PA Has a Climate Action Plan – Now PA Needs Climate Action

Leave a reply

Mark Szybist, NRDC, 5/6/19

Last week, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf joined the U.S. Climate Alliance and his Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled a new Climate Action Plan. These are welcome and exciting developments, but they also highlight how much work the Commonwealth has to do – especially in the power sector – to cut economy-wide emissions 80 percent by 2050, the goal set by Wolf’s recent Executive Order on climate.

Pennsylvania’s Climate Change Act

Pennsylvania’s Climate Change Act of 2008 requires the DEP to assess the “potential impact of climate change” on the state’s people, economy and natural resources, and to create a Climate Action Plan that recommends strategies to mitigate the impacts. The DEP must evaluate the costs, benefits, and economic opportunities of mitigation policies, and the plan must be updated every three years.

This year’s Climate Action Plan, the DEP’s fourth since 2009, is the first to detail strategies for adapting to climate change impacts, as well as strategies for cutting pollution. That’s because the impacts of climate change are not just “potential” in Pennsylvania; they’re occurring, mostly in the form of extreme weather, and Pennsylvanians are paying for it. One striking statistic from the Plan is that since 2006, the state Department of Transportation has spent over $190 million to recover from more and more flood-related disasters….

read more and see many links at NRDC

Plan to build housing on contaminated Bishop Tube site in Chester County faces major setback

Leave a reply

by Frank Kummer, philly.com, April 29, 2019

Plan to build housing on contaminated Bishop Tube site in Chester County faces major setback

A Pennsylvania environmental board has essentially scrapped two state actions that would have paved the way for developer Brian O’Neill to build housing on a contaminated Chester County site.

The ruling on Friday appears to be a major setback for Constitution Drive Partners, a limited partnership involving O’Neill. The company wants to build housing at the defunct Bishop Tube site, contaminated by a variety of hazardous compounds.

The Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board concluded that amendments to an agreement with the developer stretching back to 2007 and 2010 not only are “arbitrary and capricious, ” but also “are void.”

“This is yet another environmental David and Goliath story,” said Maya van Rossum, leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network….

read more at philly.com

Earth Year

Leave a reply

The patient bee
comes to the blueberry
bush in bloom.
They haven’t heard
the bad news,
climate and storms.
Nor have the ferns,
the squirrels, the spruces.
One species
among the endangered
knows all about it,
knows it and doesn’t.

Greta Thunberg’s TED talk

Leave a reply

“…If the emissions have to stop, then we have to stop the emissions….”

“… If a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could all do together if we wanted to….”

“…The one thing we need more than hope is action….”

— Greta Thunberg, November 2018

She says more, and more forcefully, in 11 minutes than most speakers in hours!

To listen to her TED talk, click here (not on the image).

Outdoors for All

Leave a reply

By Richard Louv, Sierra magazine, Apr 25 2019 [Louv is the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder]

A nascent global movement proclaims that access to nature is a human right

A FEW YEARS AGO, pediatrician and clinical scientist Nooshin Razani treated a four-year-old girl whose family had recently fled Yemen and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. The family had received news the night before that members of the father’s family had been killed in a bombing back home. The child was suffering from anxiety. “I was thinking, ‘I have nothing to give to this little girl. What can I give her?'” Razani says. The typical medical response would be to offer the girl some counseling and, if necessary, medication. Razani decided the patient needed an additional, broader prescription. She asked the girl and her parents if they would like to go to the park with her. “The expression on that child’s face, the yearning for a piece of childhood, was deeply moving,” the doctor recalls.

Razani is the founder of the Center for Nature and Health, which conducts research on the connection between time in nature and health and is the nation’s first nature-based clinic associated with a major health provider, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California. The clinic collaborates with the East Bay Regional Park District to offer a program called Stay Healthy in Nature Everyday. Participating physicians share local park maps with their patients and offer family nature outings–70 of them so far. Often, the physicians will join the outings. Burned-out doctors need these experiences too, Razani says….

read more at Sierra

Non-toxic lawns & gardens and weed-free sidewalks

Leave a reply

Thursday, April 25⋅6:30 – 8:30pm

“Non-toxic lawns & gardens and weed-free sidewalks,” April 25. Doors open at 6:30 so come then for exhibits. Talk begins at 7:00.

Two related topics: non-toxic ways to grow great lawns and vegetables and to keep weeds out of sidewalks. A green double-header presented by the West Chester Green Team, which includes 4CP, Ready for 100, Plastic-Free Please, and Don’t Spray Me!

This is the first in the Green Team’s hot button environmental series, addressing issues at the forefront of people’s thinking at this time in our history.

Andy Yencha from Penn State Extension speaker’s bureau in Cumberland County will speak on “Greening you Lawn, Naturally” and Dr. John Jackson, entomologist, will speak on “Bugs and Weeds Away–the Natural Way.” Q&A follows.

Business and Public Management Center, 50 Sharpless St., West Chester 19382. Park across the street in the Sharpless Parking Garage.

More info: mhudgings@gmail.com

Pete Seeger 100th Anniversary Concert

Leave a reply

Benefits West Chester Green Team, a member of CCEA

Friday, May 3,7:30 – 9:30pm
501 S. High St, West Chester, PA 19328

Pete Seeger 100th Anniversary Concert Pete Seeger – the iconic folksinger, activist, songwriter, and organizer – was born on May 3, 1919. Come celebrate the 100th anniversary of Pete’s birth with folk musicians Two of a Kind, Dan Schatz, and Doug Morris, plus special guests. The concert, held at the Unitarian Congregation of West Chester, will benefit the congregation and the new West Chester Green Team, which supports environmental initiatives in greater West Chester. Suggested donation is $20 – more if you can, less if you can’t, and no one turned away.

WCU fights waste, recycles possessions from spring to fall

Leave a reply

from WCU Office of Sustainability Earth Week Bulletin, 4/22/19:

WCU Pack It Up – Pass It On
Earth Week: The Donation Drive Begins!

Students, as you sort through your possessions, packing up for the summer months, are you finding items you no longer wish to keep? Before you toss them, consider donating instead! Pack It Up-Pass It On is a campus wide initiative aimed at rescuing and rehoming unwanted clothing and household items. Donation bins have been placed in the lobby areas of all eight traditional and affiliated residence halls as well as the Village Clubhouse. If your items are in good condition, simply deposit them in these conveniently located bins and know that they will find new life and use with someone else! All items will go to a campus yard sale at the start of the fall semester (keep checking back for dates)! The proceeds of the sale will go towards supporting the program for the next year.

Off campus students, open drop off hours will be available to you from 11am to 2pm on Saturday 4/27, 5/4, and 5/11 at the South Campus storage containers. The containers are located in Y Lot by the South Campus Apartments on South Campus Drive. Look for the signs! Email wcupacknpass@gmail.com with any questions. And look for the Pack It Up – Pass It On table at Tuesday’s Earth Fair (donations of smaller items and clothing accepted at this time). Let’s ditch the dumpster WCU!