Putting Down Roots: Maren's List

July 30: Hybrid Sustainability Salon with Kristina Marusic

Note updates below regarding books, and Zoom!

Weather permitting, we'll continue our summertime break from online-only salons. The 138th Sustainability Salon will be hybrid, with an in-person (mostly-outdoor) gathering and a Zoom option for faraway folks or those otherwise unable to attend in person.

This month we'll feature investigative journalist Kristina Marusic and her eye-opening new book, A New War on Cancer: The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention.

So much attention is paid to (and resources spent on) improving treatments or finding the holy grail, a cure for cancer... but why not as much or more to preventing it in the first place? Study after study has linked cancer to environmental exposures where people live or work, and still dangerous substances are allowed to coexist with people. A New War on Cancer brings environmental justice to the fore as it profiles scientists, physicians, and advocates -- and also people dealing with cancer (and considering why).

Bonus: a couple of fortunate attendees will go home with their own copies of the book as a sort of door-prize/raffle (with an extra entry for folks who register before noon!), and if more folks are interested then we can put together a bulk order (at a deep discount!). We may even have some available at the salon. And if you already have a copy, bring it along if you'd like Kristina to inscribe it!

We'll also have an update on the Frick Park development proposal, with petitions to sign ahead of the August 3rd hearing on the zoning variances requested by the project's developer. Maybe even some letter-writing -- the Zoning Board needs to hear from park users! There's also a separate online petition from Upstream that addresses the potential impact on the Nine Mile Run restoration area.

If you're interested in the Zoom option for the presentation & discussion portion of this salon, please email me (with "salon" in the Subject line, as always) -- and/or check back here on MarensList for further details on that.

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! And with the weather a bit uncertain, please keep an eye out on MarensList and/or email as the weekend approaches. 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! Likewise, email if you are interested in a Zoom option for this salon! To RSVP, respond via Eventbrite or simply email me with "salon" in the Subject line. Along about Saturday night/Sunday morning, I'll send out Directions & Other Information to all who have registered (but please register even if you know your way here).

In the meantime, some other items of interest:

• Aug 3: The Pittsburgh Zoning Board considers variances requested by the Toronto developer who wants to build a giant apartment complex on the site of the old Irish Centre.

• Aug 4: Are you in the food service industry? If so, check out this free, one-day workshop on making your operation more sustainable, organized by Humane Action Pittsburgh.

• Aug 14 or 15: Concerned about air quality in your home? Check out this Introductory Webinar for the next cohort of ROCIS participants -- more information here.

• Sept 15: Local/global climate march/rally by Fridays for Future.

• Sept 17: March to End Fossil Fuels in NYC, in conjunction with Climate Week.

• Sept 23: Save the date for Pittsburgh's annual Urban Farm Tour! Keep an eye on this page for more information.

• Oct 1-2: The second Pennsylvania Climate Convergence in Harrisburg. Virtual opening event with Bill McKibben on Sept 30th.

• This spring we learned a great deal about agriculture and the Farm Bill. You can use your voice to advocate for more-sustainable practices being supported at this link.

• 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!

• Clean Air Council has set up a directed donation fund to help residents affected by the train derailment just over the Ohio border in East Palestine. You can contribute here to help fund needed resources for residents of easternmost Ohio and westernmost Pennsylvania.

• Closer to home, you can support striking Post-Gazette workers here (and consider signing up for the alternative online publication, the Pittsburgh Union Progress -- and maybe even cancel your P-G subscription until they start treating workers fairly!).

• And speaking of solidarity, the Cop City controversy is still raging in Atlanta. More information and a support fund are here. There's also talk of a similar facility in the works for Pittsburgh.

• Another forest that needs protecting is Sherwood Forest, in Mason Co., WA -- at risk of clear-cutting by a company headquartered here in Pittsburgh. You can learn more (and donate to the legal fund if you can) here.

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

• The Rachel Carson EcoVillage is still looking for a few more members, so they can start construction! Curious? Check out this introductory video -- or even better, sign up for an introduction session or sign up as an “inquirer” to have more information sent to you.

• 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 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 (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, and (when in person) delectable potluck food and drink and music-making through the evening. Originally a potluck mini-conference, the event has been mostly on Zoom since March 2020, except for some outdoor summer salons.

