Sierra Club, Tribes Team Up to Protect Sacred Lands

The Sierra Club and its tribal partners won a hard-fought victory on June 15 when 541 square miles of New Mexico's Mount Taylor, held sacred to many southwestern tribes, were listed on the state's Register of Cultural Properties. The designation will trigger an automatic consultation with the tribes for any new development proposals in the area.

"The tribes and other community leaders are committed to opposing new mining proposals one by one and to do everything they can to use this cultural designation to protect Mount Taylor," says Sierra Club Associate Regional Representative Robert Tohe, below, himself a Navajo.

 

For the last year-and-a-half the Sierra Club's Environmental Justice Program has been working with the Acoma, Laguna, Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo tribes to protect Mount Taylor from uranium mining. Despite enormous pressure from pro-mining interests, the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee (CPRC) voted to permanently list Mount Taylor to the state registry.

The Sierra Club did media releases throughout New Mexico and worked hand-in-hand with the tribal grassroots group Dine Bidziil and cultural/spiritual groups Dine Hataalii and Aza Bee Nahangha of the Dine (Navajo) Nation.

"With the help of Sierra Club online organizer Jessica Eagle, who sent out action alerts to Rio Grande Chapter members, we were able to get more than 450 comments submitted to the CPRC in support of the tribal nomination," says Tohe, who attended all the meetings with the state and delivered supporting nominations at every CRPC hearing on the Mount Taylor designation.

Dr. David Begay, policy advisor to Dine Hataalii, was instrumental in laying the foundation for the win. Begay is pictured below, delivering the support resolution for Mount Taylor from the Dine Hataalii Association at the CPRC meeting in the House Chamber of the New Mexico legislature in Santa Fe on May 15. He also led an offering ceremony on Mount Taylor last fall to help the tribes prevail in the fight to protect their sacred lands.

Luke Cole: In Memoriam

The environmental movement lost one of its brightest lights on June 5 when environmental justice attorney Luke Cole was killed in an automobile accident in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. He was 46.

Authorities report that a speeding semi-trailer veered into Cole's lane and crashed into his car. Cole was on sabbatical with his wife Nancy, who survived the accident with injuries.

Cole was a pioneer in the field of environmental justice law. After earning an undergraduate degree with honors from Stanford, he worked for three years as a consumer advocate for Ralph Nader, then graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School.

As numerous friends and colleagues have commented on Daily Kos, Facebook, and elsewhere, Cole could have worked pretty much anywhere he wanted after law school and made a bundle. Instead he dedicated himself to helping grassroots groups across the country fight back against the disproportionate burden of pollution borne by poor people and people of color.

 

North Dakotans Turn Out to Oppose Permit for Coal Complex Near National Park

The Sierra Club's campaign to stop a proposed coal complex 30 miles from Theodore Roosevelt National Park heated up at a late April air quality permit public hearing conducted by the North Dakota Health Department at City Hall in Dickinson, N.D. Some 100 people turned out for the hearing, above and below.

The South Heart Power Project is a $1.4 billion proposal for a coal-to-gas conversion and coal mine at the same site. The Sierra Club has been working closely with Neighbors United, a local landowners group, to halt the issuance of an air quality permit for the complex, which Australia-based GTL Energy has already started to build. More than half of the citizens at the hearing arrived sporting bright yellow "Neighbors United" T-shirts.

Neighbors United activist Mary Hodell, below left, whose children attend South Heart School, near the proposed complex, testified that she would have serious concerns about her children's health if it came online. That's Dacotah Chapter member Frank Hurt, below right, holding his granddaughter at the hearing.

The hearing, which garnered coverage in The Dickinson Press, resulted from an outpouring of citizen requests for the Health Department to hold a formal hearing during the written comment period for the air permit. "The Health Department initially wanted to only have an informal informational meeting," says North Dakota Sierra Club organizer Wayde Schafer, "but we negotiated both an informal meeting and a formal, on-the-record public hearing."

At a pre-hearing training for volunteer activists it was decided that their message would be reinforced if they wore the T-shirts, produced by Neighbors United and the Club's Dacotah Chapter, as a show of solidarity. More than half of the citizens turned out for the hearing wearing the shirts, including all but two of the 20 people who testified.

The Dacotah Chapter did mailings, phone-banks, an online action alert, and rented a shuttle van to boost turnout at the April 28 hearing. The written comment period was then extended until May 8th, and another postcard and online action alert were sent out in order to generate additional comments to the Health Department.

Read more about the Sierra Club's work to move beyond coal.

All photos by Mary Hodell except Mary Hodell photo courtesy of Dickinson Press.

Big Coal Dust Victory in Virginia

Photo by John Harbison

The Club won a critical victory on April 24 when the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board voted unanimously to support recommendations made by the Sierra Club and the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards to deal with health-threatening coal dust pollution in Roda, Va.

