Chester’s Mentoring Initiative

October 2022

Members shared the following updates:

Our featured speaker was Joan Gunn Broadfield of the NAACP.

As a child, Joan lived at Lincoln University where her parents taught, and proudly remembers her (white) family being members of the NAACP. After marrying and having two children, she and her family moved into Chester in 1976. She had trained as a music teacher, but jobs got slim, so she focused on administrative work which left time for peace and justice work. She facilitates groups, is a mediator, and is trained in antiracism work. She retired in 2009 and has been working on local issues, currently with the county on solid waste concerns. “My family recycled before it was a thing!!” she told us.

Joan shared with us a presentation about environmental justice that is typically shown to children. Anyone is welcome to use it in their groups. Please contact Jeannine to receive a copy.

Here are some additional points that made during our meeting:

  • The county is aiming for zero solid waste. We can all help. We should all buy and use less stuff that needs to be recycled.

  • Covanta currently burns our trash, and the ash is buried in landfills. Landfills that are well managed are safe.

  • There has been some disparaging language around recycling recently, but it is still very important. Plastics numbered 1-7 are recycled as are glass, cans and paper. Plastic bags do not belong in community recycling, even as a receptacle for the recycled items. There are opportunities to separately recycle plastic bags in grocery stores and Home Depot.

  • The city of Chester makes money from recycling.

  • The NAACP is advocating against the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) plant proposal. Please see more information on this topic below.

  • Composting is coming to Chester.

  • A young person of color has (finally!) joined the Delco Solid Waste Authority.

  • We all inadvertently contribute to marine debris. See https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/

  • An option to dispose of hard to recycle items is TerraCycle. See https://www.recycleaway.com/Candy-And-Snack-Wrappers--Zero-Waste-Box_p_1856.html

  • Help create a hands-on environmental learning opportunity. Resources at https://www.baybackpack.com/mwee/what-is-a-mwee

What LNG is and why it is a looming climate disaster

[From globalwitness.org]

‘Natural gas’ has long been touted by the fossil fuel industry as clean, green and an answer to

our climate-woes. But gas is a fossil fuel and we see right through that greenwashing – which is

why we prefer to call it ‘fossil gas’.

One type of fossil gas you may have heard a lot about is liquefied fossil gas, also referred to by

the industry as liquefied natural gas or LNG. Liquefied fossil gas is an important part of the

fossil gas industry because it has been rapidly increasing over the last decade, and risks driving

evermore irreversible climate damage.

How LNG is formed

Liquefied fossil gas is formed when fossil gas is supercooled into its liquid state at about -260

degrees Fahrenheit (-160°C), a process known as liquefaction. It is then loaded onto huge

tanker ships or trucks and exported abroad, where it is returned to its gaseous state in the

process of regasification. It can then be transported as fossil gas through pipelines and burned in

power stations, home boilers or used in industry.

In the US, a huge depository of cheap shale gas along with the lifting of a crude oil export ban

in 2015 sparked a mad dash among fossil fuel companies to cash in on the export of liquefied

fossil gas from the US. Companies are rushing to buildout gas export terminals, where

liquefaction can take place, with a slew of projects currently in various stages of development.

Alarmingly, this buildout of polluting projects is being concentrated in the US Gulf Coast,

where residents of color have already borne the costs of environmental racism and decades of

industrial pollution. New gas export terminals risk polluting the air and waterways,

undermining the health and safety of nearby communities, and devastating local jobs reliant on

the natural environment.

Why is LNG a looming climate disaster?

The growing trade of liquefied fossil gas enables fossil fuel companies to pursue new markets

for their climate-wrecking products at the very moment when the world is attempting to

transition away from fossil fuels. Until recently, gas could only be used where there was a

network of pipelines from where the gas was extracted to where it was used. But now the

growing trade of liquified fossil gas enables this climate-wrecking fossil fuel to be transported

to almost any country around the world.

The fossil fuel industry and its enablers try to get away with positioning liquefied fossil gas as a

climate solution, as it releases less carbon dioxide than coal – the most polluting fossil fuel. The

American Petroleum Institute, the leading trade group for US fossil fuel companies, advertises

that liquefied fossil gas exports from the US represent a ‘critical step’ in addressing the global

challenge of climate change. And the Biden administration, despite its climate pledges, has

appeared content with parroting industry talking points regarding the supposed benefits of gas

exports.

This fossil gas growth is incompatible with a healthy climate. In order to achieve the Paris

Agreement goal of keeping warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius – a goal scientists warn must be

achieved to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis – gas production and consumption

must drop by 40% worldwide over the next decade. Yet in a vicious cycle, increasing US gas

exports promotes new gas production, and new gas production drives an expansion of gas

exports.

Remember, the fossil gas industry leaks methane into the atmosphere at almost every step in the

supply chain. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is, in the short term, over 80 times more potent

than carbon dioxide and has also driven more than a quarter of global warming to date.

Swapping fossil gas for coal in emerging markets isn't going to cut it, either: a 2020 Bloomberg

analysis showed the operation of all export terminals under consideration at the time would

have the potential carbon dioxide emissions rivaling those of coal.

In the world’s leading assessment of climate research, the IPCC report released earlier this year

reiterated the urgency of slashing greenhouse gas emissions in a rapidly heating world. It was

cited by the UN chief as signaling a “death knell” for fossil fuels. That means urgently phasing

out climate-wrecking fossil gas in its various forms – including