Putting Down Roots: Maren's List

May 22: Sustainability Salon on Pipelines (Part I)

Photo courtesy of FracTracker

Pipelines are a necessary component of fracking and petrochemical development. At the 112th and 113th Sustainability Salons this May and June, we'll take a close look at a 98-mile pipeline system being built to feed ethane from fracked gas to the Shell petrochemical facility, and take lessons from other pipelines already operating or in development. The Falcon Pipeline passes beneath the Ohio river and crosses many other sensitive areas including the headwaters of the Ambridge Reservoir and Tappan Lake Reservoir (serving over 30,000 people in a dozen municipalities), as well as regions prone to landslides that can lead to explosions. Whistleblowers have pointed to ways that Shell has been cutting corners during construction of the Falcon Pipeline -- and covering up potential problems. Just during construction, there have been dozens of spills along the Falcon route. Other fracking and pipeline companies, necessary to feed these petrochemical plants, have come under criminal investigation. Pipeline incidents are occurring, on average, more than once a day.

Speakers will include:

Rachel Sica Meyer, environmental educator and resident of Independence Township working with BCMAC (Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community), will help frame the situation as Falcon construction nears completion.

Chemist Randi Poladnik, PhD of OVEC (Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition) will offer a view from the shores of Tappan Lake -- a reservoir serving the town of Cadiz, Ohio, threatened by the pipeline.

Erica Jackson of FracTracker will bring us an update on the state and federal investigations into public safety concerns around the Falcon pipeline -- including construction problems, false reporting, and the retaliatory firing of whistleblowers. Advocacy opportunities include a call for a public hearing on the issues.

What are the stakes? Karen Gdula of the Ivy Lane Alliance has lived through her worst nightmare. In September of 2018, the woods behind her home in Center Township erupted in a fireball as a landslide tore the just-completed Revolution Pipeline apart. Many neighbors barely escaped with their lives.

Next month (very likely June 19th), Attorney Jen Clark of Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services will survey legal issues surrounding the Falcon and other pipelines, and legal approaches for protecting public health. Lois Bower-Bjornson has been fighting the health impacts of fracking and related infrastructure for years. She's spoken out on her family's experience in contexts from the Young Voices for the Planet educator workshops to her own Frackland Tours -- and has helped to pass legislation to control gas development at the township level. Food and Water Watch has been helping other municipalities establish protective ordinances; Southwest Pennsylvania Organizer Robin Martin will share their work. Karen Feridun, a founder of Berks Gas Truth and Better Path Coalition, will talk about the reforms we need at the national level, in the way that FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) works (or doesn't).

In the meantime, a few other items of note:

• Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has been a perennial cheerleader for the fracking and petrochemical industries -- and thus for the dangerous pipelines they require. Please consider signing onto this letter asking him to change his tune.

• May 26th is a nationwide Day of Action for the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. Here's a toolkit for contacting your legislators.

• The Driving PA Forward campaign, which we learned about in March, has a petition and info to call your legislators here.

• Also in March, we talked about the ReImagine Food Systems project; on May 28th there'll be an evening of music to help raise FUNds for these gardens!

• With U.S. Steel stepping back from their promise to improve the Mon Valley Works (choosing instead to spend the money on a newer, non-union plant in Arkansas), there will be a resident-led Town Hall about the future of the Mon Valley on June 9th.

• 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.

Talks and discussion will run from 4 p.m. to 7:30 or so on Zoom (sadly, no potluck supper these days). You're welcome to join the call for informal conversation after 3 p.m., and we aim to start the main program right around 4. If you're new to Zoom, you may find my Zoom Reference Guide helpful. If you RSVP via Eventbrite, you'll receive the Zoom registration link right away. 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!

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 (though the potluck and the music are on hiatus during the pandemic; you're on your own for the delectables).

Past topics have included 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!).

Coronavirus update: As you know, people in Pittsburgh and around the world are sequestered at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing is still the rule for most Americans. That's a bit of a misnomer, though -- we need physical distancing to flatten the curve, but technology now allows for rich interactions even so! I believe that community is one of our greatest strengths, so in March as events began to be cancelled, I hosted the first virtual Sustainability Salon via Zoom teleconference -- rather than gathering our usual 50-80 people in a contained space. It went quite well (even engaging participants from hundreds of miles away), and we're looking forward to June's salon! Please be sure to RSVP (via email with "salon" in the Subject: line, or via Eventbrite) so you'll receive the sign-on information.

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. If interested folks are online and everything is working smoothly by around 3:30, perhaps I can conduct a virtual tour.

And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, think back to our evening sings -- we typically ran the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time was had by all. Folks would bring instruments, and/or pick up one of ours. Conversations would continue through the evening, as well. With a virtual event this is less likely to happen, but we can share music by turns, reminisce, chat online, and look forward to the post-COVID era!

Apr 28: Food Waste and Our Environment

The Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) makes the connection between food waste and the environment.

