Mar 24: Sustainability Salon on Reducing Plastics (on Zoom)

 Examples of ways to avoid SUPs
With catastrophic events like the train derailment and chemical explosion in nearby East Palestine, Ohio last year, the plastics industry is receiving much-needed scrutiny.  Leading up to our annual Food salons, we'll look at ways that we -- individuals, and society at large -- can reduce the use of plastics related to food: how it's grown, transported, prepared, stored, and served.  Petro-based plastics in particular (the word "plastic" just means "formable") -- we can address both the production side (drilling and fracking and pipelines and petrochemical plants and transportation of chemicals and nurdles, all of which damage health and the environment) and the end-of-life problems (plastic pollution, from ecosystems to our own bodies) by changing how we do things (e.g., eliminating single-use plastics) and what we do them with (filling the same needs with other, more benign, materials).  So this year, for the 146th Sustainability Salon, we'll extend our annual Food series with an extra session focusing on plastics, in collaboration with Pittsburghers Against Single-use Plastic (PASUP).

Although next Sunday looks to be a nice day for working outside, it’ll be a bit cool for sitting around in the shade for hours, so we’ll still be on Zoom.  

PASUP's Maren Cooke will open with a brief explanation of why each item in the event photo was chosen -- 'cause we know that some folks are wondering.

PASUP's 'Becca Stallings is also the author of The Earthling's Handbook, an insightful blog which explores many different aspects of life through a lens of sustainability.  Earthling's entries range from book reviews to healthy recipes to reviews of plastic-free products.   She'll further explore the realm of food-container reuse.

PASUP's Dianne Peterson will share what she's been doing to enable individuals and families to eschew plastics, and especially single-use plastics, in their daily lives.  From wooden toys and games to food storage containers made of silicone and stainless steel, her home-based business Our Children Our Earth enables Pittsburghers and others to live life a little more sustainably.  And Dianne's Dishware has provided bamboo-based tableware to dozens (or hundreds?) of events in and around the 'Burgh (that otherwise would've used disposables).  

Ed Wrenn co-founded our regional chapter of Wild Ones, an organization that promotes native plants and more-sustainable land care, but he also thinks a great deal about plastics, including those used in landscaping and food gardening -- and how they can be reduced.  

Check back here for updates!

The next two Sustainability Salons will also be part of our regular spring series on Food.

There are also a whole lot of other important events happening in our region;  check out the list below!
With weather still chilly, we'll still be on Zoom this month.  We'll see how the forecast develops for next month!  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 Eventbriteyou'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:

•  Mar 18:  Seminar on the History of Deep Reform in the US and Its Lessons for Today's Social Movements -- 4:30-7 in 3702 Posvar Hall (230 S Bouquet St., at Pitt).

•  Mar 23:  Rally and conference in East Palestine:  Among the consequences of plastic production are events like last year's train derailment and chemical explosion, which released huge amounts of toxic substances -- and in the process burned several cars' worth of vinyl chloride, leaving homes and communities contaminated, and damaging residents' health both there and downwind (largely Beaver County, just north of Pittsburgh).  Join community members, labor allies, and Food & Water Watch for a rally and conference.  More info and registration here.  And there will be a bus from Pittsburgh!

•  Apr 3-7:  Concerned about soil contamination?  (Here's some information on lead in soils.)  The Allegheny County Conservation District is holding a free Soil Lead Screening, with five different dropoff sites around town.  You need to register here, and detailed instructions will be sent to you! 

•  Apr 27 & 28:  Penn Garvin, who framed our recent four-part series on Movement-Building, will be in Pittsburgh for a two-day workshop on Strategic Organizing and Nonviolent Direct Action.  More details to come!

•  ReImagine Food Systems, which we've talked about at past salons, is raising funds for this year's operations (food gardens and hands-on education offered at no cost to residents in environmental justice communities, by volunteers).  If you have something to spare, you can contribute via GoFundMe.  And we're always looking for more volunteers, too!  Email reimaginefoodsystems@gmail.com.

•  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!  

•  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

•  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 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.  