One member of the board characterized as "shocking" a scientific report prepared and presented by North Carolina State University Professor Viney Aneja on dust exposure levels in Roda. Wise County residents Kathy Selvage and Pete Ramey, who have long suffered the ill effects of mountaintop removal mining and coal dust pollution first-hand, also testified at the hearing.

Selvage and Ramey are pictured in front row, below, at the state capitol in Richmond, where they testified. Center row: Virginia Sierra Club Director Glen Besa, Dr. Viney Aneja, and Megan Gore; back row: Gary Selvage (Kathy's husband) and Adam Wells of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards.

The Air Board's 6-0 vote directs the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to take immediate steps to deal with coal dust in Roda, which is surrounded on three sides by nine mountaintop removal coal mines. The road running through Roda, pictured at top of post, provides access to all nine mines, and hundreds of coal truck have been known to travel the road in a single day. The trucks release coal dust from their bodies and beds, and track mud onto the road which dries and is kicked up by other trucks.

Club Marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month—a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. To mark the occasion, Sierra Club President Allison Chin will speak at several public events this month. That's Chin, above, at a town hall meeting at the White House in March.

Chin will address the EPA in San Francisco and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Washington, D.C., relating her own story as an Asian American environmentalist and stressing the importance of the Blue Green Alliance. She will also speak at two events in Southern California.

The Sierra Club has long been partnering with Asian Americans. In New Orleans, Delta Chapter activists helped parishioners at the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church form the Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation, dedicated to sustainably rebuilding New Orleans' Viet Village neighborhood. Below, a Friendship Dinner held in 2007 in Viet Village by the Sierra Club, the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, and the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association. Another Friendship Dinner is being planned for this fall.

Earth Day 2009: A Snapshot

Sierra Clubbers from coast to coast and beyond rolled up their sleeves and participated in all manner of Earth Day activities and celebrations this year. 

In Flagstaff, Arizona, Club organizer Andy Bessler, his son Noah, and Grand Canyon Chapter staffer Stacey Hamburg tabled at a Flagstaff Earth Day event, above and below, that drew an estimated 2,500 attendees.

Bessler also emceed the event, which featured four bands performing on a solar-powered sound stage. "Walking the talk in hosting this event was key," says Bessler, pictured below in black t-shirt with Noah.

    

Flagstaff Mayor Sara Presler challenged residents to support sustainability in the city. Bessler worked with volunteers from the City and the Sierra Club to organize seven service projects around town. "More than 125 people participated," Bessler says. "Each of them got a little seed packet with wildflowers that said, 'Thanks from Sierra Club and Native Plant and Seed.'"

Thousands of revelers, above, turned out in Luquillo, Puerto Rico, for the Fourth Annual Leatherback Turtle Festival. "Turnout was bigger than ever," says Puerto Rico Sierra Club organizer Camilla Feibelman. "We continue to promote the protection of the Northeast Ecological Corridor and appropriate development of Luquillo as a gateway community to the nature reserve."

Inner City Outings Program Hooks Kids Up With Nature

The Sierra Club's 33-year-old Inner City Outings Program, which takes inner-city kids out into nature while bringing a message of environmental stewardship into their urban communities, is currently active in 50 cities around the country. Two recent outings are emblematic of the program's activities:

In Tampa, ICO leaders Carol Kay and Hadrian Alegarbes co-hosted a trip to Upper Tampa Bay Park with biologist and outdoor educator Pete Rossi of Hillsborough Community College. Kids from the West Point Boys and Girls Club hiked along the edge of mangrove swamps, watched herons and egrets hunt for food, and stepped aside as hundreds of tiny crabs scurried into their holes. That's ICO volunteer Julie Krueger, above, with outing participants.

"None of the youth on this outing live more than 10 miles from the water in Tampa Bay," says Kay, "but most of them never get a chance to get their feet wet. For most, this ICO trip was the first time they had ever experienced the ecology and adventure of the estuary in their own home city."

New York City to Green Its Building Stock

Photo courtesy of the City of New York

On Earth Day, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced a landmark plan to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the nation's largest city by requiring owners of thousands of older buildings to make their structures more energy-efficient.

Among the speakers atop a green roof at Rockefeller Center was Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, above, the only non-New Yorker at the event, which included city officials, labor leaders, builders, and environmentalists. (Quinn is pictured between Pope and Bloomberg.)

The package of legislative, regulatory, and investment programs will make New York the first major American city to ensure that all of its big buildings become energy efficient over the next ten years. City officials estimate the plan will create 19,000 jobs, save $750 million in annual energy costs, and reduce the city's carbon footprint by 5 percent.

The program would begin in 2013, with more than 2,000 buildings performing audits and starting upgrades each year for a decade. Improvements will be mandatory only if energy audits show that the costs of the improvements could be recouped through declines in energy bills within five years.

