Audubon, Eco Watch and Our Clean Energy Economy

1
Audubon, EcoWatch and Our Clean Energy

Economy
With Tom Romito, Western Cuyahoga Audubon and Stefanie Spear,
Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of EcoWatch
Introduction
Tom Romito:
Im Tom Romito from
Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society
and Im
here with Stefanie Spear. Stefanie, would you please introduce yourself to our
audience and your affiliation?
Stefanie Spear:
Sure, Im Stefanie Spear, I am the founder and CEO of
EcoWatch
.
EcoWatch.com is one of the leading environmental news sites. We report on a
broad range of environmental issues and work to educate and motivate people to
care about human
health
and the
environment
.
Tom Romito:
Thank you. Could you please describe your work and how you got
into it?
Stefanie Spear:
When I was a college student I personally became conscious of my
impact on the earth. For me, it felt just like a light switch. It started mostly with solid
waste issues, but I was at
University of Wisconsin at Madison
, a really progressive
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Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, 4310 Bush Ave., Cleveland, OH 44109
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town and college, and just felt that people should have been more conscious and I
became of solid waste issues and the amount of garbage being generated in our
student union every day, and I thought, wow, for me as a person and a human to be
healthy, the planet needs to be healthy too. Once I started on that journey, I
wondered, Why arent people more aware? Because once you become aware you
notice all these other issues.
I decided it was because they lacked education on the issues and so I started
publishing a newspaper as a student back in 1990. I saw it was starting to get more
people engaged, and all of a sudden all these people started contacting me with all of
their issues, and I realized there was a huge need for a venue, a platform, a home, for
the news of the people who were rolling their sleeves up every day to protect our
water and our air.
So, the idea of educating people back then is really today when you see EcoWatch,
thats the culmination of my passion and work trying to get more people aware and
conscious of their impact on the earth and begin what I call a journey, from a
humanistic
view to a
biocentric
one. People who just begin to connect the dots
between human health and the environment, to people who are voting with their
dollar everyday, theyre ready to join a protest, theyre contacting their elected
officials.
You dont go from consciousness to complete
enlightenment
in a day, its a journey.
EcoWatch works to help people along that journey. Obviously, we want people to
move along the pathway as quickly as possible as our planet is in crisis and we need
more people to be conscious and to make the changes to their lifestyle so that we
can be sure that we have a planet for future generations.
Public Engagement for Public Policy
[00:03:08]
Tom Romito:
Stefanie, that is an excellent segue to my interest for Western
Cuyahoga Audubon Society which is to trying to garner a
grassroots
commitment to
Email:
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a
public policy
agenda about
climate change
and clean energy. Im interested in your
perspective about how to garner this grassroot commitment. Could you please share
some thoughts about that?
Stefanie Spear:
Yes, I think that, fortunately, we have amazing grassroots
environmental organizations all over the world, including
Audubon
, that have
members. Organizations are doing, I think, an excellent job of educating these
members and people engaged on these issues about the climate crisis, and other
environmental issues. I think its vitally important we keep getting out the news of
the changes that can be made to transition to a low carbon economy and make sure
that people become aware of what really are the most important issues and how they
can become involved. So groups like Audubon, and other organizations such as
Sierra Club
,
350.org
,
Friends of the Earth
,
Rainforest Action Network
, all these
amazing organizations and making sure that theyre doing their best to keep their
constituents or their members engaged on these issues. Its not just policy thats
going to transition us to a
clean energy
future, its also individual action.
Presenting Climate Science to the Public
[00:04:55]
Tom Romito:
Thank you and thats very interesting. The Audubon is a latecomer
to the climate change discussion particularly at the chapter level, like Western
Cuyahoga Audubon Society, and I personally have become a champion of trying to
present
climate science
to an audience that is not necessarily attuned to that. Theyre
interested in
conservation
, theyre interested in learning a lot about birds, but not so
much about climate change, at least talking about it. I would very much like to hear
your perspective about the best way, if there is one, to present climate science to any
audience.
Stefanie Spear:
So climate science sometimes takes the conversation too far for a
lot of people. At EcoWatch Ive learned to break it up in many different ways.
Again, were hitting a very broad audience. We call it All Shades of Green and
some people love that climate science and want the figures and the numbers which
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we have plenty of articles that dictate that. There are a lot of people who are just not
going to digest that type of information so we try to find articles like, Ten Foods
That Climate Change May Take Away From Our Planet. Avocados is a big one.
Those types of things resonate much better with readers per se than science data.
But for Audubon, the impacts that
coal-fired
powered power has on birds, and the
fact that it emits
carbon dioxide
and the
greenhouse gas
. Look for ways to bring it to
their affinity, their passion, I think can have a huge impact. Ive certainly tracked
what the Audubon is doing and their huge
Climate Report
that came out two years
ago on the impacts of climate change on birds, and Audubons position came out
very strong in reducing carbon emissions.
I think birders are just an awesome example of people, who if they just rally behind
this, can have a huge impact on policy and their individual actions. I think the
Audubons challenge of getting more of their members engaged on the issues is
similar to a lot of other organizations. So, just finding that common ground, and
pieces, parts, of the climate debate, which may not be the climate science.
Theres so many ways to engage people on the issue of climate change that impacts
their daily life. We just ran a great piece by
Dr. David Suzuki
that talked about
species and where they live is changing because of the warming planet. I know thats
impacting birding. Im sure birders are noticing different species of birds that are
typically not in their region.
So, I think more honing in on something thats going to be directly related to their
daily life or impact one of their passions may be the better way. A lot of people get
very glassy-eyed when you start talking, even about 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to
2 degrees Celsius. Theres really important information in there. What weve had to
do is take that 1.5 to 2 and bring in content that describes it in a way that the average
person is going to want to read. That data is vitally important for people to digest
and understand, but how you present it is definitely how well youre going to get
people engaged on it.

