Remember those long-ago days when we had an annual no-topic salon each summer? It was more of a social gathering than regular Sustainability Salons, when I didn't have to interrupt the Conversations for the Presentations. In a departure from our usual format of talks and discussion focused on a single topic, we'd have more informal, free-flowing conversation. Then came the pandemic, and Zoom... and last year we just marched right through the whole season with a three-month series on economics (Energy Economics, Local Economies, and Social Investment). But now, with a nice day in the forecast for Saturday, I'd like to invite folks (who are fully vaccinated) to an in-person, outdoor gathering. We won't do a potluck supper as in days of old -- that's a bridge too far, at this time (what with the Delta variant circulating, others probably brewing, and less-than-universal vaccination). And we'll spend our time outdoors, rather than congregating in the kitchen.
So, with apologies to the faraway folks who have been enjoying our virtual events (and apologies to anyone who isn't vaccinated -- have a nice day wherever you are), the 114th Sustainability Salon will be our annual No-Topic Salon. Outdoors, fully-vaxxed. No need to be here the whole time; no PowerPoints, just lots of conversation. And no big potluck supper, just a little light afternoon fare. Timeframe? 3-6 p.m., maybe 'till 7.
Be sure to RSVP if you might come! I'll want to have a handle on numbers, and may need to cap attendance.
In the meantime, a few other items of note:
• Next weekend (
weather permitting), we'll host a
house (backyard) concert with
Paul Kaplan! Hopefully on Sunday July 18th at 4; if Saturday's weather looks better we may shift back to Saturday (a reverse rain-date). If neither day has good weather, we're out of luck.
• August's Sustainability Salon will be on Climate Modeling (date TBA) -- back on Zoom.
• The Driving PA Forward campaign, which we learned about in March, has a petition and info to call your legislators here. •
Mask update: I have distributed all of the
Breathe99 masks (featured at November's salon on
Pandemics and Air (video), and
one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2020)
from my bulk orders, but still have some of the new foam liners that address the condensation issue associated with a well-sealed mask, and a few boxes of filters. Please email me with
mask in the Subject line if you're interested. If you order your own mask, remember that there's a $10 discount for salongoers (code SUSTAINABILITYSALON)! Also -- with the ongoing crisis in India, Breathe99 is seeking
crowdfunding to help send masks to particularly vulnerable people there. Can you help?
•
Harvie Farms: Simon Huntley, featured in last month's Food salon, has also offered a special discount to the Sustainability Salon community. Choose your favorite items, help our small farms beat Big Ag, and build a more resilient food system -- members receive weekly or biweekly boxes of local groceries from Pennsylvania farms and artisans. Coupon code MAREN25 will give you 25% off your first box! Sign up
here.
This low-key, informal gathering (still no potluck supper) will take place between 3 p.m. and 6 or 7 p.m. Please be sure to RSVP if you might come! I may need to cap attendance. If you're not already on my Eventbrite list, please email me (maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to be added -- and let me know how you heard about salons! To RSVP, respond via Eventbrite or simply email me with "salon" in the Subject line. 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 (if there weren't a pandemic) with an environmental theme. Each month (usually) we 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 (though the potluck and the music are on hiatus during the pandemic). Past topics have included approaches to protection from pipelines, pipeline hazards, the legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the judiciary and fair elections, consumption, pandemics and air, election law and activism, air quality and environmental justice, social investment, local economies, the economics of energy, mutual aid networks, ocean health, the rise of the radical right, the back end of consumption, 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, 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!)
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