Local Stories of Pennsylvania towns Ignored by Officials; A New Documentary focuses on the Horrors of Gas Drilling
Local Stories of Pennsylvania towns Ignored by Officials; A New Documentary focuses on the Horrors of Gas Drilling
Gas Rush Stories; Life Above the Marcellus Shale is a special documentary that features local stories from Pennsylvania residents. What is it like for a cattle farmer who lost stock due to gas drilling, grain farmer who leased her land for drilling six years ago, company that is recycling frack wastewater and cancer-survivor-fractivist who helps people who have been negatively impacted by drilling? This documentary tells a story beyond the polarized fracking debate and humanizes the issue impact of gas drilling. More here: http://bit.ly/13n2ZDF
State-ordered Fracking Process may be Causing Earthquakes
By Deborah Dupre
Scientific investigation will determine whether the state-ordered removal of crude and natural gas in a cavern may have lead to earthquakes in the Bayou Corne sinkhole area. http://exm.nr/XCnytD
May 2nd 4:30 - Doylestown's Football Team Greets Jeremiah Trotter on the Red Carpet; Ticket Raffle for Theater Seats to those in Costume
On Thursday, May 2 beginning at 4:30pm, CB West students will regale the County Theater red carpet crowd with contests and prizes in celebration of the preview screening of The North Star, a feature film shot in Bucks County by local filmmaker and CBW alumnus, Thomas Phillips. In keeping with the historic themed film, local residents and students alike are invited to wear costumes reflecting any period in American history in order to enter to win a ticket to see the preview screening.
The two hour event of student talent and contests will culminate with the drawing and with students walking along the horse drawn carriage carrying filmmakers and the film's actors.
Join the County Theater event at 20 East State Street, Doylestown, PA. For more information, call the Doylestown Historical Society at 215-345-9430.
April 6th, beginning at 11AM - Lenape Crossroads Celebrations!
April 6th - 11AM - Tickets available at the Door of Doylestown Presbyterian Church, Mechanics Street behind Courthouse - An opening blessing by visiting Native American scholar Evan Pritchard will be followed by a special presentation about the origins of the crossroads of State and Main Streets in Doylestown in preparation for a Historic Marker Dedication Ceremony with the Doylestown Mayor and Borough President at 2pm.
Local participating merchants are offering visitors a 10% Discount. The secret? Look for Lenape Flyer in the window and say, "Doylestown Historical Society" during your purchase. You will get 10% off.
Basically Burgers 32 N. Main Street - Stan's Vitamins & Supplements 17 W. Court Street - Classic Cigar 12 N. Main Street - IWEAR Optical Boutique 16 W State Street - Doylestown Bookshop 16 S. Main Street -Days Inn 625 N. Main Street -
Rob’s Bar 52 East State Street - Classic Cigar 12 N. Main Street - House of Coffee 22 N. Main Street - Artistic Eyewear 10 S. Main Street -
Hickory Kitchen 9 West Court Street - Go HandleBar Yogurt 12 S. Main Street - Caffe Alessia 24 North Main Street - Nuts Plus 46-52 E. State Street -
Coach’s Hoagie Shop 44 East State Street - Sweet Spot 33 N. Main Street - Poor Richard's - crafts, gifts 28 S. State Street -Yours Truly - Soaps, gifts 38 East State Street -
Cowgirl Chile Co. 52 E. State Street - Primo Hoagie Shop, 6 East Court Street -Smoking Lil’s 91 W. Court Street
To become a volunteer at the Doylestown Historical Society and for more information, about the March and April events, contact Doylestown Historical Society; 215-345-9430.
Saturdays in March: DHS Exhibit; Where did our Town come from? Lenape Life before Doylestown and April 6th Historic Marker Dedication Day
Saturdays in March 10am-4pm - The Doylestown Historical Society (DHS) will present an exhibit and series of Expert Guides to present, “Where Did Our Town Come From?” The exhibit acknowledges the lives and ways of the Lenape People in Doylestown dating back to 1000 A.D.
The Native American Alliance of Bucks County leaders, Barbara Bluejay Michalski and Nokomis will present on March 16th and 23rd respectively. The Churchville Nature Center Lenape Village director Marge Custer will accompany them with demonstrations.
To become a volunteer at the Doylestown Historical Society and for more information, about the March and April events, contact Doylestown Historical Society; 215-345-9430.
Community Celebrates and Stands Against Bank Takeover of Thorpe Organic Farm
Thorpe First Nation Organic Farm in beautiful Bucks County near Washington Crossing beckons all friends to join a celebration of organic farming on March 3-4th. Drummers, singers, dancers, artists, storytellers, musicians and audiences show support to right the wrongs against family farmers that have been putting their sweat to stay organic and have ethically-raised, free-range and grass-fed animals. Friends are stand with with Thorpe Farm Friends against ongoing harassment and violation of rights after a bait and switch on a mortgage loan. To offer emergency legal help on potential bank fraud case, or investment funding please contact the Thorpes. Emailmailto:thorpefarm@gmail.com.
