Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Kalaupapa, Hawai'i (photo courtesy of Nathan Riding)

Service and Spirituality on a Sierra Club Outing in Hawai'i

By Rachele Huennekens, Sierra Club Grassroots Media Strategist

Like Dorothy arriving in Oz, my head spun, my eyes watered, and my heart thumped as I stepped off of the small airplane. Scalloped cliffs carpeted in dark and lurid-bright green towered 2,000 feet above me, while sparkling cerulean waves lapped at the white sand and lava rocks at my feet. The wind whistled in my ears, while warm rays of sunshine and fine sprays of fog raised goosebumps on my bare arms.

I had arrived in Kalaupapa National Historic Park on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, as a participant in a Sierra Club Outing. The purpose of the Service and History on Kalaupapa Outing was to help the U.S. National Park Service preserve Kalaupapa's tragic history and unique environment. For five days, our group of 14 Sierra Club members worked alongside park rangers to improve the National Historic Park for future visitors by curbing invasive plants, painting historic buildings, and cleaning the beach. In the process, my spirit was deeply moved as I learned about Kalaupapa's sacred history, present and future.

Sierra Club Outings Hawai;i Subcommittee Chair Jill McIntire, me, Krista Collard and Nathan Riding weeding invasive plants in the nursery in Kalaupapa National Historic Park

Many people know that Kalaupapa was a colony where Hawaiians suffering from leprosy, or Hansen’s Disease, were sent to live apart from their families by decree of King Kamehameha V  in 1865. What our Sierra Club Group learned from U.S. Park Ranger Richard Miller were the details of the life of Father Damien, a Roman Catholic priest who humanely cared for the leper patients in the 1800s, when the disease was contagious and untreatable. Miller led a painstaking restoration of Father Damien’s St. Philomena Church at Kalawao, the original settlement on the Kalaupapa peninsula. Father Damien was canonized in 2009, and is now the Patron Saint of Hawai'i. Today, several elderly Hansen's Disease patients continue to be treated by the Hawai'i State Department of Health and live in the Kalaupapa community.

Graves at St. Philomena Church at Kalawao, Kalaupapa, HI (photo courtesy of Krista Collard)

How the Outdoors Helps Our Nation's Heroes

When Paul Wilson took a job in the early 1970s in the Grand Tetons, Wyoming, shortly after returning home from Vietnam, he didn’t anticipate the contrast between living in the outdoors and serving abroad.

"To go backpacking and fishing, it just really had a calming, introspective influence on me. It was something that probably saved my sanity on more than one occasion," says the former Marine. "That quote by John Muir about going into the mountains and getting their good tidings is pretty apropos."

Now a 25-year Sierra Club member living in West Virginia, Paul volunteers through Trout Unlimited by teaching fly-fishing to returning soldiers. Tying a fly, he says, provides cognitive therapy for those recovering from combat.

"This is a way to get away from everything and rejuvenate," says Paul. "What I do isn't really about catching fish. It’s about slowing down and learning to relax and reconnect."

Memorial Day is a day to honor those who have died and a reminder of how important it is to reach service members and their families. That’s why the Sierra Club partners with several organizations, such as the National Military Family Association, Armed Services YMCA, and Higher Ground, that provide outdoor experiences to service members and let them enjoy the freedoms of the land they helped defend.

This includes reaching children of military families through the Military Child Outdoors campaign and other programs -- many kids of service members move multiple times during their adolescence -- which helps reduce stress, promote fitness, and provide a sense of community for kids with one or more parents deployed.

These organizations let all of us give back to our country's heroes and show appreciation.

Watch our new short documentary, Mission Outdoors: Glacier National Park, about service members and the outdoors, and click here to learn more about the Sierra Club’s history with the armed forces, which dates back to World War I. 

Fighting Coal Down Under

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived at the Glenrock Scout Camp in Newcastle was a plaque commemorating 1791 the discovery of coal in Australia. A hundred-and-twenty-two years later, we journeyed to this same spot to conduct the Sierra Club's first ever international organizing training with activists who are taking on the coal and gas industry across Australia

Like nearly everything in Australia, the scope of the fossil fuels fight is massive. But even before we landed, grassroots activism was challenging new coal and gas proposals -- and winning.

The Rio Tinto backed fourth terminal in Newcastle has been delayed, with officials acknowledging it could be shelved entirely, and on the day we started, Xtrata announced it was abandoning the Balaclava terminal in Queensland. Meanwhile, activists are going door to door, community to community, in rural Australia to discuss the danger of gas. Through this movement, communities are voting to Lock the Gate, refusing to allow gas companies on their land for exploration in acts of direct action to protect their land and water.