Email:
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Paris Talks Report for a Clean Energy Economy

[00:09:12]
Tom Romito:
Thanks Stefanie. When you presented to a local public your report
on the Paris Talks, you introduced a topic that was new to me and that was the clean
energy economy. To that end, when I talk to an audience, whether its Audubon, or
even individuals, friends and family and relatives, I talk to them about how to
promote
alternative energy sources
to drive the clean energy economy. Ive found
that this is the lowest hanging fruit because talking about greenhouse gases or the
melting polar ice cap or rising sea levels just goes right over their heads, they dont
want to accept that. But clean energy is something that everybody wants because
they dont want to live with dirty energy, either for them or their heirs. So, I would
be interested in your perspective on how to promote the clean energy economy,
alternative energy sources, could you share that please?
Stefanie Spear:
One way that we like to do it at EcoWatch is to just share the
success stories. There are so many success stories with
renewable energy
all over the
world its just incredible. That is one great way. And then theres really amazing
statistics that have come out over the last many years that show that the cost for
renewable energy, especially
solar panels
, has dramatically decreased. The amount of
installed capacity per quarter, and even of last year, renewables are winning out. The
fact that we know that we have to leave the majority of the remaining
fossil fuels
in
the ground, theres just no other choice - so a clean energy future, a clean energy
economy, a world that relies on renewable energy is our future.
Other ways are, I love to talk about innovation, I love to talk about
Elon Musk
, and
SolarCity
, I think hes the President of the Board of SolarCity, and then of course
hes the founder and CEO of
Tesla Motors
and the power wall battery store to
actually I love content on Battery Store it does really well on EcoWatch. I go Wow,
people really get it!

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Try to steer clear or at least set the record straight on myths about renewable energy.
Yes, if the suns not shining the panels are not generating power, but we can store
that power, we have a grid that needs to be revamped but there are a lot of
innovative ways to store energy today. Just the positive message that we are a world
that can be powered by renewable energy is a really great direction to go.
You can begin to talk about some individuals like
Mark Jacobson
from
Stanford
who has come with a plan to exactly how every country in the entire world and each
continent can transition to renewable energy and you read it and it just makes sense.
I think the more information, the more positive stories of countries and places that
are actually doing it, to get that word out.
I was super fortunate to speak at a climate conference in
Copenhagen
and I wanted
to go to the
Island of
Sams
, its the first island in the world to go 100% renewable.
I had the chance to spend about twenty-eight hours there and it was amazing! First,
I wrote a five page piece on EcoWatch that explains my entire time there that
covered solar and wind and all the things that they have integrated and then talking
about Germany and what theyve done with renewable energy. So, really pulling in
these positive renewable energy stories that show that renewables work. That is
going to make people want to engage more and understand the importance of
cleaning our air and our water and the impacts of carbon and carbon dioxide and the
atmosphere as well as just how dirty it is for people. So, if youre talking with health
professionals, or people who are more engaged with the health and wellness world,
we can talk about the positive impact changing to renewables has on human health.
I think that being on that high energy and positive direction toward where we can
head and showing the positive examples that exist around the world.
One of my favorite thoughts about the transition to renewable energy is really
looking at people who are in
energy poverty
. There are places all over the world
where people dont have energy. What is so exciting is they are completely leap
frogging the
industrial revolution
or the large coal-fired power plants and theyre
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installing their own community based solar projects that are bringing electricity for
the first time to their villages and they own that power.
So, instead of going from the big centralized coal-fired power plant, they are doing
renewable energy stations that they own and that benefits their community. Those
kinds of stories are fantastic because they never had to deal with the big fossil fuel
company coming in and building the big coal-fired power plant that makes the
planet unhealthy, that makes the people unhealthy, they dont then have control of
that energy that they cant even afford.
Greenpeace
has been a leader in that as well
as many other organizations and companies to bring this renewable clean energy to
these communities for the first time.
Wind Turbines and Birds At Risk
[00:15:53]
Tom Romito:
Thanks very much. This brings us to the elephant in the room as far
as the Audubon Society is concerned. And that is that wind power is, obviously, an
alternative energy source to fossil fuels. Everybody wants that but nobody wants the
birds to be at risk to wind power turbines. This debate rages in the birding
community. Everywhere, particularly in Ohio, because of the initiative to put
wind
turbines
on
Lake Erie
. The problem is that there is no evidence of post mortality
studies on the impact of the turbines on the birds. So, the discussion is, Well, what
to do about that? Do we allow these folks to go ahead or do we continue to press
for studies on post construction mortality on birds? What are your thoughts on that?
Stefanie Spear:
A topic Ive given a lot of thought to. Wind energy is an essential
component and part of transitioning our world to a clean energy economy. In
relevance to Audubon and to birders, I think that a lot of points need to be laid out.
No question that wind turbine farms should not go in a migratory path. So, there is a
need for studies. Im fairly confident that the migratory routes are known. Im
familiar with a lot of wind projects, the wind project on Lake Erie being one, and
they have h
ad to go through a lot of different studies with the
EPA
(Environmental
Protection Agency) and the
ODNR
(Ohio Division of Natural Resources) and the
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Fish and Wildlife Service