Redhawk, cousin to Olympian Jim Thorpe, owns one of the last Native American Organic farms near where our nation began - Washington Crossing, PA, and was once owned by colonist Peter Stuyesant. To keep this farm in the family that has owned it for several decades, please offer your advice on FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/THTzk4
Hear Dale Redhawk, his wife Renee and his accountant speak about the dirty tricks played by the bank. http://bit.ly/114CyFg
Unsubsidized Renewable Energy is Now Cheaper than Fossil Fuels
By Thom Hartmann, The Daily Take | Op-Ed
Unlike the United States, where energy companies can pollute and have the costs (from illness to environmental degradation) picked up by the taxpayers, Australia has a carbon tax, which partially explains why renewables have a price advantage. But the data shows that even without the cost of carbon tax factored in; wind energy is still 14-cents cheaper than coal and 18-cents cheaper than gas. Read More:http://bit.ly/WYq8HC
Feb 10 12-4PM - NATIVE AMERICANS AND FRIENDS TO CELEBRATE THE COMING OF THE BISON TO THORPE FIRST NATION ORGANIC FAMILY FARM
By Doreen Stratton
The Bison is a great spiritual symbol to Native Americans, revered for their abundance and manifestation. Numerous websites show that as many as 25 to 70 million Bison once roamed the American Continent, from the East Coast to the West Coast. On Saturday February 9 and Sunday February 10, Native Americans—including drummers, healers, and storytellers--will gather at the Thorpe Farm to celebrate the coming of the Bison. The ceremonies on each day will take place from 12 noon until 4 pm. The public is invited to attend.
Pamper yourself! To thank Thorpe supporters, friends and family, on Saturday, free healing energy works will be offered by healer, Louis Leckner. Free Native American storytelling will be led by Lenape Cultural Leader Bluejay Barbara Michalski. Shop at the Thorpe Organic Family Farm and Garden Center - - 10-6pm. Call 215-872-8042. Reasonable prices on all items including fully stocked bison meat. Find Save the Thorpe Organic Farm on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/VftIy0
Methane Leaks Near Water Supplies of Towns Erode the Clean Reputation of Natural Gas
By Jeff Toffefson
Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado in Boulder, suggest that up to 4% of the methane produced at a field near Denver was escaping into the atmosphere. If methane — a potent greenhouse gas — is leaking from fields across the country at similar rates, it could be offsetting much of the climate benefit of the ongoing shift from coal- to gas-fired plants for electricity generation. Read more: http://bit.ly/Ua2Suh
Jan 5th - 6PM - Idle No More - Support Efforts Against Poverty and Land Theft from First Nation Peoples - Nr. Macy's Fountain Courtyard - Neshaminy Mall, Bensalem, PA
By Nokomis
It's lively and spirited! Come out and dance in support of the international First Nation peoples and non-aboriginal supporters inspired by the hunger strike by Attawapiskat Chief Spence to bring attention to abuses of people and treaty rights. Neshaminy mall, Sat. Jan. 5th at 5:30pm - Fountain Courtyard by Macy's! Join the fun and revelry and help shine a spotlight!
This is a historical time period with Chief Spence making a silent resistance for Native Peoples of Canada and fight for justice. The strength for change comes from moments like this, and will forever build the foundation for a voice in legislation and remove poverty. http://bit.ly/U1b7J7
The River that Connects Us; Sign Up for the 2013 Delaware River Sojourn - June 23 - 29th
The Sojourn is a seven-day guided paddling trip on the wild and scenic Delaware River, combining canoeing/kayaking, camping, educational programs, historical interpretation, and more. It is for novice to experienced paddlers of all ages; participants can sign up for the whole event or for the section(s) or day(s) of their choice.
Studies and research have shown that being active outside can help combat certain health problems, as well as teach important lessons of conservation and valuation of our vast natural resources. In this region, there is no need to travel far to be with nature; the Delaware River is close by, a gas tank away from about 23% of the nation's population. Find out moreL
Local Farms Studied for Peer-reviewed Report Suggesting a link Between Gas Drilling and Illness in Food Animals
By Elizabeth Royte
Earlier this year, Michelle Bamberger, an Ithaca veterinarian, and Robert Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, published the first (and, so far, only) peer-reviewed report to suggest a link between fracking and illness in food animals. The authors compiled case studies of twenty-four farmers in six shale-gas states whose livestock experienced neurological, reproductive and acute gastrointestinal problems.
