Chicagoans Deliver Clean Air Photo Petition to City Hall

On December 2, more than 100 volunteers with the Chicago Clean Power campaign converged on City Hall to deliver a wall of photo petitions to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The photographs in the petition featured children, families, and other Chicagoans holding up signs saying, “I have the right to breathe clean air.” Below, ralliers at a press conference outside City Hall before the photo petition was delivered to the mayor.

The Sierra Club is one of the charter members of the Chicago Clean Power Coalition. For the past three months volunteers have been collecting hundreds of photo petitions on college campuses, at local events, and mainly while canvassing on doorsteps and street corners in the Pilsen and Bridgeport neighborhoods of Southwest Chicago.

Pilsen and the adjacent neighborhood of Little Village are home to the city's two dirtiest power plants: the Fisk and Crawford Generating Stations. The Sierra Club and its allies have waged a multi-year campaign to shutter Fisk and Crawford.

"Today we demanded that the Mayor set retirement dates for the Fisk and Crawford plants by the end of the year," says Sierra Club organizer Christine Nannicelli, below, who played a key role in collecting petition photos and putting the event together.

"It was awesome to see the coalition in action," says Verena Owen, a longtime Illinois Chapter clean leader and now volunteer co-lead of the Beyond Coal Campaign, who attended the rally. "This is what people power looks like."

Kentuckians Protest Utility Rate Hikes to Subsidize Coal Plants

Earlier this month, the Sierra Club and a diverse coalition of allied groups rallied outside the Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) payment center to protest the utility's proposed rate hike to pay for upgrades to three dirty, outdated coal-fired power plants.

Photo By Angela Shoemaker, courtesy of the Louisville Courier-Journal

LG&E recently announced that residential electric bills will go up by about 18 percent by 2016 to pay for upgrading pollution-control equipment to meet federal emissions standards at its coal-fired power plants in Kentucky, including the Mill Creek Station in Jefferson County, the Trimble County generating plant, and the KU Ghent power plant in Carroll County.

"The November 10 rally was a diverse alliance of the environmental and civil rights communities, low-income housing advocates, and Occupy Louisville activists, demanding that LG&E give us a state-of-the-art energy delivery system," says Sierra Club organizer Tom Pearce. "We should be investing in green energy and green jobs." That's Pearce at right below, being interviewed on WLOU Radio.

Sierra Club Teams Up with Americans from Coast to Coast to Honor Those Who Serve

This September marked the Sierra Club’s second annual Serve Outdoors month, and its purpose was to honor those who have served America by cleaning up and protecting the outdoors. The Sierra Club provides veterans with opportunities to go on outdoor adventures, since it is believed that nature can help reduce the stress that hinders Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) recovery. Serve Outdoors provides opportunities for the families of service members to also enjoy the great outdoors. The Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors programs (Building Bridges to the Outdoors, Inner City Outings, Local Outings, and Military Families and Veterans Outdoors), Water Sentinels, and the Sierra Student Coalition all hosted Serve Outdoors events throughout the month of September.

Thousands of people across the country organized events in their own hometowns to help preserve the great outdoors for future generations.  Volunteers cleaned up local parks, rivers, and wetlands to show their support for the environment. As part of Great Outdoors America Week, dozens of volunteer activists flew from all across the country to Washington D.C. to participate in briefings and discussions to educate decision makers about the benefits of getting outdoors and how to take action back at home.

The Water Sentinels program engaged people in cleaning up their community’s waterways and parks. Sixteen volunteers tested the water quality at the Verde River in Arizona. They collected samples to determine concentrations of E. coli, arsenic and total nitrogen in the water. For “It’s Our River Day”, in Algonquin, Illinois, 35 volunteers picked up more than 40 pounds of garbage and more than 80 pounds of recyclables along the Fox River and Crystal Creek in Cornish Park. In Missouri, nearly 200 volunteers, about a quarter of which were kids, cleaned up the Niangua River by picking up two tons of trash.

By partnering with local high schools, Chicago Inner City Outings, the Chicago Park District, and Congressman Mike Quigley, 240 volunteers, including 175 kids, went to Montrose Beach in Chicago and removed more than 300 pounds of garbage. The volunteers also mulched the Montrose trails and hosted four nature tours of the endangered dunes habitat on Montrose Beach, and the bird and butterfly sanctuary.

For the first time, Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors brought a delegation to Washington D.C. to participate in Great Outdoors America Week. One of those delegates was Gwen Miller, a native of Lombard, Illinois, who took her passion for the outdoors even further by coming to Washington D.C. to advocate for the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act. This bill would support state, local, and federal strategies to connect America’s youth with nature, outdoor recreation like camping and hiking, and outdoor service learning programs. “Parents need to allow their kids to run around outside more, and we should also teach more environmental classes in schools. It’s important that people connect with nature, because the greater connection they have to it, the more relevant it will be to conserve our environment,” said Miller.

