B5. Resilience, Third Nature, and Transition

EPR reporting deadlines are coming fast

The first packaging data reporting deadline for extended producer responsibility programs doesn’t come until 2025, which seems far in the future, but compliance experts are warning that companies should start the massive undertaking now. 

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Oregon approves first set of EPR rules

Of the states that have passed extended producer responsibility laws for packaging, Oregon just became the first to approve a round of administrative rulemaking.

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Study: EPR programs do strengthen recycling

A team of researchers at Iowa State University reviewed extended producer responsibility laws in several countries and concluded that the programs overall strengthened recycling.

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Global of Weavers [Weavers] GTA is a “network of networks”. Each of those networks acts in different parts of the planet by identifying and connecting Alternatives. They are the Weavers. [Endorsements] Many progressive, post-developent and anticapitalist organizations around the world endorse this initiative. Also many academics, activists and referents do so.GTAGTAGTAGTAalternatives

Events Upcoming Just Transformations: Grassroots Struggles for Alternative Futures | 12/12/2023 The climate crisis is the greatest existential threat humanity faces today. The need for a radical societal transformation in the interests of social justice and ecological sustainability has never been greater. But where can we turn to find systemic alternativesGTAGTAGTAalternativesTapestryAlternativesGTATapestryAlternativesGTATapestryAlternativesAlternativesalternativesTapestryAlternativesGTAal…

Just Transformations: Grassroots Struggles for Alternative Futures You are all kindly invited to the launch of the new publication “Just Transformations: Grassroots Struggles for Alternative Futures” in which co-authors from Argentina, India, Turkey, Belgium, Canada, Bolivia, England, Venezuela and Lebanon will share the results of the ACKnowl_EJ (Academic and Activist Co-produced Knowledge of Environmental Justice) Project. ACKnowl-EJ was one of the first three Transformations to Sustainabi…

Women in Circularity: Andriana Kontovrakis

In this series, we spotlight women moving us toward a circular economy. Today, we meet Andriana Kontovrakis, director of compliance services at Reverse Logistics Group. 

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NERC: Fiber makes up greater share of tons

For all the global, national and state-level arguments and policymaking surrounding plastics, paper continues to increase its already-large share of the curbside bin, new data shows.

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NY attorney general sues PepsiCo over river pollution

New York's attorney general is the latest to launch a lawsuit against a major brand over plastic, this time focused on pollution. 

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New funding, a merger and more MRF news

Sims and Balcones have merged, and an Arizona MRF is back four years after it was gutted in a fire. 

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EPA studies costs of recycling programs, awards grants

The U.S. EPA is sponsoring a study of the costs and benefits of municipal recycling programs, and at the same time the agency is directing more funding toward the sector. 

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Eco-Cycle, Eureka Recycling and more

Eco-Cycle and the CoPIRG Foundation released their annual State of Recycling and Composting in Colorado report.  After more than seven years at the helm of nonprofit Eureka Recycling, Kate Davenport and Lynn Hoffman will pass the co-president baton to Katie …

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This is part of our story series, EKY Flood Relief: Neighbors Helping Neighbors.

Our first impulse when disaster strikes is to help. The devastating flooding of Eastern Kentucky in 2022 saw Kentuckians rallying around one another to offer what we had to make recovery happen as quickly as possible. But, recovery has required more help and more time than any of us initially thought. It’s now been more than a year post-flood and many families are still waiting for their home repairs to be completed due to funding and capacity of organizations to handle a need this great. Enter, LTRGs.  

“What are the gaps and how can we fill them in?” Jimmy Owsley, former board member and one of the foundational members of the Floyd County Disaster Recovery Coalition, sees this as the role for each county’s Long Term Recovery Groups (LTRG). A LTRG is a cooperative body made up of members of the community from all walks of life. Initial disaster response calls after the July 2022 floods, organized by Kentucky VOAD, led many communities to create their own county-wide LTRGs. 