Exposed either accidentally or incidentally to fracking chemicals in the water or air, scores of animals have died. The death toll is insignificant when measured against the nation’s livestock population (some 97 million beef cattle go to market each year), but environmental advocates believe these animals constitute an early warning. http://bit.ly/QVJsIp
Wed. Nov. 28th - 7PM - Bucks Transition Group presents "The Koch Brothers Exposed" - Free Film Screening
The Bucks Transition Group will be holding a free film screening of the film, "The Koch Brothers Exposed" at the Byn Gweled Community Center, 1805 Meadow Road, Southampton, PA. The film is an expose on the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who helped finance the conservative political advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity. Coffee will be served. People are encouraged to bring and share pot luck snacks.
A Heartfelt Thank You For All Who Worked to Fulfill the Democratic Dream of a Robust; Voter Idea #1
So many residents of Bucks County, PA worked hard to fulfill the American Dream of working for their desired leader. Now we can pull together under one umbrella, no longer separate. It's time to build a sustainable Bucks County and to share with our neighbors in this process. Let's celebrate our differences as we embrace the future. And before you do, take a deserved rest.
Nov. 6th New Voters Still Need IDs - Previous Voters Will Be Asked For Photo ID's to Placate the Pro Photo ID Judge Who Lost the Case - Check Here for Details
Pennsylvania's Voter ID/Voter Suppression Law was put on hold by a temporary injunction and now there is a push to repeal the law from forever being enacted. Polls close at 8PM. Citizens are being urged to participate in having their voices heard to abolish this law. http://bit.ly/OHs3SE
Still, previous voters will be asked for photo ID's as a concession to the judge who had to vacate the law for 2012. Previous voters are not required to show a photo ID.
New voters, as always, must show an ID - either Photo or Non-Photo. Here's what new voters can bring to the polls on November 6th:
PHOTO:
PennDOT IDs (drivers or non drivers), ID issued by US Government, ID issued by any Commonwealth Agency, US Passport, US Armed Forces ID, Student ID
Employee ID
NON-PHOTO:
Voter Registration card, Non-Photo ID issued by the US Government, Non-Photo ID issued by any Commonwealth Agency, Firearm Permit, Current Bank Statement, Current Utility Bill, Current paycheck, Government check. For more information contact: 1866OurVote or Bucks County Board of Elections at 215-348-6166.
Groups File Amicus Briefs in Support of PA Communities’ Rights to Make Zoning Decisions on Fracking
Several Pennsyvania groups have conjoined in an amicis brief to petition the PA Supreme Court to petition for home rule for the townships of Wilkins (Allegheny County), East Finley (Washington County) and Tinicum (Bucks County); the municipalities of Murrysville (Westmoreland County) and Monroeville (Allegheny County); the Borough of Bell Acres (Allegheny County), and the City of Bethlehem (Northampton and Lehigh Counties). An excerpt reads:
“A heavy industrial activity like fracking has an enormous impact on the character of a community, its economic prosperity, and the health and happiness of its residents,” said Dan Raichel, project attorney at NRDC. “It’s only commonsense that communities should have the right to say whether or how fracking takes place within their borders.”
The groups include the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Planning Association, Pennsylvania State ASsociation of Boroughs, Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS), Pittsburgh City Council, Mountain Watershed Association and Earthjustice. More here: http://bit.ly/PzuiEd
CITIZEN TO CITIZEN - What They Learned from the Public about the Need for Photo ID
Holding a 20 foot horizontal sign at Doylestown’s ‘Free Speech Corner’ on Wednesday September 12th, volunteers with Citizen to Citizen carrying a message: 25,000 registered voters in Bucks County, 750,000 across Pennsylvania and some 5 million in the US may not have the required photo ID to vote in the November 6, 2012 Presidential election. There’s not enough time or volunteers to help them all.
People stopped to ask about the statistics some had more to say. One woman suggested that voters who don’t have a photo ID should come to the polls anyway with their Social Security, proof of residence and birth certificate and be given a Penn Dot photo ID on the spot. A man showed his two-year expired non-driver PA photo ID. (The photo ID’s cannot be expired over one year.) He was advised to call Citizen to Citizen and arrange for help in finding documents and a ride to the DMV. A woman even asserted that registered voters birthed at home who do not have a birth certificate and can’t get a photo ID shouldn’t have the right to vote.
Bucks County is celebrated as the birthplace of democracy following General George Washington’s victory in crossing the Delaware from his headquarters in Bucks. Participating volunteers agree that democratic principles do not exist here if people who voted legally in the past are unable to do so in the 2012 Presidential Election.
