With perhaps 80 in attendance, Forest was pleased with the event and is always happy to see events with long lists of co-sponsors.
Winona LaDuke gave a rousing speech on how we have been successful in stopping many individual projects, but we have failed to curb consumption and increase the efficiency of our wasteful and extractive system. She noted that while we are told this is the most efficient and productive we’ve ever been, 57% of energy is lost between the point of production and the point of consumption. We must overcome our sense of inevitability and stop accommodating polluters and extractive industries.
Toby Dogwiler (WSU Geosciences prof.) gave an alarming presentation on climate realities. Some key points: 60% of human carbon emissions have been absorbed by the oceans (leading to ocean acidification and many issues there) and this will not continue, meaning further emissions will have a greater impact than those in past. There are 5 times more known reserves of fossil fuels than we can afford to extract/burn and continue to survive on this planet. The solutions lie in carbon sequestration, clean “green” energy, and a decentralized and flexible energy grid.
CARS also gave some interesting information in their presentation: The dangerous and outdated DOT 111 cars being ever so slowly phased out of use for particularly explosive fracked oil, are simply being re-purposed to carry tar sands oil and up to 40% of DOT 111s are planned to be carrying HASMATs indefinately. There have been 60 rail expansion projects in the upper Mississippi River Valley since 2014. North Dakoda’s new volatility standards are irrelevant and will do nearly nothing to improve the safety situation on the rails.