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(09/17/14 3:38pm)
This past Wednesday, a wide variety of voices came together at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Middlebury to speak on climate change in light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, which will be completed by the end of this year, for an update from the global climate movement. Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, facilitated a series of short talks by Fernando Sandoval ’15, Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics Richard Wolfson, Erick Diaz, Professor of Economics and Director of Environmntal Studies Jon Isham and Marjeela Basij-Rasikh ’15. The talks were organized by students from Sunday Night Group (SNG) in advance of the People’s Climate March (PCM) on Sept. 21.
On Sept. 23, representatives from all over the world will come together in New York City for the 2014 UN Climate Summit to discuss the IPCC’s newest report and work to mitigate the effects of climate change. Leading up to the summit, over 1,000 organizations, including 350.org, are planning for the PCM. According to Laura Xiao ’17, about 120 people from the College will be heading to New York this weekend.
The evening began when McKibben introduced the speakers, stressing the importance of holding an event with speakers from the College in downtown Middlebury.
Sandoval spoke first, focusing on his home country of Mexico, a country “particularly susceptible to climate change” due to its reliance on farming and its high risk for hurricanes. If all other countries had the services and energy consumption of the United States, the world’s carbon footprint would be huge, said Sandoval. He spoke of the challenge of raising the quality of life for Mexicans while simultaneously reducing their carbon footprint. Some families with livestock have begun using biodigesters to create natural gas for energy, without needing to build a pipeline, said Sandoval.
McKibben introduce Wolfson, the next speaker, by detailing two recent news stories, the spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory and the release of the iPhone 6, the latter of which got more media attention.
“The carbon dioxide readings just go up and up and up … they’ve never gone down, they’ve never stabilized, since the 1950s,” Wolfson said. Since levels are constantly rising, records are constantly being set. It was the spike in carbon dioxide levels that made the news, Wolfson noted, not the record carbon dioxide level.
Wolfson began by holding up a book about four inches thick, which was one-third of the IPCC’s new report.
“The old understandings of climate change are good,” said Wolfson in reference to the previous IPCC reports. However, the new report includes better insight into regional differences, changes in temperate climate areas and the dire need to cut carbon emissions.
“Not only do we have to cut emissions to zero … we have to go negative,” Wolfson said.
McKibben spoke of the diversity of age, race, occupation and economic class of the people concerned about climate change and involved in the People’s Climate March to introdce Erick Diaz, a farmer from the south of Mexico who is now working as a migrant farm worker in Vermont because his own farm was destroyed by the chemicals from multinational corporations that farm areas nearby. Diaz spoke mostly on climate change and the effect that it has on people’s livelihoods.
Isham is “a leading thinker in environmental economics and divestment,” McKibben said next. Isham spoke on the pros and cons of economic disincentives foremitting carbon.
A carbon tax “is a bad idea in the U.S. because it’s called a tax,” Isham said. Two other alternatives are carbon caps or a cap and trade system. Isham talked about the recent Healthy Climate and Family Security Act of 2014, which includes three parts: a cap on overall carbon emissions, an auction system to “buy the rights to pollute” and the division of the 200 to 300 billion dollars raised in that auction among anyone in the US with a social security number.
Lastly, Isham said that he felt strongly about the importance of divesting.
“One of the reasons we divest is to try to weaken the fossil fuel industry,” said McKibben before introducing the final speaker, Basij-Rasikh.
“It’s not just an environmental issue in the traditional sense, it’s a social justice issue,” Basij-Rasikh said. Basij-Rasikh is from Pakistan, which was devastated by massive flooding in 2010 and is experiencing other effects of climate change. The effects of climate change are “damaging for the most vulnerable beings,” she said.
The series of talks ended by focusing on the upcoming People’s Climate March.
Bill Huntington of Middlebury was surprised by the diversity of people who spoke, ranging from professors, to students, to a migrant farm worker. Hearing from Diaz brought up how immigration is environmental, not just political, said Huntington.
(05/07/14 6:11pm)
In 2014, both child abuse and neglect are on the rise in Vermont. Calls to Vermont’s child protection hotline, a part of the Department for Children and Families (DCF), have overwhelmed DCF social workers and staff.
The death of Dezirae Sheldon in February and the death of a 15-month-old boy in April, both the result of domestic abuse, have brought the issue of child abuse to the forefront of many politicans agendas.
“A few years back we looked at child sexual abuse and made tremendous improvements in Vermont’s response, and hopefully the same will happen in Vermont’s response to physical child abuse,” Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington) said. Some of this increase in child abuse and especially neglect may be a consequence of the state’s growing heroin epidemic.
The child protection hotline received approximately 17,458 calls last year, about a 41 percent increase from 2007. Currently, DCF responds to about one in three calls, which is an improvement from 2007. Yet this response rate is just half the national average.
When DCF receives a call, a supervisor reviews the information and determines whether DCF should get involved. If so, a regional supervisor reviews the call information again and DCF can respond.
