7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. For information and reservations, contact Liz Roberts by email or 412-992-5214.
May 30: Environment, economy, & Judaism
The Bottom Line: Why the Environment Matters to the Economy and what Judaism has to say about it. CMU Environmental Engineering professor Mitchell Small will speak on the economic benefits of environmental protection; Rick Wice, MS (geology) on the future of brownfield redevelopment; and Dr. Nick Shorr on the frontier of regional composting.
May 27: WED Biodiversity Symposium with E.O. Wilson
Biodiversity and the Future of Life on Earth: a World Environment Day Biodiversity Symposium. On May 10, the United Nations released a report which concluded that unless radical and creative action is taken quickly to conserve the variety of life on Earth, natural systems that support lives and livelihoods are at risk of collapsing. They found that the five principal pressures directly driving biodiversity loss -- habitat change, over-exploitation, pollution, invasive species, and climate change -- are either constant or increasing in intensity.
Featuring E.O. Wilson as keynote speaker, along with a host of local, national and international experts, we can begin with an initial visioning for a New American Dream that is environmentally sustainable, developed by participants in this event - a roadmap that will address the effect people have on the environment, and the critical inter-relationships between human habitat and the quality of life for generations to come.
1-8 p.m. at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. $25 ($10 students) for the symposium and lecture; additional fee for the evening reception. The event is part of the U.N. World Environment Day in North America and is co-hosted by the Rachel Carson Homestead and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. For more information and to register, visit the Symposium web site.
Come and learn about the impact of human action on biodiversity on May 27 at a half-day symposium, followed by a special reception with the founder of Biodiversity movement: Edward O. Wilson.
You are an integral part of nature; your fate is tightly linked with biodiversity, the huge variety of other animals and plants, the places they live and their surrounding environments, all over the world. More than 42% of anti-cancer drugs come from natural sources. The value of global ecosystem services is estimated at $16-$64 trillion. Some 75% of all fisheries are fully exploited or over-fished. Species like cod, haddock and halibut are already threatened. If we do not move towards sustainable use, there will be no fish left for our grandchildren.
Featuring E.O. Wilson as keynote speaker, along with a host of local, national and international experts, we can begin with an initial visioning for a New American Dream that is environmentally sustainable, developed by participants in this event - a roadmap that will address the effect people have on the environment, and the critical inter-relationships between human habitat and the quality of life for generations to come.
E. O. Wilson, two-time Pulitzer prize winner, world-renowned entomologist and one of the scientists who provided research data to Rachel Carson while she was writing Silent Spring, will be joined by Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox, Deputy Director of the United Nations Environment Programme North America, and Dr. Richard Benedick, U.N. Ambassador (ret.) and President, National Council on Science and the Environment, and Terry Collins of the Institute of Green Science at Carnegie Mellon University at this once-in-a-lifetime event.
1-8 p.m. at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. $25 ($10 students) for the symposium and lecture; additional fee for the evening reception. The event is part of the U.N. World Environment Day in North America and is co-hosted by the Rachel Carson Homestead and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. For more information and to register, visit the Symposium web site.
May 27: Rain Barrel workshop at Garden Center
Rain Water Harvesting and Watershed Awareness
Rainwater harvesting is an effective, ecological and economical method for the conservation and protection of this precious natural resource. By catching, storing and re-directing your roof water for on-site usage you can take advantage of this free source of precious water while at the same time contributing to a reduction in the combined sewer overflow (CSO) problem that plagues the Greater Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas, helping to reduce flooding and nonpoint source pollution, and contributing to recharging our groundwater supply. You’ll also have a free source of non-chlorinated water for use in your yard and garden.
Learn how to harvest rainwater from your roof and divert it for on-site usage in the landscape. Attend a rain barrel workshop and return home equipped with the knowledge and hardware needed (not the 55-gal. drum) to assemble and install a rain barrel. It’s easier than you might think.
