Charlotte UU Environmental Justice Blog

PRESENTATION- 3

Second major point

3 Comments

3 responses so far ↓

  • number9writer // February 14, 2008 at 12:11 am | Reply

    #3 – Localizing the big picture

    [Note: Although Kym’s PowerPoint slide currently says “Why the environment?”, I think the purpose of this block is actually to localize the bigger picture presented in # 2]: Moving from the general to the specific, or the global to the local.

    A: Speaking: “How do these issues play out in our city and region? Let’s take a look at the nature and scope of environmental concerns in our own community. We can start by thinking about Air, Water, Land, Energy, and the thread that connects them all, ecology.” For each element, we present factoids. e.g., “Mecklenburg and 8 surrounding counties fail to meet federal ozone standards, we have been graded “F” by the American Lung Association for A, B, C, and so on. These problems disproportionately affect these populations – (asthma stats)” and so on for each element. Here we’ll pull from our fact sheets, supplemented by other research we’ve done (or gleaned from Donna, June, etc.)

    B: Visual/Other – something similar to Kym’s slide 4 (but the title isn’t really “Why the Environment?”)

  • Roger Coates // February 14, 2008 at 5:10 pm | Reply

    The first example that comes to mind is the fact that, because NC/the SouthEast uses 30% more energy per capita than (the US average?), and because those living more affluent life styles and consuming a disproportionate share of that energy have been slow to reduce their energy use, and because Duke finds it to be more profitable to produce more electricity (esp when ratepayers subsidize the plant construction costs) than to assist users to reduce their demand, N Carolinians living downwind of the proposed Cliffside plant will be paying more for their electricity and ingesting at least more poisonous methylmercury [Can be noted as worse for lower-income citizens esp fishermen].

    This can be worded much better.

  • Pete // February 14, 2008 at 11:05 pm | Reply

    More energy factoids:

    NC ranks 8th in the nation in total utility retail electric sales, producing more than 120 million megawatt hours per year

    60% of all electricity in NC is generated by coal-fired power plants

Leave a Comment