COVID-19 Update: Read about the most recent Sierra Club guidelines here.
Tennessee News
Law could power new energy measures, but Volkswagen, other companies still waiting on details. "Supporters of President Joe Biden's sweeping Inflation Reduction Act predict the new law's $369 billion of environmental and tax provisions will dramatically speed the growth of renewable and clean energy efforts, promote independence from China when it comes to electric vehicle battery production, and help address climate change with carbon emission reductions of some 40% during the next decade." Read more by Andy Sher - Times Free Press - September 5, 2022.
Senate must confirm TVA nominees by end of year to keep quorum on utility board. "TVA is supposed to have nine board members, but four of the board posts are vacant, and the terms of another two directors ended in May. They will have to vacate their posts by the end of the year unless their successors are named before then." Read more by Dave Flessner - Times Free Press - September 6, 2022.
LISTEN: Former Tennessee Governors Bredesen, Haslam host a podcast featuring civil conversations about tough topics. Thenew podcast called You Might Be Right is produced by the Howard Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee. In Episode 2 (Are We Moving Fast Enough to Address Climate Change?), Former Vice President Al Gore and Jeff Lyash, President and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, join Bredesen and Haslam to discuss climate change. Listen here (44 min).
ACTION ALERT: TVA is planning two gas pipelines that would run through Middle and East Tennessee. FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is accepting public comments about both projects. Learn about the facts here. The deadline for comments about the proposed Cumberland pipeline is October 7th: Submit comments to FERC today (use docket number CP22-493-000)! The deadline for comments about the proposed Kingston pipeline is October 20th: Submit comments with Sierra Club today!
If you live in one of the following areas, please attend the public meeting about the pipeline! Details provided in the link:
Solar panels ready for action as the sun peeks out from a cloudy sky. Photo: US Department of Energy.
Environmental Updates
Gov. Bill Lee, Commissioner David Salyers Announce Creation of Savage Gulf State Park. “This is a special day for Tennessee State Parks,” Lee said. “Savage Gulf State Park will be a unique Tennessee attraction,” Salyers said. “We want all Tennesseans to enjoy its natural beauty and recreation opportunities, and we are grateful to the governor and the Tennessee General Assembly for their leadership in making this happen.” Press release - September 22, 2022.
Congressman Stephen Cohen receives Sierra Club's Edgar Wayburn Award. The award honors outstanding service to the environment by a person in government. Rep. Cohen has been an environmental champion throughout his career and is appreciated for his efforts locally in Memphis, statewide, and nationally on environmental legislation. Watch the presentation of the award here (starts at 47:02).
Out of this world: NASA to measure Memphis aquifer from space. "As Protect Our Aquifer advocates for the Memphis area’s water supply, they turned to some friends in high places. Really high places. NASA’s ECOSTRESS, a sensor on the International Space Station, is now capturing high resolution data to identify water availability and vulnerability in the Memphis Sand Aquifer." Read more by Keely Brewer - Daily Memphian - September 23, 2022.
Southern Environmental Law Center asks TVA for info on retirement of coal-fired plant. "On behalf of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, the Southern Environmental Law Center has asked TVA to prepare a supplemental environmental statement in order to address concerns with TVA’s draft environmental impact statement, which details the agency’s plans to retire the Cumberland Fossil Plant...But members of the two conservation groups said they were concerned with TVA’s current plans to retire the plant and noted that community groups and federal agencies have pushed back on agency plans."
Read more by Dulce Torres Guzman - Tennessee Lookout - September 19, 2022.
‘This is the future’: rural Virginia pivots from coal to green jobs. "Region’s long awaited energy and economic transition will be substantially boosted by US’s first climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act." Read more by Nina Lakhani in Wise county and Bluefield, Virginia - The Guardian - September 8, 2022.
A rally was held in Knoxville on August 19th to support the preservation of established trees in Cradle of Country Music Park. Walt Fieldsa (in blue cap) created the painting. Photo by Todd Waterman.
A Victory for Trees!
By Kent Minault, Harvey Broome Group
This month, Harvey Broome Group members pulled off a significant victory by saving the tree canopy in the Cradle of Country Music Park. In June of last year, a small group of us, led by Maggie Longmire, started contacting city officials to find a way to protect five mature trees in the park that were threatened by the installation of a large sculpture. We were repeatedly told that the sculpture was already approved and the destruction of the trees was inevitable. The leader of the public arts committee, Liza Zenni, the City’s Chief Operations Officer, David Brace, and the Urban Forester, Kasey Krouse, all agreed: “There’s been a public process, it’s had several stages, and we have to go ahead.”
