NWTCC Summit
Saturday, May 30
9 AM – 1 PM PDT
Sponsored by Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition, this Summit included three presentations. The speakers are directly below and a YouTube recording of the webinar is embedded at the bottom of this post.
Speakers
Big Ag: Pollution & Politics
Speaker: Charlie Tebbutt, Attorney
Charlie will discuss the efforts to reverse the decades of pollution from industrial dairies in the Lower Yakima Valley, Washington State, and other areas around the country. Pollution, politics and the failure of government to regulate the CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operations) industry has devastated communities across the country. We must continue to turn the tide.
Climate Boundaries: Our Waterways in the Balance
Speaker: Chris Wilke, Executive Director of The Center for Environmental Law and Policy
In this talk we will cover the critical nexus between climate and water and what it means for local waterways. Against the backdrop of a fourth-consecutive year of NW drought, we’ll explore recent global and Pacific NW climate trends, long-term forecasts and what they might mean for clean, flowing water, salmon populations, communities and the broader PNW ecosystem in coming years. We’ll discuss how current water management often makes a bad situation worse, and we’ll look at potential opportunities to build resilience in local waterways to better prepare for further impacts. Finally, we’ll discuss how local water protectors might play a larger role in the broader climate fight in defense of our waterways.
Atomic Convergence: Artificial Intelligence & Nuclear Power
Speakers: Lloyd Marbet and Cathryn Chudy, Oregon Conservancy Foundation
The Pacific Northwest is seeing an inordinate push for nuclear power to meet forecasts of growing energy demand, as data centers (existing and planned) exert increasing pressure on energy and water use in our region, and claim “Advanced Nuclear” as a necessary future energy resource. We review facts about nuclear power impacts, cover Oregon’s and Washington’s current status on nuclear power development, review the impacts of federal actions mandating more nuclear power along with the outsized influence of government, the nuclear lobby, and big tech firms seeking favorable policies in accelerating the race for dominance in artificial intelligence.
Watch a video recording of the webinar
Due to a recording error, the introduction of this Summit, “Water Use, Reuse and Abuse”, and of our first speaker Charlie Tebbutt was not recorded. We apologize for this oversight.