Wed, Sept. 12th - 5PM - CITIZEN TO CITIZEN Will Rally in Doylestown about Supreme Court Decision on Republican Voter photo
By Doreen Stratton
On Wednesday, September 12Citizens to Citizens (CTC), a Bucks County grass roots group helping registered voters secure the proper documents to vote in the November 6th Presidential election will take to the streets. CTC will rally at the corner of W. State and S. Main Streets in Doylestown from 5:00 pm until 6:00 pm to ask the question: “Why doesn’t the Supreme Court know?” With the Pennsylvania Supreme Court scheduled to hear the appeal of the Voter ID Law in Philadelphia Court on Thursday, September 13th, Citizen to Citizen is calling on people to express their outrage that insufficient voter outreach has been undertaken on a PA law that violates a basic right for all Americans: The Right to Vote.
The PA Supreme Court needs to be reminded that more outreach is needed for the 25,000 registered voters in Bucks County and possibly one million across the Commonwealth do not have the information or a way to get a photo/voter ID in order to vote. Citizen volunteers have been the primary workers for this task, but thousands more volunteers are needed across the State of PA and hundreds are needed in Bucks County to reach all of these voters. There is not enough time. A computer list generated by the PA Department of State for outreach effortsis not helpful. Robin Stelly, of Penn Action and Citizen to Citizen spoke at a September 4th CTC press conference at General Washington’s “House of Decision” in New Hope. She said of the DOS list, “Names are inaccurate; contact information is wrong and cold calling does not work.” More details of the CTC Video Alert can be watched here:
Urgent Appeal for Thousands More Voter ID Volunteers across PA - Hundreds Needed in Bucks County
WATCH HERE: Citizen to Citizen Video Press Conference Alert:http://bit.ly/NiMTpr
Hundreds more volunteers needed to help 25,000 registered voters obtain Photo ID cards, and thousands across the state to reach almost one million voters before the election. A computer list by the PA Department of State is not helpful; names are Inaccurate, it contains wrong contact information and “Cold calling does not work.” Citizen to Citizen continues its outreach at local events, and at human services agencies that helps dispossessed voters without a permanent address.
This press conference took place at the House of Decision, where Gen. George Washington took a stand to rally the troops and win the war for democracy.
Citizen to Citizen Encourages Previously Legal Voters Get a 2012 Photo I.D.s to Vote in this Presidential Election
See new video by citizens who want to help citizens get a valid Photo ID: http://bit.ly/OL89Fe
Estimates of 1.5 million PA voters without a photo ID by MSNBC this week are double what Bucks County voting activists received from the Department of State only weeks ago. The DOS offered a County Task Force a lower estimate of 750 thousand PA residents without a photo ID and some 25,500 in Bucks County. Without a true calculation, efforts to help people obtain photo ID needs to be stepped up. For this reason, the youtube video has been produced by Doreen Stratton, a Doylestown resident, as a collaborative effort to encourage people to act fast.
It often takes weeks to obtain documents for a valid photo ID. Contact Citizen to Citizen at 215-230-3579 for more information on how to identify the necessary documents for a Photo ID. Or email mailto:bucksphotoid@gmail.com.
Citizen to Citizen also needs more volunteers to help distribute materials that encourage people to check to see if they have one of the six categories of official photo ID's under the new law, including: 1) a valid photo ID issued by the US, local municipality or state, 2) a PA driver's license or a non-driver photo ID that has not expired within the 12 months of election day, 3) a photo ID by a school, 4) a military ID, 5) a valid passport, 6) a photo ID issued by a long term assisted-living or nursing care facility.
The government has come up with a plan to offer only PA-born residents a photo ID specifically for use in this year's election. Voters born outside of PA will still have to produce a birth certificate or social security card for a valid photo ID card, and may still need help in obtaining these documents. They may also need rides to the DMV or the Social Security office. Citizen to Citizen can help and encourages people to email or call for help as soon as possible because obtaining the proper documents can take weeks and possibly two trips to the DMV before a Photo I.D. is approved even for people who were legal voters in the past.
To ensure they will be eligible for this new ID, people can email mailto:bucksphotoid@gmail.comto find out or call215-230-3579. People with no valid ID at all should use the service's help to get a photo ID.
Bucks County is celebrated as the birthplace of democracy following General George Washington’s victory in crossing the Delaware from his headquarters in Bucks. Participating volunteers agree that democratic principles do not exist here if people who voted legally in the past are unable to do so in the 2012 Presidential Election.