2010 PRC West Watershed Awareness/Rain BarrelWorkshops
6:30 – 8pm on Wednesday, March 10th at CCI Center on the South Side
6:30 – 8pm on Thursday, April 6th at the Green Tree Municipal Building, W. Manilla Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15220
6:30 – 8pm on Thursday, April 15th at the East End Co-Op
6:30 – 8pm on Thursday, April 22nd at the Richland Twp Municipal Building, 4019 Dickey Road Gibsonia, Pa 15044
6:30 – 8pm on Thursday, April 29th at Heidelberg@ Three Hierarchs Eastern Orthodox School, 1819 Ellsworth Avenue Carnegie, PA 15106-3947
7 - 8:30pm on Thursday, May 6th at the Upper St Clair Library, 1820 McLaughlin Run Road · Upper St.Clair, PA 15241
10am – 11:30am on Saturday, May 15th at the Schrader Environmental Center, Oglebay Institute Wheeling, WV 26003
6 – 8pm on Wednesday, May 19th at the Regional Environmental Education Center in Boyce-Mayview Park, Upper St. Clair, PA 15241
7 - 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 27th at Phipps Garden Center (5th & Shady Avenues)Wednesday, June 2nd
7 – 8:30pm at Lauri Ann West Memorial Library, 1220 Powers Run Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238
2 - 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 13th at Hahn Nursery in the North Hills
6:30 – 8pm on Wednesday, September 8th at CCI Center on the South Side
For more information or to register for a class please call (412) 488.7490 ext. 247 or email Nancy Martin.
May 25: Burgh Bees Beekeepers' Meetup
The Burgh Bees Beekeeper Meetups are lively and fun! Whether you are a new beek, a seasoned beak or just bee curious, stop in say hello and become involved! meet us this Tuesday, May 25 at 700pm at the Carson City Saloon, located at corner of 14th and Carson in the Southside part of Pittsburgh! Look for us upstairs in the mezzanine! No RSVP required!
May 23: PASA Summer FARM START dinner
Kick off the farming season with PASA at the Summer FARM START dinner, featuring local and seasonal fare and the efforts of many partners who embrace PASA’s mission. This fundraising dinner honoring Pennsylvania farmers and another year of sustainable abundance will be held at Eden Hall Farm, home of Chatham University's new Food Studies program. Both menus have been created exclusively with food available from local farms during this time of year. Our fundraising dinners are an especially delicious way to support PASA, and they raise revenue that supports nearly every program and service provided by the organization.
PASA staff and volunteers have worked with over 40 producers to bring foods from Pennsylvania farms to your table. The meal will be accompanied by Pennsulvania beers, wines, and shrubs, and closed with a variety of tempting desserts. You can learn more, register for the dinner, and view the full menu with the name of each farm supplying ingredients online.
5-8 p.m. at Eden Hall Farm (6035 Ridge Road, Richland Twp, 15044).
May 23: John Metzler memorial tree planting
As many have heard, the creative, resourceful, and generally amazing John Metzler was killed last week by a runaway trailer as he worked. On Sunday at noon there will be a memorial tree planting at Allegheny Commons Park, with a potluck lunch reception afterwards at the New Hazlett Theater (Allegheny Square E, 412-320-4610).
To read more about John and his work... here is a Post-Gazette article about John from May 2, the news piece about his death, and an obituary; a Pittsburgh Art Blog entry and comments; the Urban Tree Forge web site and John's own blog.
May 22: Burgh Bees Open Apiary
Burgh Bees will be hosting the the first Open Apiary of the season at the NEW first-of-its-kind Homewood Community Apiary, this Saturday, May 22 from 1pm until 3pm. Protective head equipment will be provided. Please wear or bring long sleeve shirts and long pants. Please, no open toed shoes! A $10 suggested donation to Burgh Bees is appreciated. The apiary is located on Susquehanna St off of N. Dallas Ave. in the Homewood section of the city of Pittsburgh. It is across from the East End Brewery. Please RSVP by May 21 to Steve Repasky.
May 21: Green Drinks with Robots!
Pittsburgh Green Drinks hosts a talk by Sam Cancila and Ken Wolf on how Robots for Measurable Digital Information Enables Total Sewer Pipeline Integrity.
RedZone Robotics is setting a new industry standard in trenchless technology and field service automation by delivering innovative, semi-automated solutions that provide a more simply operated, more powerful, and more cost-effective method of sewer inspection and pipe rehabilitation decisions. RedZone’s patent-pending trenchless technology is the first commercial application of sensor-fusion technologies that utilize multiple sensor inputs to enact action, leveraging robotics and engineering expertise as well as focus on customers’ challenges RedZone’s robotic offerings significantly outperform existing products, tools and technologies due to their modular approach, simpler operation, faster execution and continuous operation in the assessment and evaluation of the wastewater infrastructure.
