year and is working to overcome the logistical and financial hurdles of collecting garbage and recyclables separately. Hobbs added Chicago has 250 miles of bike paths and 10,000 bike racks all over the city to make biking a more feasible option.

Chicago is an overwhelming producer of carbon dioxide, said Stephen Perkins, PhD, senior vice president for the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Yet we must “think of cities as both a cause and potential solution of global warming,” he added.

A quarter of a century ago, environmentalists saw cities as evil, Stephens said, but we now “need to realize the potential.” He pointed out cities’ positive aspects, including mixed-use development and ease of transportation without a car thanks to mass transit, walking, and biking. Perkins also noted how cities place all their important facilities, including libraries and post offices, near public transportation.

The Rev. Clare Butterfield, executive director of Faith in Place, explained her organization abides by the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” by making their relationship with earth one of love, not exploitation. Faith in Place works with more than 200 religious organizations to encourage energy conservation and renewable power from the sun and wind.

The organization’s primary efforts include youth programs using urban agriculture to “cultivate a new generation of leaders,” she explained. Recently, Faith in Place screened An Inconvenient Truth for 144 congregations in Chicago and downstate Illinois and plans to follow up with the congregations’ environmental initiatives.

Jovita Flores of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) explained the group’s various campaigns, from improving public transit on the city’s South and West Sides to creating more parks and green spaces in Little Village to “help purify local air.” The area’s primary polluter, Flores said, is the Crawford Generation Station, owned by Midwest Generation.

Unsatisfied by the company’s agreement with Gov. Rod Blagojevich to either clean up or close down the plant by 2018, LVEJO is working to shut down both Crawford and Fisk and “substitute them with clean, renewable energy,” Flores explained. She cited a 2001 Harvard study that found pollution from the two coal-burning plants causes 40 deaths, 500 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks every year. 

James Thindwa, executive director of Chicago Jobs with Justice, explained there is a “link between poverty and the global warming issue.” A native of southern Africa, Thindwa said global warming is personal to him because the poor are often the hardest hit by its effects. For example, as bad as the effects of Hurricane Katrina were on New Orleans, they probably would have been far worse had it happened in Africa, which lacks infrastructure.

“Wealth is implicated in global warming” because people who earn higher wages are “more likely to afford new technologies” that benefit the environment, he explained.

Thindwa pointed out the dramatic increase in new jobs after the Clean Air Act was passed in 1977. Had car companies like General Motors and Ford embraced hybrid cars and higher fuel efficiency, they might have avoided laying off many of their employees, Thindwa explained. He also said labor unions can play a role by including energy audits in their contract negotiations.

As daunting as reversing global warming may seem, many are committed and up to the challenge. “A grassroots movement is critical,” concluded Daughter’s Trust President Naomi Davis.

For more information on the meeting and future programs, visit www.climatechicago.org.

 

 

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