ACTION.  Read this report and then ask your Congressman and both Senators how they plan to reduce the cost of climate disruption in the next five years.

The cost of climate-related disasters has increased considerably over recent years. At a time when there is much discussion of reducing the Federal deficit, a new analysis from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) titled “Who Pays for Climate Change? “ shows that in 2012 “the costs of disaster recovery, flood insurance, crop insurance, and forest firefighting represent a major expenditure in U.S. federal budgets, reaching an all-time high of $96 billion in 2012. This high is in addition to the costs borne by private insurance companies.“

On Tuesday, June 4th, Pennsylvanians will convoy across the state to Harrisburg to rumble the Rotunda with the call for dedicated funding for our public transit systems. You are invited to join us!

Governor Corbett’s transportation budget falls far short of what is needed to keep our public transit healthy and fully accessible. Unless our state legislature acts to pass funding legislation to make up that shortfall, we will face more damaging fixed bus route and ACCESS system cuts in upcoming years.

Reserve your seat on the bus or to sign the petition in support of the Transit Bill of Rights. For more information, contact Mike Pastorkovich at 412-512-8928 or Treesnrivers at yahoo dot com

On May 16 the U.S. Senate confirmed MIT professor Dr. Ernest Moniz as the new Secretary of Energy. Among his responsibilities are oversight of investments in clean energy and Federal measures to address the global climate crisis. He will also have full authority to decide what role domestically-fracked gas will play in the nation’s energy future, which is of concern to environmentalists. Please view the OPEN LETTER to Secretary Moniz from Deb Nardone, the Sierra Club’s Beyond Natural Gas Campaign Director.

Graphic: NASA

In an analysis of more than 4,000 academic papers that considered the possibility of human activity being the root cause of climate change, John Cook of the University of Queensland found that only 0.3 pct disputed human influence and 2.2 pct were unclear. To learn more about climate change see an Introduction for Beginners, Debunking the Myths, NASA’s map of Global Warming, Rising Sea Levels, and the weekly news summary at Climate Progress.

George Hawkins at Clean Rivers Campaign talk, May 13. Photo: Tom Hoffman

DC Water is changing the way stormwater is managed
in the most important metropolis in the country.

Under George Hawkin’s leadership DC Water is changing from strictly gray tunnels to large scale green infrastructure. It is doing so carefully and thoughtfully, with an eye towards creating an infrastructure that works, brings benefits to the community, especially jobs, and is an investment in the region’s future. Along with the Beyond Tunnel Vision talk he gave to over 100 people at the Phipp’s lecture hall, George met with key leaders in the ALCOSAN decision making process and was on WESA’s Essential Pittsburgh where he shared his vision and strategy. If a green infrastructure can be done in DC, why can it not be done in Pittsburgh?

To mark International Endangered Species Day, Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passed a proclamation calling attention to the plight of endangered species. In the proclamation Council commend the Sierra Club Allegheny Group’s Endangered Species Action Team (ESAT) for the work it does by educating the public and advocating for endangered and threatened plants and animals.

It was the suggestion of ESAT member Mary Ruth Aull to call attention to the fact the earth is in the midst of the greatest mass extinction of species since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The proclamation was happily sponsored by Council president Darlene Harris and co-sponsored by every other member of City Council. On hand to accept the proclamation and make brief statements were ESAT chair Gwen Chute, her husband Ed, and ESAT member Mike Pastorkovich.

The remote mountaintop Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) in Hawaii is an ideal location for monitoring the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. For 24 hours on May 9 the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere atop exceeded 400 parts per million, or 0.04 pct. That is the highest CO2 level for more than two million years, it is the highest concentration in human history, and is a historically rapid increase of about 120 ppm since before the industrial revolution began in 1750. Passing 400 ppm is also an indication that the current efforts to curb CO2 emissions are inadequate, and we are on course for dramatic changes in the Earth’s climate. (more…)

Just how serious is President Obama about tackling climate change is a question that goes back at least to his 2012 acceptance speech, and has continued. In an interesting article Jonathan Chait suggests that Obama may indeed turn out to be the Environmental President, managing to bypass Congress and using the Federal environmental laws that were enacted during the Nixon years. Chait expands on this “EPA” approach in a subsequent on-line article. Both Chait’s articles are well worth reading.

Photo from the PA DEP

If a nationwide moratorium on hydrofracking is not yet in the cards, at least we can close some of most egregious loopholes. That is what the bipartisan Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (FRAC Act) is designed to do. Introduced on May 9 by Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO1) and Chris Gibson (R-NY19 ), the FRAC Act would do the following: (more…)

In an encouraging move for Fractivists and folk worried about local rights, on May 2 a New York Appeals Court upheld the right of a municipality to use zoning laws to ban hydro fracking operations in their district. This decision was discussed in detail on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR (51 mins) with participants including Deborah Goldberg (Earth justice) and Micheal Brune (Sierra Club).

On May the Pennsylvania Chapter Sierra Club unanimously endorsed Dan Gilman for District 8 in Pittsburgh City Council.

“Dan Gilman has been and will continue to be one of the strongest advocates in City Council for protecting the environment,” writes Allegheny Group Chair Barbara Grover. “Dan worked with a collaborative group of labor leaders, faith-based groups and environmental organizations to get City Council to pass Pittsburgh’s Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and prevailing wage bill. He is the only candidate who supports the ban on fracking in the city.” (more…)

As part of a national ‘preview’ tour Gasland Part II will be shown free to the public on Thursday, June 20, at the Soldiers and Sailors Hall in Oakland. Doors open at 6 pm with live music and the screening begins at 7 pm. Director Josh Fox will be present. Gasland Part II is an HBO Documentary Films release presented by Gasland Grassroots. It will premiere on HBO on July 8th.

For more than two years, we have witnessed the dismantling of environmental programs in the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Send a message to Gov. Corbett. Help shift the DEP back to taking care of our environment and our health, not the fossil fuel industry.

ACTION: Click HERE to say NO to the Canyon Mine.

In January 2011 environmentalists believed that they had a mayor victory when the Obama Administration decided to protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining in nearby Kaibab National Forest. Now the Forest Service has granted Energy Fuels Resources permission to resume mining that was suspended more than 20 years ago. The Sierra Club is among a group suing the Forest Service based on the argument that the old permission was based on a flawed environmental study. Get more information below: (more…)

Artwork: Mike LaMark

ACTION: Contact EPA’s Office of Chemical Pollution and request a suspension of the neonicotinoid seed coatings until independent scientists verify safety.

We recently reported on the suit against the EPA over honeybee collapse disorder, brought by a coalition that includes the Sierra Club. At issue is the suspicion that the world’s most widely used class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, may be the leading cause of colony collapse disorder. While we wait for EPA to act, on April 29 the European Commission announced steps to ban the use of three neonicotinoid pesticides for a period of two years for corn, rapeseed, and sunflower crops. Two European producers of the banned pesticides, Bayer of Germany and Sygenta of Switzerland, have said their products aren’t to blame for the bees’ decline. See Impact on PA and Fed report below. (more…)