Sam Cancilla is the Vice President Regional Sales of RedZone Robotics Inc. and is based out of the world headquarters of the Pittsburgh, PA Office. He has over 19 years of experience in the water and wastewater trenchless technology industry from pipeline inspection to various inspection and rehabilitation technologies including cured-in place pipe rehab, pipe bursting, cement-mortar lining, in both gravity and pressure pipes. In addition, Mr. Cancilla has been involved with the development and implementation of the Responder multi-sensor robotic platform for advanced pipeline condition assessment and Solo autonomous pipeline inspection robot and is named on several patents for such innovative technologies. In addition, Mr. Cancilla has been involved with the condition assessment in over 100 of the largest major US and Canadian cities in excess of over 1,000,000 LF of large diameter pipes using the Responder robotic system. He has a B.S. of Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and is a member of various industry groups including NASSCO, ASTM, AWWA. WEF.
Ken Wolf ,VP of Sales and Marketing, is responsible for the global sales and marketing strategies at RedZone. He has specific expertise in deploying sales channels around robotic technologies, software and data services. Prior to joining RedZone Mr. Wolf was Vice President of Global Sales for Confluence Technologies, Inc., a Pittsburgh based global software firm serving the financial services industry with offices in London and Luxembourg. During his tenure, Confluence was recognized as one of Pittsburgh’s fastest growing companies. Earlier in his career he was Vice President of Strategic Account Sales for McKesson Automation where he led the sales efforts of the company’s robotics, hardware and software technologies. Mr. Wolf has lectured on sales process at the Carnegie Mellon University Don Jones School of Entrepreneurship, and in 2007 he was featured in a Harvard Business School Press book entitled The Point of the Deal, How to Negotiate when YES is Not Enough. Mr. Wolf received a B.A. in English from Providence College in Providence Rhode Island.
Come join us for a discussion about how robots are responding to the green call.
5-9 p.m. at Mitchell's Restaurant, Bar & Banquet Center 304 Ross St (at Third Avenue) Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Map & Directions For Port Authority Bus Routes, go here: http://www.portauthority.org
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What is Green Drinks?
Every month, people who work in the environmental field or have in interest in a greener planet meet up for drinks at places all around the world at informal sessions known as Green Drinks. We have a lively mixture of people from Non profit, academia, labor, government, media and business. Come along and you'll be made welcome. Just say, "are you green?" and we will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there. It's a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there's always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organizing network.
These events are simple and unstructured. Make friends, develop new ideas, do deals and forge a new organic future. It's a force for the good and we'd like to help its spreading to other cities. Green Drinks meets on the 3rd Friday of each month from 5:00 - 9:00 PM...or later!! Put it in your calendar and count on it: Green Drinks is happening every month.
2010 Calendar - Save these dates: June 18, July 16, August 20, September 17, October 15, November 19, December 17
May 21: Sustainability & Computer Science Seminar
"Modeling and Optimization for City Bike Sharing Systems" by Robert C. Hampshire, Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Public Policy in Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College http://hampshire.heinz.cmu.edu/ .
Vehicle sharing programs -- particularly bike sharing programs -- are an emerging mode of transportation enabled by smartcards, smartphones and web technology. Bike sharing programs hope to reduce the number of cars on the roads, hence reducing congestion; they promote healthy living and are environmentally friendly. Over 100 cities worldwide have deployed bike sharing programs. In Paris alone, over 50 million trips have been taken with the bike sharing system in two years. The largest is the Velib program in Paris, which facilitates over 70,000 bikes trips per day using 20,000 bikes and 1500 bike stations spread throughout the city. In the US, Washington D.C., Denver and Minneapolis currently have bike sharing programs. New York City, Boston and San Francisco have announced intentions to start a program. We have built an infrastructure that is collecting real-time usage data on 51 bike sharing programs around the world. This includes the logging of over 200,000 events per day. A summary of the data is available and being used by policy makers at the website:http://imove.heinz.cmu.edu/
This talk considers some of the operational challenges of balancing bike availability, citizen satisfaction and operating costs. The analysis is difficult due to the large size of the system and random spatial-temporal usage patterns. We use Markov Chain theory and asymptotic approximations to develop a spatial queuing model for large scale bike/car sharing services. This model will serve as input to algorithms and a software navigation system that provides real time instructions to a fleet of vehicles to redistribute bicycles.