Creating a line of communication between one another, LTRGs offer nonprofits, faith-based groups, government, businesses, individuals, and organizations the opportunity to work together in a coordinated attempt to assist individuals and families as they recover from disaster. Networking, bridging gaps, and offering coordination between all the good works already being done, LTRGs sprung up in Breathitt, Floyd, Pike, Knott, and Perry counties last year, and have since proven that we work best when we work together. 

“We have been fortunate that we have all these nonprofits in the area that have existing home repair programs operating year round. They’ve been able to absorb a lot of the need that emerged through the flood,” said Kalen Ousley, coordinator of the Floyd County Disaster Recovery Coalition (Floyd County’s LTRG)

Most communities were unprepared to handle a disaster of this capacity. The floodwaters impacted homes and businesses across our region and left millions of dollars in damage behind in communities already experiencing a housing crisis. To give a sense of the magnitude, FEMA received more than 16,000 claims applications. In a new report from the Ohio River Valley Institute and Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, it is estimated it will cost between $450 to 950 million to rebuild the approximately 9,000 homes damaged in the 13 counties that were declared a natural disaster.  That report can be read here. 

During the initial response communities began to overflow with donations like water, clothes, and supplies sent in from across the nation. Herculean efforts were put forward by local, state, federal agencies, as well as churchers, nonprofits, businesses, and individuals to fill in the gaps and lend a hand. The immense amount of aid, volunteers, and supplies that poured in was welcomed with gratitude, though it also caused crossed wires that made distribution overwhelming, and still left the threat of long-term needs, like housing and case work, hanging in the air. 

LTRGs coordinated efforts to ensure short-term needs were met, connecting families with temporary housing and case workers, while support from across Kentucky continued to pour in. Over $13.2 million dollars was raised by Team Kentucky alone. Distributions and pledges from the fund include:

• $440,000 in funeral expenses to the families of the deceased
• Over $4 million in $500 checks to survivors approved for any amount of FEMA assistance.
• $1.175 million committed for building new homes ($975,000) and home repair ($200,000) with nonprofit partners: Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, Housing Development Alliance and Homes Inc. 
• The balance will be used to build homes in new high-ground communities

With the additional federal and state funding for infrastructure and housing repair, there is now an estimated $409 million in funds available for flood mitigation. 

The coordination between organizations facilitated by LTRGs has created opportunities to leverage grants, like those facilitated by Team Kentucky and Grant Ready Kentucky, and to get construction supplies and household needs like appliances and furniture to families, as well as to store supplies for future events and ongoing needs at local Disaster Recovery Centers, get families caseworkers to assist in the bureaucratic process of buy-outs, and even create healing opportunities like community celebrations and access to mental health resources. They have become a vital part of the recovery process. What is necessary for the future success of the LTRGs is community and local government buy-in to these systems. 

Communities need to create Flood Emergency Plans, finding space and organizations in the community to handle the load of case work for families, attending LTRG meetings where the needs of the communities are assessed and addressed, and working to apply functional systems. Utilizing a template like this Pocket Template for Disaster Recovery (found here) creates a guide that can be referenced at any time to identify who fills which needs within the community. This can help local government or quasi-governmental organizations, like LTRGs, plan to prepare before a future disaster.

Recovery doesn’t happen alone, we’re stronger together. 

Helpful Hint #1 Grantreadykentucky.org is an invaluable resource for recovery in these communities. Committed to helping Kentucky’s nonprofits get more grant funding, they’ve created a hub for communities that connects them with the funding and professionals necessary to bring their projects to life. They have a database full of open funding opportunities, including opportunities like the G.R.A.N.T program. The Government Resources Accelerating Needed Transformation Program  (G.R.A.N.T.), was established with a $2 million fund to match federal grants for priority county projects and administer the programs since one of the top barriers to federal grant funding for small communities is the ability to meet cash match or cost-sharing for grant applications. They also offer Kentucky nonprofits free 1-on-1 sessions with grant professionals. These sessions allow you to ask questions about a grant application or offer guidance if you need help getting started with grants. 

