Editor's Note from August 2023 Networker

“Mní wičhóni” or “water is life” became a familiar call of protest during the struggle to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the grave risks it posed to rivers. Rachel Carson said the same in the parlance of western science: “Water must be thought of in terms of the chains of life it supports.” But industry, with regulatory approval, continues to disrupt and pollute waterways, and climate change is wreaking havoc on the water cycle. Places we not long ago thought of as green and lush are now dry and burning, while a tropical storm bore down on the southern California desert, a first in nearly a century. 

Though SEHN staff members live dispersed around the country, in recent weeks, several of us again experienced very poor air quality from near or distant fires. Our hearts broke for the residents of Lahaina. I watched Weather.com around the clock last week to see how Hurricane Halliburton (as I renamed Hurricane Hilary) might affect my daughter in Los Angeles. She got away with just a leak in her roof and a work-at-home day (flash flood warnings were in effect and driving was discouraged). 

You’re no doubt hearing this from many voices lately, and likely seeing it with your own eyes: the climate crisis is unfolding around us, on the land, in the sea, in the atmosphere, no matter where we live.

Given SEHN's history of leadership on climate, it can seem unreal sometimes that we have had to pivot to fighting something promoted as a climate solution, but is not one: carbon capture and storage (CCS). (See resources here on why not.) As our readers and supporters know, SEHN is absolutely committed to a clear-eyed struggle to confront the climate crisis. As you probably also know from these pages in the past year, we hit the ground running, joining with allies as the reality became clear to us: the federal government had linked hands with industry (including handing out potentially billions of dollars, through the Inflation Reduction Act and other programs) to prop up and roll out CCS experiments. We can’t know exactly how much these misguided efforts have displaced real climate action, but the effect of these CSS distractions has already been significant. 

SEHN is educating the public and policymakers, supporting frontline communities in proximity to proposed or in-construction CCS facilities and pipelines, and developing national strategies to address the near-complete absence of sound policy on CCS.

In this edition of the Networker we update you on two of the national strategies we’re working on. I provide a short update on our campaign with allies to cut off at the pass an unconscionable proposed amendment to a United States Forest Service regulation that would allow the injection and “permanent” storage of waste carbon dioxide on its lands. In a more detailed piece, executive director Carolyn Raffensperger explains the reasons we need to understand and stay focused on two federal agencies, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers, with regard to the proposed tens of thousands of miles of carbon dioxide pipelines.

Brace yourself for senior scientist Sandra Steingraber’s column this month, “The Dying Sea Around Us.” She takes us on a journey with Rachel Carson from her 1951 book, The Sea Around Us, on to its second edition in 1960, in which Carson carefully corrected herself about the oceans’ imperviousness to human activity, based on new evidence. “Writing darkly about the practice of dumping radioactive waste into the world’s oceans, she urged her readers to relinquish old beliefs and embrace an emerging truth: 

‘… there has long been a certain comfort in the belief that the sea, at least, was inviolate, beyond man’s ability to change and to despoil. 

But this belief, unfortunately, has proved to be naïve.’”

Sandra also locates the seeds of Carson’s nascent grasp, as early as the 1960s, of the workings of anthropogenic climate change.

As the water cycle shifts with dramatic impacts and communities try to get their bearings, I continue to observe how many of our allies in the climate movement are including resilience-building and mutual aid in their daily commitments. We multi-task as we can and must.

Thank you for your support of our work. Stay safe and resilient!