Robert Hampshire is an Assistant Professor of Operations Research & Public Policy at the H John Heinz III College at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University. His research focuses on management, modeling, and optimization of services. Particularly, he focuses on IT enabled Mobility services, communication services and distributed web services. Mobility services include Smart Parking and bike/car sharing. Communication services include call centers, bandwidth exchanges and Web conferencing. Web services include Person-2-Person lending, wikis and blogs.
He uses both using both non steady state stochastic modeling and dynamic optimization to develop management strategies.
Prior to coming to Carnegie Mellon, Hampshire worked at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Bell Laboratories of Lucent Technologies, Compaq Computers and VLSI Technology. He has patents in the areas of IT asset portfolio management and supply chain risk management.
2:00 pm in Gates & Hillman 6115 (CMU's big new building, downhill from Walking To The Sky)
May 21: WPC's Local Water Summit
The Story of Our Region's Rivers and Streams, a Water Matters! Local Water Summit presented by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. The WPC helped to transform our region’s rivers and streams – and plays a central role today in protecting and restoring our priceless water resources.
Join us as senior staff members describe the work of WPC and local communities to safeguard our rivers and streams, protect aquatic wildlife, and improve quality of life:
· Nick Pinizzotto, Senior Director of Watershed Conservation and Conservation Services:
“
· Eric Chapman, Director of Aquatic Science:
“The Eastern Hellbender Salamander – Tracking and Saving the Region’s
· Charles Bier, Senior Director of Conservation Science:
“The Renewal of the
· Special guest -- David Hess, former DEP Secretary:
“
10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at the WPC Main Office, 800 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh, 15222. (Note that this is the Waterfront Drive on Herr's Island, not The Waterfront in Homestead.) Light refreshments will be served. RSVP to Jean DiTullio at 412-586-2328 or jditullio@paconserve.org, or RSVP on Facebook.
May 20: Chill the Drills! Oil and the Arctic
The Sierra Club Allegheny Group presents Chill the Drills with Kit McGurn. If you are upset about the recent offshore oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, then just think what a similar oil spill in the arctic would mean to the endangered species we care so much about! Kit McGurn, the Sierra Club's arctic expert, will give us all the facts about oil development in the arctic, and suggest ways that we can help here at home.
"The Arctic region is the single most endangered ecosystem on the planet" says Kit McGurn, the Sierra Club's national expert on the Alaskan wilderness. Come be part of a multimedia presentation describing the growing threat of climate change and oil development to Alsaka's most pristine habitaqts. Kit will explain the problems of the Arctic in a way that is appropriate for adults and children 11 years and older. Join other environmentally-conscious citizens and find out what you can do to help.
Enhance your knowledge of what arctic drilling is all about, connect global problems with local solutions, and ask questions of concern to you. On the local/regional front, Erika Staaf of Penn Environment will also speak about Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania.
Kit McGurn is the National Arctic Organizer for the Sierra Club. He earned degrees in Economics and Environmental Studies at the Pacific Lutheran University. Formerly with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Kit now works to educate and engage citizens about these unique American ecosystems.
7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (first floor gallery), 420 Boulevard of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. The event is free, but RSVP to alleghenyesa@gmail.com, with contact information and number of guests so we can plan the right amount of food and drink! More information about this event and local issues related to endangered species, climate change, coal, and other environmental concerns at the local Sierra Club web site.
May 16: Used Book Sale at CDS
Community Day School's annual Used Book Sale, to benefit The Food Bank and the Karen Rachel Hurwitz Library at the school. Thousands of videos (from the now-defunct Blockbuster and Hollywood video stores) were donated, as well as countless other amazing items from leather-bound classics to kids' puzzles and photo albums. Bookapalooza!
9 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Community Day School, which is in the old St. Philomena's, which is close to Beechwood between Monitor & Monitor (the uphill two, as opposed to the third intersection lower down). Actually, the school's address is 6424 Forward Ave (15217) but I couldn't resist the opportunity to specify the location thusly). (I've posted a lot of events lately...)