Consider this: About 40 percent of food grown and produced in the United States goes uneaten – that’s $165 billion worth of wasted dairy, meat, produce, and more. In fact, the average American family throws out about 25 percent of the food they buy each week.

All that waste takes an environmental toll. For one thing, that uneaten food is all too often relegated to local landfills where it rots, emitting potent greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

Experts say that we could cut out food waste by just 15 percent nationally, it would not only stave off these emissions, but also save enough to feed 26 million people.

Join GASP for a panel discussion with two Pittsburghers who are helping to lead the charge against food waste locally – Dylan Lew, of Ecotone Renewables, and Sara Swaney of 412 Food Rescue.

Learn more about the problem and how YOU can be part of the solution.

6 p.m., on Zoom. Free & open to the public -- register here.

Apr 19: Labor and the plastics crisis (A-Z Impacts of Plastic)

Join the A-Z team as we explore the intersections of labor and our plastics crisis. Learn how workers involved in plastics production AND environmental nonprofit workers fighting plastic industry pollution can stand in solidarity for workers rights and healthy communities.

You’ll also learn more about

The role of whistleblowers in exposing workplace injustice
The community health impacts of workplace endangerment in the petrochemical and plastic industries
How you can help secure better protections for all workers, regardless of industry

Click here to register for our discussion of labor solidarity in the plastics production process.

Apr 17: Sustainability Salon on Food (Part II)

The 111th Sustainability Salon will continue our annual focus on Food. This month's speakers will include:

• Dina "free " Blackwell, Farm Manager for the Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Co-op (BUGs) will share doings at the Homewood Historical Community Farm.

• Ellie Gordon, co-founder of the Pittsburgh Vegan Society: advocating for veganism in Pittsburgh for the benefit of animals, health, community, and the environment.

• Simon Huntley, founder and CEO of Harvie, a Pittsburgh-based startup delivering customizable boxes of farm-fresh, local food to 1,200 customers in the Pittsburgh area.

• Tentative additions: Grow Pittsburgh; Steel City Food Not Bombs.

More speakers might join the roster -- check back here for updates! In the meantime, a few other items of note: Apropos of our spring topic, the monthly (now-virtual) Environmental Film Series at Phipps on the 16th will be all about growing food, and GASP's next Making the Connections event (Apr 28) will be on food waste. On April 19th, the A-Z Impacts of Plastics team will hold a session on workers' rights and the plastics industry. The Driving PA Forward campaign, which we talked about last month, is still ongoing; there’s a petition and info to call your legislators here. And a mask update: I still have a few (very few) from my second bulk order (read: substantial discount!) of the Breathe99 masks that we featured at November's salon on Pandemics and Air (video), as well as a supply of the new foam liners that address the condensation issue associated with a well-sealed mask. Please email me with mask in the Subject line if you're interested. These masks were selected as one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2020!

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. 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 (though the potluck and the music are on hiatus during the pandemic).

Past topics have included 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, 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!).

Mar 27: Sustainability Salon on Food (Part I)

Marking a year (and what a year!) since the first virtual Sustainability Salon, the 110th salon will return to our annual focus on Food. This month's speakers will include:

• Karen Gardner, Pennsylvania Manager of the National Young Farmers Coalition, will talk about the Driving PA Forward campaign to expand access to drivers' licenses -- and its intersections with the food system in PA. There's also a petition pressuring Pennsylvania to improve the situation.

• Erin Hart, founder and director of Farm To Table Western PA, will share the organization's work during the COVID-19 pandemic connecting local farmers, area restaurants, and residents of public housing communities.

• Clemmie Murdock III is the Production Manager and Director of Keepin' It Real at Redstart Roasters, a Pittsburgh coffee company focused on sourcing high-quality beans from farms that have earned the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s Bird-Friendly Coffee certification. With a coffeeshop in East Liberty and a small-batch roastery in Point Breeze, they're also educating the public about migratory birds and the rainforests where they winter.

• Rhea Homa coordinates ReImagine Food Systems, part of the ReImagine Turtle Creek Watershed & Airshed Communities Plus initiative. RiFS helps households in under-resourced communities east of Pittsburgh establish home vegetable gardens by providing structures, soil, seeds, plants, and education.

• Pamela Barroso has been sharing seeds as a volunteer for Cooperative Gardens, and will talk about seed saving.

The next salon -- Food (Part II) will very likely take place on April 17th. In the meantime, a few other events of note: On March 23rd, a virtual teach-in on the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. March 25th, reimagine a healthier future with the second Bioplastic: Hype or Hope? event. Although the annual Seed Swap can't happen in its usual form this year, the organizers are holding a series of online lunchtime gardening workshops, as well as a seed distribution. More info is here. And a mask update: I still have a few from my second bulk order (read: substantial discount!) of the Breathe99 masks that we featured at November's salon on Pandemics and Air (video), as well as a supply of the new foam liners that address the condensation issue associated with a well-sealed mask. Please email me with mask in the Subject line if you're interested. These masks were selected as one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2020!

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. 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 (though the potluck and the music are on hiatus during the pandemic).

