Climate Pelicans' Brief

Let's talk about how Louisiana's industrial sector accounts for 66% of the state's GHG emissions. This week, Cori and Jill do a deep dive into the Louisiana Climate Action Plan's strategies for decarbonizing industry along the Mississippi River Industrial Corridor. Will it get us to net-zero in time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change? Or will it perpetuate the same extractive system that causes climate change? Bonus content: Cori's gruesome roller derby injury.

CAW CAW to action: sign EDF's petition to limit the production of hydrogen from fossil fuels by 12/12/23

References:

1. https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/CCI-Task-force/CAP/Climate_Action_Plan_FINAL_3.pdf

2. LSU wins $94K grant to research solar power. James Wilkins. Nov 26, 2023. The Advocate Metro section.

3. Perera, P. K. P., & Lam, N. (2013). An environmental justice assessment of the mississippi river industrial corridor in Louisiana, US using a gis-based approach. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research, 11(4), 681-697.

4. Tarufelli, B. L. (2021). Toxic Air in the Industrial Corridor? An Analysis.

Feeling anxious about climate change? Not sure if your actions will even matter in the grand scheme of things? Join the Climate Pelicans this week for a discussion about the pervasiveness of climate anxiety (you're not alone!) and the power of student movements that we can use to overcome it.

Sign our petition for LSU to divest from fossil fuels: https://www.change.org/p/lsu-office-of-the-president-divest-lsu-endowment-from-fossil-fuels

Sign up to receive updates about industrial facilities applying for permits: https://internet.deq.louisiana.gov/portal/SUBSCRIBES/PUBLIC-NOTIFICATION

Look into your public school's investments: projects.propublica.org/nonprofits

Follow us on social media: @climatepelicans

References:

1. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/08/fastfacts-health.pdf
2. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext
3. https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/kent-state-massacre/
4. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/yd.20230?casa_token=sD5duKcRbwQAAAAA:vcEce8vE5ywvGKy63Gs-e2LjIdXLvgSs3FEj8S64aP696uGmQFiFgEtbqGVNXxhj5X392AGkzFhUUgA
5. https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/08/1139702?_gl=1*1vg28lr*_ga*MTE2ODA3ODcyMi4xNjk1NTExMTMw*_ga_TK9BQL5X7Z*MTY5NTUxMTEzMC4xLjAuMTY5NTUxMTEzMC4wLjAuMA..
6. https://www.thedp.com/article/2022/10/encampment-removed-fossil-free-penn-protest-arrests
7. https://www.thedp.com/article/2022/11/penn-endowment-sustainability-message

All US citizens have the right to a clean and healthy environment under the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution. This week, Cori and Jill dig into how this does not extend to prisoners in Louisiana, and discuss the criminal justice-environmental justice overlap. This topic is new to the landscape of academic literature, and your Climate Pelicans are excited to bring you some food for thought about.

Original music by Bola

Cover art by Cori Salter

Check out this Reveille article featuring LSU Climate Pelicans!

References

1. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol31_2004/winter2004/irr_hr_winter04_shoplifting/
2. Neveen Hammad, “Shackled to Economic Appeal: How Prison Labor Facilitates Modern Slavery While Perpetuating Poverty in Black Communities,” Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law, no. Summer 2019 (2019).
3. Albonetti, C.A. (1997). Sentencing under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Effects of Defendant Characteristics, Guilty Pleas, and Departures on Sentence Outcomes for Drug Offenses, 1991-1992. Law & Society Review, 31(4): 789–822. https://doi.org/10.2307/3053987
4. Steffensmeier, D., Ulmer, J., & Kramer, J. (2006). The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing: The Punishment Cost of Being Young, Black, and Male. Criminology. 36: 763 - 798. 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1998.tb01265.x.
5. Freiburger, T. L., & Hilinski, C. M. (2013). An Examination of the Interactions of Race and Gender on Sentencing Decisions Using a Trichotomous Dependent Variable. Crime & Delinquency, 59(1): 59–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128708330178
6. https://gejp.es.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/publications/FINAL%20PUBLISHED%20VERSION.pdf
7. Prisons as LULUs [PDF] wiley.com

1. Jankowski, K., Törnqvist, T. & Fernandes, A. Vulnerability of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands to present-day rates of relative sea-level rise. Nat Commun 8, 14792 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14792