Then on August 19th, a bunch of us showed up at the Park and held a rally. People spoke about how important the trees were in their lives, we signed petitions, and word got out about the issue. Some who had been angered by the destruction of trees at Lakeshore Park started putting messages on social media, and others began an online petition. Some of us were interviewed in local media, and our request to make calls and send emails to the Mayor and City Council was answered by hundreds of people. Knoxville was starting to pay attention.
Mayor Kincannon called on Tuesday, September 6th, right before the next City Council meeting, to tell us they’d reached a compromise whereby four of the five trees could be saved. I thanked her for working out this solution but pressed her about that last tree and why it had to die. My concern was the continuity of the tree canopy. The park would be a lot less inviting if the canopy had a big hole in it. She said it would still be “pretty continuous” and 22 more trees would be planted as well. She said I ought to take this as a victory. I assured her I did and that other members had expressed enthusiasm as well. Still, I was concerned that under her “compromise” there had been no discussion about siting the art in another location where no trees would be
sacrificed.
But the Mayor was right; it’s a victory. An aroused public defeated government intransigence, and the Kincannon administration came up with an acceptable solution. We might wonder why that solution had to wait until a year of mounting public outrage finally boiled over. But a victory it was, and we now have a core of roughly 1500 people who can organize to win more. We’ll need to continue to up our organizing game to get real climate progress as we move forward. Especially important is massive voter turnout for November. Evelyn Gill made the point at
our first rally: vote in all elections and bring friends with you. We need way more champions in public office. Drop me a note at kminault@gmail.com if you’d like to find a way to get more involved.
Mayor Indya Kincannon and Kent Minault shake hands at the September 6th City Council Meeting. Photo by Todd Waterman.
Health & Justice
Radio Documentary: Kentucky Floods. In her first broadcast since her Whitesburg, KY station was flooded off the air in July, Katie Myers (partner of Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment's Adam Hughes), gives wrenchingly real voices to the climate-driven suffering in the region. "Our lifehood, that's everything, right there, in a pile, in a heap, to be hauled away." Listen to broadcast
(26 min) by Katie Myers - BBC World Service - September 13, 2022.
Billionaire No More: Patagonia Founder Gives Away the Company. “A specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization…were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe. 'Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people,’ Mr. Chouinard, 83, said in an exclusive interview. ‘We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet.’”
Read more by David Gelles - The New York Times - September 14, 2022.
Maury County superfund site eyed as destination for Middle Tennessee trash. "The plans, not yet publicly disseminated, have raised concerns about environmental impact of disturbing the site...Submitted to state environmental regulators in June, [the plans] have received no public scrutiny – or notice to the surrounding community that would be impacted by 18-wheeler traffic, construction, potential air and water quality hazards and the large-scale physical plants necessary for such an operation." Read more
by Anita Wadhwani - Tennessee Lookout - September 19, 2022. Contact Scott Banbury if you want to know more about this at scott.banbury@sierraclub.org or 901-619-8567.
TVA, Hooked on Dirty Energy: The mighty Tennessee Valley Authority isn't in any rush to pivot to clean energy. “TVA could be a national leader. But instead of showing the nation how to navigate away from the climate crisis, TVA has morphed into a prime example of why we're in it. Frustrated organizations across the Southeast created the Clean Up TVA coalition in spring to advocate for renewable options. The group ‘underscores what we think TVA could be, and the massive potential to transform the region and be a leader for the country,’ said Bri Knisley, an East Tennessee organizer for the local environmental group Appalachian Voices and a coalition member.”
Read more by Austyn Gaffney - Sierra Magazine - September 14, 2022. Editor's Note:The Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter is a founding member of the Clean Up TVA Coalition. The Tennessee Chapter powerfully engages both volunteers and TVA’s local power companies (LPCs) like Memphis Light, Gas, and Water in opposing TVA’s proposed methane gas pipelines and plants, its unjust rates and energy efficiency policies, and much more. Want to help? Contact Energy Chair JoAnn McIntosh at mcijoann@gmail.com, or donate to the Chapter.
We Glow in the Dark. "A Memphis community demands reparations for unknowingly hosting the toxic waste of war."Read more by Leanna First-Arai - The Margin - September 21, 2022.
Correction: An article in the September E-news called "An Empowering, Back-from-the-Dead Climate Win…" by Todd Waterman contained an error. The amount of excess CO2 in the atmosphere was misstated as 2.4 million tons. The actual amount is a millionmillion (a trillion) tons remaining in the atmosphere, of 2.4 million million excess tons emitted. The archived edition of the September E-news will be corrected.
