Nebraska

Nebraska pitched as possible destination for 'climate migrants' • Nebraska Examiner

Published

2 hours ago

July 29, 2024

Nebraska pitched as possible destination for 'climate migrants' • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — For much of its history, Nebraska has been seen as a challenging place to set down roots.

From its early frontier description as “The Great American Desert” and a place only “bugeaters” could love, to now being lumped together with other “flyover” states of the Great Plains, the state has lacked the soaring mountains, sandy beaches and mild winters of other states.

The result? Many one-time Huskers have moved on, and it’s difficult to convince people from other states to move here.

But earlier this month, a group of 25 people gathered in a noisy corner of Morrill Hall to discuss what they see as an opportunity for revitalization and resettlement of the small towns and cities of Midwestern states including Nebraska.

The impetus? A predicted wave of “climate migrants” seeking new homes away from flooded coastal cities impacted by climate change.

“We need to be thinking ahead,” said Hillary Brown, a professor emeritus of architecture and former director of the Urban Sustainability Program at the City College of New York.

‘Managed retreat’

Brown and Daniel Brooks, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate and now professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto, were the featured speakers at the July 18 symposium.

They co-authored an article in 2021 entitled, “How managed retreat from climate change could revitalize rural America.”

One of the participants, Bruce Johnson, a professor emeritus of agriculture economics at UNL, said the event was an appropriate “conversation starter” about something that could be “a regeneration of homesteading.”

“We have a very genuine opportunity to turn the corner on population decline in a majority of our counties,” said Johnson, who grew up in the northeast Nebraska farm town of Wausa.

Climate change is real, Brooks and Brown said, and rising sea levels, increased wildfires, drought and other extreme weather will force a mass migration of people that Nebraska’s small towns and cities could capitalize on.

A projected 1.2 billion displaced

By 2050, the United Nations’ refugee agency is projecting that 1.2 billion people worldwide will have been displaced by climate-related changes and disasters.

Brooks said a sudden collapse of the melting ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica could raise sea levels by as much as 10 feet, forcing a panicked wave of climate migrants, who may have lost everything and must seek emergency shelter.

He and Brown, however, said that a more managed and orderly retreat from the coasts and climate-impacted areas — by rebuilding in safer areas before disaster hits — is much preferable. Nebraska communities, they said, should begin planning and preparing for a possible new wave of homesteaders by providing amenities they will need.

Brown said between 4 million and 13 million people living in coastal cities will need to seek new homes in “climate havens” such as Nebraska.

Climate-related migration is already happening in the U.S., and Brooks said the rate of climate-related problems is expected to accelerate in coming years, increasing the migration.

Hurricane Katrina displaced 800,000 people from New Orleans in 2005 and 2006 who sought new homes elsewhere in the United States, Brown said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, natural disasters in 2022 displaced 3.2 million people, of whom 500,000 had not returned to their homes by the end of 2023.

Since most climate refugees find new homes within their own country, that provides a great opportunity for rural places, Brooks and Brown maintained, because they predict such refugees will want to live outside of “crowded and stressed urban areas.”

Not all agree

To be sure, not everyone agrees with their dire warnings of a mass migration.

And a map that predicted the top “receiver” counties in the U.S. that Brown displayed during her presentation didn’t list any in Nebraska. Instead, it showed areas of North and South Dakota, northwest Iowa and Minnesota as top destinations, along with portions of northern Michigan and Wisconsin, the Appalachians, northern New England and the Pacific Northwest.

Some authorities predict that while there will be climate migrants, they will more likely move within their own region — not across the country — so they can be near family members and continue to take advantage of the amenities and good jobs in coastal areas.

Daniel Brooks, left, and Hillary Brown told an audience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that climate change will present an opportunity to repopulate and revive rural towns. (Paul Hammel for the Nebraska Examiner)

Others maintain that the prediction of 1.2 billion climate migrants by 2050 is inaccurate. Still others point to surveys that indicate economic factors, rather than climate, as the main drivers of migration.

The map that bypassed Nebraska as a top “receiver” area for climate migrants was developed as a project by the environmental group Proactive Leadership Advocating for Climate and Equity.

The map was based on whether an area had a low risk of such factors as extreme heat, reduced crop yields, wildfires and economic damages.

Nebraska had its second-worst wildfire season in recent history in 2022, and last month, 14 inches of rain caused devastating floods in northwest Iowa and along the Missouri River. By 2100, Brooks said, average temperatures in Nebraska are predicted to rise by 4 to 9 degrees, with up to 25 days with temperatures over 100, and heavy precipitation events increasing by 16%.

Brooks and Brown downplayed the map, saying that it is only one opinion and is not “the last word” on where such migration might occur.