On September 11th, the Sierra Club's Military Families and Veterans Outdoors program, in partnership with Veterans Expeditions, the American Alpine Club, and Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, pushed up to the summit of the Grand Teton. Standing at 13,775 feet on that day were veterans who had served in our military as far back as 1991. One veteran wrote in a blog post about the event, “Between us, we were missing a leg, a few fingers, had a spinal issue, Post-Traumatic Stress, depression, and all had battled reintegration issues.” The veterans, including a young Air Force Lieutenant and Co-Founder of Veterans Expeditions, Nick Watson, reflected from the top of the mountain where they were when the two planes hit the World Trade Centers in 2001.

Inner City Outings Leader: From High School Club to the Sierra Club

Before joining her school's Wilderness Adventure Club as a high school freshman, Giao Tran had never experienced the outdoors. Little did she know then that after her first outing, she'd be more than just a club member –- she'd become an outdoors lifer.

"We went everywhere –- kayaking, backpacking, overnight camping," says Giao, who eventually became the club's president.

Now that she's in college, she returns the favor as a certified Inner City Outings leader who leads kids on the same trips she used to enjoy as a teenager.

"When I had the chance to become a Sierra Club leader, I was thinking, 'Wow, this is so awesome –- the opportunity to teach future generations these environmental values,'" she says.

Giao now attends Golden West College in Huntington Beach, California, where she's studying international relations. When she isn't hitting the books or backpacking, she's involved as an executive board member with Phan Boi Chau Youth for Democracy, which connects Vietnamese youth with the community.

All of these qualities make Giao an exceptional leader for ICO and the Angeles Chapter. The ICO program of Orange County is one of 50 volunteer-run groups nationwide that put together 800 outings each year for more than 11,000 kids. ICO in Orange County partners with Giao's high school Wilderness Adventure Club in connecting youth with nature. The high school club has now produced a remarkable four ICO leaders.

"Through that group, and through my teachers, they taught me a lot about how important it is that we lead a life that upholds environmental values and sustainability," Giao says.

Broad Support for National Recreation Area in San Gabriels

Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, courtesy of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune

The last Saturday in October, more than 150 people packed a meeting in the Southern California city of El Monte to show their support for a proposal by the National Park Service to create a new National Recreation Area in the San Gabriel Mountains.

The Sierra Club is a founding member of San Gabriel Mountains Forever, a coalition of community, faith, social justice, and environmental groups working to protect the San Gabriels, one of Southern California's most scenic and valuable natural resources.

"Our vision to create a National Recreation Area for the San Gabriel Mountains and River is a step closer to becoming a reality," Sierra Club organizer Juana Torres said during a rally before the meeting at the Jack Crippen Senior Citizens Center in El Monte, which sits just south of the San Gabriels. That's Torres, at right below, after the rally.

This was the first of five public meetings the National Park Service is holding in Southern California to present the alternatives studied in its draft San Gabriel Watershed and Mountains Special Resource Study and solicit public feedback.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that a majority of those in attendance at the El Monte meeting supported Alternative D, which would protect nearly 600,000 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains and its foothills and establish wild and scenic river designations for the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo Rivers and portions of the Puente Hills.

Protecting the Grand Canyon — An Organizer's Story

By Alicyn Gitlin, Sierra Club Resilient Habitats organizer.

I'm probably like you: I'm the one who will show up at public meetings and speak loudly, and I prod my friends to do the same. I will stand up and ask questions of water managers and foresters and politicians, and if their answer doesn't make sense, I will ask again.

I live in Flagstaff, Arizona—a place that's small enough to make easy connections. I see the same people at every meeting, and I rapidly realized that by being one out of the 10 or 20 people who show up to a hearing, I alone might offer 5-10% of the opinions that my decision-makers hear.

One year ago, I began organizing for Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Protection Campaign. One of my most important goals: empower more of the public to show up, speak out, and just plain participate in public processes. Easy, right? After all, everyone I know lives in northern Arizona because of our vast and stunning landscapes. Why wouldn't they want to protect them?

Persuading people that they must speak up to protect what they love is just like medicine: part science, part art, and some inherent skill; and what worked last time might utterly fail this time.

Club Partners with Veterans in Ascent of Grand Teton to Commemorate 9/11

On September 11, 2011—the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks—the Sierra Club's Military Outdoors program partnered with Veterans Expeditions of Boulder, Colorado, in recruiting and training eight veterans to summit the Grand Teton in Wyoming.

Stacy Bare, Military Families and Veterans Affairs Representative for the Sierra Club, helped train the climbers and accompanied them on the ascent of the Grand Teton. A former U.S. Army Captain and Bronze Star recipient, Bare served in Bosnia and Iraq, and spent time as a civilian explosive ordnance disposal technician in Angola and the Republic of Georgia.