Artist Walt Fields and Shannon Campbell hold up handmade signs to support the trees in Knoxville's Cradle of Country Music Park.
Events
Statewide environmental events listed in order of occurrence.
Do you have an event you'd like publicized?
Send it to Enews.sierratn@gmail.com.
Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 - October 15th. The month is a chance to celebrate the histories, cultures and contributions of those whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. Learn more here.
Appalachian Public Interest Environmental Law (APIEL) Conference on October 1st. This year’s in-person/Zoom conference features presentations on the legal ethics of environmental justice, factory farming case studies, TVA’s carbon footprint, and more. Lay-friendly and open to the community at large. This event is Saturday, October 1st, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM at University of Tennessee College of Law. Register here.
HBG Program: How Thru Hiking Accidentally Changed My Life, by Hope Westall, Founder and CEO of Alt Route Meals. "This is the story of the last decade of my life - the tale of chasing wild dreams, unlearning the word impossible, and living an adventure-filled life. After a decade of 6,000+ miles hiked, over 100 peaks bagged and 6 out of 7 continents lightly explored, I had finally discovered the missing link. There were not enough options for plant-based, health-conscious athletes and travelers. Come and join me as I tell the story of how I founded Alt Route Meals." Event on Tuesday, October 11, 7:00 - 8:30 PM Eastern.RSVP here to get the Zoom link.
Tennessee Environmental Conference. The conference will be held Oct. 24-26 at MeadowView Conference Center in Kingsport, TN. It is a hybrid event, both in-person and virtual. Register here.
Note: Fall Retreat Cancelled. The Sierra Club Chapter Retreat which would have been at Pickett State Park has been cancelled.
Special Features
Dear Eartha: Advice from an Eco-Guru
Dear Eartha,
I have a question. What is going on with recycling really? One day, I was running down the driveway to catch the garbage truck and of course he kindly stopped and said, bring that other bag too. I left the recycling bag to go into my recycling pail. It was garbage day NOT recycling day. I said to him, oh no, that's not garbage, that's recycling. And he actually said to me, I'm going to the landfill today and it ALL goes to the landfill!
Is this true? I realize that only about 25% of stuff gets recycled anyway. He says people throw all kinds of stuff into recycling that should be trash. Is sorting it too costly and most of what people put into their recycling pail REALLY garbage? Don't different counties make deals with private companies to pick up glass or certain plastics for reuse? Couldn't some of it be cleaned and available to the public for gardening, mason jars, recycled art projects?
If we are going to make any progress we need continuous clarification and an environmental police force. Until you start fining people for that and pollution, they will never pay it any mind. Whatever clarification you can provide would be most helpful. —Clare, Trying in Tennessee
[Editor's Note: Eartha is taking a break this month, so we are so thankful to Lisa Luck for answering this reader's important question. Lisa was on the committee that conducted the Tennessee Chapter's recent Recycling Survey. Take it away, Lisa...]
People want to recycle. We have been indoctrinated with the concept that putting materials into the landfill is “bad” and recycling is “good.” That concept has created multiple problems for many counties that collect recyclable materials.
One problem is that a lot of materials that people try to recycle are not recyclable. When materials that can’t be recycled are put into the recycling bin they are called contamination and must be removed – usually by hand. About one-third of materials that are “recycled” are actually trash. Shrinking recycling revenues do not always cover the costs of recycling.
Food waste is contamination. Some people put full jars of expired pickles or tomato sauce or even place florescent light bulbs that shatter into glass recycling bins causing the entire load to be discarded. Styrofoam and plastic wrap that is put into the cardboard recycling is contamination. Plastics #3 - #7 that are put into recycling bins that collect “Plastics #1 and #2 Only” are contamination.
Another problem is that sometimes even though a county has collected, sorted and baled materials for recycling, due to erratic markets, the county cannot always recycle. Materials can end up in the landfill. This happens primarily with plastics. Counties cannot contact residents day-by-day to let them know what they are able to recycle that day – because they just don’t know. Changing the message frequently becomes too complicated and people give up recycling altogether. Studies show that consistent messaging is the proven way to get the most recyclable materials.
Rather than focusing only on recycling, we must focus on reducing, reusing and most importantly – refusing. Refuse to buy products that are made from plastic. Many plastics are not recyclable, are toxic and pollute the earth. Plastics are frequently contaminated and the current lackluster demand for plastics interferes with recycling.
Other problems are created by manufacturers. Confusing the consumer so that they will continue purchasing their products is a marketing tactic. An additional problem is that sometimes employees don’t know what materials are being recycled and discourage recycling.