Johnson, the UNL emeritus professor, also disputed the map. He said climate migrants fleeing drought and shortages of drinking water will be looking for places with abundant water resources such as Nebraska, which sits on top of two-thirds of the resources of the Ogallala Aquifer.

“It’s unmatched,” he said of the state’s abundance of water.

During the symposium, Chuck Hibberd, a board member at the Nebraska Community Foundation, asked those present to list what climate migrants might want in a new home and what might attract or deter them.

He pointed out that Nebraska has an estimated 72,000 unfilled jobs, so employers are looking for new workers. Amenities listed by those attending included good housing, schools and medical facilities, affordable homes and safe communities.

Brown said people also will be looking for places that have low risk for climate-related disasters, entrepreneurial opportunities and innovative leadership that has taken steps to address climate change. Migrants may also want access to cultural activities, such as an orchestra, ballet or music venue, she said.

Towns urged to get ‘more interesting’

Another participant, Chuck Hassebrook, the former longtime head of the Center for Rural Affairs, said it is important to make small towns “more interesting.” He mentioned development of historical and cultural assets, hike/bike and kayak trails and other local recreation opportunities.

Brooks, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UNL, said communities seeking to capitalize on climate migration need to decide what steps are needed to make their area more attractive to new settlers.

“You need to make your town more interesting and with a quality of life that will help attract people,” he said.

The first-ever symposium celebrated the 100th birthday of Mary Louise Hanson Pritchard, the founding curator of the H.W. Manter Laboratory, Division of Parasitology at the State Museum. Brooks was a student of Pritchard’s.

Initiative creating ‘soil health hubs’

During the symposium, Bruce Johnson, the UNL emeritus professor, pitched a local organization, the Nebraska Elder Climate Legacy Initiative, which lobbies and promotes steps to deal with climate change.

One initiative already underway, he said, is to help create “soil health hubs” across the state to inform farmers about best practices to enhance soil health and protect water quality. The initiative is an outgrowth of Legislative Bill 925, a 2022 bill passed by the State Legislature to create a network of local producers/educators to spread and demonstrate best practices for soil health.

Johnson said the group is also promoting passage of a state constitutional amendment, similar to one adopted in Montana, that requires state agencies to consider greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts when reviewing proposed major projects.

For more information, access the website elderclimatelegacy.org

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Nebraska

Nebraska coach and local bar raise money for hurricane victims

Published

9 hours ago

July 28, 2024

Press Room

Nebraska coach and local bar raise money for hurricane victims

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – While the recent Hurricane Beryl didn’t cause direct damage to Nebraska, its impact is still being felt in Lincoln by people whose families were displaced by the category-four storm. Now a Nebraska coach is raising money in the Capital city to lend a hand, and one local bar is helping support his efforts.

For the next couple days, when a person orders a drink at the Post in Lincoln, they’ll not only be enjoying a good cocktail, but they’ll be donating to a good cause.

Earlier in July, Hurricane Beryl caused extensive damage to Caribbean Islands like Grenada, where much of Nebraska Basketball’s strength and conditioning coach Kurt Joseph’s family lives.

Joseph said relatives, including young children, lost their homes, access to food and water and more due to the store.

Now he’s looking to raise as much money as he can in order to help them and others. During a trip to the Post, just three weeks ago, Joseph told bar owner Jesse Foster about his efforts. The venue immediately agreed to help the cause.

Through this Tuesday, they are giving a portion of revenue from their drinks to Joseph’s GoFundMe, meaning each drink will be making an impact overseas.

“If you didn’t know that party with a purpose was starting today and going for the next four days, and you came here and bought a drink, you’ll most likely spend $80 to $100 anyway,” Joseph said. “But that $100 can quite literally put food on somebody’s table. It can quite literally repair a house.”

They’re calling it a Party with a Purpose. Their signature barrel-aged old fashion is set to be on sale for $14 until then. And on Sunday, 100% of the revenue made by that drink will go straight to Joseph’s GoFundMe. Around 80% of its proceeds will be donated on Monday, and 50% on Tuesday. In additional, 60% of the money made from beer sales over the next few days will be contributed to the cause.

On Wednesday, Joseph will fly out to Grenada, where he will deliver all the money raised to his family in person.

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Can a Mechanic Running as an Independent Steal a Senate Seat From Republicans?

Published

17 hours ago

July 28, 2024

Press Room

Can a Mechanic Running as an Independent Steal a Senate Seat From Republicans?

In an election year where the Senate map is objectively advantageous to Republicans, Texas and Florida have been seen as the two red states where a Republican seat could maybe flip if everything broke just right for Democrats.

Then in December, a poll from Nebraska showed a steamfitter and industrial mechanic, Dan Osborn, was beating incumbent Republican Sen. Deb Fischer by 2 points, 40-38 percent. In early May, Osborn’s campaign released a new poll from Public Policy Polling that had him down four points (37-33 percent with 30 percent undecided).