According to Kate Piper, a former child abuse attorney and a current social science doctoral candidate, “from the data, it appears that Vermont is neglecting its neglect cases.” In some cases, child neglect can be equally as devastating as physical abuse.
Determining whether or not to respond can be difficult, especially in cases of neglect, when symptoms are not as easy to spot. Neglect is often identified through long-term patterns of injury, unlike the dramatic injuries characteristic of child abuse.
Vermont state law requires that children live with their parents whenever possible. Consequently, DCF walks a fine line between unnecessarily taking custody of children and leaving children in unsafe situations. Once a child is in DCF custody, administrators then have to decide if and when it is safe to reunite the child and parents.
“Nine times out of 10, their bios [biological parents] can’t take care of them in the first place,” Chittenden foster parent Bernie Hayes said. “That’s why they’re in custody, and it’s very disheartening to see these kids go back to these places.”
Many Vermonters believe the state pushes too hard for reunification, even when it is dangerous for the child. Nationally, Vermont ranks sixth in the number of children who end up back in foster care after being returned to their parents.
Child safety and DCF itself have been brought to the attention of the public and the Vermont legislature in light of two recent deaths.
In February, 2-year-old Dezirae Sheldon of Poultney died from severe head trauma, allegedly committed by her stepfather. After Dezirae’s death, it was revealed that she had been under DCF custody before being returned to her mother, who had previously been convicted for cruelty to a child. Dezirae’s mother failed to get immediate treatment for Dezirae’s two broken legs.
The fact that Dezirae had been in DCF custody, but was returned to her mother, led to public outrage and government action. The Senate created a panel of seven senators to determine what policy changes could have prevented Dezirae’s death and could prevent deaths like hers in the future.
In addition, DCF has begun an internal investigation of the mistakes made and of what the department can do to prevent a repeat incident. Governor Peter Shumlin ordered an external investigation as well, since Vermont is the only state in New England lacking an independent watchdog organization that oversees DCF.
The second death gave further credence to the need for policy reviews regarding child safety and DCF. On April 4, a 15-month-old boy in Winooski was found to have stopped breathing, been taken to the hospital, and pronounced dead. The cause of his death is unknown, but some suspect it to be the result of domestic abuse.
It is still unclear whether the child was under the supervision of DCF prior to the incident. Privacy policies surrounding child-abuse cases are very stringent, sometimes inhibiting effective communication between the DCF and the individuals involved in abuse cases. This lack of transparency also reduces accountability within the department, leading to cases like Dezirae’s.
(03/05/14 4:26pm)
Within 16 months of graduation, only 60 percent of Vermont’s high school graduates enroll in post-secondary education. In an effort to increase attendance, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin introduced his early start degree program this December, which allows high school seniors to enroll at one of six Vermont colleges to earn college credit.
Community College of Vermont (CCV), Burlington College, Vermont Technical College, Castleton State, Johnson State, and Lyndon State will all be participating in the early start degree program.
Each school except for the community colleges has a limit of 18 students for the first three years. Tim Donovan, the chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges (VSC), expects around 240 students to enroll.
Despite having the highest graduation rate in the nation at roughly 90 percent, Vermont’s college enrollment rate is the lowest in New England. Of the students who enroll in college, just half complete a degree during the next four years.
The University of Vermont Summer Academy (VSC), a four-week program open to high school juniors and seniors, now allows students to earn college credit. Students in this program during the summer can enroll in courses on campus and online. The credit is transferable throughout several schools in the state.
The Academy’s newly expanded Vermont Dual Enrollment Program allows students to enroll in two courses without paying tuition. Governer Shumlin has also launched Personalized Learning Plans to help students create individualized paths to post-secondary education.
Ideally, the new Early Start Degree Program will reduce payments equivalent to a year’s worth of tuition. Funding typically allotted to high schools is now directed toward tuition costs for the students enrolled in college classes that is equal to about 87 percent of the full tuition cost, excluding room and board.
Dan Smith, VSC director of community relations and public policy, said that tuition at CCV is fully covered in this program because it is less than the per student cost of high school education.
Although the early enrollment program reduces higher education costs, it is not an alternative to increased funding for state higher education, Shumlin stated.
The union that reresents college educators in Vermont, the American Federation of Teachers, has called for an increase of state funding for higher education over the next 10 years.
The organization recommends funding for 51 percent of state tuition costs, a return to the level funded by the state in 1980. The state currently funds about eight percent of UVM’s tuition and 12 percent of VSC’s tuition.
“What we have seen in recent years is a huge cost shift onto the backs of students and families,” said Senator Anthony Pollina P/D of Washington.
Vermont currently faces a budged gap of approximately 75 million dollars, and the governor would not say when funds could increase.
Because of this lack of available funds, rising tuition costs and the low rate of college completion, the Early Start Degree Program “is good, old Vermont creativity,” said Shumlin.
He believes it will be effective because it recognizes, “that the money we have is in short supply, that we all need to be more innovative in achieving our goals of getting more high school students training beyond high school.”
(09/03/12 11:51am)
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