Oct 27: Harvest Homecoming with Project LOVE

Join the Project Love Coalition and it's Green S.E.N.S.E. inaugural event, Harvest Homecoming Dinner, supporting affordable housing and services for seniors, veterans, families and individuals in need across the Pittsburgh, Allegheny County region. We will come together for lively discussions, to celebrate and reflect on our work over the past year, as well as raise funds to support affordable healthy housing and essential services for those we serve.

• Dinner
• Discussions with Special Guest Panelists
• Open Bar
• Music Entertainment & Dancing

Dress & Apparel

• You can come straight from work in your business casual.
• You can put on your Sunday best.
• Dress for the night is casual. We just want to see you there!

5-9:30 in the Elsie Hillman Auditorium at the Kaufmann Center in the Hill District.  Please RSVP online.  Pay as you can -- the event is free, but donations are very much appreciated!

Oct 27: GASP's costume bike ride

Air pollution is scary!  Put on your favorite costume and join Group Against Smog and Pollution on this easy-paced bike ride along several of Pittsburgh’s riverfront trails.  We’ll discuss ways athletes can protect themselves from air pollution, learn about the air you breathe and discover some unexpected sources of pollution.  We also will award a prize for best costume.  This ride will be 12 - 15 miles and bike rentals are not available for this outing.

9 a.m. - noon, starting on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.  $12, or $8 for members of Venture Outdoors.  Space is limited;  please register online!

Oct 25: GASP Making The Connection on Manganese and IQ

Manganese is an essential additive in the steel making process, with as much as 90% of manganese consumption worldwide being used by the steel industry alone.

During this presentation, Drs. Erin Haynes and Vincent Schmithorst will discuss the links between manganese in air pollution to neurodevelopment and lowered IQ in children.

5-8 p.m. at Magee Womens Hospital (300 Halket St., 15213).  The event begins with an hour of refreshments and networking.  Visit the registration page for more details about this event;  you can register online or on site, but please come on out!

Manganese is an essential additive in the steel making process, with as much as 90% of manganese consumption worldwide being used by the steel industry alone. Throughout this process stray manganese particles escape into the air. These particles are related to a variety of adverse health effects, and are especially harmful to the central nervous system. During this presentation, Drs. Erin Haynes and Vincent Schmithorst will discuss the links between manganese in air pollution to neurodevelopment and lowered IQ in children.

Dr. Haynes, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, will discuss her research on impacts of manganese in two Appalachian communities in Ohio. Dr. Schmithorst, of UPMC Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital, will discuss how advanced MRI imagining can be used to further understand the relation between neurotoxicity and neurodevelopmental outcome.

This event is part of GASP’s Making the Connection series, intended for medical professionals as well as community members interested in learning more about the links between air pollution and various health problems. It will begin with an hour of networking and refreshments from 5pm-6pm outside of the Hutchinson and Hayashi Auditorium, before moving into the auditorium for the main program. Walk in registration is welcomed.

Oct 25: Sandra Steingraber talk and screening

This special evening opens with a lecture by Sandra Steingraber followed by a screening of the film UNFRACTURED -- a film that chronicles biologist and mother Sandra Steingraber's journey into activism. Filmmaker Chanda Chevannes will introduce the film and Dr. Steingraber will take your questions. 

https://www.unfractured.com/

The Pennsylvania Tour of UNFRACTURED is being organized by the Better Path Coalition. The Pittsburgh screening is co-hosted by Marcellus Outreach Butler, the Breathe Project, the Falk School of Sustainability & Environment at Chatham University, and other local partners.

The tour is being supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Direct Support Fund. 

The 7 p.m. screening will be preceded by a special lecture at 6 p.m. by Sandra Steingraber entitled "Contaminated Without Consent: the Scientific Case Against Fracking and How it Prevailed in New York". 

The event is free, but please register online!  Dr. Steingraber's lecture is being supported by the Ceres Trust.

Oct 24: Defend Our Water: Day of Action

You may have heard about a major shale gas industry conference here in Pittsburgh.  Outside the conference, activists will be bringing attention to the hazards and injustice being fomented inside.  Lots more information and registration here.

Oct 19: Project Drawdown livestream

Friday Evening Live Stream Satellite Event of the Omega Institue Drawdown Learn event:

In 2017 Project Drawdown mapped, measured, and modeled the 100 most substantive solutions to reversing global warming (learn more at drawdown.org).  Now comes a critical next step: Drawndown Learn, a collaborative effort to develop the tools, training, innovative project-based learning, and other curriculum integration needed to unpack and engage schools and communities in the rich learning opportunities of Drawdown and its data. 