Past topics have included 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, 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!).

July 22: Better air: Corsi-Rosenthal Box workshop

Are you concerned about your indoor air safety, either due to viruses or pollutants? There's a DIY solution called the Corsi-Rosenthal Box.

DSA’s EcoSocialist Mutual Aid crew will be organizing a Corsi-Rosenthal workshop where we will be building these air purification systems to distribute and help keep our homes and public spaces safe and our air clean.

If you’d like to ‘claim’ one of the CR Boxes we build on that day, we are asking for a suggested donation of $100, which is far cheaper than most commercial air purifiers (which range up from about $150), and will get you much better results. This $100 is slightly more than the cost of the materials, as they are also hoping to build some additional CR Boxes to provide to vulnerable people in our community at no cost through a collaboration with Mask Up PGH and other mutual aid networks. If you think that’s awesome and want to purchase one for yourself and one for those who need it in the community, $140 can cover the costs of 2 CR Boxes completely.

3 p.m. at Community Forge (1256 Franklin Ave. in Wilkinsburg). Default cost is $100. Email GalvinReading@gmail.com to reserve a box and coordinate payment. Even if you’re not in a position to help fund this initiative, but are interested and want to help or learn more, mark your calendar and join the workshop!

June 25: Sustainability Salon gathering

Ready for a break from Zoom? 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, so that 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). Each of the last two years we had a couple of outdoor, in-person salons -- and now it's time for another! No particular topic, but I'm sure we'll have lots of great conversation and enjoy reconnecting.

At some point, we'll certainly share announcements and such, including an update on the proposed development in Frick Park (at the site of the old Irish Centre), and brief talks not needing slides might materialize.

If the weather cooperates, we can have an in-person, outdoor gathering at our place. We'll spend our time outdoors, rather than congregating in the kitchen (though folks can go into 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, the 137th Sustainability Salon will be a No-Topic Salon. Outdoors, weather permitting (if it looks like rain, we'll work on some alternate plans later in the week -- Rain date? Zoom? Tent?). 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.

The next salon will take place on July 30th, with journalist and author Kristina Marusic and her new book, A New War on Cancer (aimed at prevention, rather than a cure). Stay tuned; we'll have discounted books available, and even a door prize or two!

In the meantime, some other items of interest:

• March 23-June 8: Doug Oster is doing another series of online organic gardening classes, under the auspices of Farm To Table PA. You can watch videos of past classes and register for upcoming sessions, here.

• June 8: Rally for clean air around the Shell petrochemical plant with the Shell Accountability Campaign Coalition and allies. More info and registration here.

• June 13: Concerned about PFAS? Learn more in this webinar from Move Past Plastic.

• June 14: In Ohio, or fancy a road trip? Several groups are coordinating to support the Unity Council to pressure Governor DeWine to declare a State of Emergency in the wake of the East Palestine train derailment. More info and registration here; whether or not you can join in, please consider signing the petition (or organizational sign-on letter).

• June 20: It's National Pollinator Week! Learn about Stingless Bee Curiosities from entomologist Kathrin Krausa of Tanzania, at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. More information and registration here.

• June 21: Summer Solstice Paddle and ceremony, with indigenous leader Degawëno:da's of Defend Ohi:yo'. More information and registration here.

• June 22: One-day sustainability showcase at Chatham University's Eden Hall campus.

• June 22: Black Appalachian Coalition and ORVI present a virtual lunch & learn on Health Harms from Petrochemicals, with Patricia DeMarco and Claire Cohen. More information on Facebook event page; register here.

• June 22: Virtual brown bag briefing on Abandoned Wells with Laurie Barr and Dominic DiGiulio. More information on Facebook event page; register here.

• June 29: Better Path Presents Third Act PA with special guest Bill McKibben. More information on Facebook event page; register here.

• Sept 23: Save the date for Pittsburgh's annual Urban Farm Tour! Check this page for the latest.

• Last month we learned a great deal about agriculture and the Farm Bill. You can use your voice to advocate for more-sustainable practices being supported at this link.

• 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.

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! And with the weather a bit uncertain, please keep an eye out on MarensList and/or email as the weekend approaches. 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 Saturday night/Sunday morning, I'll send out Directions & Other Information to all who have registered (but please register even if you know your way here).

Past topics have included 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, 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!).