Bucks County Sen. Chuck McIlhinney Leads the Way for Moratorium by Other PA Counties on Gas Drilling: Talk to Chuck; Citizens Celebrate at Washington Crossing;
The moratorium by Sen. Chuck McIlhinney to block gas drilling came in right under the summer break as part of a promise he made to constituency this year that he would petition to prevent gas drilling in Bucks County.http://bit.ly/LKPWF6The moratorium also covers Montgomery, and parts of Lehigh county. It blocks the EPA from issuing permits until further studies are completed. Read more: http://bit.ly/MLNLia.The push by McIlhinney caught citizens by surprised:
Wrightstown: “I’m for anything that will stop gas drilling so that we can look further into it and block a disaster. What’s the hurry? Why can’t we get all of the facts? Do even the legislators understand it or is it strictly a money matter? Until we get time to get all the facts together before we rush it let’s get it right for a change,” says Tina Hayes.
Doylestown: "Let us celebrate. A statewide moritorium could take place now. Legislators still don't know what to do with this chemically-treated water after gas drilling happens. No treatment plant can handle this water. The ones who voted for this put the cart before the horse," says Doreen Stratton.
Buckingham: "We all want the rush for instant pudding and we don’t get the facts and we mess things up. Let people really understand what the situation is. I dare any one in the legislature to right now get up and explain what the drilling would do and what the impact would do. I don’t think they know, if they don’t know how can they vote?" asks David Scott.
Doylestown: “It’s about time legislators listen to the people rather than the vendors. Who stands for the people, and who stands for the vendors?” asks Rebecca Kelly.
Richboro: “It’s another matter of a push by those who have money to push something through for a change. I laud anyone who wants to take their time and get the truth. I like anybody who will take their time and get the facts out," said Maryanne Gould at The House of Decisions in Washington Crossing Park, Bucks County (where the principles of the Declaration of Independence were established and the decision to cross the Delaware happened.) "General George Washington stayed here after the Congress in Philadelphia had given up and left before the British could invade. Legislators need to take an oath to the Declaration of Independence today to explain how any vote supports the principles of the Declaration of Independence,” says Gould.
The unanimous Declarationof the thirteen unitedStates of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Petition: Bucks County Citizens Want Signatures Against Gas Drilling and Act 13 Gas Drilling Law
Now that gas deposits have been confirmed to exist under Bucks County, residents want lawmakers to oppose Act 13 that abolishes local zoning to allow drilling and open pits of drilling waste.
"Constitution of the Commonwealth of PA permits citizen initiatives to protect our air, water and land," the petition says. To sign the petition, click here: http://bit.ly/NrMZJW
Buck County’s Rep. Marguerite Quinn (PA-143), a long time supporter of gas drilling is targeted for a petition that says: "REPEAL ACT 13 and return local zoning control back to the townships and municipalities of Pennsylvania.”
Residents are worried that Quinn, an architect of the law, is focused on revenue and unaware of the environmental pollution to water aquifers, which run down stream. The proposed drilling is to begin in the northern most quarter of Bucks. Drilling can potentially affect the entire county. http://bit.ly/KZDG0P
Despite Bucks County Citizen Opposition, Toll Brothers Wants Supreme Court Ruling on Development Tracts in Newtown and Upper Makefield; Deadline for Citizen Responses
By Carol Stuckley
It has been several long years in the challenge to defeat Toll’s proposed rezoning (knownas the FCO validity challenge)of several land parcels for high density housingin Upper Makefield and Newtown Townships.
Despite Toll’s deep pockets, residentsvanquished Toll in the Doylestown Court of Common PleasinMarch2010andthen, after Toll’s appeal,in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania(March 2011). Toll subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court of PAandjustfiled its case onMay 18, 2012.
Residents who are“legal parties” to the case will file their response to Toll’s brief within the time frame required by the Court. It is expected that the case will be argued before the Supreme Court session scheduled in Harrisburg for November 2012.
If anyone would like a copy of Toll’s filing (i.e. not exactly brief at 182 pages) please contact me. mailto:carol.stuckley@gmail.com
Ph.D Candidate Needs Help - Project Measures Fracking Effect on Local Streams
I am looking for landowners in the Upper and West Branch watersheds of the Susquehanna (particularly in Potter, Tioga, Bradford, Susquehanna, Cameron, Clinton, Lycoming, Sullivan, Wyoming, and Clearfield Counties) who have small streams (headwaters and creeks) on their properties that they would be willing to let me survey.
PLEASE email if you have ANY questions. Thanks for reading.
Yesterday at the Bucks County Commissioners Meeting, Pastor Darryl Jones, Sr. of the Concerned Pastors of Bristol delivered over 1,800 signatures collected in support of a county task force. But before he did, Commissioner Loughery proposed the creation of a Bucks County Voter ID Educational Steering Committee. You can listen to Comm. Loughery describe the proposed Steering Committee starting at the 1:37:00 mark of this audio http://bit.ly/JWIypW. The proposal the Commissioner read would form a Bucks County Voter ID Educational Campaign Steering Committee. Come to Commissioners Meeting on May 16th 10AM at Archbishop Wood High School, 655 York Road, Warminster, PA. Share your views on voting rights and more.