May 16: Climate Ground Zero benefit
Go Tell it on the Mountain! -- a benefit concert in support of Climate Ground Zero as they work to defend the mountaintops of West Virginia from the decimating effects of blast mining for coal. Performances by Miguel Sague Jr., Phat Man Dee, Machete Kirik Hava, Typewriter Girls, Colter Harper, and Miguel Sague III. Mike Roselle of Ground Zero and Earth First! will speak, and there will be a video screening by Coal Stories. All proceeds from the door and from a raffle with locally donated eco-friendly prizes
7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30) at the Shadow Lounge, 5972 Baum Blvd, Pittsburgh 15206. Age 21+; admission $10.
May 16: Pedal Pittsburgh
Pedal Pittsburgh is the region’s premier cycling event celebrating design, fitness and urban lifestyles. With six course options ranging from 6 to 60 miles, Pedal Pittsburgh accommodates everyone from the weekend cyclists to the fitness enthusiast. It is the only event of its kind combining a celebration of design, fitness and urban lifestyles into a cycling event attracting all ages and riding abilities.
6:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; fees range from $23 to $30/person, as well as a family rate. Contact info: Rosemary/Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, 412-393-4144 or Pedal Pittsburgh.
Bicyclists should be aware of Bike Pittsburgh, a great local resource year 'round.
May 15: WSCC Book & Plant Sale
The Wilkins School Community Center's annual Book and Plant sale will benefit the WSCC Accessibility Fund. Books, crafts, food, and organic herb and vegetable seedlings will be for sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Sunday, only books will be available from noon to 3 p.m., for the bargain price of $2 a bag! This event is part of a larger neighborhood garage sale.
NEWSFLASH: Putting on my Farmer Maren hat, I will be among the local organic growers at the WSCC, selling some of my zillions of tomato seedlings (and tomatillos and strawberries). Well, hundreds anyway.
9-3 at 7604 Charleston Ave., Swissvale 15218. For more information, call 412-244-8458 or email wsccpgh@yahoo.com .
May 14: Party for a Purpose
The next Party for a Purpose will benefit CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) and PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.
9 p.m. - 2 a.m. at the Firehouse Lounge in the Strip District. 21+, admission $10; all proceeds go to CASA and PASA.
PGH Party for a Purpose hosts fun, creative and affordable parties for diverse young-minded individuals, while raising funds and generating support for nonprofit organizations in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
PPP was started in December, 2006 by three young professionals who were looking to host a party and give back to Pittsburgh’s nonprofit community at the same time. Since then, they have hosted quarterly parties while donating 100% of the proceeds to local nonprofits. More than $28,000 have been raised since then, benefitting over 13 organizations that serve Southwestern PA.
May 13: Hidden Costs of Energy with Jared Cohon and GASP
Before You Flip That Switch: The Hidden Costs of Energy. Join the Group Against Smog & Pollution for a lecture and discussion with Dr. Jared Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University. Last fall the National Research Council released a report analyzing the "externalities" of energy generation and use. Dr. Cohon led the effort, as chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Health, Environmental, and Other External Costs and Benefits of Energy Production and Consumption -- and will share the results with us at this special GASP event.
The study received quite a lot of media coverage, including the New York Times, Bloomberg's business news, and many newspapers deep in coal country. The full report, along with summaries and a podcast, are also online.
6 p.m. at the Environmental Charter School at Frick Park, at Henrietta & Milton Streets in Regent Square (829 Milton St., Pittsburgh 15218). Suggested donation $10, $5 for students. RSVP to gasp@gasp-pgh.org by May 7.
May 12 or June 7 & 14: Composting talks
Feeding the Earth: Pivotal Frontiers of Composting. A slide-show/lecture/discussion on the frontiers of composting and urban/food/farm relations. It sets these frontiers in the broad context they deserve.
Over the past decade, backyard composting has become increasingly popular, and growing numbers of restaurants, cafeterias & supermarkets have begun to divert their organic waste to composting facilities. In this slide-show-based lecture-and-discussion,
We begin with a brief review of the basic ecology of compost and its remarkable benefits. We then step back to learn how we dealt with waste over the past millennia, ending around 1850. By this time the best farming on every continent was built on careful recycling of organic matter. We then note the circumstances that led farmers away from these fundamental insights; and the ongoing costs of this disconnection.
We end by turning to the present and its possibilities for the future, with a focus on
Each class is full of wonderful images, interesting and important facts and ideas, and ends with ample time for discussion. Registration includes resource hand-outs for further thought, refreshments and light snacks.
