Putting Down Roots: Maren's List

Sept 20-23: Clean Energy Justice Convergence

The Clean Energy Justice Convergence is a community response to the upcoming international Clean Energy Ministerial to be held here in Pittsburgh, which is slated to give rather a lot of attention to high-tech "solutions" that perpetuate fossil extraction -- and not as much as we'd like to renewables. We will welcome representatives of the Lummi Nation, who have stewarded a totem pole across the country, and will hold rallies on land and on the river, a CEJ Roundtable, and other events alongside the Ministerial -- all bracketed by tours of nearby areas impacted by the gas, steel, and petrochemical industries. Visit https://cleanenergyjustice.com/ for more information!

Sept 17: Sustainability Salon gathering, on Activist Art and America's Energy Gamble

The weather is still nice, new things are blooming in the garden, and people have been really enjoying our summertime in-person gatherings. So, by popular demand, we'll have another in-person, outdoor Sustainability Salon. We won't just be hanging out, though; we'll also have a couple of featured speakers:

We'll have a conversation with Prof. Shanti Gamper-Rabindran to discuss her book America’s Energy Gamble: People, Economy and Planet (Cambridge University Press 2022). Her book lays out how ANY pro-fossil fuel administration can and has entrenched US fossil fuel dependency to the detriment of our health, our economy and our very survival. Fossil fuel special interests helped shaped far-ranging political, financial and legal strategies in their favor. These range from state governments' actions to block prudent private sector decisions to shift investments out of the fossil fuel sector to the rise of judge-made doctrines that curb federal agencies’ authority to keep polluters in check. How can these strategies curb the effectiveness of the newly enacted climate legislation? How can civil society raise awareness of these obstruction strategies to push forward climate action? (here's a link to the book, a short podcast, and to the book launch discussion.)

Activist Anaïs Peterson, petrochemicals campaigner for Earthworks, will lead a hands-on workshop on making zines, in this case information-packed booklets using clever cut-and-fold techniques.

We'll also be talking about the upcoming Clean Energy Ministerial, an international event being held here in Pittsburgh the following week -- and the response of local activists to its emphasis on technological solutions that would perpetuate the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels.

And if the stars align, we may even have an Art Build to create a really big fish and/or other protest materials (bring along big flat cardboard and old, solid-color sheets, if you have some to spare!). The Art Build component may continue on Sunday; let me know if you're interested!

Weather permitting (and it looks great so far), I'd like to invite folks (who are fully vaccinated) to an in-person, outdoor gathering at our place. We'll spend most of our time outdoors, rather than congregating in the kitchen (though folks can pass through the house to use the bathroom or visit the roof garden). If weather does not permit, we'll consider the following Saturday, or just get together on Zoom for (mostly-informal) conversation.

So, with apologies to the faraway folks who have been enjoying our virtual events (and apologies to anyone who isn't vaccinated) -- have a nice day, wherever you are) -- the 128th Sustainability Salon will be informal, outdoors (and limited to those who are fully-vaxxed and at least once boosted). No need to be here the whole time; no PowerPoints, just lots of conversation.! We'll have a potluck supper, like old times -- more details will come to those who register.

In the meantime, a few other items of note:

• Sept 17: Pittsburgh's annual Urban Farm Tour returns!

• Sept 20-23: As noted above, we'll be talking about the Clean Energy Justice Convergence, a community response to the upcoming Clean Energy Ministerial, which is slated to give rather a lot of attention to high-tech "solutions" that perpetuate fossil extraction -- and not as much as we'd like to renewables. We will welcome representatives of the Lummi Nation, who have carried a totem pole across the country, and will hold rallies on land and on the river, a CEJ Roundtable, and other events alongside the Ministerial -- all bracketed by tours of nearby areas impacted by the gas, steel, and petrochemical industries.

• Weekends in September: Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks is once again roving around several Pittsburgh parks with an imaginative performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. More details on their web site.

•. During the Climate Convergence in June, we placed a countdown Climate Clock in the Pennsylvania Capitol. We want to make this installation permanent! Here's a petition for you to sign, as well as an organizational sign-on letter.

•. The petition we spoke about a couple of months ago is also still relevant: https://www.fixharrisburg.com/

• 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 at November's 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.