While some political watchers were skeptical of the early polling, it has directed attention to Nebraska. In June, for instance, Osborn received the endorsement of the United Auto Workers and was even promoted on social media by Julia Louis Dreyfus.

As eyes turned to Cornhusker State, a question began to emerge: Could Osborn, who was not just straying away from a typical Senate campaign playbook — but throwing it out — beat an incumbent Republican senator in a state that is widely seen as being ruby red? And could the Nebraska Senate race help Democrats maintain slim control of the Senate?

With the possibility for an upset in the air, both sides have pushed data making their respective cases. In mid-July, Fischer released a poll showing her up 26 points. A week later, Osborn’s camp highlighted a poll that showed him tied with Fischer at 42 percent.

Fundraising has shown a similarly mixed narrative. Osborn outraised Fischer in the second quarter ($1 million to $679,000), while Fischer’s over $3 million in cash on hand swamps his $650,000.

Osborn is no stranger to receiving national and local coverage. In 2021, he led the Kellogg’s Strike, which resulted in a new labor contract with wages increases and enhanced benefits. After he announced his run for Senate, he spent the first eight months of his campaign working 50 hours a week, continuing his apprenticeship, all while still having to go to school and pass tests.

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Where handfuls of candidates running to be reelected or elected to the Senate can talk about the intricacies of courtrooms and boardrooms, Osborn is the only one simultaneously knocking doors while getting his EPA 608 license, which allows him to handle and purchase refrigerant.

But, what really sets his race apart is not just who he is, but how he is running. Osborn has positioned himself as an Independent. Or, as they say in Nebraska, nonpartisan.

Osborn is far from the first Senate candidate to run as Independent. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Angus King of Maine have both run and won as such. In 2022, Evan McMullin ran as an Independent (and lost the race) for a Senate seat in Utah.

But, where McMullin ultimately accepted the Utah Democratic Party’s nomination, Osborn has disavowed the endorsements of any political parties or politicians. Where Sanders and King caucus with the Democrats, Osborn has made no such commitment.

In May, his campaign sent out a press release announcing this distinction.

“Probably no political campaign has ever done this but we want to put people above politicians, parties and profits,” Osborn was quoted as saying in the release. “Whether you are Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Democrat, I don’t care. I welcome all to join me to change Washington.”

This decision was met by swift rebuke from the Nebraska Democratic Party, who had planned to endorse him, and said they were now looking for write-in candidates.

Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said they have endorsed 11 Independent candidates this cycle, including two running for the legislature.

“We embrace Independents and have a now-long history of embracing Independents and supporting Independents,” Kleeb tells Rolling Stone. “I mean obviously our Party respects when a candidate changes their mind on an endorsement, but having Dan lead the Party on for months, telling us how critical the Democratic Party endorsement and infrastructure was for him winning the seat, and then him essentially saying, ‘No,’ once he knew the deadline was past for when we could have a candidate on the ballot, has left obviously a lot of Democrats in the state questioning the integrity of his campaign.”

Osborn disputed that characterization. “No one was led on,” he says. “I’ve been clear that I was not going to take the endorsement of any one party.”

A source close to the Osborn campaign points out that in a New York Times article about his candidacy in early March, Osborn said he was not sure he wanted the Democratic endorsement.

To add further political complexity to the already atypical dynamics of this race, Nebraska’s other Senate seat is also up this year in a special election — the first time both seats have both been on the ballot concurrently since 1954. In that race, the Nebraska Democratic Party does have a candidate, Preston Love Jr., who is challenging former Gov. and current Sen. Pete Ricketts, who secured that seat through appointment in 2023.

Osborn attributes his path to his candidacy with his ultimate decision to establish and maintain political independence. Members of the railroad unions who noticed his leadership in the Kellogg’s Strike recruited him to run, not a political party.

One of those people was Mike Helmink, a railroad employee and labor leader who himself started an exploratory committee to run for Fischer’s seat before ending it after being denied leave from work. Helmink — who is the treasurer for Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety which has endorsed Osborn — thinks the nonpartisan path is one that could lead to a victory.

“There’s kind of a contrarian vibe to politics in the state,” Helmink says. “The Independents, or nonpartisans, are becoming a larger and larger group. We’ve got a large group of people that feel like their voice isn’t being heard.”

Helmink argues the Democratic message is not working outside of the cities of Lincoln and Omaha. The last Democrat to win statewide was former Sen. Ben Nelson in 2008.

“The only problem with Dan is he’s from Omaha,” Helmink says, laughing. “But, you know, at least he’s not one of the rich elite folks from Omaha. That helps. He works for a living. That definitely sells. So, yeah, we are highly optimistic we can replace Deb Fischer with Dan Osborn.”

