Electrify LISD

Electrification benefits students, staff, and community health!

According to Building Green: 

• meet increasing cooling and ventilation needs;

• increase resilience;

• minimize the risks associated with onsite combustion, such as carbon monoxide; and

According to the Earth Justice:

• Diesel exhaust produces some of the most toxic pollution in existence that fouls the air in our neighborhoods and directly hurts kids riding in diesel buses. 

• A 2005 UC Berkeley study looked at pollution from southern California school buses and found that a disturbingly large amount of that pollution gets inside the buses, where the kids riding the bus then breathe it in. Roughly 40 children on a bus inhale as much or more bus-generated pollution than is inhaled by the entire surrounding community. 

• Kids’ lungs aren’t fully developed, and they tend to be outside and active more than adults — meaning they breathe in more of whatever junk is in the air. 

• Nationwide, transportation accounts for nearly 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. emissions. This is pollution we can start cutting now. 

According to Impactful Ninja:

• Greenhouse gas emissions have an array of negative effects on human health:

  • Increased concentration of pollen, mold spores, dust, and particulate matter amplify allergies and respiratory conditions such as chest pain, throat irritation, coughing, and lung inflammation. 

  • Depletion of stratospheric ozone leads to increased UV exposure; Carcinogenic chemicals are released into the environment as a result of flooding and increased temperatures; Declining air quality increases the risk of lung cancer. 

  • Extreme cold and heat; increased ozone formation, particulate matter, stress, and anxiety cause heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. 

  • Increased temperatures can cause heat exhaustion, heat cramps, heatstroke, and death. 

  • Extreme weather events cause stress, especially when they cause the displacement of people. 

  • Changes in temperature and precipitation influences pathogen-host interactions, changes pathogen incubation times, and alters predator-prey relationships. 

  • Droughts, changes in water pH, floods can cause an increase in pathogens and increase the risk of waterborne disease. 

Electrification saves LISD families and the community money in the long run!

According to Building Green:

• improve energy efficiency

According to Earth Justice:

• Electric vehicles are cheaper to maintain than internal combustion engines, with far fewer moving parts. A few years ago, Chicago estimated that each of its electric transit buses saves $25,000 per year in fuel costs. When California’s Antelope Valley Transit District converted its public transit bus fleet from diesel buses to electric, it quickly tallied well over a million dollars in fuel savings. 

• In 2022, the cost of diesel went through the same cost spikes as gasoline, complicating the finances of school districts nationwide. Electric buses eliminate this uncertainty and save serious money. 

• The EPA recently doubled the first year of funding for the Clean School Bus Program to nearly $1 billion for school districts in all 50 states. In total, EPA is making a $5 billion investment over 5 years to replace polluting school buses with clean vehicles, thanks to recent climate laws. 

• Union bus manufacturers like Thomas Built, BYD, and IC Bus (Navistar) are building these buses in facilities where wages, benefits, and worker voices help ensure that electrification creates strong communities and jobs that you can raise a family on. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

• Reduced maintenance costs

  • Less brake wear due to regenerative braking and no engine or exhaust system maintenance

  • Potential for reduced fuel costs compared to diesel depending on electricity costs

According to Impactful Ninja:

• A study in the journal Nature found that every 1 trillion tons of CO2 translates to a gross domestic product (GDP) loss of nearly half a percent. 

• If we pursue all available climate change mitigation measures, the total global economic cost would be 240-420 billion per year by 2030. This may seem like a lot, but that number is projected to be less than 1% of the forecasted GDP in 2030. The benefits of mitigation would far outweigh the costs of implementation. 

• The healthcare sector would reap huge economic benefits from a reduced carbon footprint. In 2017, there were 1.2 million air pollution-related deaths in China, which represented 13.2% of the country’s GDP. Similarly, there were 23,000 deaths in the United Kingdom in the same year, representing 7.1% of the country’s GDP. The number of deaths related to air pollution is predicted to continue to increase through 2060. Reducing carbon emissions would reduce the number of air pollution-related deaths, thereby easing pressure on healthcare systems. 

•  A carbon tax is a fee imposed on the burning of carbon-based fuels (coal, oil, gas). When the price of the tax is set high enough, it acts as a monetary disincentive that motivates a switch to alternative energy sources. By charging companies and people for using carbon-based fuel, it becomes more economically rewarding to use energy alternatives than it is to burn carbon-based fuel. 

• Reducing your carbon footprint is expensive, but it costs us more to do nothing than it does to take action now. 

Sustainable practices help the Earth, which helps the community!

According to Building Green: 

• eliminate pollution and improve indoor environmental quality;

• reduce contributions to climate change.

According to Impactful Ninja:

• Reducing GHG emissions slows the rate of temperature rise, sea-level rise, ice melting, and ocean acidification. 

• Reducing GHG emissions lessens the likelihood and severity of extreme weather events, improves air and water quality, maintains biodiversity, and supports a healthy food supply. 

• Reducing GHG slows the effects of climate change, thereby reducing the adaptation pressure placed on plants and animals. 

• Carbon emissions cause:

  • increasing temperatures

  • rising sea levels

  • melting of sea ice

  • changing precipitation patterns

  • ocean acidification

  • Floods, droughts, and wildfires (That may contaminate crops and fisheries with metals, chemicals, and toxicants released into the environment; Increased temperatures can damage and destroy crops.)

• Plants are more susceptible to the effects of climate change because unlike animals, they cannot migrate as easily. They can only survive, compete and reproduce in specific climate ranges to which they are evolutionarily and physiologically adapted.  

• Animals can adapt more easily to climate change than plants, but they would still be hit hard by climate change. Endemic, those species living in one exclusive area, would be hit the hardest and would be the most likely to go extinct because they cannot survive anywhere else.  

• We should care about maintaining plant and animal populations because healthy ecosystems have been linked with cleaner air, water, and food. 

• Protecting forest habitats increases carbon sequestration and defends against erosion. 

• Protecting agricultural land ensures a robust, secure, and prosperous food system. 

• Protecting aquatic ecosystems ensures a readily available supply of fresh water. 

• Protecting biodiversity protects human health because many plants and animals are used in modern medicines.  

According to Reduce Energy Use DC: 

• reducing our carbon emissions helps reverse the impact of global warming overall, but more specifically, benefits the overall air quality. Plus, it makes for clearer skies! 

• Greenhouse gas emissions raise air temperatures, directly impacting the oxygen concentration in rainwater and contributing to lower rainfall levels. 

• With healthier air, water, and food, we can significantly reduce many climate-related health issues seen today.