Past topics have included 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, 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!).

Mar 23: Teach-In on BFFPPA

What is the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act -- and how can you support it?

This event will feature:

A presentation (giving an overview of the BFFPPA bill) from Congressional aides:
Dr Anja Malawi Brandon (Senator Jeff Merkley) &
Shane Trimmer (Congressman Alan Lowenthal)
Alexis Goldsmith: National Organizing Director of Beyond Plastics sharing how we can support the bill
A short film by Stiv Wilson (creator of "Story of Plastics”)
Live Q & A session

7-8:30 p.m. EDT, online. For more info and to register to receive the sign-on link, click here.

Co-hosted by PASUP, A-Z Impacts of Plastics, and several other organizations including Putting Down Roots. You can keep up with developments on Facebook.

More about A-Z Plastics: This event will not only showcase this groundbreaking legislation, but it will also kick off of the A-Z series 2.0! Last summer People Over Petro and many of its partners joined in a summer digital series and summit called Tackling theA-Z Impacts of Plastic - From Fracked Gas to Plastic Pollution in the Ohio River Valley and Beyond. Hundreds of people joined in a social network with events, arts, and discussions around the impacts of plastic and what we can do about it. See impactsofplastic.com for more info, to join the A-Z community, and watch recordings of past events.

More about PASUP: Pittsburghers Against Single Use Plastic is a group advocating for a systemic & equitable shift away from plastic. Learn more and get involved by visiting http://pasupnow.org/.

Mar 19: Climate Strike

Join a Rally & March for Climate Justice!

A coalition of intersectional social and environmental justice groups are co-organizing local participation in the Global Climate Strike on Friday, March 19th. The day-long event will provide opportunities to make noise and take action for the widespread desire to prioritize climate change in Southwestern PA and invest in the wellbeing of communities over the interests of a few. Now is the time to stand up for bold action to ensure good jobs and a livable future for all. Skip class >> Save the planet.

We plan to rally around demands for equitable, green futures for all Pittsburghers. This includes COVID relief to frontline communities with dangerous air quality, university divestment from fossil fuels (and reinvestment in the community), and calling for state investment in a sustainable, just economic recovery.

While our actions will center youth voice, justice-seekers of all ages are welcome.

Gathering at noon on Flagstaff Hill in Oakland. Youth speakers will be sharing their demands for the future of the region, and we'll be marching through the streets of Oakland. Please reach out to let us know how we can make this event accessible for you.

- Make a sign and bring something to make noise. The Sunrise Movement is famous for our Wide Awake actions that are meant to wake people up to the climate crisis and remind them of the widespread support for immediate and drastic action.

- Wear a mask (or two) and maintain distance whenever possible. All participants in the rally and march MUST wear a face covering (mask or face-shield). We recognize that health issues may limit peoples' ability to participate in an in-person event while wearing a face covering, and are providing ways to engage in the Global Climate Strike virtually. Face masks will be available at the event.

Gathering at Flagstaff Hill at noon, with a march around Oakland. Online events 4-6 p.m.

https://www.facebook.com/events/473879987128033

Mar 11 & 25: Bioplastic -- Hype or Hope?

Please join us for a conversation on the emerging field of Bioplastic and the potential to grow a new industry in our region!

Learn how new scientific advancements in this industry may hold promise to phase out fossil fuel and petrochemical-based materials and provide new economic development possibilities.

Register once for two events!

Event #1: The Future of Bioplastic – March 11, 2021

Join our host Dr. Patricia DeMarco for an overview of the circular economy, an intro to the pros and cons of bioplastic, the promise of hemp as a versatile material and the R & D efforts that are so important to create products that are biodegradable, compostable and recyclable.

Guest speakers include:

Dr. Patricia DeMarco, Chatham University

Dr. Clifford Lau, Duquesne University

Anne Rouse, U.S. Fulbright Scholar, producer and educator

Taylor Weiss, University of Arizona

Event #2: Building a Bioplastic Industry – March 25, 2021

Join our host Joanne Martin for a conversation on ReImagine Beaver County and the efforts to create an eco-industrial park to provide clean jobs and economic development initiatives that advance sustainable solutions.

Guest Speakers Include:

Joanne Martin, ReImagine Beaver County

Eric Hurlock, Industrial Hemp Podcast

Kristen Olmi, K.O. Consulting

and more...

An Event Series Presented By:

-- ReImagine Beaver County

-- Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community

-- League of Women Voters of PA

-- Climate Reality Project

-- Breathe Project

Feb 28: Sustainable, Successful Political Campaigns

Are you concerned by political campaigns that depend on plastic yard signs, disposable water bottles, endless mailings and overflowing swag? How much (if any) plastic and disposables are really necessary for successful political campaigns?

Join PASUP for a panel discussion of local politicians & strategists led by Dr. Lara Putnam (professor of History at University of Pittsburgh) to explore how to make campaigns more sustainable!

4:30-6 p.m. on Zoom. Register in advance here, and you'll receive a link to join.