1. Turner, R.E. Doubt and the Values of an Ignorance-Based World View for Restoration: Coastal Louisiana Wetlands. Estuaries and Coasts 32, 1054–1068 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-009-9214-4
2. https://coastal.la.gov/our-plan/2023-coastal-master-plan/

1. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=56980
2. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/#SPM
3. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/methane-emissions-are-driving-climate-change-heres-how-reduce-them
4. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0600201103
5. https://earth.stanford.edu/news/methane-and-climate-change
6. https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/why-are-wetlands-important#:~:text=Wetlands%20provide%20habitat%20for%20thousands,products%2C%20recreation%2C%20and%20aesthetics.

1. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/carbon-dioxide-capture-and-storage/capture-of-co2/
2. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Carbon-Capture-and-Storage-FAQ.pdf
3. https://netzeroamerica.princeton.edu/the-report
4. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_TechnicalSummary.pdf

Fossil fuel companies should be held responsible for their contribution to climate change. Let's start with not passively funding them through the stock market any further. Cori and Jill discuss an inexpensive (& fun!) way to flip the tables on the fossil fuel industry using your power as a university student. Learn what divestment is, why it works, and 3 different approaches you can use to do it at your own school.

follow our socials: @climatepelicans on Insta & Twitter

sign our petition for fossil fuel divestment at LSU!

Cover art by Cori Salter

Original music by Bola

References:

1. https://divestmentdatabase.org/report-invest-divest-2021/

2. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/16/us-universities-fossil-fuel-divestment-students-legal-complaint

3. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/28/shell-has-frozen-its-arctic-oil-drilling-but-the-fight-isnt-over

Join us for an electric interview with "citizen-gone-rogue" Megan Milliken Biven, the founder of Louisiana-based nonprofit True Transition. We discuss her work and vision for a just transition to renewables in LA. Meet the person who got so mad after the new Star Wars movie that she went to a coffee shop and wrote an entire bill to put through Congress.

Megan's recommendation for new grads to get fast-tracked to federal jobs: www.pmf.gov

Find Megan Biven on social media

@bayouterrier or @true_transition

[email protected] or [email protected]

How is the push for electrification related to our transition to renewable energy? Join Jill & Cori for a conversation about how electrification works, Louisiana's Climate Action Plan, and some creative policy ideas that can get us ready for the change to come. As a bonus, learn how how Jill's unfortunate haircut is related to the Inflation Reduction Act.

Follow our socials: @climatepelicans on Twitter & Insta

Cover art by Cori Salter

Original music by Bola

Find out who your reps are in LA: https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/findmylegislators.aspx.

References:

1. https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/CCI-Task-force/CAP/Climate_Action_Plan_FINAL_3.pdf

2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.10.057

Ever get blamed for something you didn't do? EJ is the story of how the people who contribute the least to climate change often are forced to endure the worst impacts. In Louisiana, these communities still have past scars from slavery and the Jim Crow era. This week, Cori & Jill discuss how climate change impacts communities along socioeconomic and racialized lines. They get into the policy that's meant to protect everyone, NIMBY-ism, PIBBY-ism, and the decision-making bodies we can harness to incite change for the better.

Follow our socials: @climatepelicans on Insta & Twitter

Cover art by Cori Salter

Original music by Bola

References:

• Ash, M. & Boyce, J.K. (2018). Racial disparities in pollution exposure and employment at US industrial facilities. PNAS, 115(42): 10636-10641.

• Daniels, T. (2014). The Environmental Planning Handbook for Sustainable Communities and Regions. (2nd edition). Routledge.

• Lavelle, M. & Coyle, M. (1992). Unequal Protection The Racial Divide In Environmental Law A Special Investigation. The National Law Journal, 15(3).

• Vrijheid M. (2000). Health effects of residence near hazardous waste landfill sites: a review of epidemiologic literature. Environmental health perspectives, 108 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.00108s1101

• https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/learn-about-environmental-justice

• https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/MHL/marshall-islands/ghg-greenhouse-gas-emissions#:~:text=Marshall%20Islands%20greenhouse%20gas%20(ghg)%20emissions%20for%202020%20was%20164.92,a%202.28%25%20increase%20from%202017.