Nick Shorr is Program Manager of Regional Composting Initiatives at the Pennsylvania Resources Council. He has a PhD in Agricultural Anthropology from Indiana U and has done fieldwork in Amazonia, managed farmers’ markets, worked on composting facilities, worked on community gardens and farms in five states, and taught the history and ecology of global agriculture at seven universities.
The 1 Session Treatment:
Wed, May 12th, 6:30--8:30pm at
The 2 Session Mini-Course:
Two Mondays, June 7 and 14, 7--9 pm at
For more information and to register, go to http://www.prc.org/feedingearth.html .
May 12: Sierra Club: Canoeing in Canada and Fire in Ohio
Sierra Club's monthly educational meeting: Canoeing in the Canadian Tundra with Bill O’Driscoll and Using Fire as a Habitat-Restoration Tool in Ohio’s Forests with Matt Peters. ...Note new location!
Bill O'Driscoll, Arts & Entertainment editor for Pittsburgh's City Paper, is also a veteran environmentalist and outdoorsman. He tells us: "The Barrens are a low-elevation triangle of half a million square miles between Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean. Our 11-day guided trip was to their center, the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary, a roadless patch half the size of Pennsylvania." Join us to hear about that remarkable journey and the diversity of wildlife seen there.
And we’ll devote the latter half of that meeting to Matt Peters’ response to the Nature Conservancy presentation in March on the use of fire in the eastern forests. Matt experienced an out-of-control prescribed burn in Ohio that consumed an unexpected 3000 acres. Matt, an active member of Allegheny Defense Project, has some interesting thoughts on this controversial subject. BTW, a recent successful burn was held by the Game Commission in the Scotia Barrens, near State College.
7:30 - 9 p.m. at the Sierra Club office, 425 N. Craig St., Oakland -- a new location for our monthly meetings! Call 412-802-6161 if you're having any trouble getting to the office. Refreshments and conversation after the program. Contact Donald L. Gibbon (412-362-8451) or dongibbon at earthlink dot net with questions.
May 8: Hard to Recycle materials collection
The Pennsylvania Resources Council is holding a "Hard to Recycle" materials collection. Do you have tires, cellphones or other electronics, printer/toner cartridges, alkaline batteries, usable building materials, medical supplies, or compact fluorescent bulbs in your house? If you or someone you know can’t use them, or if they are simply outdated or no longer needed, please do the right thing for the environment and dispose of them properly at this event. More details on the acceptable items are here.
To learn how to safely and properly recycle and dispose of many common household chemicals and other items year-round, please visit the Recycling & Disposal Resources page.
10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Steel City Harley Davidson, 1375 Washington Rd. (Rt 19 and Race Track Road), Washington, PA 15301. Information on this and subsequent events is here.May 12 or June 7 & 14: Composting classes
Feeding the Earth: Pivotal Frontiers of Composting. A slide-show/lecture/discussion on the frontiers of composting and urban/food/farm relations. It sets these frontiers in the broad context they deserve.
Over the past decade, backyard composting has become increasingly popular, and growing numbers of restaurants, cafeterias & supermarkets have begun to divert their organic waste to composting facilities. In this slide-show-based lecture-and-discussion,
We begin with a brief review of the basic ecology of compost and its remarkable benefits. We then step back to learn how we dealt with waste over the past millennia, ending around 1850. By this time the best farming on every continent was built on careful recycling of organic matter. We then note the circumstances that led farmers away from these fundamental insights; and the ongoing costs of this disconnection.
We end by turning to the present and its possibilities for the future, with a focus on
Each class is full of wonderful images, interesting and important facts and ideas, and ends with ample time for discussion. Registration includes resource hand-outs for further thought, refreshments and light snacks.
Nick Shorr is Program Manager of Regional Composting Initiatives at the Pennsylvania Resources Council. He has a PhD in Agricultural Anthropology from Indiana U and has done fieldwork in Amazonia, managed farmers’ markets, worked on composting facilities, worked on community gardens and farms in five states, and taught the history and ecology of global agriculture at seven universities.
The 1 Session Treatment:
Wed, May 12th, 6:30--8:30pm at
The 2 Session Mini-Course:
Two Mondays, June 7 and 14, 7--9 pm at
For more information and to register, go to http://www.prc.org/feedingearth.html .
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