Homegrown Prosperity From the Bottom Up - The Economic Potential of BioDiesel Fuel for Farmers, Small Businesses
The experiences of farmers and local entrepreneurs in their public and private partnerships to start a new industry are examined insix case studies on biodiesel industry as it is emerging in the rural economies across the region. Information is offered in the form of public and private partnerships to start a new industry. They assess the potential contributions of this new economic engine to rural income and jobs. The economic potential, legal and systemic issues, sustainability, are offered as well as available technical assistance and financial resources.
In Bethlehem, creating a zero carbon community has begun as part of Stone House Group’s project called zero-carbon neighborhood. The proposed gastropub at 409 and 411 Wyandotte St. will include three apartments, and the company hopes to build new housing in the neighborhood to provide homes for possibly 100 people.
Retrofitting 100-year-old buildings like these to make them energy efficient is far more expensive than constructing new green technology buildings, but it fits into the environmental goal of revitalizing urban neighborhoods where people can walk or use public transportation.
The company’s dish-shaped solar collector is cheaper and lighter than standard solar panels but can produce as much energy, according to President and CEO J. Paul Eisenhuth. CEWA’s collector costs about $15,000 to $20,000 compared to about $200,000 for an array of solar panels that produce the same amount of energy, he said. Read more: http://bit.ly/ICsMhJ
17 Water Withdrawals on Hold to Protect Streams Below Normal Precipitation; Why Not Adopt an Official on this Issue?
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission today announced that 17 separate water withdrawals approved by SRBC are temporarily suspended due to localized stream flow levels dropping throughout the Susquehanna basin.
“Hydrologic conditions have been on a steady decline for some time following a winter with very little snow and below normal rainfall this spring,” said SRBC executive director Paul Swartz. “As a result of low streamflows in many portions of the basin, 17 individual water withdrawals affecting 10 companies in 5 Pennsylvania counties have been temporarily suspended by virtue of the Commission’s passby flow restrictions. The majority of those suspended withdrawals are related to water for natural gas development.” More here: http://bit.ly/HU079H
Thursday, April 19, 2012 7-10PM MEETING PA Come as Governor's New Local Gas Drilling Law is Reviewed by Citizen in Bucks County, PA; Why Not Adopt an Official on this Issue?
On Thursday, April 19th, 7-10PM at Palisade's High School, join a citizen discussion with the Gallows Run Shed Watershed Group to discuss the PA Governor's new law that supports gas drilling near the homes, communities and businesses all across Pennsylvania. Find out who benefits and who doesn't. The Palisade's High School is located at 35 Churchville Road, in Kintnersville, PA. Contact 215-493-1848 for more information. More here:http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/about/event.aspx?Id=214
Are state lawmakers using their official positions to influence elections? House Majority Leader Mike Turzai said the various elections proposals are not linked, but Bonita Hoke of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania sees things differently, according to the Associated Press.
"This is continual, in a lot of different ways," Hoke said. "It's like somebody sat up at night and tried to figure out all the ways you can disenfranchise people, and all from one party. Read more:
The VOTER SUPPRESSION PHOTO ID BILL - Adopt an Official
By Madeline Rawley
The House will be voting this week, possibly as early as Monday, on the Senate amended version of the PHOTO ID bill. This is the last step before Governor Corbett signs the bill and it becomes the law, effective for this November’s presidential election.
This PHOTO ID bill will prevent voters who do not have a driver’s license, passport, military card or Pennsylvania accredited institution of high learning student ID from voting. “Free” photo identification cards are available at DMV offices but require birth certificate, marriage certificate, social security card, and two proofs of residency + a trip to the DMV to obtain. Voters can vote on a provisional ballot on election but must get photo ID to the courthouse in six days. If you don’t have Photo ID, the provisional ballot will NOT be counted.
Doesn’t this sound like rigging an election in advance so to keep some of the elderly, urban residents, and lower income voters from voting? And trying to win an election by crooked means?
This is your last chance to stop this bill from becoming law in Pennsylvania, a swing state in what could be a very close election.
Please don’t have regrets that you didn’t act to preserve democracy. E-mail your state representative NOW – and call his/her office as soon as you can. Ask them to vote “NO” on this unnecessary, disenfranchising and costly bill.
Canadian Surface Rights Landowners Association Will Hold Gas Drillers "Criminally Responsible" for Contamination
Jan 13, 2012 - Don Bester, president of the Alberta Surface Rights Group, which represents 1,400 landowners, told The Tyee that if the government doesn't "step up to the plate," the group will hold politicians"criminally responsible" for any horizontal drilling incidents that contaminate groundwater or leak poisonous hydrogen sulfide.