Sequester Threatens American Families; Congress Ignores Them

Wedding in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. From the Casper Star-Tribune, courtesy Katy Gray

By Stephen Dworkin, Sierra Club Media Intern

Sara Cook and Adam Bartch were planning on getting married at iconic Schwabacher's Landing in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park this year. That is, until Congress intervened. The couple, along with 34 others, will have to relocate their wedding because Congress failed to prevent massive budget cuts known as "sequestration," which went into effect on March 1. Grand Teton's budget, along with those of 400 other sites managed by the National Park Service, was slashed. Draining funding from national parks is just one of the many harmful consequences of the sequester, which has undermined important resources of many agencies that manage our natural wonders and wildlife.

The consequences of pulling the rug out from under national parks are real and immediate. The national park system is essential for the conservation of unique natural features and habitat for endangered and endemic species, but it is also an integral part of our nation's history. National parks are enormous tourist attractions that bring in almost 300 million visitors each year, according to the 2012 census. And according to a study by the University of Michigan, in 2010 our national parks contributed $31 billion to local economies and supported 258,000 jobs.

Sequestration doesn't stop at the National Park Service. Cuts to Environmental Protection Agency funding will mean fewer watchdogs to safeguard Americans from toxic air and water pollution, and fewer resources for scientific research will hinder the development of new wind, solar, and biofuel technologies. On top of all that, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will also face cutbacks, crippling our ability to respond to the hurricanes, floods, droughts, and wildfires that are increasing in frequency and intensity due to the global climate crisis.

The U.S. Forest Service, which controls two-thirds of the firefighting resources in America and is the last line of defense against wildfires, is also facing cuts. So are the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which oversee offshore energy development and are responsible for making sure disasters like the BP oil spill of 2010 don't happen again. These cutbacks represent a threat to the health of Americans and our environment. And because of the number of public sector jobs at risk, the sequester is putting people out of work and slowing America's economic recovery.

Despite the immediate impact the sequester has had on these vital agencies, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans has all but paralyzed any efforts to replace it. As a result of their actions, the tiny but important fraction of the federal budget that aids in protecting Americans from toxic pollution and developing solutions to climate disruption is in danger, while the most profitable oil companies in the world continue to benefit from tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks.

Congress needs to learn a lesson about constructive relationships from Sara and Adam, who are going ahead with their wedding plans in another part of Grand Teton National Park. Republicans certainly aren't going to marry Democrats anytime soon, but they are still locked in a bond of responsibility for the well-being of the country with their duly elected colleagues. They are playing a game of chicken not just with our democracy, but with our water, air, climate, and the health of our families. Those in Congress who are complicit with reckless, indiscriminate cuts to essential government functions are ignoring all the benefits these agencies provide the American people. The sequestration status quo must be upended, because it isn't just dirtying our politics: it's dirtying our economy and our environment.

Huge Victory in Oregon Builds Momentum Against Coal

Energy company Kinder Morgan announced last week that it is ditching plans to export 30 million tons of coal through the Port of St. Helens, Oregon -- a move that further galvanizes the grassroots movement in the Pacific Northwest that is keeping Big Coal out.

"Three down, three to go!" exclaimed Sierra Club Organizer Laura Stevens. "This proposal would have meant a dozen mile-and-a-half-long, dirty, coal-dust spewing trains through the Columbia River Gorge and dozens of other communities every day."

The three remaining sites coal companies have their eye on to build coal-export terminals are in Boardman, Oregon, and Longview and Cherry Point in Washington.

"The announcement came just two days after we packed two hearing rooms in St. Helens to oppose a re-zone that would facilitate coal exports, and the nearby city of Scappoose, where the council voted unanimously to pass a resolution expressing their concerns about the project," Stevens said.

Communities through Washington and Oregon continue to face the prospect of dealing with miles-long trains carrying tens of millions of tons of coal each year -- and bringing its harmful coal dust pollution with them. The coal would then be burned in energy-hungry East Asia, emitting carbon that would rival the infamous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The nightmare scenario has solidified communities across the Pacific Northwest, bringing together a coalition that includes environmental groups, hunters and anglers, farmers, business leaders, mayors and state leaders, faith leaders, and the health community.

Hawaii Passes Landmark Clean-Energy Financing Measure

The state of Hawaii has passed a first-of-its kind clean-energy financing measure that will make it easy for residents of the Aloha State to go green and install clean energy, while saving some green at the same time. The Sierra Club and a coalition of environmental and labor groups championed the measure, which will reduce the upfront costs of solar energy and energy-efficiency for residents and small businesses.

