Editor's Note for October 2024 Networker

It’s midnight and the doves are in tears.*

In the introduction to the New York Times’ opinion series, At the Brink, which addresses the threat of nuclear weapons in an unstable world, the editors write: “Nuclear war is often described as unimaginable. In fact, it’s not imagined enough.” They are challenging us to get informed, get up to date, on “possible conflicts that could turn nuclear in Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East.”

From the jawbone of a donkey
To the atom bomb
Science and progress
What have you done

Our executive director, Carolyn Raffensperger, writes periodically about technology gone wrong—so often due to the tunnel-vision profit motive and utter disregard for peace, health, and democracy—and how we at SEHN work to find (or create) the openings to expose truths, challenge bad policies, and help change course. And, as our colleague Peter Montague reminded us on our staff meeting recently, with regard to our ongoing confrontation of misguided carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, we are indeed tipping the scales. We are experiencing success on several fronts in this truly deranged rollout of CCS, though much remains to be done.

In this edition of the Networker, both Carolyn and senior scientist and writer-in-residence Dr. Sandra Steingraber expand our examination of CCS through different lenses. Carolyn writes about the absence of water protective policies, prompted by a frightening leak in a monitoring well at a CCS site in Decatur, Illinois. Though the community did not yet know, in August the EPA issued the responsible company, Archer-Daniels-Midland, a notice of violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

In her monthly column, Sandra recounts the discovery of the scientific properties of supercritical CO2, the form necessary for its use in enhanced oil recovery. One could debate the plusses and minuses of other uses supercritical CO2 (decaf, anyone?), but we stand firmly against its use as an enabling technology for the fossil fuel industry to drill, drill, drill. 

As we grapple with injudicious technology and policy (on all governmental levels), our minds are on the upcoming U.S. election. On social media we are sharing information from trusted allies on voting rights and accessibility (our own graphics consultant Mo Banks works for the singular Andrew Goodman Foundation). We have colleagues taking time off to do voter education, get out the vote, and work the polls on election day. Off hours, I just finished writing 200 postcards with Postcards to Swing States.  

We’re not naïve about the damage already done or the massive public investment into false solutions.

Our children to their graves have gone
Still your tanks keep rolling on
Science and progress
What have you done

But we also believe we have a fighting chance to change course. As individuals we have this commitment to ourselves, families and communities, and as the staff of SEHN we have this commitment to you.

Warmly,
Carmi Orenstein, MPH

*Italicized song lyrics ©The Felice Brothers, used by permission. “It’s Midnight and the Doves are in Tears” is track 12 on Valley of Abandoned Songs.