Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a good holiday break. I did. The family is great. Lots of storytelling. Some of them true.
This is my end-of-year blog post. I hope to do periodic SPG posts in 2018. I invite you to contribute as well. More on that later. In this entry I’d like to cover: reflections of 2017, the political environmentalist – or the environmental politician, how to frame our work in 2018, and more. Let’s get started.
Marching Our Way Through 2017
How many marches or rallies did you go to? Marching with and for: women, immigrants, healthcare, the warming world, scientists, the arctic wilderness, people impacted by pipelines here and in the Dakotas, the EPA, the Utah wilderness, solar energy in the PECO region.
How many environmental educational lectures and films did you attend? We learned about: PA environmental legislation buried in the budget plan, poisonous chemicals in our daily lives, the health and history of the Schuylkill River, saving money through energy efficiency, sustainable gardening practices, marine pollution, GMOs, bio digesters, a vision of Tomorrow.
Did you explore the last year? We explored the: Woodmont Cemetery on snow shoes, birds in Honey Hollow, the Del Canal Path with hot chocolate, W Phila gardens on bikes, took a twilight paddle on the Giving Pond, Ralph Stover Park by moonlight and more.
Did you promote renewable energy last year? Our Ready For 100 % Renewable Energy projects organized and volunteers and convinced elected officials in Philadelphia, Chester County, Montgomery County and Bucks that setting goals to transition to 100% clean renewable energy is good for our communities.
How many SC endorsed candidates did you campaign with last year? We had 5 winners across the region. Wait till you see what Sierra Club volunteers can do in 2018.
Did you speak out about pollution, lax government oversight or corporate greed? We don’t get mad, we organize. SPG had committees leading the resistance against: pipelines, over-use of pesticides, incinerators, power plants, oil trains, suburban sprawl, ground contaminants.
Did you join the Sierra Club this year? Welcome. Southeastern PA Group’s membership swelled by almost 3,000 to 13,000. Impressive. I hope we can keep your interest and put your dues to good use.
How many of you imbibed with a tree hugger? We had fun this year, too, at the: holiday social, RF100/PHL Launch Party, happy hours and meet & greets with local elected officials.
Is environmentalism a partisan issue?
Seems like everything is a partisan issue these days. Here’s something I’ve learned, I think, about affecting change through legislation – or lobbying for/against legislation. It’s not enough to convince an elected official that 
voting/signing/opposing this or that is the right thing to do for the planet, region, district. We have to show her that doing so will get them reelected. And that means rallies, petitions, group lobbying, headlines.
To borrow a couple lines from Jason Mark, the editor in chief of the Sierra Magazine (you all read the latest issue, right? If not, you are really missing out on a great publication): “Such intensifying political divisions present a real challenge for an organization like the Sierra Club, which has long sought to transcend partisan labels. … That is, the belief that everyone, regardless of race or creed, has equal rights to clean air, clean water and a stable climate as well as access to wild places. After all, the vast majority of life on Earth (trees, wolves, wildflowers , songbirds) doesn’t give a damn about party affiliations.”
What’s up with 2018?
OK, this section is going to read like a call for volunteers, because our goals are to affect more change. Do all of the things we did last year – thank you to those volunteers that made that happen – and do more. Which we can’t do without more leaders and more volunteers.
Mid-term Elections – when someone mentions “2018” to me these days the first thing I think of is “mid-term elections”. Which is sad. I’ve never had a politics-first mentality. But we’ve had to play so much defense in the last year that it has become so very important that we make changes in both the US and PA legislature. This is our opportunity to limit the damage that has been done to environmental protection and clean energy and climate policy.
Join our political endorsement teams HERE. We have a team in every county.
Education – for years SPG has hosted an environmental lecture series at the Community College of Philadelphia. It’s time to engage with more members in a wider area and more often. We are developing plans to host a lecture series at West Chester University, move our CCP series to City CoHo and other venues, expand our Tuesday mini-program (30 min) call-in program, and look for ad hoc lecture and film viewing opportunities around the region.
Renewable Energy – the Ready For 100 project has established committees in Philadelphia, Chester and Montgomery counties. We hope to organize in Delaware and Bucks counties this year. And wherever volunteers are passionate.
Environmental Issue Committees – water quality, air quality, fugitive methane leaks, lead in our water or peeling from our walls, excessive use of pesticides by local governments, ground contamination from long defunct industries, preservation of open space, resisting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure. We want to expand the support for existing committees and make it easy for new committees to form, attract like-minded volunteers and effect change. We are looking for ways to improve our issue committee support structure.
Join/start a specific committee or be on the committee-support team HERE.
Outings – We want to lead more outings in 2018. More outings with kids. More outings that connect us with environmental issues. To do that we need more trained outings leaders.
Join the outings leadership team HERE.
That’s it for my year-end, year-begin post. Reach out to me or any of the SPG Executive Committee with thoughts or suggestions for your local Sierra Club oversight. Sierra Club is a members-led organization. We work on whatever our volunteers raise their hands to work. Staff and expertise is there for our support - it's up to us as volunteers to take advantage of those resources. Together we can Explore, Enjoy and Protect this planet for our grandchildren.
Jim