Bester's high profile group called for a full moratorium on hydraulic fracturing last week after a Calgary-based company injected fluids at such high pressure into a 1,800-metre-deep oil formation that the liquids travelled more than 1.2 kilometre underground and ruptured an oil well near Innisfail, Alberta on Jan. 13.
Sat. Jan. 28th 12N-4PM - Re-Imagine: Living Well With Less
The Bucks Transition Group is sponsoring, “Re-Imagine: Living Well With Less” on Saturday, January 28th from 12:00 - 4:00 pm in the Pearl S. Buck Meeting Room of the DOYLESTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY. Organizers have adopted the theme, “Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle, Rebuild.” Anyone can lead a session during this fun and informative event.
“Re-Imagine” offers people the opportunity to promote your business, socialize while learning more about making better use of resources and saving money on everything from home energy to clothing, food and transportation and making their homes greener and their lives more enjoyable.
Whether businessperson, expert or resident, an Open Space forum offers participants the opportunity to lead by sharing what they know, or by asking about what they don’t know. Each session results in lively discussions by the diverse audience. Individuals have expressed interest in holding sessions on bicycling, composting, gardening, home canning, clothing re-use. Others may lead sessions with questions about consignment and thrift shops, food recovery, backyard livestock with experts and other attendees helping to provide answers. Making use of daylight and solar energy, re-purposing of discarded items and materials, recycling, water conservation and even first response effectiveness, are some of the other topics that people have plans to lead.
Keynote speakers include Bucks County Commissioner Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia, and presenters from Del-Val College and Terracycle.
Major DRBC Meeting Cancelled After Massive Public Mobilization Against Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling
By Iris Bloom
In a stunning victory for all of us who value public health, the Delaware River Basin Commission has cancelled their public meeting on November 21st, planned for the 1,800 seat Patriots Theater in the War Memorial in Trenton on Monday morning. Apparently the DRBC does not like to have their regulations voted down. Governor Markell of Delaware publicly announced he would vote against the proposed regulations, in the interest of science, public health and the environment. We are thrilled that some elected officials are listening to the outcry against high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling (fracking)!
The cancellation of the DRBC meeting is a turning of the wheel of the nation away from that insanity. We are taking the helm. We are going sane.
Tues - Nov 15th 6PM - Join Bucks County Citizen Training to Oppose Marcellas Shale - Lower Makefield Library
By Roderick Lancaster, III
Tues - Nov 15, 2011 6PM - Citizens are commencing training to protect the beauty of Bucks County, PA against damage from gas drilling. You'll learn from our staff and other organizers in the area how to effectively engage with decision makers on these issues, generate massive coverage in the media, and how to hold your elected officials accountable for their failure to tackle the Marcellus Shale gas drilling issue.
Already, 1,000 Pennsylvanians have joined the training and they say they need Bucks County, too. Drilling and exploration in the Marcellas Shale has resulted in deadly accidents and blowouts poison local streams and drinking water supplies; our state forests leased out as a cash cow with no regard for their natural beauty we all enjoy; and air emissions from gas wells exacerbate the smog pollution problems we already face here in Pennsylvania. Every month it becomes clearer that Marcellus Shale gas drilling is potentially the largest environmental disaster to ever hit Pennsylvania.
Throughout it all, gas-drilling companies and their allies in Harrisburg have fought back against efforts to put public health and the environment first. PEN Environment Director David Masur says:
Nov. 19th 2:30PM - Join Re-Imagine: Living Well on Less Planning Meeting
Creative ideas for people and communities will be offered during another popular "unconference event" in January, 2012. Re-Imagine: Living Well on Less will offer the most innovative ideas on energy saving, recycling, money saving household tips and how best to access first responders. Join the Bucks Transition Group at its regular monthly planning session on Saturday, November 21st at 2:30 PM. The meeting will be held at the Lower Makefield Township Bullding, 1100 Edgewood Road, Yardley, PA. Contact Gail Stringer at 212-295-7149.
Nov 4-6- 10 AM Join the Native American Alumni Homecoming - Penn Park Picnic Grove - U. Penn.
On Saturday 10 AM- The Association of Native Alumni invites you to join a land blessing ceremony and homecoming to honor the land upon which our Homecoming game will be played -- home to the Lenape People of both Penn and Princeton land. This ceremony will be held at the newest use of Lenape land, the beautiful Penn Park.
1PM - Franklin Field - 235 S. 33rd Street - Before the game between the Quakers and the Princeton Tigers, the Association of Native Alumni and the Natives at Penn student group will present a special Lenape Land tribute during the pregame opening presentation.
