Dec 15: PASUP plastic-free potluck

Please join PASUP (Pittsburghers Against Single-Use Plastic) for a Plastic-Free Potluck!Please join us for informal conversation, networking and good food.  We ask that you bring food to share using no or minimal plastic in its purchase, storage, transport and serving;* save and bring any single-use plastic (SUP) that you did use to the event.  No pork or shellfish allowed in this venue, and plant-based food encouraged ... meat and dairy are almost always packed in SUP.  Free, although small donations to help cover our expenses would be appreciated.  

5 to 7 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 5505 Forbes Ave in Squirrel Hill.  Please RSVP here to help us plan seating and dishes (but don't hesitate to come even if you did not sign up in advance).

Contact us at PASUPgroup@gmail.com if you have any questions about the event or our group, and if you would like to be contacted about future events.  And check out our Facebook page for news and updates about single-use plastics around the world and in our back yard.

* https://tinyurl.com/CutBackSUP
  https://www.kitchenstewardship.com/reducing-single-use-plastic-food-packaging/
  https://www.kitchenstewardship.com/pack-travel-party-food-without-plastic-wrap/

Dec 14: Sustainability Salon on the Back End of Consumption

On the cusp of the holiday season, and in the wake of yet another wild Black Friday, we'll commence our annual Wintertime Film Series with December's recurring theme of Consumption, on the theory that we all can use a little more mindfulness during a time when we're bombarded with cultural cues to buy more stuff.  My hope is, as always, that folks will leave the salon ready to buy less stuff as we head into the holidays (I"m so transparent!),  So, for the 95th Sustainability Salon, we'll talk about the back end of consumption -- what happens to all that stuff once people are done with it, and the environmental and health consequences in our region and around the world.  Through several terrific (and terrifying) films and with Hannah Samuels and Evan Clark from Allegheny Cleanways, we'll consider the implications for illegal dumping, the costs of cleanup on land and on our rivers, and opportunities to get involved.  And here once again is an essay to get you started:  George Monbiot, in 2012, pondering pathological consumption.

Another local group working on reducing waste, with a bit more emphasis on the front end, is Pittsburghers Against Single-Use Plastic, featured in our September salon.  To connect with that group, and learn new ways of creating less waste in the first place, please join PASUP for another Plastic-Free Potluck on Sunday the 15th!

Salons run 3-10 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill.  Please don't arrive before 3 p.m.  We aim to start the program not long after 4, after folks have had a chance to meet, mingle, and tour around an interesting and productive urban permaculture site.  After the talks and discussi

on, we'll break for a potluck supper (and more conversation).  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 notice (if you're not already on my list, just email me with salon in the subject line to be added!).  

Please do RSVP each time -- it helps greatly in several ways.  Among other things, 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.  If you drive down our street, please park only on the uphill-facing side, and take care not to block driveways on either side of the street.  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 (usually Friday night).  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;  fit'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 approaches to activism on fracking & climate, air quality, technology, and citizen science, single-use plastics, election activism, election law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plants, advanced nuclear technologies, passenger and freight trains, consumption, plastics, and pollution, air quality, solar power, 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, 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 sort 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.  Please try to minimize single-use plastic -- if you're thinking of a deli tray of vegetables, just get some whole veggies and we can cut 'em up here!  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 (again, no single-use packaging) and provide a big batch of homemade/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. 

Dec 11: ReImagine Turtle Creek Watershed/Airshed

The ReImagine initiative began in the spring of 2017 in Beaver County. Led by the League of Women Voters and local residents, a group of community members met for three visioning sessions, where they discussed sustainable economic and community development projects that they wanted to see completed in their county. In May of 2019, ReImagine Beaver County released a report with the community's visions, and now they are actively working to implement positive change in their communities. Similar initiatives have also taken place in Butler and Indiana Counties.

The League of Women Voters and local community partners are now launching an initiative to Reimagine the Turtle Creek Watershed, which encompasses the eastern part of Allegheny County, and western Westmoreland County. To make this event as inclusive as possible, we are expanding it beyond the watershed into the "airshed" to include district 8 of Allegheny County Council and PA congressional district 18 - because the positive and negative externalities of economic and community development don't know municipal boundaries. This initiative will begin with a series of brainstorming sessions about the things that the people of these communities would like to see in their area. Join us on Wednesday, December 11th at 5:00pm at the Braddock Carnegie Library to learn about the initiative and to begin the visioning process.

The main agenda for the evening is as follows:

5:00 to 6:00pm: Free, plant-based dinner will be served courtesy of the League of Women Voters; organizations will also have tables set up for people to browse.

6:00 to 6:30pm: Introductions, Introductions to visioning, and short presentations

6:30 to 7:30pm: Small group brainstorming / visioning activity

7:30 to 8:00pm: Large group discussion and next steps

For those interested, prior to the main event, starting at 2:30pm, there will also be yoga led by Moni Wesner and a free screening of the documentary Need to Grow.

This initiative only works if there is representation from the communities. We hope that you will be able to join us and share your visions. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to ReImagine the Turtle Creek Watershed on Facebook or sustainablemonroeville@gmail.com.

Dec 10: Racial Justice Town Hall

Making Politics Work for Every Body
The fourth annual Racial Justice Town Hall will be hosted by the Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit. This year's Town Hall and Summit are centered on the theme, 1492-2020: Decolonize Our Histories to Reclaim Our Humanity. The Town Hall will feature two panel discussions: one panel comprises elected officials and those whose work intersects with public officials; the second panel led by community leaders and stakeholders. Panelists will share their experience and vision for racial justice.

6-8:30 at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (616 N Highland Ave, 15206). Free (donations welcome); please register here! (and you can find any updates on Facebook)

Dec 7: Paris to Pittsburgh screening in Butler

Join Marcellus Outreach Butler (MOB) for a free screening of National Geographic‘s film that explores the climate change reality that has brought Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto to a juncture where he has to make the right choice to break with his political allies on the petrochemical buildout in the southwestern Pennsylvania region. The petrochemical industry plans to continue to use fracking in our region to extract "wet gas" for its ethane, and to build more plants to convert the ethane to plastic. This plan is on track to inflict increasingly serious environmental destruction upon our region, by further attacking our air and water quality, and our residents' health and safety. Mayor Peduto has finally connected the dots: it's clear from the Paris Accord, to which Mayor Peduto has pledged Pittsburgh's support, that planned Appalachian petrochemical build-out is in no way compatible with that accord. The old adage applies: when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging! 1 p.m. at the Butler Area Public Library (218 N. McKean St., Butler, PA 16001)   Facebook event page