“Broken Promises: How The Mining Industry Captured Minnesota Government” (June 1, 2021)

Paula Maccabee, WaterLegacy

Thursday, June 3, 2021, 8:00 pm EDT / 7:00 pm CDT via livestream on Facebook and Zoom (links below)

Northeast Minnesota is known for its beautiful lakes and forests. And its iron ore mines. Now copper mines are proposed, one next to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Watch WaterLegacy’s Paula Maccabee explain how Minnesota state agencies choose polluters over people and clean water. Paula will showcase PolyMet permits, environmental review, and pollution deregulation rules to reveal just how far agencies are willing to go to make it easier and cheaper to pollute and destroy Minnesota’s natural environment and human health. Ms. Maccabee will update us after her video and answer viewer questions.

Paula Maccabee has 40 years of experience in public interest law. For the past 11 years, she has led WaterLegacy, a Minnesota non-profit protecting clean water, environmental justice, and human health, as its Counsel and Advocacy Director. Paula has previously served as a plaintiffs’ trial attorney, a City Council member and a Special Assistant Attorney General. Paula is a graduate of Yale University Law School (1981).

Watch on Facebook

“Circular Economies in Materials Needed to Decarbonize Electricity and Mobility” (May 27, 2021)

The Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition is proud to present a talk about how we can avoid replacing our old pollution problems with new ones. As we move into renewable energy, solar panels, batteries, and wind turbines need to replaced. What plans do we have to recycle the discarded materials in a finite world? Professor Dustin Mulvaney will talk about the challenges facing our society in the move to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

Over 90% of the global economy continues to use natural resources unsustainably. The linear “take-make-toss” approach to materials use still prevails over circular economy and industrial ecology ideas in practice. The shift to renewable energy is one step towards building an economy on more circular material flows. But the materials needed to decarbonize electricity and mobility are supplied by mining and extractives industries, places where impacts from natural resource extraction can be most severe. This talk will highlight key issues related to extractives, land, manufacturing, and waste in the clean energy economy.

Dustin Mulvaney is a Professor in the Environmental Studies Department at San José State University (SJSU) and a Fellow with the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. His research includes work on just transitions, solar energy commodity chains, and natural resource development. Dr. Mulvaney’s book Solar Power: Innovation, Sustainability, Environmental Justice was published by the University California Press (2019).

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“The 06 Legacy: Advocating for Gray Wolves Across the United States” (May 14, 2021)

A talk with Karol Miller, founder and president, The 06 Legacy

Gray wolf management continues to be a flashpoint in many areas of the US in which the species is found. In this edition of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition’s Livestream Series, our guest speaker is Karol Miller of The 06 Legacy (https://www.facebook.com/The06Legacy/). As founder and president, Miller leads this national group in advocating for wolves. The 06 Legacy Group is named for a female wolf named 06 for the year she was born in Yellowstone National Park. She was followed by many wolf watchers, and was shot and killed by a hunter outside the park in December 2012. Miller, who holds a M.S. in Engineering and has taught high school mathematics, will explain the mission and work of The 06 Legacy.

Watch on YouTube