Friday Evening Satellite Gathering will include:

• Overview Presentation with Paul Hawken followed by a panel discussion with the Project Drawdown team, including updates on what’s emerged since Drawdown was published last year — the partnerships, ideas, community organizing, Drawdown hubs, and more.

• Friday evening will include time for questions from in-person and online participants and satellite viewing sites. 

Pittsburgh satellite event hosted by Putting Down Roots, in collaboration with 350 Pittsburgh, the Omega Institute, and Project Drawdown.  Please be sure to RSVP via Eventbrite!  

Oct 14: Energy Efficiency Fair

Did you know that the average home emits 15 tons of CO2 every year? 

At one of the greenest places around, you can learn from experts and become a climate hero! Minimize your home's impact with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and Conservation Consultants, Inc. at this free Energy Efficiency Fair.

Talk with experts; meet homeowners who cut their energy use by up to 40%; learn about programs and financing options; dive into climate solutions; and get inspired!

2-5 p.m. at the Frick Environmental Center (2005 Beechwood Boulevard 15217)

Oct 10 & 23, Nov 5 & 29, Dec 12: Food Systems 101

Want to know more about the practices, policies, and paths that help food get to your plate? Interested in creating a community with other curious people? Join us for a series of five potluck dinners to examine and better understand these issues.

6-8 p.m. each evening at Repair The World (6022 Broad St., 15206).  Aiming to find people that will attend ALL of the dinners.  By registering you are committing to all of the dates;  please email samapplefield@gmail.com if you have questions!  Please register online here:  https://rpr.world/FoodSystems101

Oct 6: Sustainability Salon on Solar Energy

Solar in October!  Once again we'll follow up the Pittsburgh Solar Tour with deeper discussion in a Sustainability Salon on solar power.  Visit a few other solar homes during the afternoon, or jump on the bus or an e-bike for a guided tour, and wind up at our house in Squirrel Hill to talk about the reasons to go solar, meet local providers, and reflect on our own PV installation.

We'll have Greg Winks of Solbridge EA, which helps people and institutions figure out how and why to go solar.  Henry McKay of Solar United Neighbors will introduce the new Allegheny County Solar Co-op, which will lower system costs through bulk purchasing.  And we'll hear from two terrific local solar installers,  Hal Saville of Energy Independent Systems and Evan Good of Scalo Solar.

The next salon will be on Air Quality, and will take place on November 10th (not the 17th as suggested earlier).  A couple of other events I'm hosting in the meantime:  a potluck discussion for the PA Women's Agricultural Network on October 5th, and a satellite livestream of an Omega Institute program with Project Drawdown and Paul Hawken on October 19th.  And as we get ready for our annual autumnal air-quality salon, note GASP's upcoming Making the Connections event, linking manganese contamination to children's IQ.

Salons run 3-10 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill.  Please don't arrive before 3 p.m.  (and Solar Tour participants will overlap, as that event goes 'till 4).  We generally start the program not long after 4pm, after folks have had a chance to meet, mingle, and tour around an interesting and productive urban permaculture site.  Please email me (at maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to RSVP (yes or maybe), or click on the link in your EventBrite invitation (if you're not already on my list, please email me with salon in the subject line to be added!).  

Please RSVP each time -- it helps greatly in several ways.  Among other things, attendance varies widely, and these events have been so successful that we need to begin limiting attendance.  So RSVP early if you can, to ensure your participation!  The free virtual "tickets" on Eventbrite may run out (you don't need to print any tickets, by the way, just be on the list).  Also, weather and such can be unpredictable and it's good to know who to contact if there's a change -- and I'll send directions and a trail map on Friday or Saturday.  Be sure to include salon in the Subject line, as I receive a ridiculous amount of email every day.  And if you're new, please let me know how you heard about the Salons!

Bring food and/or drink to share if you can (see below), along with musical instruments if you play.  Check back on MarensList (where you can find information on all sorts of environmental and social justice events) for updates.  And if you aren't yet on my list, if you're interested in Sustainability Salons (and our occasional house concert, simply contact me and I'll put you on my email list.  

As always, I'll be sending out directions and such, and any late-breaking info, to all the RSVP'd folks by the morning of the salon if not before.  So if you don't have it yet, please be patient!  One of these days I'll streamline this process a bit, but for now it takes a while to to dot all my i's and cross all my t's.  (All the extraneous requests for the address don't help;  I have lots of other stuff I send out with it, but don't like to let them go unanswered so it adds hours to my prep time.  If you RSVP properly (see above), you should get the info by the morning of the salon!)

