Displaying items by tag: sustainability

The towering Space Needle in Gatlinburg offers views of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The city is host to the Tennessee Sustainability Conference set to begin Aug. 20.  Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce

Conservation education event is hosted in part by Tennessee Chamber to address sustainability challenges

GATLINBURG — The annual Tennessee Sustainability Conference is scheduled to take place Aug. 20-22 at the Park Vista Hotel. The conference is a partnership among Tennessee Recycling Coalition, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Tennessee Environmental Conference. It brings together environmental professionals from across the region.

Nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an internationally known treasure trove of biodiversity and accompanying sustainability research. 

“The three-day event will provide attendees an accelerated learning opportunity featuring the latest trends and best practices in environmental sustainability,” said Tennessee Recycling Coalition Executive Director Amber Greene. “Staying on the cutting-edge of our ever-growing industry is essential to improving the lives of all Tennesseans. I encourage environmental leaders across the state to join us.”

According to organizers, the event will bring environmental professionals, decision-makers, government officials, business and industry leaders, attorneys, consultants, engineers, developers, architects, agribusiness leaders, energy experts, water planning districts, universities, public health officials, and solid waste and recycling experts, from across the region to learn about the latest trends and best practices in environmental sustainability. 

Coffee County is under development pressure, but it’s not a political fight

This editorial was provided by Coffee County for Responsible Growth, but applies to planning and development debates throughout the Southeast.

MANCHESTER — We keep hearing the claim that land protection, conservation and zoning are “liberal issues.”

Let’s set the record straight: That’s simply not true.

Protecting Coffee County’s farmland, water, infrastructure and rural way of life isn’t a political talking point — it’s common sense. And it’s deeply bipartisan.

We’ve got Conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Libertarians all standing together. Not because of party lines — but because we love where we live, we recognize the importance of agriculture, and we value community. 

Scientists discuss climate challenges and solutions during 2021 One Health Day

As climate experts and scientists huddled in Glasgow in an international effort to stem potentially disastrous global environmental changes, a panel of doctors representing multiple disciplines at the University of Tennessee and beyond offered their assessments of climate challenges and solutions.

Their take on climate change? We have problems, but we also have solutions. Hopelessness will drive you crazy. Stay healthy, stay informed and do your part to mitigate the long-term environmental consequences of a changing Earth. 

Above all: Don’t despair and don’t lose hope.

The panel, held Nov. 3 at the UT Student Union and presented by the UT One Health Initiative, consisted of the following experts:

— Dr. Gus Engman, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture 

— Dr. Kate Evans, Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

— Dr. Joshua Fu, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennesse

— Dr. Sindhu Jagadamma, Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture

— Dr. Kristina Kintziger, Department of Public Health, University of Tennessee

Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity and don’t include the full response. Questions were submitted ahead of time or during the panel discussion. 

What do you see as the largest threats of climate change, especially related to your individual research interests?

Engman: Changing precipitation patterns are something I think about a lot.

Pretty much all the rivers in the world are expected to have changes to their flow regime.

These changes in droughts and floods are a really large issue.

I think a lot about aquatic communities. If we are scarce on drinking water, we are always going to prioritize people having that water, over the fish or the bugs in the streams. 

There are all kinds of impacts to life histories and interactions with communities in streams. 

When animals are stressed because of these changes in precipitation patterns and changes in flow patterns, they might become more susceptible to other stressors, like disease. 

Changes in algal community composition can impact the entire water quality of a stream, and that might happen because of these changes in precipitation patterns.

These places that are experiencing these extreme droughts really worry me. The Colorado River already doesn’t even flow all the way to the ocean anymore. That’s a huge change. Because we take up so much water for agriculture. 

If a stream runs out of water, it’s not a stream anymore.

Evans: From a meteorological perspective, the biggest event that hurts people's health is actually heat waves. A lot of press goes to tornadoes and hurricanes and storms but in fact these large domes of hot air (are deadly), which happen because of changes in the large-scale weather patterns.

The greenhouse effect insulates the earth, it makes it more uniform in temperature and so that changes the flow patterns that go around the earth. That changes those big weather systems that come in and how long they stick around. 

When you talk about these long droughts, we know that’s what's we have to understand: Will they last longer, be more humid, less humid, and that has huge impacts for human health as well as the food they eat and the plants that grow. 