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! I may need to cap attendance. 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 Friday night/Saturday morning, I'll send out Directions & Other Information to all who have registered (but please register even if you know your way here).

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.

Past topics have included 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, 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!).

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.

And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, perhaps we can sing and play a bit if the weather's nice!

Aug 27: Sustainability Salon in-person gathering

[A note to those who received the Eventbrite reminder on Saturday afternoon -- it was sent on Friday, as usual, but for some reason Eventbrite created a 24-hour delay for most recipients.]

Let's have one more summertime gathering before buckling back down to Zoom. Most summers over the past decade, we've had a No-Topic salon -- more of a social gathering than regular Sustainability Salons, when 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). Last year we had a couple of outdoor, in-person salons -- and I think it's time for another! No central topic (Powerpoints aren't really practical outside), but I'm sure we'll have lots of great conversation and enjoy reconnecting.

Weather permitting I'd like to invite folks (who are fully vaccinated and at least once boostered) to an in-person, outdoor gathering at our place. And we'll spend our time outdoors, rather than congregating in the kitchen (though folks can pass through the house to use the bathroom or visit the roof garden). If weather does not permit, we'll get together on Zoom for (mostly-informal) conversation.

So, with apologies to the faraway folks who have been enjoying our virtual events (and apologies to anyone who isn't vaccinated) -- have a nice day, wherever you are) -- the 127th Sustainability Salon will be informal, outdoors (and limited to those who are fully-vaxxed and at least once boosted). No need to be here the whole time; no PowerPoints, just lots of conversation.! We'll have a potluck supper, like old times -- more details will come to those who register.

At some point, we'll certainly share announcements and such, and brief talks not needing slides might materialize -- among other things, Shaina Nicassio of Protect PT will talk about some upcoming opportunities to take action, including the frack-waste injection well planned for Plum, which would threaten our drinking water if it goes ahead (and the EPA is coming to town next week to hear citizen testimony).

In the meantime, a few other items of note:

• Aug 19: What a pair! DeSantis is coming up from Florida to stump for Mastriano. A grassroots march and rally in defense of democracy will take place downtown.

• Aug 19: Eyes on Shell is a citizen group monitoring the heck out of the Shell ethane cracker as it gears up to begin operations (and beyond). Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC) is hosting an information session with related speakers at Patagonia in Shadyside.

• Aug 23: Screening of Boom & Bust, another documentary about the looming petrochemical buildout in our region -- juxtaposed with "Cancer Alley", the Gulf Coast region where the industry has held sway for decades.

• Aug 24: Methane and Sea Ice (webinar from Environmental Defense Fund)

• Aug 27: VegFest (on the NorthSide)

• Aug 28 or 29: Reducing Outdoor Contaminants in Indoor Spaces (ROCIS) introductory session, leading up to Cohort 52. Learn about air quality in your home, and how to improve it -- while participating in important citizen science with a whole panoply of air monitors. Register here.

• Aug 30: EPA hearing on an injection well in Plum Twp -- if it fails (like its sister well already did), it could pollute the Allegheny River (and drinking water for Pittsburgh and other communities downstream) with toxic and radioactive fracking waste. What can you do? Attend the hearing, sign up to speak (check back for a link), file a comment, and/or sign this petition! Thanks to Protect PT for organizing (and to Shaina for coming to share more details).

• Sept 3: The Thomas Merton Center, Pittsburgh's premier peace and justice organization, is 50 years old. Join the party, and consider supporting their work!

• Take no prisoners! The dreaded Spotted Lanternfly has arrived in our region. Lots more information here, courtesy of Penn State Extension.

• Sept 6: Spotted Lanternfly talk (free, online; part of Carnegie Science Center's Café Scientifique series).

• Sept 21-23: Watch this spot for more on community responses to the upcoming Clean Energy Ministerial, which is slated to give rather a lot of attention to high-tech "solutions" that perpetuate fossil extraction -- and not as much as we'd like to renewables.

•. The petition we spoke about a couple of months ago is also still relevant: https://www.fixharrisburg.com/

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

Past topics have included 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, 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!).

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.

And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, perhaps we can sing and play a bit if the weather's nice!