, to make sure that the project wont have significant impact
on other species.
Making sure that the process through
NEPA
(National Environmental Policy Act)
or whatever type of environmental impact statement has to happen, has to be part
of the program just as if a coal-fired power plant was going to go in or
nuclear-power plant or some type of energy generating facility. There has to be these
pieces, parts in the process. I do know, however, that we also have to pull into the
equation the impact buildings have on birds. Ive run many studies where the
number of birds killed by tall buildings compared to wind turbines, tall buildings
wins out every time on number of birds killed.
You also have to take into account the impact that carbon dioxide and
mercury
have
from the burning of coal has on our water, which impacts our fish, as well as our
birds, as well as human health. So, its just not what impact it (wind power) has on
birds if a bird is hit by a blade, its what impact, the true impact, that coal-fired
power plants have on bird species as well? If you dont bring that in, youre just not
looking at a level playing field.
Mercury pollution, which comes from the burning of coal, has several different
things happen: it goes up in the air, it comes down into the water and thats one of
the reasons why we have high levels of mercury in fish. If there are
scrubbers
on the
coal- fired power plants, theres left over
coal ash
that ends up in these compounds,
they leak and then that ends up in our waterways.
So, you have to look at what is the true impact of coal-fired power plant? Whats the
true impact of wind farms? And take all that into account when youre thinking
about doing a wind project. I think more education around the impacts of coal,
which powers more than 50% of our country, in some states clearly more, we need
to take all that into account. I think further education on those issues is vital. Where
the projects are sited is the biggest piece of it as far as the potential impact can have
on birds.

Email:
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My personal feeling is we have to move forward with a significant amount of wind