Helpful Tip #2 Red Cross Disaster Action Team needs volunteers to continue their relief efforts, details for volunteer opportunities in flood impacted communities can be found at  https://www.kyfloodvolunteers.com/ 

Helpful Tip #3  Communities can see a detailed plan to create their own preparations within the national LTRG guide. https://www.nvoad.org/wp-content/uploads/longtermrecoveryguide-final2012.pdf

About this story series:

Mountain Association is partnering with What’s Next EKY?! and Vision Granted to host a series of stories showcasing the incredible flood relief efforts across the region in response to the flood on July 28, 2022. With a goal to share hope and spark new ideas about ways you can help in your own community, these stories will showcase the creativity and hard work of local people, provide helpful flood recovery tips, and feature stories of neighbors helping neighbors. If you have a story or helpful tip to share, please contact visiongrantedconsulting@gmail.com. Please learn more about this series here.

The post Plaidoyer for Transdisciplinarity, Local Agency, and Creative Co-Creation in Horizon Europe and the New European Bauhaus appeared first on The Nature of Cities.

We are an environmental humanities researcher and an AI scholar. When we asked ChatGPT if AI systems can help address the environmental crisis, the response unsurprisingly was optimistic. We had reasons not to trust it. Chatbots are not designed for veracity, but for guessing what the answer to a prompt would be based on content that has been previously written by others (humans and machines). The answers tend to favor the most popular, not necessarily the most critical, content.

A Mennonite book on the coming crisis: "We are fighting to dismantle structures designed to remove Indigenous Peoples from their land so that our economic system can continue to extract and consume resources at an ever-increasing pace. This growth-based system, designed to generate wealth and profits for individuals, is threatening the survival of all life on this planet. Climate change, I have realized, is only one symptom of the real threat, which is ecological overshoot. "

The diseases overrepresented in impoverished communities – obesity, diabetes, emphysema, osteoporosis, HBP, asthma, coronary blockage, mental illness, etc. – are deeply entwined with shrinking habitats and overheated climate. We might even think of poverty and climate as a single, indivisible issue.

This is ultimately a post about values. More specifically, it presents a technique by which to get at people’s (or your own) values. Values are important, because they drive much of what we do:

This is part of our story series, EKY Flood Relief: Neighbors Helping Neighbors.

As mayor of Wayland and lifelong “Waylander,” Jerry Fultz has seen floods come and go since he was a young boy. He experienced the historic floods of 1957 and 1963, and has recovered from nearly 20 more during his tenure– but the flooding of Right Beaver Creek in July 2022 was exceptional. 

Mayor Jerry Fultz of Wayland speaks to the news about flood recovery.

“We learned we weren’t prepared, but even if we had been prepared, we wouldn’t have been for that one,” Mayor Fultz said as he shared with us some of the insights and lessons learned through his 12 years as mayor in such a flood prone community. 

“One of the things we’ve done a poor job of is educating the public enough about flood insurance.” 

FEMA requires homeowners to buy flood insurance if they previously received help from the emergency management agency. If homeowners fail to acquire insurance after being given aid by FEMA once, claims from future floods will be denied. 

“In regards to Wayland’s Community Center, we didn’t have flood insurance. We did until 5 years ago and the cost was $5,000 a year for structure, not contents. Structure and contents, we couldn’t have paid it to begin with. The way I saw it we were a foot off the base flood elevation with a block structure. It saved us $5,000 a year to stop purchasing flood insurance, but in the long run it cost us $350,000, so looking back, it was a bad decision, but at the time it made sense. I thought we could spend those monies on other things we need, and we did, but at a greater cost when a flood we never thought would come came.” 

The North Fork of the Kentucky River sweeps through Hazard in a flooding event.
  (AP Wirephoto)

Without insurance, the $350,000 necessary to repair Wayland’s Community Center came from donations from neighbors, friends, family, faith-based groups, nonprofits, and grants. 