"The key factor making this so important is simple: market size," Pope says. "By assuring designers and manufacturers of energy-retrofit technology—efficient windows, insulation, high performance furnaces and air conditioning systems—that as long as their products pay for themselves within five years they will have a huge market, New York City, Bloomberg's program is going to fundamentally change the national marketplace for energy retrofits."

 

Later that day, Bloomberg, Quinn, and Pope appeared on PBS's Charlie Rose show. "We're doing this because it will create cleaner air for our citizens to breathe, it will create jobs, and it will make more money for building owners," Bloomberg told Rose. "Labor unions, developers, building owners are all on board—it's a win win win for everybody, and it's using today's technology."

Pope said the move will "set the template for what buildings in America will be like 30 years from now. Just as New York skyscrapers at the end of the 19th centure became a model for America, New York's energy efficiency at the beginning of the 21st century is going to become a model for America."

'Blacks Living Green' Honors African American Activists

 

On April 9, author and publisher Sharon T. Freeman, PhD, spoke to a crowd of nearly 100 people in Memphis about her new book, "Blacks Living Green," and her work as an African American publisher. Above, Shelby County (Memphis) Mayor A.C. Wharton presents Freeman with a Key to Shelby County.

The event was organized by Memphis Sierra Club Environmental Justice Coordinator Rita Harris and co-sponsored by the EJ program, the Club's Chickasaw Group, and Caritas Village, where the event was held. The foreword to "Blacks Living Green" was written by Club Executive Director Carl Pope. (Scroll to p.2 of above link to read Pope's foreword.)

Freeman, who lives in Washington, D.C., has served as consultant and advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Trade Representative, and a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Corps. "Blacks Living Green" highlights the stories of black Americans who have chosen environmental careers or avocations, and who are taking steps to sustain their local environment.

"It should be noted that 'Blacks Living Green' is not about environmental justice, but about remarkable people doing remarkable things that are not limited by artificial barriers of race, class, or culture," Harris says. "This book goes a long way to dispel the myth that African Americans aren't interested in environmental or 'green' issues. There has always been an interest—it just manifests differently for many of us."

At the event, Green Role Model awards were presented to ten local residents, pictured below. "Through their work and activities, these role models promote a better quality of life for everyone and encourage environmental sustainability in the Memphis area," Harris says. The Memphis Commercial Appeal found the local award winners' stories to be the most moving part of the evening.

"You'll find these same types of people in all our major cities—places where we have Sierra Club groups," Harris says. "There are many black professionals out there who for some reason haven't been invited to join the Club and participate in the wonderful work we’re doing. Our challenge is to reach out and invite them into the Club so we can make better use of their expertise and ideas to make our organization stronger."

Pictured above, nine of the ten Green Role Models award recipients. (Scroll to p.5 of above link to read details about each award winner.) Front row: Sandra Upchurch, Andree Glenn, Hazel Burks, Pearlie Estes. Back row: Shawn Posey, Rev. Ralph White, Dr. Stanley Abell, Calvin Robinson, A.C. Wharton. (Frank Robinson was not present.)

Harris notes that the week after the event, award winner Hazel Burks sent her a note saying she'd just joined the Sierra Club, and her sister planned to do so. "It wasn't because I asked her to, either," Harris says. "It just goes to show we need to do a better job of letting people know we're here. Sometimes folks equate people of color with environmental justice issues, but it's not just about that. There are many, many black Americans who have the same interests as the traditional constituency of the Club."

'River Heroes' Honored by Alabama Rivers Alliance

On March 20, the Alabama Rivers Alliance presented River Heroes awards to Reverend Mark Johnston and Dr. Bryan Burgess, pictured above. Cindy Lowry, Executive Director for ARA, presented the awards "in recognition of lifetime achievement." Rev. Johnston and Dr. Burgess have provided environmental education to more than 120,000 Alabama youth.

Burgess, a farmer and former professor of earth sciences at Jacksonville State University, served for four years as conservation chair of the Sierra Club's Alabama Chapter. After getting certified in water-quality monitoring by Alabama Water Watch, he brought the Club's Water Sentinels Program to Alabama and was co-leader for six years. The program has provided environmental training to more than 30,000 school kids and placed water monitoring kits in schools and county offices throughout the state.

Johnston, below, an avid fisherman "since I could walk," is the Executive Director of Camp McDowell, an Episcopal camp and conference center in Nauvoo, Alabama. In 1991 he founded the McDowell Environmental Center, now directed by his wife, Maggie. To date, more than 80,000 students have attended the residential environmental education program.

"Mark and I share a common goal," says Burgess, "to provide training for youth and to equip them for making informed decisions about their environment. We're now seeing the results at the polls as the youth are advancing to voting age." He and Maggie Johnston jointly established a watershed training program for Alabama public school teachers at Camp McDowell. Participants in a 2007 training are pictured below.