Jan 25: Sustainability Salon on Empowering Citizens to Speak Out

Most folks have opinions about what our governments do, and how.  Getting out onto the streets is sometimes necessary (like now!), and has certainly been vital to a great deal of systemic change, but there are also mechanisms built into government that enable regular people to weigh in on public policy at the local, state, and federal levels;  I've often included such opportunities in my "other events and whatnot" listings in these announcements.  For the 168th Sustainability Salon -- marking 14 years!! -- we'll talk about making public comments, and will feature current issues, past victories, and tools for your toolbox.  We'll be on Zoom.

First, we'll take a close look at a local Pittsburgh issue.  The city's Planning Department has published their recommendations for expanding Greenways, a big step towards meeting goals of habitat restoration and connectivity set forth in the Climate Action Plan.  This offers a rare opportunity to provide meaningful and permanent protection to Pittsburgh's forests.  The city is accepting public comments on this proposal, and public pressure is essential to help ensure that the recommendations from the Planning Department are not watered down by the influence of developers on our city council.  Matt Peters, Hazelwood resident and member of Heartwood, will give an overview of the proposal and discuss two development proposals that threaten these forests, and Kara Kukovich, with the Allegheny Group of the Sierra Club, will talk about who to send your comments to and how to write an effective letter.

One of the key arguments one can make in these letters comes from provisions in both our city charter and state constitution, protecting residents and indeed nature itself.  Environmental attorney Tom Bailey has made a study of the Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment -- what it really means, and how to use it.  Currently, for example, the federal government is retreating from controlling fossil fuel emissions.  Luckily, Pennsylvania residents have a fundamental right to clean air and pure water spelled out within our state constitution.  Tom will discuss two landmark Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases in which our rights were enforced and protected.  He'll suggest a couple of additions for your public comment that incorporate language from these cases.  He also looks forward to hearing from participants about what issues concern you within our state's ecosystem. 

We'll also talk about some other current opportunities for public comment, and hope that you'll put all this information to use by writing your own letters and comments now and in the times to come!

As always, you can find the latest here on MarensList.  

This salon will take place on Zoom.  The program will start around 3 p.m., and usually goes 'till 6 or 7.  As always, join us for whatever time works for you!  If you're not already on my salon email 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!  If you RSVP via Eventbrite, you'll receive the Zoom registration link right away. Along about Saturday night/Sunday morning, I'll send it out again, with other information, to all who have RSVP'd.  If you're new to Zoom, you may find my Zoom Reference Guide helpful.  

Other events and whatnot (times are U.S. Eastern):

•  Now through January:  Protect and connect Pittsburgh Forests, expand our Greenways!  Lots more information, and who to write, here.  

•  Jan 16:  Join Heartwood, Sierra Club, and City Girls Who Walk Pittsburgh for a happy hour and letter-writing session.  6-7:30 at Hazel Grove Brewing, in Hazelwood.  More information and registration here.

•  Feb 21:  28th annual Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit creates opportunities to learn, connect, and act on behalf of racial justice.  This year's theme:  Building Community for Lasting Democracy and Racial Equity.9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the CCAC Allegheny campus.   Sliding scale registration;  more information and registration here.

•  I encourage local folks to sign up for the Indivisible Grassroots Pittsburgh email list, which will bring you lots more listings, more frequently -- email Debra.  And there's Fighting Back, by Alison.

•  Concerned Health Professionals of NY recently released the 9th Edition of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas & Oil Infrastructure.  Check it out!  

•  We know that only a tiny fraction of plastic has ever been recycled.  And yet, NPR has been airing sponsorship messages for the American Recycling Council, which is continuing to perpetrate the "recycling" hoax.  Does that make your blood boil?  The national group Beyond Plastics has a petition/sign-on letter to get them to stop -- please sign, for yourself or for an organization you represent!

•  PRC continues to hold online workshops about composting, rainwater harvesting, and waste reduction.  They have several Hard-to-Recycle events each year; upcoming events are listed here.  For household chemicals, here's the link.

•  The Rachel Carson EcoVillage is still looking for a few more members.  Curious?  You can sign up for an introduction session or sign up as an “inquirer” to have more information sent to you.

•  Have you seen the film Single-Use Planet (hopefully soon to appear on PBS), or The Story of Plastic, or the PBS docs Plastic Wars, Fenceline, and We're All Plastic People Now?  (and/or join us for Plastic Paradise at a winter film salon seven 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 in a 2020 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 (or you can still order online).

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 (and often health, and justice, and politics);  it's a house party with an environmental theme.  Each month we have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, and (when in person) delectable potluck food and drink and music-making through the evening.   Beginning in early 2012, salons were originally a potluck mini-conference;  the event has been either on Zoom or outdoor/hybrid since March 2020.  This event series was featured in the Pittsburgh Media Partnership's Pittsburgh Story project on Civic Catalysts -- here's a piece by The Allegheny Front. 

Past topics have included greener buying, data centers, local environmental authors (Part I & Part II) honey forests & friends, air science into policy, air quality education and engagement,  farming and succession, building with wood, food justice, Mutual Aid networks, activism in the coming years, COVID caution and community care, nature education/volunteer programs, air quality, stories that inspire, forest protection, a celebration of the 150th salon, a closer look at our quarter-acre, reducing single-use plastics, water campaigns, climate campaigns, consumerism, air quality campaigns,  movement-building and sustained campaigns, abandoned oil and gas wells, hope (finding it, creating it, using it), addressing environmental causes of cancer, a development proposal for Frick Park, single-use plastic legislation, home energy efficiency (and legislation to help fund improvements), the UN's COP process for climate negotiations, alternatives to single-use packaging, our region's air (part I and part II), activist art and America's Energy Gamble, advocacy opportunities, social justice games, fixing Pennsylvania state government, 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, 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!).