Above, State Senator Mike Gabbard, chair of the Energy & Environment Committee; Jeff Mikulina, executive director of Blue Planet Foundation (and former Hawaii Sierra Club organizer); State Senator Russell Ruderman, vice-chair of the Energy & Environment Committee; and Robert Harris, director of the Sierra Club's Hawaii Chapter, at a "Power to the People" rally the Club co-sponsored in March.

In passing the clean-energy bill, S.B. 1087, which prevailed 23-1 in the Senate and 50-1 in the House, the Hawaii State Legislature voted to make available hundreds of millions of dollars of private capital and low-cost bonds that can be accessed each year for residential and small commercial clean-energy projects. Ratepayers will be able to pay for the installations over time through lower monthly utility bills.

"We see this as a novel model that removes several of the perceived hurdles to adopting clean energy," Harris says. "The program proposes no additional costs to ratepayers, it allows residents to save money, it creates good jobs, and it reduces air pollution. It lowers the cost of home ownership, helps lower-income people who might not be able to get bank loans, and opens up clean energy and energy-efficiency opportunities to renters, who make up 40 percent of Hawaii's housing market. What's not to like?"

Actress Evangeline Lilly, best-known for her star turns in Lost and The Hobbit, was among the Hawaii residents lending her vocal support to the measure.

"As a big fan of clean energy and a 10-year resident of Hawaii, I proudly support this effort to make clean energy more accessible to all Hawaiians," she says. "Tens of thousands of residents could see their electric bills go down if they sign up for the program."

The Sierra Club worked with dozens of stakeholders, including Hawaii's State Energy Office, which helped brainstorm the innovative financing concept, to get the measure passed. The Club sent out action alerts, wrote articles, op-eds, and letters-to-the-editor of local newspapers, and directly lobbied members of the state legislature.

The Club also hosted Cisco DeVries, president and CEO of Renewable Funding and a leading expert on clean-energy financing, while he was in Hawaii. The legislature held an informational briefing where DeVries spoke, and the Sierra Club hosted several local solar companies and clean-energy advocates to a luncheon with DeVries as the main speaker.

"Hawaii's new program isn't just good for the environment, it's incredibly smart fiscal policy," DeVries says. "This idea corrects a market failure. Too many people can't afford the upfront cost of converting to clean energy, even though these investments easily pay for themselves over time. This measure goes a long way toward solving this problem and it establishes a national model for other states to follow."

Also among the Club's allies was Hawaii's powerful carpenters' union, for whom the clean-energy measure was a top priority. "Together, we knocked on a whole lot of doors and spoke personally to just about every legislator in Hawaii," Harris says.

The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission in now establishing regulatory standards for the program, with a proposed start date of January 2014.

Governor Abercrombie, who made this concept one of his administration's highest priorities, is expected to sign the measure into law quickly.

"Hawaii can be proud to lead the nation with this policy," Harris says. "It shows how we can help our environment and put money back in people's pockets at the same time."

Clean Energy Activists Fight Back in Louisiana

Earlier this year, the Louisiana Public Service Commission abandoned new energy efficiency rules in a bid to roll back progress on clean energy and efficiency. Not only did the Commission scrap a program that will help citizens across the state -- they did it without hearing public comments.

Now the Sierra Club, with the help of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, and the League of Women Voters of Louisiana, is fighting back, suing the PSC for refusing to allow public testimony before voting to ditch the energy efficiency rules – a vote that barely passed.

The PSC's questionable judgment didn't stop there. Late last month, the commission got an earful from grassroots activists and entrepreneurs when it weighed the idea of overturning the state's solar net metering. The commission promptly passed on the ill-advised idea.

"Louisiana has the best solar tax credits program in the country," said Jordan Macha, Sierra Club Louisiana Representative. "The Sierra Club, the Alliance for Affordable Energy, and other industry and consumer groups generated 750 calls and letters in one week to commissioners. The support for net metering was overwhelming and the commissioner who wanted it overturned backed off and decided to hold off the vote."

Remembering All Mothers on Mother's Day

By Naomi Brodkey, Program Assistant, Global Population and Environment Program

While moms in America are celebrated this Mother’s Day weekend, we should take time to recognize how climate disruption is making mothers' jobs much harder everywhere.

