Did you know that African-Americans faced a higher immediate unemployment rate following the Middle Eastern oil embargos during the 1970s? Or that American families earning $10,000 or less per year spend 29 percent of their income on energy versus 13 percent for families with incomes between $10,000 and $25,000 and 4 percent for those earning more than $50,000?
Energy professionals and students from N.C. A&T State University gathered for a one-day conference on Thursday to discuss ways to overcome the vulnerability of minorities, particularly low income blacks, to climate change and environmental damage. The American Association for Blacks in Energy and the university co-sponsored the conference and the two hope to work together to provide internships and mentoring in the energy sector for engineering students.
Read more about the conference in Saturday's Monday's News & Record.
One of the reoccurring questions at the conference was the balance between innovation/technology and actual downsizing and sacrifice. For example, Carl Wilkins of Advanced Energy brought up the point that many newer model televisions use more energy than the older models and on top of that people just move the old tv to another room, not reducing energy consumption at all. Another issue is the paradox of energy efficiency in the fact that it can actually help increase consumption. So are we just kidding ourselves that Americans can actually have declining per capita energy consumption (let alone declining consumption as a population)?
One of the funnier points made was by Leslie Fields, director of environmental justice with the Sierra Club on how difficult it is to change the mindset of the American consumer:
"It is a huge disconnect," Fields said. "There is a disconnect in my own family. I'm a failed environmentalist. My brother drives an Escalade and he doesn't care what I think."
At lunch, Hilda Phinnix-Ragland of Progress Energy asked who in the room was driving an energy efficient vehicle. Only one person out of about 50 raised his hand (Read my reflection on that issue here). She asked who was conserving water? More hand went up, but there were several untouched glasses of water on the tables. Hello.
"We're so accustomed to heavy flows," Phinnix-Ragland said. "We expect to have water on the table whether we drink it or not."
But many at the conference aren't giving up hope. As Morry Davis of Peabody Energy Corp. cleverly put it: "There's no silver bullet. There's silver buckshot."
On a lighter note, UNCG had a strong turnout of about 175 people at the showing of Power of Community last night. After the showing, Joel Landau, owner of Deep Roots Market and former city council candidate, announced that he and others are working with Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson to try to establish an environmental working group for city council. Let's hope for progress there.
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