July 30: Sustainability Salon in-person gathering

Extending our break from Zoom for another month -- the weather looks nice for Saturday the 30th (and I've been traveling a bit and being generally busy on other things, instead of curating the next salon), so let's get together!  Most summers over the past decade, we've had a No-Topic salon -- more of a social gathering than regular Sustainability Salons, when I don'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 in 2020 we just marched right through the whole season with a three-month series on economics (Energy Economics, Local Economies, and Social Investment).  Last year we had a couple of outdoor, in-person salons -- and I think it's time for another!  No fixed topic (Powerpoint isn't really practical outside), but I'm sure we'll have lots of great conversation and enjoy reconnecting.

With a nice day in the forecast for Saturday, I'd like to invite folks (who are fully vaccinated and at least once boostered) to an in-person, outdoor gathering at our place.  And we'll spend our time outdoors, rather than congregating in the kitchen (though folks can pass through the house to use the bathroom or visit the roof garden).

So, with apologies to the faraway folks who have been enjoying our virtual events (they'll be back!) -- and apologies to anyone who isn't vaccinated -- the 126th Sustainability Salon will be an in-person, informal event.  Outdoors, fully-vaxxed.  No need to be here the whole time;  no PowerPoints, just lots of conversation.  I think we can manage a potluck supper, like old times.  

At some point, we'll certainly share announcements and such, and brief talks not needing slides might materialize, like the one from last month (seen in this photo) about the Fair Districts Fix Harrisburg campaign, and how people and groups can work together to address roadblocks in our state government.  

This month, since we're in person (and have a few tables), we'll also get the chance to try out some tabletop games on themes like nonviolence, social change, and the environment.  Like Lunchcounter, by SG Publishing’s Jim Highland, who joined us in May to share details about the Pennsylvania Climate Convergence (which, I note again, was not a one-time event -- but just the start of pressure on our state government;  email Karen to get involved with continuing action!).  "Lunchcounter" is based on MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail and empowers players to collect evidence, negotiate, and take nonviolent action if necessary. 

 

More details later in the week!  In the meantime, a few other items of note:  

•. July 27:  Life under the Toxic Umbrella of Shell Chemical and U.S. Steel -- a Resident-Led Virtual Town hall.  More information and registration link are here. 

•  August 3:  Shell again.  Are you concerned about what's coming down the pike with their new ethane cracker plant (which will use lots of energy to turn ethane from fracked gas into zillions of plastic nurdles) about to start operating near here?  Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC) is holding a virtual meeting of Eyes On Shell, connecting area residents to help monitor the impacts of the facility.  More information and registration link here.

•  PRC continues to hold online workshops about composting, rainwater harvesting, and waste reduction, as well as collection events.  

•  Did you see the film The Story of Plastic, or the PBS doc Plastic Wars?  (and/or join us for Plastic Paradise at a winter film salon six years ago?)  ...What if you could bring up imagery of the toxic impacts of plastic production, and commentary by the people and communities living with them, over the world?  You can do all that with the interactive Toxic Tours tool.  Check it out!  

• Mask update:  Breathe99 masks (featured at November's salon on Pandemics and Air (video), and one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2020) are now being distributed by Our Children Our Earth, a local purveyor of alternatives to disposables (as well as classy wooden toys).  Contact Dianne via OCOE's Facebook page, or call (412) 772-1638 to coordinate a curbside pickup.  

This low-key, informal gathering will go from 3 p.m. to 8 or 9 -- a wide window so we're never too crowded.  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.  Along about Friday night/Saturday morning, I'll send out Directions & Other Information to all who have registered (but please register even if you know your way here).

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 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.

Past topics have included fixing Harrisburg, climate action, forest restoration, the history of American consumerism, regional air quality, preserving Pittsburgh's forests, climate modeling, approaches to 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, 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!).

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, perhaps we can sing and play a bit if the weather's nice!