For the uninitiated, a Sustainability Salon is an educational forum, it's a mini-conference, it's a venue for discussion and debate about important environmental issues, it's a house party with an environmental theme.  We usually have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, delectable potluck food and drink, and music-making through the evening.

Past topics have included youth activism, greening business, greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme;  with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).

Quite a few people have asked me what sorts of food to bring -- and my answer, as always, is whatever inspires you;  I believe in the "luck" part of potlucks.  Tasty noshings for the afternoon, hearty main dishes or scrumptious salads and sides for dinner, baked goods from biscuits and breads to brownies or baklava -- and/or beverages:  wine, hard or sweet cider (the latter we can mull if you like), juice, tea, whatever.  The more the merrier!  Local fare is always particularly welcome, whether homemade or boughten.  Dishes containing meat or dairy are fine, though if it isn't really obvious please make a note of it.  We refill a bunch of growlers at East End and provide a big batch of mostly-homegrown pesto (cheesy and vegan), and other things as needed.  More details will come after you RSVP (hint, hint!). 

If you haven't been here before, you may enjoy checking out our roof garden and solar installation (and now apiary!) as well as the many other green and interesting things around our place.  

And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, don't forget the evening sing -- we typically run the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time is had by all.  Bring instruments if you play, and/or pick up one of ours.  Conversations will continue through the evening, as well. 

Oct 6: Pittsburgh Solar Tour

Interested in going solar, meeting some fellow Pittsburghers who have, or just learning more about the possibilities?  Register for the annual Pittsburgh Solar Tour on Saturday, October 6th to meet some Pittsburgh residents who have gone solar -- see their installations, and ask all your questions! Register at pghsolartour.org for guided bus or electric bike tours starting at Millvale or the Frick Environmental Center. Promo code: PGHSOLARTOUR2018 gets you on the bus (or bike) for free! Or just use the map for a self-guided tour of homes you choose.

Oct 5: Women farmers potluck

Women farmers, gardeners, food activists -- Pennsylvania Women's Agricultural Network (PA-WAgN) and Maren are hosting a Walk a Mile potluck!

This is your chance to meet, learn, share, and build your real, person-to-person network!  Whether you're an urban grower, rural farmer, suburban food activist - come and share your stories, your ideas, your passion for our food system.  

5-7 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill.  More information and registration here.   Address will be provided after registration;  please register even if you know the way!  You can always send an email if you need to cancel, but if you don't register then we don't know how many people to expect or who to inform if there are any last minute changes!

This is a kid-friendly, friend-friendly potluck, so please bring a dish to share, and also please feel free to bring others.  Your children, your friends or family, your neighbor...all are welcome.

Oct 4-5: Urban Soils Symposium

Soils are an essential component of urban systems: they hold, filter and allow infiltration of stormwater, support plant growth for habitat and agriculture, accumulate contaminants such as lead, sequester carbon, and are a point of contact for numerous citizens on a daily basis.  Understanding how they function and how they can be improved to better suit the needs of communities is an important activity.

To further discussion in this area, several partners from the Working Group have joined to establish the inaugural Three Rivers Urban Soil Symposium, October 4-5^th at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh, PA.  The symposium (Oct. 4) will feature a full day of talks and panels from national and local experts on mapping, remediation, green infrastructure, and climate. There will be a keynote address from Dr. Murray McBride of Cornell University.  Thursday will conclude with a reception and poster session for graduate and professional researchers to share their work.  

Day two of the event (Oct. 5) will be a full-day workshop on urban soil health, aimed at educating engaged community members, professionals, non-profit employees, and municipal officials on the principles of urban soil health, testing processes, understanding results, and remediation strategies.  This day will also feature a roundtable discussion on composting with representatives from Pittsburgh City Planning, Ag Recycle, and Steel City Soils, as well as a talk on regenerative urban habitats with Nance Klehm of Social Ecologies (Chicago, IL).  Additionally, Dr. Karen Hacker of the Allegheny Health Department will also discuss soils and contamination from a public health perspective.

Registration is $25 for a single-day, or $45 for both days (includes light breakfast, lunch, and Thursday hors d'oeuvres).  Some scholarships are available for community members who wish to attend but find the cost burdensome. Please feel free to reach out tojburgess@accdpa.org or gtilove@phipps.conservatory.org with any questions or if your organization is interested in being a sponsor for the event.  Check the event page for updates and a full agenda.