environment

Sierra Club Announces Chapel Hill, Carrboro Endorsements

Press releases containing the following endorsements were received this afternoon:

Chapel Hill Mayor: Pam Hemminger
Chapel Hill Town Council: Allen Buansi, Ed Harrison, and Karen Stegman
Carrboro Mayor: Lydia Lavelle
Carrboro Board of  Aldermen: Barbara Foushee, Jacquelyn Gist, Randee Haven-O’Donnell, and Sammy Slade

Emerald Ash Borer killing trees in Orange County

The NC Forest Service has just shared that Wake, Orange and Durham counties are joining the quarantine area for emerald ash borer. This has wiped out millions of trees in Ohio and Michigan. Locally I have noticed that with new road construction often shade trees are not replaced. This needs to change. The easiest way for the ash borer to spread is to move firewood from one county to another. This also needs to change. See for more info: http://www.ncagr.gov/paffairs/release/2015/fivecountyexpansionEAB.htm
Addition information about the emerald ash borer and the quarantine can be found at these websites.
http://www.ncforestservice.gov/forest_health/fh_eabfaq.htm
http://www.ncagr.gov/plantindustry/Plant/entomology/EABFAQ.htm

NC Pork Council

Has anyone else been getting phone calls from Karen of the NC Pork Council and also junk mail? We have received two phone calls and one postcard during the past week.  Is some new lobbying effort going into the the state legislature to change rules about hog farms and waste lagoons? Our rural buffer and other rules limit large scale hog farms in Orange County. I hope no one is trying to make things worse.

 

What Does Quality of Life Mean to You?

In 2013, a couple of European psychologists reviewed the literature in an attempt to define the term “quality of life.” Their conclusion was that it “turn[s] out to be an ambiguous and elusive concept.”

In an editorial in the Chapel Hill News, Travis Crayton and Molly DeMarco claimed “Many of us might have originally chosen to live in Chapel Hill/Carrboro because of the high quality of life, exemplified by a vibrant student life, arts and music scene, and abundance of unique, local businesses.”

CHALT members have staked out their desire to “Protect the quality of life in Chapel Hill’s residential neighborhoods, where we live and raise our children.”

Social science researchers learn in introductory methodology courses to define their terms up front. So I am asking you to share your thoughts. What does ‘quality of life’ mean to you? We know there isn’t a “right” answer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t come to a local consensus. If we can construct a shared definition, perhaps it will make conversations about solutions more inclusive, or at least less divisive.

State Government and local regulation

I just received this article from a neighbor. It focuses on the state once again opting not to use federal monies for important state activities. My guess is that in the future the state will do less environmental monitoring and then use that as an excuse to repeal current regulations making them even weaker. The last two days I have been attending LUMO (land use meetings.) An important issue is  House Bill 74 which was passed this year. It's goal was to prevent local governments from passing regulations which will protect towns more than the state or federal laws. (The Republican logic was that government regulation prevents job formation. By that logic Chapel Hill should have one of the highest unemployment rates in the state but of course we have one of the lowest unemployment rates. ) Fortunately it did NOT repeal current local legislation such as the rules Chapel Hill has to protect water sheds, prevent erosion and regulate development near streams. However, any revisions of those rules under HB74 would require 100% (not majority vote) by the local government. This means that as the town rewrites and in some cases

Chapel Hill Town Council Worksession on LUMO overhaul

Sep. 11: Council Work Session: Lee Einsweiler, Principal at Code Studio and lead consultant for the LUMO Update, will present an overview of the project, highlighting key milestones and other considerations.  Sept. 24,25,26 will be the stakeholder meetings for LUMO.

Date: 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Location: 

Chapel Hill Library Room B 6PM

Orange County Ranks As The Second Healthiest County In The State (Again)

A WRAL report on a recent study out of the University of Wisconsin has Wake County as the healthiest county in the state.

Orange County placed a respectable second overall with first place finishes in the categories of health behaviors, clinical care, and social and economic factors and second place finishes in morbidity and mortality.  Unfortunately, our overall score was depressed by an eighth-place finish in physical environment.  I guess we know where we have our work cut out for us.

The Orange County scores are at: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/north-carolina/2013/orange/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot/by-rank

This Week: Just Do It!: A Tale of Modern Day Outlaws! & Deep Green Resistance Roadshow

Do you want to seel real change in the word and in the way we live on this planet?  Are you tired of hearing about species going extinct everyday, methane plumes in the Antarctic, dead zones in the ocean?  Would you like to meet more people like yourself, and create a reinvigorated movement.  If so, then you're in luck, because there are two events coming up this week in Chapel Hill for you!

Thursday  June 21st, free screening of the documentary film Just Do It! A Tale of Modern Day Outlaws 7 p.m.  405 W. Franklin St.@ Internationalist Books

Saturday June 23rd, a presentation by the Deep Green Resistance Roadshow from Wisconsin 7 p.m. @ Internationalist Books 405 W. Franklin St.

 Descriptions below:

Tell Flyleaf Books to Cancel Pro-Fracking Event on Dec 7th: Protect Our Water!

Urgent Action Needed! Pro Fracking PR Hack Descends Upon Chapel Hill: Tell Flyleaf Books to Cancel Event Immediately! (Please Forward Widely)

As advertised by UNC’s Humanities in Action program, they plan to bring the president of an oil and gas company that makes money off of hydraulic fracturing to speak in support of this dangerous natural gas extraction practice at a local independent bookstore called Flyleaf Books. There will be no one present to tell the other side of the story: that fracking has caused major disasters all over the country from well explosions, to methane leached in to water aquifers, poisoned families, carcinogens and hundreds of toxins leached into our rivers. The event is scheduled for December 7th from 3:30-5 p.m. and tickets cost $20.

Premiere Film Screening of END:CIV & Discussion w/ Director

Friday April 8th at Internationalist Books & Community Center at 405 W. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Movie starts at 8:00 p.m.  $6.00 a person
afterwards there will be a discussion with director, Franklin Lopez of Submedia
Hosted by Croatan Earth First!

END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen,END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by people who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”

The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As we write this, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day, the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don’t have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system — it seems to be coming apart already.

But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future.

Backed by Jensen’s narrative, the film calls on us to act as if we truly love this land. The film trips along at a brisk pace, using music, archival footage, motion graphics, animation, slapstick and satire to deconstruct the global economic system, even as it implodes around us. END:CIV illustrates first-person stories of sacrifice and heroism with intense, emotionally-charged images that match Jensen’s poetic and intuitive approach. Scenes shot in the back country provide interludes of breathtaking natural beauty alongside clearcut evidence of horrific but commonplace destruction.


END:CIV features interviews with Paul Watson, Waziyatawin,  Gord Hill, Michael Becker, Peter Gelderloos, Lierre Keith, James Howard Kunstler, Stephanie McMillan, Qwatsinas, Rod Coronado, John Zerzan and more.


“A fierce critique of systematic violence and industrial civilization, End:Civ is not intended for garden-variety environmentalists. If you are anywhere below, say, an 8 on that sliding scale of pissed off, then this film is going to scare you — which means you should watch it.”
-Eugene Weekly

Date: 

Friday, April 8, 2011 - 8:00pm

Location: 

Internationalist Books & Community Center 405 W. Franklin St. Chapel Hill

Pages

 
 

Community Guidelines

By using this site, you agree to our community guidelines. Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will result in moderation or eviction.

 

Content license

By contributing to OrangePolitics, you agree to license your contributions under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Creative Commons License

 
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by WeebPal.