Kintziger: Heat also has a bigger impact on a more indirect pathway to human health. Not just heat-related illness but also cardiovascular impacts, renal impacts and even mental health impacts.

Heat is the one that keeps me up at night. We are seeing increasing temperatures globally and we also have this urban heat island affect. 

Our vulnerable populations in the cities — inner cities with lower-income housing, homeless populations — they are going to experience heat very differently than people who live in newer buildings with better cooling and infrastructure and have better capabilities for adapting to heat. 

Not just for preppers anymore: Chattanooga energy-independence event promises three days of music, learning and fun “powered by the sun.” 

“A decade ago, the cost of the equipment needed to live off the grid limited the experience to the wealthy few. Presently, and in the near future, the technology is far more widely available to even modest income homesteaders. These days, you can’t afford NOT to get off the grid.” - Bill Fleming

The Chattanooga and Middle Tennessee areas are among the top producers of electric cars in the nation. What better place to facilitate and celebrate the growing use of alternative fuels? 

This summer’s Get off the Grid Fest near Chattanooga is a phenomenon with roots in the alternative energy movement of past decades. Today, it offers a strong vision for attaining energy independence and building sustainable communities for the present and future.

The latest installment of the festival is set for the weekend of Aug. 20-22 at Camp Jordan in East Ridge. 

Bill Fleming and Ed Witkin are bringing the traveling, biennial festival to East Tennessee this year. They are musicians and festival organizers and have been promoting and installing alternative energy technology for decades. The events are billed as ways “to explore and present practical methods of protecting and preserving our natural resources,” according to organizers, with a focus on harnessing alternative energy sources.

The celebration of energy independence — and ways to achieve it — will include three music stages; a curated art exhibit; an electric vehicle exposition; a sustainability fair with workshops such as homesteading demonstrations; and a health and wellness tent. 

The East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition and Drive Electric Tennessee are partnering with Stephen McCord to offer the Electric Vehicle Expo (EVX). 

“EVX is Tennessee’s first multi-day music festival/exposition showcasing the latest in electric vehicle products, components, and services,” said McCord, the owner/operator of B Presents, a Nashville-based company that provides concert and event promotion, entertainment marketing, and promotional services.

The Electric Vehicle Expo will include vendors across the entire EV spectrum, including OEMs, dealers, and suppliers for a full weekend of  presentations, test drives, workshops and guest speakers. 

ORNL researchers receive 2021 Sustainability Science Award for mapping human influence on U.S. river and stream changes 

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory mapped and quantified hydrological changes throughout the country due to urban development, energy production and other human factors and won a prestigious award for their efforts.

The team’s analysis was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and received the 2021 Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America.

“The Sustainability Science Award recognizes the authors of a scholarly work that make a substantial contribution to the emerging science of ecosystem and regional sustainability through the integration of ecological and social sciences. The researchers will be recognized during the society’s annual meeting in August,” according to an ORNL release announcing the award.

The research coupled U.S. Geological Survey stream-flow records with geospatial modeling to quantify human impact on national water resources and concluded the 7 percent of affected aquatic systems hold 60 percent of North American freshwater fish, mussels and other species.

“This work exemplifies how ORNL’s interdisciplinary research in environmental and geospatial science helps equip decision makers with the tools needed to move our nation toward a more sustainable future,” Stan Wullschleger, associate laboratory director for ORNL’s Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate, said in the release.

Lead author Ryan McManamay, an aquatic ecologist and faculty member at Baylor University, was with ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division at the time of publication. Co-authors include ORNL’s Sujithkumar Surendran Nair, Christopher DeRolph, the late April Morton, Robert Stewart, Matthew Troia and Budhendra Bhaduri; Northern Arizona University’s Benjamin Ruddell; and the University of Tennessee’s Liem Tran and Hyun Kim.

“It was a privilege to work with this team that spanned across multiple disciplines and institutions,” said Bhaduri, an ORNL Corporate Research Fellow and director of ORNL’s Geospatial Science and Human Security Division. “Given the impacts of climate change, there has never been a more pressing opportunity to address environmental sustainability. It’s a tremendous honor to make this scientific contribution and to be recognized for it.”