FIXING THE FUTURE: BUILDING A JUST and SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

FIXING THE FUTURE: BUILDING A JUST and SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
Posted on November 28th, 2011
Woman’s City Club and the Social Justice Committee of First UU Church join the Office of Environmental Quality and Sierra Club to present:

FIXING THE FUTURE:

BUILDING A JUST and SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

A monthly Friday night program of films and speakers that challenge the idea that we must choose between a strong economy and a healthy planet.

Friday, December 2, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

First Unitarian Church

536 Linton Street, Cincinnati, 45219

Drs. Heather Reynolds and Dave Rollo from Bloomington, Indiana will explain how, as the costs of our carbon-based economy rise, and the production in traditional energy sources fall, we are called upon to build other, more resilient support systems.

“Peak Oil and Building Community Resilience”

We know that unending growth cannot take place on a finite planet. Yet our leaders tell us growth is needed in order to create jobs. When oil prices start to rise and production fails to keep up with worldwide demand, how will we and our automobile-based economy cope? We must learn to view the current economic crisis less as a problem than as a opportunity and a condition to which we must adapt ourselves individually and collectively. We are called upon to build other, more resilient supports of our common life. We must find ways to build a new economy that operates within the Earth’s budget of energy and resources.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Heather Reynolds: Assoc. Prof, of Biology, Indiana University, Ph.D.in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in plant ecology from the University of Connecticut. Heather is a member of the speaker’s bureau for the Center for Advancement of the Steady State Economy. Dr. Reynolds will explain the failures of our current economic system and describe the changes to it we must make in order to achieve environmental sustainability and provide jobs to all who want to work.

Dave Rollo: As a member of the Bloomington Indiana City Council, Dave sought to bring sustainability policies into local government. His policy initiatives include the creation of the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability, the city’s Green Building Ordinance and Authorship of the Council Resolution Supporting the Kyoto Protocol and the creation of the Bloomington Peak Oil Taskforce. His work on energy policy and community adaptation to energy decline has been featured in numerous publications.

For more information, contact Jeanne Nightingale jnightingale@fuse.net-471-6622 or Heather Zoller heatherzoller@me.com 859-442-0011

Cincinnati’s Office of Environmental Quality on the Chopping Block

The future of the City of Cincinnati’s Office of Environmental Quality is on the line…

IF you believe that it is a huge mistake for the City to pull the plug on it’s aggressive effort to implement its Green Cincinnati Plan – and to save millions of tax dollars through energy conservation and state of the art recycling – you have an opportunity to let your voice be heard.

This Monday, August 1, the City Manager will present his proposed budget cuts to Council’s Budget & Finance Committee at 11 am at the Madisonville Community Center (5329 Stewart Ave.).  You will have an opportunity to sign up to speak for 2 minutes to share your concerns.

Letter from City Manager Milton Dohoney to City empolyees

From: Dohoney, Milton
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 3:53 PM
To: #CIN.City Mailing List
Subject: Budget issues

Due to our ongoing fiscal situation, it is necessary to make the next set of moves now in order to further prepare for the coming budget challenge.

Today I am transmitting a document to the Budget & Finance Committee to elaborate on the decisions that have to be made.  This Monday I will be speaking before the Committee.

I have met with the departmental leadership and sent a message to individuals within the affected departments.  While these moves by no means resolve our problems, they give us a beginning toward addressing our 2012 deficit of $33 million.  Any long lasting cuts we make now allow us to realize more savings from day one in 2012.

I cannot say with certainty how these recommendations, listed below, will be received by Council but we are moving on them out of economic necessity:

·         Department cuts totaling $5.1 million;
·         Dissolving the Office of Environmental Quality;
·         Dissolving the Department of Community Development and merging with the Department of Planning and Buildings;
·         Moving the Business Development Division of Community Development into Economic Development Division; and
·         Pursuing a COPS grant coupled with a layoff of 44 police officers.

These moves will provide some financial help in both 2011 and 2012, but it will still require some tough decision making in the budget that will be voted on this December.

These are difficult time, but we must persevere.

Milton Dohoney, Jr.
City Manager

Tell City Council what you think !


 

CIncinnati Zoo Go Green Tour

The Cincinnati Zoo has a great green tour.

air toxics data 2002

Air Toxics data released June 2009

Hamilton County Respiratory Risk Assessment Data

The data presented in this section is from USEPA’s National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA)  project and covers the year 2002.