•  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 (and now hybrid!) salons.  
Past topics have included water campaignsclimate campaignsconsumerism, air quality campaigns movement-building and sustained campaignsabandoned oil and gas wellshope (finding it, creating it, using it), addressing environmental causes of cancera development proposal for Frick Park, single-use plastic legislationhome energy efficiency (and legislation to help fund improvements)the UN's COP process for climate negotiationsalternatives to single-use packaging, our region's air (part I and part II), activist art and America's Energy Gambleadvocacy opportunitiessocial justice gamesfixing Pennsylvania state governmentclimate actionforest restorationthe history of American consumerismregional air qualitypreserving Pittsburgh's forests, climate modelingapproaches to pipelinespipeline hazardsthe legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disasterthe judiciary and fair electionsconsumptionpandemics and air,  election law and activismair quality and environmental justicesocial investment,  local economies, the economics of energymutual aid networksocean healththe rise of the radical rightthe back end of consumptionapproaches to activism on fracking & climateair quality, technology, and citizen sciencesingle-use plasticselection activismelection law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plantsadvanced nuclear technologiespassenger and freight trainsconsumption, plastics, and pollutionair qualitysolar poweryouth activismgreening businessgreenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/peoplefracking, health, & actionglobalizationecological ethicscommunity inclusionair quality monitoringinformal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakersgetting STEM into Congresskeeping Pittsburgh's water publicShell's planned petrochemical plantvisualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiativesfossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politicscommunity solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (beforeduring, 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 revitalizationsolar powerclimate changeenvironmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projectsenvironmental journalismgrassroots actionMarcellus shale development and community rightsgreen buildingair qualityhealth care, more solar powertrees and park stewardshipalternative energy and climate policyregional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food SystemsClimate Adaptation and MitigationPlastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One VoiceTriple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous GameA Fierce Green FireSustainability Pioneersfilms on consumptionLiving DownstreamBidder 70YERTGas Rush Stories, and foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfood, food, foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodand more food (a recurrent theme;  with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).

 





Information bringing people together...


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.  

Campfire Dispatch -- current and past issues

The Campfire Dispatch is a newsletter about climate action and climate news in Pennsylvania.  Due to organizational changes, it has moved -- for now, you can view past articles here, and the current issue is here.   

Local food resources

The Putting Down Roots Sustainability Salons have continued each month since February, 2012.  The second Sustainability Salon (as well as the 14th15th, 26th27th, 38th39th, 51st52nd, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 74th, 75th, 87th88th, 98th, 99th, 110th111th, 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! 

Feb 25: Sustainability Salon on Movement-Building (Part IV, Water) on Zoom

A lot of folks are asking "How can I be the most effective?"  "What impact can I have on climate change?" and "How can I contribute to bringing about social justice?"  With 2023 in the books as the hottest year on record -- the world is changing, folks! -- we'll continue our Movement-Building series with a focus on water campaigns.  This will be a great opportunity to get a handle on all the important work being done to protect our region's waterways.  (We'll be on Zoom;  with covid numbers high again, we just don't want 50-100 people in our living room.)

On the macro level, what makes a successful social movement?  How do they develop, from the ground up?  How can groups collaborate most efficiently?  How best to target our efforts?  What skills are needed?  What kind of strategic planning is necessary, at what stages?  On the personal level: what do you care about?  What are you good at?  What do you love doing?  What do you know?  Who do you know?  We can use the answers to all these questions to plan, create, and sustain effective campaigns -- not just a protest march here, a banner-drop there.   

For the 145th Sustainability Salon (kicking off our 13th year of salons!), we'll continue our exploration of these ideas, as we figure out how to use our passion to create long-term campaigns.  In October, longtime activist and skilled movement trainers Penn Garvin and Kidest Gebre led an interactive workshop (you can view the recording online, if you weren't able to attend!) and this time we'll be considering some of the long-term campaigns helping to protect water quality that are active in our region.  We'll brainstorm ways to improve these campaigns, and share stories, insights, resources, and victories -- as well as finding ways to connect more folks with this important work.  We hope that a lot of local leaders, activists, and would-be activists will be able to join us for this series -- and are looking for  Again, if you couldn't make the first one but want to join in the discussion, please view the recording online -- that'll help get us all onto the same page, laying the groundwork for our discussions with particular regional campaigns.   Documents and links associated with this series are provided here.  Two previous salons in this series focused on Air and Climate campaigns.  

Penn Garvin will be with us again, to frame our conversation.  Penn began her activist work with the original Poor People's Campaign in 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King.  She has worked on issues like human rights, women's health care, homelessness, Central America, peace, and the environment -- and has led workshops on organizing and non-violent civil resistance.  She presently works with Pennsylvania Action On Climate.  

Heather Hulton VanTassel is the executive director of Three Rivers Waterkeeper, which monitors and protects the Allegheny, the Monongahela, and the Ohio using science and the law.

Tom Pike, environmental policy advocate at ProtectPT, will share their work protecting water quality from fracking and related operations in Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties.

Hilary Flint is Director of Communications and Community Engagement for Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC), and Vice President of Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment.  As a cancer survivor and affected resident, she’s determined to protect others from corporate greed and the health harms generated by the buildout of petrochemical plastics manufacturing. 