Bare was serving in the Individual Ready Reserve when he was called back to active duty in late 2005. He was the Director of National Programs for Veterans Green Jobs before starting Veterans Expeditions. That's Bare pictured above, and below at center with other members of the Grand Teton expedition. The Grand Teton is the second peak from the right in the background.

Here is Bare's account of the expedition:

The program started four months before the actual climbing event through outreach to the military and veteran community to get them hiking and working towards the summit attempt of the Grand Teton. The team trained all summer in the Colorado high country with Colorado Wilderness Rides and Guides of Boulder, and in Wyoming with Jackson Hole Mountain Guides. The training paid off with an efficient team effort on summit day.

This team of veterans had endured the hardships of military service, fought through the struggles of a difficult transition back to civilian life, and climbed with the thoughts of all those who could not join us. The fallen, the broken, the suffering, were all there with us in our hearts.

We climbed for all those who have suffered as a result of 9/11/01. We climbed with post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, prosthetic legs, missing fingers, and broken bodies disabled by roadside bombs. We climbed so that other veterans would be motivated to get off the couch and regain that fire again. We climbed to reverse the negative statistics that plague the veteran community. We climbed to raise our arms on the summit and bring a positive experience to this difficult day in our nation's history.

Coal Ash and Environmental Justice in Oklahoma

Standing in front of a coal ash pit. From left to right: Sierra Club Oklahoma Chapter Treasurer Rick Wicker, Chapter Chair Charles Wesner, Stephanie Jordan, Chapter Vice Chair Jody Harlan, Nancy Cain, and Executive Committee Member Rodney Boegel.

By Jody Harlan, Oklahoma Chapter Vice Chair

One way in which we've battled coal ash here in Oklahoma is by tying the message of this destructive practice to environmental justice. The Oklahoma Chapter produced a professional video about the negative health impacts of the coal ash dump site in Bokoshe, Le Flore County, that is causing cases of asthma and cancer.

Bokoshe-In the Air We Breathe from Jar of Grasshoppers on Vimeo.

The video is used at monthly presentations to a class of recycling technicians at a large non-profit organization. The majority of the class members are African Americans who are sometimes inspired by the environmental-justice message to attend monthly Sierra Club group meetings.

There are four to ten people in each class. Everyone is much more interested in what I have to say about the Sierra Club when the video is shown because of the messages included about environmental justice. The video has helped with Sierra Club Oklahoma in connecting with participants in the program who are primarily African American. My presentations are scheduled during the same week as Sierra Club Oklahoma's Cimmaron Group meetings in the western part of the state, to encourage students to attend the meetings.

Coal ash pits look like mountains on naturally flat land.

When reaching out to other groups and giving presentations, video such as this one improve our communication with others who may not have heard of the Sierra Club or to those who might otherwise be bored. The video has spread and several other chapters are showing it.

Have a success story to share? We'd like to hear about it. Go to the Success Stories project on the Sierra Club's Activist Network and let others learn from your experience.

Moving Planet Detroit - Youth and Green Jobs

The Sierra Club in Detroit participated in the first-ever Youth Green Economy Summit on last week's Moving Planet Day of Action. Councilman Ken Cockrel Jr. (pictured below), who hosted the Summit, gave the opening speech saying that "Detroit needs to diversify our industry, promote growth and development of green industries. Wind, solar...will move us forward. Young people are on the cutting edge of the green revolution."

Approximately 200 people attended the day of workshops, entertainment, and expo to bring youth into the green jobs economy. Workshops were led for youth and by youth and included bike cart making, woodshop, comic books, green jobs and more.

Sierra Club hosted a workshop teaching youth about the ills of climate change through the innovative comic book entitled Haunted Planet by Detroit-native Ken Jackson (see one page of the comic book - PDF). The University of Michigan Detroit Center and Engineering program, along with others from Walker-Miller energy, WARM Training Center, East Michigan Environmental Action, and more stepped up to provide a picture for more competitive workforce for alternative energy!

For more information on agenda, sponsors and photos, check out: http://www.detroitgreenyouth.org/

-- Michelle Martinez, Sierra Club Detroit

8th Annual Paatuwaqatsi (Water is Life) Ultra-Marathon Inspires Hundreds on Hopi

By Andy Bessler

Sierra Club Organizer

Flagstaff, AZ

The best event I get to help organize each year is the Paatuwaqatsi (Water is Life) Prayer Run. This year was no different. The 8^thrunning of the Paatuwaqatsi Run on September 10th was inspirational to over 200 runners this year and over 350 were fed a traditional Hopi meal while they learned about the critical water issues facing Hopi and surrounding communities in Northern Arizona. The Sierra Club is a proud co-sponsor of this unique event that combines a modern ultra-marathon with Hopi running traditions on ancient Hopi foot trails all in the name of protecting and honoring water.

 
  
Bucky starts off the run with a prayer for water, then they are off…photo by Andrea Hartley

   
A couple ultra-marathon runners finish together. Hope they stopped before the mud! Photo by Andrea Hartley