The best solution to our recycling problems? Learn what materials can be recycled in your county. Recycle only those materials. They must be clean and dry. Avoid purchasing products that cannot be recycled. The best you can do is to continue recycling the material correctly that your county collects. Your county will continue to recycle the collected materials the best they can.
Lisa Luck (in Eartha's stead)
Submit your questions, comments, or brief opinion of 'What Matters Now' to the Sierra E-News Editor [Enews.sierratn@gmail.com]. Dear Eartha is penned by Rita Bullinger.
Fundraising Corner
Three Easy Fundraising Hacks for Our Chapter
By Mac Post, TN Chapter Fundraising Chair
It takes some courage to ask people to donate money. The Tennessee Chapter, however, needs some funds to be an effective voice for Tennessee’s environment. Fortunately, the Sierra Club has given us some tools to raise some funds easily without having to ask you directly. These are:
1. On our Chapter’s webpage there is a red DONATE button at the top right of the page. This directs you to a secure webpage, where if you make a donation the money is deposited directly into our bank account.
2. On the same Chapter webpage there is a red JOIN button. If a new member uses the JOIN button to sign up for a $39 membership, the Chapter gets a commission of $39 back! So encourage people to join through our Chapter webpage rather than using the National Sierra Club.
3. Know someone who would enjoy being a Sierra Club member? The Sierra Club’s new member reward program also works for gift membership. Surprise them this holiday season with a gift membership. If you use this link for gift memberships to new members, our Chapter will get the commissions!
Please help our Chapter by using these convenient methods of donating. Donations through the above links are not tax-deductible as they support our effective, citizen-based advocacy and lobbying efforts.
Invitation to Comment on the Dissolution of Upper Cumberland and Watauga Groups
At the September 11, 2021 Chapter ExCom meeting we voted to reorganize the Tennessee Chapter into four groups and formally dissolve the Upper Cumberland and Watauga Groups. This plan is a formal acknowledgement of the Chapter’s current operation: Upper Cumberland hasn’t been operating since 2015 and Watauga converted to a Regional Conservation Committee in 2019. Once the plan is finalized, the Sierra Club can restructure its databases and assign members appropriately to these four groups.
Please note that this action to dissolve these groups does not affect individual members as members of the Sierra Club or chapter. It also does not remove their representation by the Sierra Club.
Please comment on this through the Tennessee-News listserv by emailing your comments to TENNESSEE-NEWS@lists.sierraclub.org with the subject “Chapter Reorganizaton,” or email Mac Post at mpost3116@aol.com. Your comments and discussion will be summarized for the November 12 Chapter ExCom meeting where the reorganization will be voted on again. Members are also welcome to attend and comment at the meeting on Saturday November 12, 10:00 am Central before a final vote is taken. In order to get the Zoom link please RSVP here.
The updated County Assignments are as follows. These are the assignments we have been using for more than 5 years with the additional change of adding the former Watauga Group counties to the Harvey Broome Group:
See the Tennessee county map (below) for the proposed map:
Species Spotlight
This month's featured genus is: Chrysanthemum
A pale peach chrysanthemum in bloom. Photo credit: Satdeep gill, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Chrysanthemum is a fall favorite, brightening up porches and stoops throughout the autumn season. There are thousands of varieties that come in red, yellow, orange, white, lavender, and bicolor.
Mums were first grown in China. They were first recorded in 15th century BCE, and are considered one of the "Four Gentlemen" (Sì Jūnzǐ 四君子). This is the collective name of four noble plants, in this order: plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum. They correspond to each season and hold ornamental and cultural significance. Read more about the mums' cultural significance in China on the Manchester Museum's blog.
Chrysanthemums hold different symbolic meaning around the world. In some European countries, they are associated with death and given at funerals and memorials. Japan celebrates National Chrysanthemum Day, also called the Festival of Happiness, on September 9.
Mums are edible and have been used for thousands of years medicinally. Yellow or white chrysanthemum can be used to make tea which is rich in antioxidants, iron, and potassium, and it's said to be good for blood pressure or hangovers. Chrysanthemum can be used to make a salad, stir-fry, cookies, and even liquor.
Paperless Delivery
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Contact Us
Do you have a program or speaker idea for your Group? An issue you're particularly passionate about? Do you have a story idea for the Tennes-Sierran or the e-newsletter? Let us know! Look through our past programs for inspiration. Submit your suggestion here!
The views expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sierra Club.
Who We Are
We are the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, the world’s oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization. With over 3.8 million members and supporters, the Sierra Club has the resources to empower people and to influence public policy through community activism, public education, lobbying, and litigation.
Our mission is to Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet.