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) provides affordable insurance to property owners and encourages communities to adopt and enforce floodplain management regulations, such as the flood insurance ordinance FEMA has required from Wayland. The NFIP is managed by FEMA and has created a database of more than 50 insurance companies. Flood insurance is available to anyone living in one of the nearly 23,000 participating NFIP communities.

How To Purchase Flood Insurance 

• You can purchase flood insurance directly through your insurance provider.
• If you don’t have insurance or your provider doesn’t cover flood insurance, a list of NFIP insurers can be found here. 
• When there is an official Presidential Disaster Declaration, NFIP flood insurance policyholders are encouraged to apply for FEMA disaster assistance in addition to their flood insurance claim.

Who Is Required to Have Insurance?

• Homes and businesses in high-risk flood areas with government-backed mortgages.
• Homes and businesses in high-risk flood areas that have received federal disaster assistance – including grants from the FEMA or low-interest disaster loans from the SBA.
• Homeowners must maintain flood insurance in order to be considered for any future federal disaster aid.

How To File a Flood Insurance Claim 

• When your property floods, report the loss to your flood insurer as soon as possible. These reports can be filed remotely as you wait for conditions to become safe to return.
• Take reference photos and/or videos of your flood damaged property and personal items, and include flood water lines on the inside and outside of the affected building/s. Document the make, model and serial number for appliances and electronics to share with your adjuster.
• Keep samples of flood-damaged items, including carpet or flooring, curtains, appliances, personal items, etc. to show your adjuster. It’s said that the better the paper trail, the easier the flood claims process will be.

“Our hope and our future is not insuring against the floods but lessening the chances of future floods. We’ve applied for a couple of mitigation grants that will lessen the chance of flooding that have been approved. That’s warning systems like sirens and generators, that’s flop gates and pumps, that’s replacing our culvert with an open span bridge,” Mayor Fultz encouraged. 

The Mountain Sports Hall of Fame, the historic gym in Wayland, sits well above the floodplain and became a disaster hub to the community after the flood and Wayland has grants in process that would better equip the facility to host these needs.

“Now the major piece I can’t address is dredging the creek and cleaning the streams, but those would have to be carried out at the state level. There are several places where we can hold water back and we can control the flooding. Maybe even looking ahead, I can see where there needs to be some areas best served by dams, holding water back in a controlled manner. Those are measures that we need to be thinking forward and not thinking backward. What we’ve done in the past is cleanup and just get ready for the next one.” 

Governor Beshear awards Floyd County 
$8M in funding for High-Ground
Communities above the floodplain.

Thinking about ideas like dredging the creeks, potential dams, sirens and generators, swift water rescue for local volunteer organizations, and stream restoration are ideas that will require concentrated efforts from the community level all the way through the state and even federal investment. Mayor Fultz reminds us that being proactive is our best measure in ensuring our health and homes can survive what flooding may look like in the future. 

“We have a demonstrated need; we need the resources. If areas of the county,  incorporated or not incorporated, don’t have the resources then we must look at what we can do as a whole, through combined efforts at a city, county, and state level to allocate resources to those areas in a time of need.” 

His statements reiterate the theme we’ve seen throughout the entire recovery process: we work best together.

Helpful Tip 1: NFIP has extensive resources on the insurance process to help inform you of the process at https://www.floodsmart.gov/ 

Helpful Tip 2: If your community was impacted by flooding, here are open mitigation programs offered by FEMA and USDA: https://www.fema.gov/fact-sheet/summary-fema-hazard-mitigation-assistance-hma-programs and https://www.rd.usda.gov/resources/rural-development-disaster-assistance

About this story series:

Mountain Association is partnering with What’s Next EKY?! and Vision Granted to host a series of stories showcasing the incredible flood relief efforts across the region in response to the flood on July 28, 2022. With a goal to share hope and spark new ideas about ways you can help in your own community, these stories will showcase the creativity and hard work of local people, provide helpful flood recovery tips, and feature stories of neighbors helping neighbors. If you have a story or helpful tip to share, please contact visiongrantedconsulting@gmail.com. Please learn more about this series here.