Gabriel Gray is Pittsburgh United's lead organizer for the Our Water campaign, which aims to keep our region's water supply both clean and affordable -- we need accessibility and equity, as well as pollution prevention!  We talked about this campaign in 2017's salon on Pittsburgh's Water Future;  Gabby will bring us up to date on the campaign, which is expanding into schools and across the region.

Patrick Shirey is a fisheries ecologist involved in policy, an assistant professor in Geology and Environmental Sciences at Pitt, and associate director of The Water Collaboratory, which works at the intersection of water research, governance, and action.  

Robin Martin Lesko, organizer at Food & Water Watch, led a successful canvassing campaign to protect Allegheny County parks from fracking.  

Check back here for updates!

The next Sustainability Salon will very likely launch our regular spring series on Food.

There are also a whole lot of other important events happening in our region;  check out the list below!
With winter here, 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 Eventbriteyou'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:

•  Feb 9:  Collective Knowledge Building Workshop on Air Quality & Community Health (2:30-4:30 p.m. at General Sisters, 1140 Kirkpatrick Ave. in North Braddock). 

•  Feb 15:  The Black Appalachian Coalition and the Ohio River Valley Institute are partnering with  Patricia DeMarco, PhD for a Petrochemical Lunch & Learn series, delving deep into the connection between environmental pollution and our health.  Register here.

•  Feb 17:   Join the Pittsburgh Branch of DarkSky International and other local folks who care about light pollution in Pittsburgh to socialize and share stories, enjoy light refreshments, and tour the Allegheny Observatory!  Registration requested (and note that if there's inclement weather, it'll shift to Zoom).

•  Feb 22:   Join national and local Green New Deal networks, congressmember Summer Lee, and other voices for a community event and rally calling on President Biden and our Pennsylvania state government to make bigger and bolder investments that keep our communities safe and healthy (vs. more spending on waging war).  2-3 p.m. in Schenley Plaza -- more information and registration here

•  Mar 2:  Poor People's Campaign Mass Mobilization in Harrisburg -- more information and registration here.  There will be a bus from Pittsburgh!

•  Mar 9:  Want to know more about the trees in your neighborhood, and have the opportunity to help care for them?  Become a Tree Tender!  Tree Pittsburgh and Upstream Pgh are holding a training in Wilkinsburg -- more info and registration here.

•  Mar 18:  Speaking of movements... a seminar on the History of Deep Reform in the US and Its Lessons for Today's Social Movements -- 4:30-7 in 3702 Posvar Hall (230 S Bouquet St., at Pitt).

•  ReImagine Food Systems, which we've talked about at past salons, is raising funds for this year's operations (food gardens and hands-on education offered at no cost to residents in environmental justice communities, by volunteers).  If you have something to spare, you can contribute via GoFundMe.

•  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!  

•  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

•  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 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.  

•  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 (and now hybrid!) salons.  
Past topics have included climate campaignsconsumerism, air quality campaigns movement-building and sustained campaignsabandoned oil and gas wellshope (finding it, creating it, using it), addressing environmental causes of cancera development proposal for Frick Park, single-use plastic legislationhome energy efficiency (and legislation to help fund improvements)the UN's COP process for climate negotiationsalternatives to single-use packaging, our region's air (part I and part II), activist art and America's Energy Gambleadvocacy opportunitiessocial justice gamesfixing Pennsylvania state governmentclimate actionforest restorationthe history of American consumerismregional air qualitypreserving Pittsburgh's forests, climate modelingapproaches to pipelinespipeline hazardsthe legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disasterthe judiciary and fair electionsconsumptionpandemics and air,  election law and activismair quality and environmental justicesocial investment,  local economies, the economics of energymutual aid networksocean healththe rise of the radical rightthe back end of consumptionapproaches to activism on fracking & climateair quality, technology, and citizen sciencesingle-use plasticselection activismelection law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plantsadvanced nuclear technologiespassenger and freight trainsconsumption, plastics, and pollutionair qualitysolar poweryouth activismgreening businessgreenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/peoplefracking, health, & actionglobalizationecological ethicscommunity inclusionair quality monitoringinformal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakersgetting STEM into Congresskeeping Pittsburgh's water publicShell's planned petrochemical plantvisualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiativesfossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politicscommunity solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (beforeduring, 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 revitalizationsolar powerclimate changeenvironmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projectsenvironmental journalismgrassroots actionMarcellus shale development and community rightsgreen buildingair qualityhealth care, more solar powertrees and park stewardshipalternative energy and climate policyregional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food SystemsClimate Adaptation and MitigationPlastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One VoiceTriple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous GameA Fierce Green FireSustainability Pioneersfilms on consumptionLiving DownstreamBidder 70YERTGas Rush Stories, and foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfood, food, foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodand more food (a recurrent theme;  with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).