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MarensList is Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Due to a change in how this platform works, it has become very difficult to make new postings for future events.  I hope to find a solution soon, but in the meantime my apologies for a rather thin slate of events!  I do consolidate a wide variety of events in each Sustainability Salon listing, so look there for "Other Items of Interest".   There really is a lot going on... note that I also share events on Facebook, so look me up there if you're at loose ends.  

Local food resources

The Putting Down Roots Sustainability Salons have continued each month since February, 2012.  The second Sustainability Salon (as well as the 14th, 15th, 26th, 27th, 38th, 39th, 51st, 52nd, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 74th, 75th, 87th, 88th, 98th, 99th, 110th, 111th, 122nd, 123rd, 135th, and 136th) focused on food -- growing it, sourcing it locally, and eating more humanely.  Afterwards, Maren put together a list of many such local sources:  CSA farms, farmers' markets, grassfed and humanely raised meats and dairy, natural foods suppliers, bakeries, and advocacy organizations.  This list now resides on a growing Resources section of the Putting Down Roots Blogger site.  Click on the tomatoes to teleport over there! 

Nov 23: Sustainability Salon on Data Centers

 

Is this our future?  

(cropped from Cbrasil0, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in our lives.  Churning out ready-made essays, misleading "journalism", and ersatz images while analyzing our personal data from shopping habits to physical appearance, it seeks to replace human creativity in many realms.  And to run it requires vast data centers, which are popping up all over the globe -- especially where there is energy and water to be had -- with little apparent consideration given to the environmental, health, economic, and climate impacts of the data centers and upstream suppliers, from semiconductors to methane.  Fossil energy companies are seeing a bonanza, as industry demand for their products ramps up -- and families are seeing energy bills soar.  

This salon will be on Zoom, perhaps with an in-person component. Note that starting last month, I shifted salons an hour EARLIER in future months, at least for this fall and winter, and maybe beyond --the program will start around 3 p.m. Eastern.  Why?  During our sabbatical in Ireland this last year, I connected with many new friends and enviro-colleagues, some of whom have or will speak at salons, and others who are interested in attending. And there's generally a five-hour time difference (sometimes 4 or 6 hours because our savings-time shifts are on different dates). Also, logistics have evolved with in-person salons since 2021, so earlier should also work better here at our Pittsburgh site. 

There are also a whole lot of other important events happening in our region (and online);  check out the list below!

This salon will be available on Zoom, and. perhaps also in-person (depending largely on the weather).  The program (and Zoom access) will start around 3 p.m. -- in-person folks will be able to enjoy snacks and drinks, as well as a potluck supper after the talks.  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):

•  Nov 18:  Join PennFuture and the League of Conservation Voters at the Allegheny County Council meeting to encourage them to vote YES to improve our air quality.  Before the Council meeting, PennFuture will host a reception at their office to share resources, refreshments, and signmaking.  Reception at 3:30 p.m., Council meeting at 5.  More details and registration here!

•  Oct 29:  Allegheny County Climate Action Plan public meeting in Glassport.  6-8 p.m. at the Glassport Municipal Building.  More information, registration, and a survey here. 

•  Oct 30 or 31:  Introductory webinar for the next ROCIS (Reducing Outdoor Contaminants in Indoor Spaces) air quality monitoring cohort.  The Low Cost Monitoring Project brings 7 different air quality monitors to use in your home -- learn about how to improve your own air, and contribute to our understanding of air in our region.  Intro webinars for the Thanksgiving Cohort on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Friday at noon (choose one);  monitoring runs Nov 13 to Dec 19th (with a break for the holiday).  This virtual cohort is open to folks elsewhere, with priority to Western Pennsylvania residents.  Learn more and sign up here.

•  Nov 23:  The 166th Sustainability Salon.

•  Again, 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.

•  I'll be adding a raft of current petitions soon. 

•  Energy Transfer is suing Greenpeace for $300M because they supported the Indigenous-led protests at Standing Rock (claiming that Greenpeace orchestrated the protests).  This is a classic SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), and itself worthy of protest.  Greenpeace has a petition you can sign.  

•  Liquid and solid waste from gas and oil extraction (much of which is radioactive) is currently being stored in a building (part of a former steel mill, which was never cleaned up properly in the first place) near the municipal drinking water source for thousands of people in Martins Ferry, Ohio.  The facility had a permit for 600 tons at a time, but held as much as 10,000 tons.  It is in the floodplain of the Ohio River, and waters rose up to the front doors this spring.  This petition, by Concerned Ohio River Residents, asks officials to halt waste processing there and keep it out of the Source Water Protection Area, clean up the site, and conduct environmental testing and monitoring.  This practice is insane;  we have to stop legitimizing dangerous extractive industries.  

•  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!

•  It's been well over two years 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.

•  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 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!).