Read a PDF version of the summer 2010 Allegheny Sierran.
Highlights include:
And much more!
Letters to the editor, photos, stories from outings and any other submissions can be sent to sierran at alleghenysc dot org or brought to an Allegheny Group meeting.
Read a PDF version of the spring 2009 Allegheny Sierran.
Highlights include:
Letters to the editor, photos, stories from outings and any other submissions can be sent to sierran at alleghenysc dot org or brought to an Allegheny Group meeting.
Read a PDF version of the fall 2008 Allegheny Sierran.
Highlights include:
Well, it’s a shame, but you probably missed it! Tucked into the Environmental Film Festival on April 19 was the visit by Chad Kister and his nationwide Polar Bear Survival Tour. This was the “sleeper” of the Festival. Even I as the Festival organizer didn’t know just what was going to happen at this program… but it was amazing. After almost twenty years of working one way and another to protect the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), I finally understand the whole issue, thanks to this remarkable young man, Chad Kister.
A quiet, unassuming guy now living off the grid in Athens, OH (all his electricity is generated by solar and wind power), this guy truly walks his talk. In 1991, not quite yet 21 years old, he undertook to walk or raft from Prudhoe Bay across ANWR and see what it was all about. This would involve covering perhaps 150 miles as the crow or eagle flies, and subsisting off the land for most of the trip. He had a ninety-pound pack, that’s right, 90 pounds and he’s a small man… so rafting was clearly a preferred mode of travel. Unfortunately, it’s not downstream all the way, so this was one rough hike! Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong, including discovering that Prudhoe Bay activities had virtually decimated the fish populations in rivers on the PB side of the Refuge… meaning he darn near starved, living off roots and berries for quite some time. He eventually reached a fish-bearing river and saved his own life with his fishing rod.
It was one amazing adventure after another. And he’s been back twice more since this first trip, most recently in 2003. But along the way he annotated the story with truths to offset the oil company propaganda (check out anwr.org to get a stomach full of THAT!). One nefarious sample: The present administration claims that drilling in ANWR would only affect 2000 acres. That basically sums the area of the drilling platforms and the main roads connecting them and doesn’t count the thousands of acres of subsidiary development… plus ignores the fact that the roads slice up the entire area into tiny fragments.
Kister’s knowledge and love of the wildlife and landscape came through loud and clear, and a lovely, fascinating, unique place it is. But he spent much of his time hammering at the problems of climate change and the role of energy policy in that staggering problem. It’s a commonplace today to recognize that conservation is the answer to our imported or domestic energy problems. Kister pointed out that if we would just get our TIRES INFLATED CORRECTLY in this country, we could offset the potential production of ANWR!!!
He has written several books on his adventures and his recipes for change If you would like to buy a book or otherwise contribute to Chad’s one-man crusade on behalf of polar bear survival… which is code for slowing or stopping human-induced climate change, contact him at any of the following addresses:
Chad Kister
P.O. Box 31, Athens OH 45701
chadkister at gmail dot com
chadkister.com, arcticrefuge.org
by Peter Wray, Political Chair
With the presidential races possibly settled before Pennsylvania
Primaries, April 22, several local races are likely to attract the
interest of the environmental community. In the 18th Congressional
District five Democrats are vying for a chance to face incumbent Tim
Murphy in November; Wayne Dunning (Robinson), Beth Hafer (Mt. Lebanon),
Steve O’Donnell (Monroeville), Erin Vecchio (Penn Hills and Brien Wall
(Upper St. Clair).
In the 5th Congressional District the retirement of John Peterson is
likely to cause a keen race in the Republican Primary. Although
stretching to State College and beyond, this District covers much of
Allegheny NF, and the local Congressman has a large say on what areas of
the forest may be included in the national Wilderness System.
Closer to home, State Senator Gerald LaValle (D, Beaver County) is
retiring, as are State Representatives Bob Bastian (R, Bedford/ Somerset),
Rep. Fred McIlhatten (R, Clarion/ Armstrong) Tom Tangretti (D,
Westmoreland), Jess Stairs (R, Fayette/ Westmoreland) Ed Wojnarski (D,
Cambria) and Tom Yewcic (D, Cambria).
Of special interest to Pittsburghers will be the Democratic Primary races
to replace retiring Representatives Lisa Bennington (D, Bloomfield) and
Tom Petrone (D, West End).
Many thanks to members who cast their ballots in the election for Group
Executive Committee members. New ExCom members are Barbara Grover,
Nathaniel Doyno, and Stephanie Simmons, and re-elected were Tom Hoffman
and Jim Kleissler. They join current ExCom members Renee Dolney, Claudia
Kirkpatrick, Mike LaMark, and Marilyn Skolnick.
Claudia Kirkpatrick takes the place of departing Chairman Chris Seymour,
who has done a fine job over the past two years. Serving as Vice-Chair
will be Tom Hoffman. Barbara Grover will be the Secretary and Bob Lang
returns as Treasurer. Nathaniel Doyno will co-chair the Conservation
Committee along with Marilyn Skolnick, and Peter Wray will be Political
Chair.
by Peter Wray, Political Chair
In 2007, an historic energy bill was signed into law, raising the fuel
efficiency for vehicles and providing incentives for conservation, etc.
Missing from the bill was support for renewable energy sources. To fill
this important gap Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN), has introduced a bill to
establish a national renewable electricity standard that requires 25% of
our electricity to come from renewables by the year 2025.