In many parts of the world, women continue to fill traditional roles as mothers and caregivers. They are often the first to rise to collect water and firewood, prepare food, and care for young children, but these already strenuous tasks are becoming ever more daunting due to unanticipated and continued climate disruption. In the 2009 United Nation’s Population Fund (UNFPA) “State of the World Population” publication, Leucadia, a rural Bolivian woman, tells of the dried streams from the Huayna Potosi glacier and the hours she now spends collecting water to prepare food and irrigate crops. For many, securing these resources is not just a struggle, but a fight. At a presentation about his newest book this week in Washington, D.C., author and doctor Paul Farmer quoted a Haitian woman who spoke of her daily struggle for survival as a fight to collect food, wood and water – for her 5 children.

The realities of climate disruption are well documented, as are the disproportionate effects that it has on women. United Nations WomenWatch’s “Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change” states, “The effects of climate change, including drought, uncertain rainfall and deforestation, make it harder to secure … resources. By comparison with men in poor countries, women face historical disadvantages, which include limited access to decision-making and economic assets that compound the challenges of climate change.” The unreliability of resources forces women like Leucadia to wake up even earlier and walk even further from home, spending more time collecting water and fuel – tasks which already comprise about 26 percent of their waking hours – rather than spending time with their children at home.

"Maybe even nothing!" - How We Got Los Angeles Off Coal

Maybe there has never been and will never be a more important energy decision in my city, Los Angeles, than the one made last week by our city council representatives.

In fact, just recently I was having pizza next to Ronni Solomon, a local high voltage organizer for environmental justice and fellow advocate for the L.A. Beyond Coal campaign. She was wondering if there was anything that the L.A. City Council could ever vote on energy issues that would be more important than their vote to secure L.A.'s transition off of coal fired power. Andy Shrader, the dark knight of the plastic bag ban in our city and one-man clearing house for L.A.'s environmental initiatives, stepped up and said, "maybe even nothing!"

The L.A. city council's unanimous vote to move beyond coal power was the culmination of three-and-a-half years of on-the-ground organizing work with highly diverse constituents all over the city. Residents from black, white, Asian and Latino neighborhoods, along with labor, business and environmental advocacy groups came together to make the city council an offer it couldn't refuse. This victory belongs to all of these communities that raised their voice on this issue.

Club Comments on Keystone Controversy in N.Y. Times

Readers of side-by-side articles on the front page of Business Day in the May 9 New York Times saw the Sierra Club mentioned several times, including prominent quotes by Executive Director Michael Brune and Public Advocacy & Partnerships Director Cathy Duvall.

Foes Suggest A Tradeoff If Pipeline Is Approved speculated whether the Obama administration was contemplating some kind of major climate policy announcement on renewable energy incentives or power plant regulation to "ease the sting" among environmental advocates if the president approves the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. But the article quickly noted that pipeline opponents say there is no quid pro quo deal that could compensate for the environmental damage created by the construction of the pipeline and expanded development of the Canadian oil sands.

"Approving the pipeline would be a deep self-inflicted would on the Obama administration, greater than anything else he has done," Brune told the Times. "This was not inherited from the Bush administration and it can't be passed off to [Obama's] successor. It really is Obama's alone. Whatever damage the decision would do to the environmental movement pales in comparison to the damage it would do to his own legacy."

Brune said Obama should veto the pipeline and pursue climate-friendly policies for their own sakes, not as part of a political deal. "It's hard to argue we should be developing new fossil fuel resources, but particularly such a carbon-intensive source as the Canadian tar sands." The danger to the climate of continuing on the current path demands strong steps like curbing coal-fired power and supporting renewables, he said.

Silicon Valley Group's Political Effort Raises Uproar examined the reaction to television spots bankrolled by Fwd.Us, a new nonprofit advocacy group created by Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. One of the TV spots, which ran in several states for a week, lauded the Keystone XL pipeline, prompting a coalition of groups including the Sierra Club to suspend buying advertising on Facebook.

Duvall told the Times the Sierra Club was especially disappointed to see the technology industry adopt a strategy that was more typical of old-fashioned, brass-knuckled Washington lobbying.

"When the ads came out they were politics as usual and divisive and pitting one issue against another," she said. "We were really surprised that Silicon Valley would be moving into the political space by doing the worst of business-as-usual politics."

The pro-Keystone TV spots took several prominent Fwd.Us backers who are also clean-energy boosters by surprise. "One hopes that most of our 21st-century tech leaders won't end up supporting 18th-century energy technology, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk told PandoDaily, a Silicon Valley-focused web publication.

Take action: Go to Facebook and tell Zuckerberg to stop supporting Keystone XL and Arctic drilling.