ECO-JUSTICE NEWS
April 2021
The Eco-Justice Collaborative of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting issues this monthly bulletin to provide Friends with time-sensitive information and resources to help in their ongoing work for social and environmental justice. Please share as you think appropriate. If you have events or resources to share, please send them to Ruth Darlington.
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“We all belong to earth, who unites us, bringing together the colonized and dispossessed, both the wretched and the privileged of the earth.”
Tom Small in QEW trifold, “A Matter of Life and Breath”
TAKE ACTION
Please contact your PA State Senator today to urge their support of SB501. This bipartisan bill will help jumpstart our economy after the pandemic, create roughly 50,000 new clean energy jobs, help save our farms, reduce pollution and improve public health, without costing the state one dime! SB501 extends our Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) from 8% to 18%. PA’s current AEPS expires next month!! Urgent action is needed. Please sign on to our letter.
Republicans in Harrisburg seek to scuttle RGGI. PA’s gas and coal industries and their allies in Harrisburg are hard at work seeking to make it impossible to adopt carbon pricing or any other regulation ever again. Please contact your state legislators and tell them to VOTE NO on SB 119 and HB 637. Also, the DEP is working on a plan to invest the RGGI auction revenues in PA’s clean energy future. When this plan is released later in April, a public comment period will follow. Stay tuned…
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 14, from 7:30-8:30 PM. Are You Ready for an Electric Car? The transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs) is speeding up. Please join PSEA for a free webinar exploring the ins and outs of owning and driving an electric car and what we might expect in the near future. We’ll hear from EV owner and enthusiast Marion Storey Biddle and we’ll also learn how a group of Penn State Engineering students are converting a hybrid vehicle into an all-electric vehicle. No registration required. Here’s the Zoom link: us02web.zoom.us/j/86011138065?pwd=emdId092cEI4QTh5d2FOcVRvajljUT09
April 19, from 7:00-8:30 PM. EJC Webinar: A Clean Energy Future: How We Get There at the Local Level. Speakers will focus on municipal and community-wide clean energy strategies. Guests include PA Rep. Dianne Herrin (former Mayor of West Chester Borough), Paula Kline (Eco-Justice Collaborative, Ready for 100 Chester County), and Steve Clark, Haverford Township Environmental Advisory Committee. See more info and register here.
April 16-25. Faith Climate Action Week—Sacred Ground: Cultivating Connections Between Our Faith, Our Food, and the Climate. This year for Earth Day, dig into a faith-based discussion with your congregation on the intersecting challenges of food insecurity, racial injustice, and the climate crisis, and how our faiths call us to respond through practical solutions. A free screening of the documentary “Kiss the Ground” along with discussion questions are available. For more info see Interfaith Power & Light’s website.
April 28 at 6:30 PM. “How Quakers are Working for Climate Justice.” FCNL’s April Quaker Changemaker event will feature Quakers who are working for a vision of climate justice and creation care through legislative advocacy, direct action, protests, sustainability work, and more. Friends involved in this social change ecosystem will talk about their experiences, goals, and concerns in pursuing “an earth restored. Register for FCNL’s event.
April 28 and May 26 at 8:00 PM. QEW and FGC Host Worship Sharing. Quaker Earthcare Witness is hosting monthly online worship sharing groups in partnership with Friends General Conference. Together we are creating more opportunities for Friends to be in spiritual community with one another. We gather every last Wednesday of the month at 8:00pm EST. Register to receive the link to the upcoming sessions.
RESOURCES
Eco Justice Collaborative Presentation on current work
In this PowerPoint, you will also find links to previous EJC webinars, the EJC video “Race, Climate, Justice: We’re All In This Together,” the EJC Climate Justice Minute, and many other resources.
EJC Webinar “Why the Crises We Face Make Economic Reform Essential”
On Feb 23, 2021, guests Walt McRee and Ellen Brown joined us to talk about Public Banking, as well as other financial and economic reforms that could provide the funding needed to address the climate crisis and other crises our nation faces. Watch the webinar video recording. For information about the Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator legislation recently introduced by Senators Markey and Van Hollen and Rep. Dingell, see this article.
State Climate Policy Network
This ClimateXChange project includes more than 11,000 advocates and policymakers across the country who are pushing for effective and equitable climate policies in their states. ClimateXChange provides tools to advance their campaigns and increase cross-collaboration. Find emissions numbers for every participating state as well the status of each state’s climate plan. EJC member Liz Robinson gave the PA report on the March 31st State Climate Policy Network National Call. Watch the video recording.
“Here’s What’s in President Biden’s $2 Trillion Infrastructure Proposal”
NPR breaks down President Biden’s proposed infrastructure bill that, “if enacted, would overhaul how Americans get from Point A to Point B, how their electricity is generated, the speed of their Internet connections, the quality of their water and the physical makeup of their children’s schools.” Read the full article.
“How to drive fossil fuels out of the US economy”
This VOX article says “The US has everything it needs to decarbonize by 2035” without even increasing efficiency. We just need the will to implement policies to support the work. Read the full article.
Inside the Greenhouse
View the April 2021 Issue of “Inside the Greenhouse” by Mariah Shriner, FCNL Program Assistant, Sustainable Energy and the Environment.
BeFriending Creation (January-February-March 2021 Issue)
BeFriending Creation, the printed journal of Quaker Earthcare Witness, is published quarterly. Articles in this first edition of 2021 include, “Equality-Equity-Justice: The Transportation Case Example” by Beverly G. Ward, “Examining Institutional Racism” by Lauri Langham, and “Water Protectors Block Line 3” by the Giniw Collective. Read BeFriending Creation.
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) Mini-Grants
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) is a network of Quakers seeking to live in right relationship with Earth and in unity with nature. The QEW Mini-Grants Committee provides small matching grants to help fund Friends’ projects that put this principle into practice. We are looking for projects to support those who help with providing food, involve youth, or help with challenging racial/ethnic barriers.
We are set up so that we can only fund through Quaker Meetings, Churches, Camps, Schools etc. If your Quaker organization is doing a project that meets our criteria, we invite you to apply. If you are an individual Quaker, involved with a project that meets our criteria, perhaps your Meeting could adopt the project. This would enable us to fund you. Our maximum matching grant is $500. More details are on the Mini-Grant application form.
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