While not having the money or infrastructure of a major party has its disadvantages, Osborn sees it as a strength. “The advantage is, being grassroots I’m not beholden to any party and I’m not beholden to special interests,” he says. “So nobody can tell this campaign how to think, what it is we should be doing, and the message that we should be portraying.”

Osborn doesn’t find it surprising that the race is close. Rather, he sees the explanation as pretty simple. “I think it’s the fact that people are frustrated, you know, with the parties catering to their extremes,” he says. “There’s around 300,000 registered nonpartisan voters in Nebraska. It’s the fastest growing demographic for registering voters.”

Nationally, the percentage of Independent voters is also at a high. Despite independents being a much larger voting bloc than either party, there are only four Independent senators currently in Congress: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, in addition to Sanders and King — and all four Caucus with Democrats. Sinema and Manchin are not running for reelection in 2024.

With that current reality in mind, Osborn says voters are always questioning who he plans to support for president (he has not committed to any of the candidates) and, if elected, which party he would caucus with.

“I think what they’re looking for when they ask that is ‘Oh, is he a Democrat? Or is he a Republican?’,” Osborn explains, saying many people think deep down you have to be one or the other. “Well, I’m gonna kinda call BS on that because I feel like I truly am an Independent. I’m for working people.”

Osborn said he sees his independence as something Nebraska voters should see not as a liability, but rather as a source of power for them and their state. “I’m an Independent and when I get to the United States Senate, I kind of want to be a maverick,” he says. “Why can’t I create an Osborn caucus? Or an Independent caucus? Especially if I’m the 51st swing vote in the United States Senate. People are gonna have to work with me.”

Before that can happen, he has his work cut out for him. Nebraska has a Republican governor and fully Republican congressional delegation. In 2020, former President Trump secured over 58 percent of the state’s popular vote.

Osborn’s campaign pushes back on the idea that Nebraska is irreversibly ruby red, highlighting the uniqueness of the state’s political system with its unicameral legislature that is technically bipartisan. Nebraska currently awards two Electoral College votes for the winner of the statewide popular vote, and one electoral vote for the winner of each congressional district (which delivered former President Trump four votes total, and President Joe Biden one vote in 2020.)

Osborn said he believes Nebraska’s identity of approaching the political system with its own individualized frame is what could allow him to be the first Independent U.S. senator from the state since George Norris won as one in 1936.

His platform certainly reflects that. As a union president and worker whose hand was severely injured on the job, it is fittingly pro-labor and pro-workers’ rights. Otherwise, it doesn’t fit into neat boxes during this hyperpolarized political moment in the country. Osborn actively calls for both the legalization of cannabis, and for the securing of the border. He supports both abortion rights and the Second Amendment — saying both are areas where he feels the government should not overreach.

Osborn says he does not see any of his stances as being at odds with each other, asserting that this range and nuance is common among the voters he meets on the trail, and when he knocks their doors.

This independence from existing parties and their established platforms, he argues, is the reason he can build the coalition of Nebraska voters necessary to win.

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Nebraska

Ninth annual Nebraska Disability Pride Event held in Lincoln

Published

24 hours ago

July 28, 2024

Press Room

Ninth annual Nebraska Disability Pride Event held in Lincoln

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Friday marked the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, ensuring they have equal rights and opportunities.

Hundreds of Lincolnites filled one local park to celebrate the milestone.

What started out nearly a decade ago as a small gathering of about 15 people in front of the State Capitol has now become the annual Nebraska Disability Pride Event

People came to celebrate how far cities like Lincoln have come to accommodate everybody, everywhere.

The celebration took place at Antelope Park for the second year in a row, though this year saw some special modifications for the event. A sidewalk ramp was built by Lincoln Parks and Recreation to allow those in wheelchairs to access the state. Quiet zones were marked off for those with hearing sensitivities, allowing all to comfortably be apart of the party.

The passing of the ADA in 1990 allowed those like Gloria Eddins to more comfortably be apart of their communities.

“Things weren’t accessible,” Eddins said. “They weren’t built for people like us. Slowly but surely over the last 30 years, those barriers have come down and access for all is being granted.”

“It’s really unique to have a gathering of other people like me and it’s just normal,” said Keith Hafermann, Lincolnite. I don’t feel in the way with my wheelchair, because other people are like me. It’s really cool.”

Dozens of vendors specializing in services for people with disabilities line the sidewalks of the park, including the Rescue and Reuse event, who collected donations of medical equipment all week to give away to those who needed it for free.

On Friday, Rescue and Reuse were able give out 21 items, including three power wheelchairs.

Organizers said that last year more than 800 people attended, a record for them that they think was beat this year.
While the event was the most accessible the celebration has been so far, they said they always work to make each year more inclusive.

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