Clicking on the following chemicals will show you google maps of sources of chemicals. for the following set of maps, we selected all the chemicals which have a total “area source” contribution of over one (1) ton for that particular air toxic, in Hamilton County.  Both area sources and major sources are mapped.   Click on the ballon to learn the amount and whether the source is major or an area source.  Some sources have very small emissions, others are large and many small sources can add up to significant emissions.  Using google maps, you can see how close you live, work, got to school, etc. to that pollutant.
This spreadsheet shows air toxics by source category (major, area, point source, non-point source, etc).  The ‘air toxics by source category’ file is sorted by tons of emissions per year from area sources.  Another spreadsheet, for the county, shows amounts of chemicals by facility. (Most facilities have more than one chemical.)  A list of air toxics analyzed by USEPA can be found on EPA’s NATA site.
Health impacts can be found at USEPA’s Air Toxics site.
Acetaldehyde
Ethylene Glycol
Formaldehyde
Glycol Ethers
Hexane
Hydrochloric Acid
Hydrogen Fluoride
Manganese
Methanol
Methylene Chloride
Phenol
Styrene
Toluene
1, 2, 4-Trichlorobenzene
Vinyl Acetate
Xylenes (Mixture of o, m and p Isomers)
There are other area point sources which emit less than one ton per year.  Area point sources (less than 10 tons per year of one hazardous air pollutant and/or less than 25 tons per year of all their hazardous air pollutants combined) which emit over 1 ton per year total 113.69717 tons.   Hazardous air pollutants emitted from facilities which individually emit less than one ton of individual hazardous air pollutants, emit a total of 7.822 tons per year in Hamilton County, Ohio.

Yard Materials

See city manager’s report on yard waste (sic) collection

Emissions in Hamilton County Ohio (data from USEPA NATA 2005)

Phenol

View Phenol in a larger map

Ethylene Glycol

View Ethylene Glycol in a larger map

1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene

View 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene in a larger map

Acetaldehyde

View Acetaldehyde in a larger map

Benzene

View Benzene (Including Benzene From Gasoline) in a larger map

Methyl Chloride: Chloromethane

View Methyl Chloride (Chloromethane) in a larger map

Xylenes (Mixed Isomers)

View Xylenes (Mixed Isomers) in a larger map

Methylene Chloride: Dichloromethane

View Methylene Chloride (Dichloromethane) in a larger map

Acrylonitrile

View Acrylonitrile in a larger map

Methanol

View Methanol in a larger map

Vinyl Acetate

View Vinyl Acetate in a larger map

Hydrochloric Acid

View Hydrochloric Acid (Hydrogen Chloride [Gas Only]) in a larger map

Hydrogen Fluoride

View Hydrogen Fluoride (Hydrofluoric Acid) in a larger map

Toluene

View Toluene in a larger map

Styrene

View Styrene in a larger map

Public Hearing on Eastern Corridor in Madisonville Aug 3, 2011 6pm

Public Hearing on Eastern Corridor in Madisonville Aug 3, 2011 6pm at the Madisonville Recreation Center

Why a new highway through Madisonville?  More pollution, more speeding cars and trucks !  Why not a street design by and for the people of Madisonville?

Come to the Madisonville Recreation Center on Aug 3 and discuss with your neighbors.  This public hearing was scheduled by VIce Mayor Roxanne Qualls.

 

Greening Cincinnati: a candidates’ forum

Greening Cincinnati: A Candidates’ Forum held Oct 12, 2011

Hosted by: Cincinnati Green Group
Questions from audience and Green Group and answers from
Cincinnati City Council Candidates!

The forum can now be seen on Time Warner Cable CHANNEL 4 In the City of Cincinnati.

Wed: 10/19 @ 5pm
Sat: 10/22 @ 10:30am
Sat: 10/22 @ 8pm
Wed: 10/26 @ 5pm
Fri: 10/28 @ 6pm
Wed: 11/02 @ 10pm
Mon: 11/07 @ 8pm
Thanks to Media Bridges !

see Brewster Rhoads slides of the forum

facebook

follow the hash tag on twitter #cggforum

Clean and Green Workshops !

Join Price Hill W!ill, Ohio Chapter Sierra Club and ECO
on Saturday mornings during the summer for conservation
workshops!
Topics include composting, gardening, rain barrels, and
rain gardens.  Learn about going green while saving money.  

Light refreshment and raffle prizes will be provided.
Schedule  Saturdays 10-12 noon, Corner Bloc Coffee 
Cost: $5 per workshop

August 13 Rain Barrels
August 20 Rain Garden Design Build
September 10 Rain Garden Design Build
September 17 Rain Garden Design Build
Please contact Beth Andriacco at 251-8500 ext 101 for
more information