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| Finding peace and simplicity at midwinter |
For the
143rd Sustainability Salon (on Zoom), we'll take a break from our ongoing series on Movement-Building, and return to our annual December focus on
Consumption (as always, hoping to help folks go forth into the holidays inclined to
buy less stuff). Do you see yourself as a consumer? (Or are you a citizen, a resident, a person, a human?) Why and how are people motivated to consume and acquire? How do social pressures and family dynamics figure in? What are the ingredients for a really meaningful holiday?
In collaboration with Pittsburghers Against Single-Use Plastic (PASUP), we welcome Sydney Shoff, founder of Sol Refill -- Pittsburgh's first zero-waste delivery service. She's been thinking a lot about consumerism: its history, the forces that drive it, and alternative ways of being and sharing.
First, we'll look at practical, everyday waste-reduction measures. PASUP's own Becca Stallings, also creator of The Earthling's Handbook, will help Pittsburghers navigate the new single-use plastic bag ban.
One mode of holiday gifting that doesn't generate more stuff is to give or share an experience; another is to make a donation in their honor, or volunteering together. That way the recipient knows that you're thinking about them, while contributing to something they care about. You can find any number of worthy organizations in past salon descriptions (linked at the bottom of this MarensList post) -- and if you bring your thoughts about causes you'd like to support, I can probably hook you up with the right organization! One interesting new enterprise addresses multiple needs at once: Harmony Dog Rescue arranges foster care for dogs whose humans are fleeing violence and abuse. Founder Timothy Lydon will say a few words about this new organization.
In the new year, on January 21st, we will mark twelve years of salons by returning to the most important topic of our time -- climate change -- and continue our ongoing series about movement-building and effective campaign work, including 350Pittsburgh's new Environmental Scorecard for universities, and a discussion of climate action planning and environmental justice led by the Pittsburgh Green New Deal group. As always, check back on MarensList for the latest!
There are also a whole lot of other important events happening in our region; check out the list below (and note the top item -- want to be my neighbor?).
With winter approaching, we'll be on Zoom for the next several months. Zoom salons (and the Zoom side for hybrid events), start around 4 p.m. (when presentations begin), and usually wind down sometime around 7 or 8 (informal discussion may continue after that -- join us for whatever time works for you!). 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! 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:
• Newsflash: if you'd like a really short stroll to the next in-person Sustainability Salon, and opportunities for co-gardening and other fun things, the house next door to us has just gone on the market! #6735 (note that things move fast around here). • Dec 3: September's salon was all about about abandoned oil & gas wells in PA. They're all around us -- you can learn how to identify wells (and what to do once you do) with the Pittsburgh Green New Deal group in North Park (12-3 p.m., starting at LaRoche University). Sign up here for this event (or here to indicate general interest).
• Dec 6: Better Path Presents Jennifer Congdon and Jess Conard of Beyond Plastic with their new report "Chemical Recycling: A Dangerous Deception" (7pm; register here)
• Dec 14: Join the Pittsburgh Labor Choir in songs of unions, peace, and justice -- including holiday favorites reimagined! (7-9 p.m. at the Pittsburgh Friends Meeting House (4836 Ellsworth Ave.)
• Jan 10: Register by this date for the 2024 Permaculture Design Certification course based at Garfield Farm. It'll be monthly sessions year-round this time, instead of a two-week intensive. Learn more and register here.
• May 24-27: The Heartwood Forest Council comes to Southeast Ohio at United Plant Savers. Currently seeking co-sponsors -- to make connections, help shape the program, support the event, and help promote it. Contact info@heartwood.org.
• 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!
• Another important report, specific to the ineffective, toxic, energy-intensive, and costly practices referred to as "advanced recycling": Beyond Plastic's "Chemical Recycling: A Dangerous Deception"
• It took five months and a lot of advocacy for Ohio Governor DeWine to request an emergency declaration after the East Palestine train derailment. Now the ball is in President Biden's court. Sign this petition to add your voice.
• Another petition, from the Black Appalachian Coalition, urges the Allegheny County Health Department to seek input from residents of Clairton.
• PA is considering legislation to (a) greatly increase the renewables portion of our electricity generation, and (b) enable community solar!! The Pennsylvania Solar Center has made it easy to speak out to support this action!
• It's been more than a year now! 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!). This strike has garnered national attention; one recent picket even made it into Teen Vogue.
• 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 -- some are on hiatus for the winter; there are also some recorded webinars.
• 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!
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 (and now hybrid!) salons.
Past topics have included 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, 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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