projects. I prefer distributed generation projects where a solar or wind project is
built to generate power for x for this particular facility, instead of huge
wind farms
everywhere that power a lot of different things.
In order for us to get to scale that we need to get to to transition a fossil fuel-based
economy to a renewable energy one, we need to do these larger projects as well. I
think dialogue and debate are really great but I think the proper information and to
look at all the issues at hand have to be part of the conversation to really understand
if that particular project is a really good one or a bad one. Under the premise, of
course, that nothing is perfect. Energy efficiencies is about as perfect as we can get,
where we dont use what we dont need. Therefore, maybe, we didnt have to put up
300 wind turbines, maybe we only had to put up 150 because we became energy
efficient first. Efficiency should always be number one, it is the low hanging fruit
before coming up with some generation facility, be it wind or solar or any other type
of power generation.
Audience Engagement and Climate Change
[00:22:29]
Tom Romito:
Weve covered a lot of ground here in this short interview Stefanie.
The one area of concern to me, as an Audubon member, as a public speaker, is
trying to gather a diverse audience to bring into this conversation. Typically, when I
go out to talk to the public, I find myself talking to the choir. People who are already
believers in the need to reduce pollution. To save the earth. But, thats only half of
the people. The other half are denying that climate change is even existing. Or, that
its even necessary to try to find solutions. I would like to get a diverse audience
together in a conversation in the same room, both believers and deniers. I would like
to hear your thoughts about the usefulness of doing that and how to do that.
Stefanie Spear:
I think it depends on if its too polar opposite, Im not sure if at the
end of the day the solution or time will have been beneficial. If you start off with the
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10
same goal in mind, which is to leave planet earth in a way that there are resources
and the ability for generations to live here, and you can agree on certain principles to
begin with, I think theres a lot of value in having different people in the room who
bring different things to the table.
But, Ive seen many times where if its just a
climate denier
, coming from, There is
no such thing as human-caused climate change to someone who wants to come up
with strategies and ways to mitigate climate change, Im not sure youre going to get
that much out of that.
At EcoWatch, we believe the consensus of 97% of the worlds climate scientists that
say climate change is human induced and that the release of greenhouse gases is
warming our planet.
If youre starting at that premise, I think theres a lot of value in bringing in people
who may not think that that particular wind project is good, but youre both
understanding that something has to get done. Convening conversations like that is
fantastic. Ill typically speak out at this conference at
AREDAY
(American
Renewable Energy Day),
Chip Comins
puts it on and is able to bring together
people from all over the world and were not all on the same page. Many different
backgrounds, philosophies and thoughts, but we can all have conversations leading
up to a more positive solution. I think you have to have some common ground to
start with to get to that level.
Im under the assumption that most Audubon members believe that climate change
is human caused. Do you think that that is true?
Tom Romito:
The jury is out on that because even in my own group, my own
network of conservation people, there are people who are on the fence. Ive heard
things like, Were already at the tipping point and its nearly too late, or, It is too
late. Or there are those who will argue about the composition of greenhouse gases,
like thats the most important issue. I dont think it is. We need to get out of the

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11
weeds on this discussion and look at the greater good. Thats where I am at: trying
to include the people who want to talk about the science to that extent and those
who are on the fence, along with those who believe, Yes, I believe in the science,
youre doing right! Thats where I am, trying to be an includer of all points of view.
Stefanie Spear:
I think that its clearly important to allow them as members of
Audubon to have their say. I think Audubon, as an organization, has certainly come
out from what I understand in that they do believe the consensus of 97% of climate
scientists. Is this true?
Tom Romito:
Absolutely. The National Audubon Society is fully on board with
that. I would like to know what to say to somebody whos saying, Thats bogus,
that study that came up with that number. What do you say to people like that?
Thats the area Im trying to figure out.
Stefanie Spear:
Its not this one study that came up with that humans are
contributing to climate change. Its hundreds or thousands of scientists. There just
was a new study that consensus on consensus. That all these climate scientists
coming together to again say now theres consensus on the consensus that 97% of
the worlds climate scientists believe that climate change is human induced.
Were fortunate to have
Michael Mann
, as one of EcoWatchs Insights writers, hes
one of the most world renowned climate scientists. He has the
hockey stick theory
which is very famous that shows exactly what they predicted was going to happen
with the warming of the climate.
I think theres plenty of information out there that is digestible for most people that
clearly explains whats going on. Then, we have many nations feeling the impacts of
climate already, so theres lots of stories to be told there. I think that bringing people
together with same or different viewpoints is very beneficial, assuming...I dont have
much tolerance to debate people who absolutely think that climate change is just a
natural phenomenon and that humans dont have any piece of it.

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12
Weve been really fortunate with the support and ideology around
Pope Francis
and
his encyclical on the planet and climate change has had a huge impact on educating
and bringing more people in.
I know that when the report came out about two years ago with Audubon, that it
was one of the leading scientists, a birder, that authored the study. Im assuming that
rallied a lot of Audubon members to more clearly understand the issue at hand.
Tom Romito:
Clearly, it did. It is a valuable piece of science.
Stefanie Spear:
I think that its a time to continue to educate people on these
issues, not necessarily get into fights at Thanksgiving dinner, but we are fortunate
today to have social media and have it so prevalent in peoples lives. Some people
may disagree with that but it does provide a way for people to share what matters to
them. People are always, I feel hopeless. What should I do? We have a voice and
we can use it in so many different ways today with social media being one of them. I
think it lends a really unique and exciting opportunity to get more people conscious
and aware of these issues.
Tom Romito:
Well, there you have it folks. Education is going to be our strategy
going forward. Its been my pleasure to be with Stefanie Spear, founder of
EcoWatch, discussing this important topic. Thank you for listening.
Stefanie Spear:
Thank you.
Connect with Western Cuyahoga Audubon:
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Audubon, EcoWatch and Our Clean Energy

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Paris Talks Report for a Clean Energy Economy

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Fish and Wildlife Service

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

My personal feeling is we have to move forward with a significant amount of wind

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Copyright 2016 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

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