On the House side, the Sierra Club continues to support the Udall-Platts
Renewable Electricity Standard bill (HR 969).
To stem Global Warming, it is the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act
(S.2191) that appears to have most support in the upper chamber.
Therefore, the Sierra Club is working to improve this particular bill.
At the top of the list of issues with the Lieberman-Warner bill is the use
of Cap-and-Trade measures to reduce green house gas emissions. This issue
can be quite complex, but some major aspects that the Club is focusing on
are how the permits and caps are allocated, social equity during
transition away from reliance on fossil fuels, and the treatment of
offsets. And if a Carbon Credit Corporation is formed, who gets the
collected money?
Despite what you may read on coal company billboards, coal-fired power
plants are one of our nation’s largest–and dirtiest–sources of energy.
Although these plants already produce about half of our electricity, there
are plans on the drawing board to build over 150 new plants in the next
few years. With new laws to fight global warming expected on the horizon,
the coal industry is in a rush to build as many new plants as possible
before pollution safeguards are in place.
The Sierra Club has launched a national campaign to stop this rush to
dirty coal. Working with allies across the country, about forty-five of
the 150 planned plants have already been stalled or stopped completely. In
Pennsylvania the presently targeted plants are:
For more information on these proposed coal-fired plants, see the “Coal
Plant Tracker”.
by Donald L. Gibbon, Program Chair
A program titled “Love your Mother: Farming as if People Mattered,” was
shown continuously as a projected exhibit at the PA Assoc of Sustainable
Agriculture annual conference in State College in early February. The
program includes images from across the state. Works by fourteen
photographers are included, with a total of 293 slides.
This striking exhibit is intended to illustrate what is means to practice
“sustainable agriculture,” in contrast to agri-business or large scale
industrial agriculture. It includes the people and the products, the joys
and the disasters, that are part of daily farm life across the state. The
joys include the beauty and the products, vegetable and animal. The
disaters include a new barn blown down and a farm house going up in
flames. The scale of operations ranges from back-yard gardens to fairly
large Amish farms, from green houses to maple sugar bushes, from new
ventures to multi-generational family operations.
The exhibit is available for showing at any appropriate group function
after the PASA Conference by contacting Donald L. Gibbon,
dongibbon at earthlink dot net or calling 412-362-8451. A donation to PASA would
be appreciated. The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Sierra Club PA Chapter,
the Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, Slow Food Pittsburgh
and PASA. The program has been supported by the Bernheim Bequest to the PA
Chapter of the Sierra Club.
by Tom Hoffman
From Los Angeles to Boston and Georgia to Milwaukee, communities are
organizing to ensure that development gives back to the communities where
it is located. In cities all across the country, broad coalitions of
faith, labor, environmental, housing and community groups are coming
together to negotiate with developers to guarantee that development
projects provide good paying jobs with health care, training opportunities
for community residents, affordable housing, environmentally sound
buildings and parks and open spaces. These agreements are known as
Community Benefits Agreements (CBA) and the national organization the
Partnership for Working Families (PWF) has been a leader in promoting
these campaigns to promote just and equitable development. Sierra Club
nationally is a key partner of the PWF.
With Pittsburgh undergoing many major development and economic changes,
PWF encouraged the development of a chapter in Western Pennsylvania that
would run CBA campaigns and be a long-term advocate for equitable
development. This effort resulted in the forming of Pittsburgh-UNITED;
the local chapter of PWF and a new voice for economic improvements for low
and moderate income Pittsburghers. This local chapter and the Sierra Club
have joined forces in the fight to gain benefits and investment for
underprivileged communities where major developments are being built. The
Allegheny Group of the Sierra Club was one of the early board members of
Pittsburgh UNITED. (more…)
by Donald L. Gibbon
The back cover of the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Sierra Magazine headlines “Are
You Tired of Being Hit Over the Head by a Lobbyist With Your Own Club?”
The Club they’re referring to is the AAA. I’ve been a member of Triple-A
for 23 years. I’ve valued their services: opening my locked car, starting
my car, fixing my wife’s flats, providing maps and passports. But… and
here’s the big BUT… over ten years ago I noticed in their obnoxious
ad-filled industrial-tourism newspaper that they were lobbying Congress on
behalf of their members, claiming that 500,000 members (or however many of
us there were) supported their lobbyists’ positions. And those positions
were DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED to mine!
“Hey,” I wrote the president, Richard Hamilton, at the time, if I remember
correctly. “I’m a member of this organization. You never asked me what I
wanted you to say in my behalf. When is the Membership Meeting at which I
get to express my opinions?” They never wrote back, in spite of my
repeated attempts to get a conversation going. And they NEVER hold
membership meetings, never conduct surveys to discover what the members
want. (more…)
by Jim Kleissler
Many folks would say that we study history in order not to repeat our
mistakes. But is this really the case? Or do the pioneers of industrial
errors simply study history in order to make more money off of their
mistakes? Well, if what is happening today in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny
National Forest is any indication, those who wish to make money are
winning out once again.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time. The Allegheny National Forest
was once a sprawling interior forest of old growth eastern hemlock,
american beech, and white pine. It was home to wolf, mountain lion, and
Small Whorled Pogonia. But when Colonel Edwin Drake made himself famous
by drilling North America’s first oil well in 1859 just outside of the
present day national forest, it was an omen of things to come once and
again and again and again. (more…)
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