1PM - Arch Building - 3601 Locus Walk 1st Floor, Crest Room - Join the Natives at Penn for some snacks and a movie! Cynthia Paniagua will host a special matinee presentation of Soy Andina - an award winning film about Perue, its dance and identity.
6:30PM Houston Hall - Hall of Flags. A delicious global dinner will be enjoyed without leaving campus. Stop by the Native cuisine station. More here: http://www.alumni.upenn.edu/homecoming2011/
October 27th 7PM - Come to the Bucks County Legislative Forum on Local Education
By Robin Stelly
Thursday, October 27th 7PM - Join the Bucks County Legislative Forum at William Tennent High School, 333 Centennial Road,Warminster for an evening with key state legislators from Bucks County. The goal is to make education a priority to strengthen the economy and ensure a brighter future for all Pennsylvanians. Every legislator representing the Bucks County school districts is invited to attend to discuss their positions on public education and take questions from audience members.
Talking about our priorities with our elected officials and hearing their views on issues that are important to the community is a vital part of democracy. Don’t miss this important conversation!
Citizens Say November 21st is D-Day -- A Call for Involvement at the DRBC 7:30AM - Patriots Theater Meet in Trenton
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) will decide at its 10 a.m. meeting whether or not to adopt regulations that would allow gas drilling permits to be issued, thus ending the current moratorium in the Delaware River Watershed. If the five commissioners vote to approve, this invaluable watershed would ultimately be littered with some 20,000 wells, drilled horizontally and fracked with truckloads of toxic chemicals. Here is your opportunity to say "no" to the desecration of this water resource for some 15 million people. Details will follow about actions planned & transportation to the NJ state capitol.
Results of First Local Poll of Gas Drilling Impact Zone: Don't Bring Fracking Here
By Bruce Ferguson
In what is believed to be the first poll to focus on New Yorkers who live in an area likely to be impacted by “fracking”, a Pulse Opinion poll reveals that 7 out of 10 Sullivan County residents do not want to see “natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing” in their town. An even greater percent favor zoning ordinances to restrict the process. The poll was commissioned by the not-for-profit Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy.
Statewide polls have shown that most New Yorkers don’t think the rewards justify the risks. The current poll indicates that the great majority of people who will be directly affected reject gas drilling.
The poll of 500 county residents was conducted between October 1st and October 3rd. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5% and a 95% level of confidence. Residents who said they did not know enough about hydraulic fracturing to form an opinion were not included in the poll.
The questions:
Do you support natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing in your town?
27% Yes
69% No
4% Not sure
Would you support your town enacting zoning ordinances to restrict natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing?
Oct. 16th - GRAND OPENING FOR ALL! Lenape Exhibit; Fulfilling the Prophesy: Past and Present
By Shelley DePaul
On October 16th, 2011 from 10-4PM, the grand opening of the Lenape Nation Cultural Center welcomes you. A number of once-secret family heirlooms rich with hidden Lenape symbolism, dating from the early 19th century.
OCT 8th and 9th- 9AM Join G.O.A.L.'s TreeVitalize Tree Planting for Tullytown Borough, Bucks County!
By Ed Armstrong
Volunteers please step up for Bucks County! Meet GOAL members at 500 Main Street (behind Tullytown Borough Hall). Bring your refillable water bottle and lunch. GOAL plans a day of outdoor tree planting to vitalize the local Tullytown Park and Martin's Creek. There will be a planting by the Heritage Conversancy at the Bristol Marsh this Saturday - September 24th.
Tools and equipment will be provided. Bring yourselves, your friends and your family members for a day of comraderie, fresh air and an activity that strengthens community. For more information:
My name is David Daniel, and I'm a landowner from east Texas. Yesterday, I was arrested, for the first time in my life, in front of the White House. In the last week, over 500 people from across the country have have been arrested too. Let me explain why.
I purchased a beautiful 20-acre plot of land for my family to make our home. We take care of its 100-year-old trees, its wetlands, and waterways. My dream is to leave it for my daughter to enjoy with her family.
The Keystone XL pipeline, whose permit is on President Obama's desk today, would cut my property in half. But this isn't just about me; this is a national issue. It will damage wildlife habitat from Canada to the Gulf Coast, put our nation's largest aquifer at risk of contamination, and undermine our clean energy future. According to noted NASA climate scientist James Hansen, if we let this pipeline move forward, it's game over for our climate. Click here to reject the Keystone XL pipeline permit:
Tar sands oil is a particularly nasty type of oil, dwarfing crude oil in terms of its damage to our climate. There's almost as much carbon in this stuff as in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. Allowing this tar sands pipeline to go forward paves the way for even more dirty energy to pollute our future by creating the first international market for tar sands oil. I risked getting arrested yesterday because I could not let this happen.
TransCanada, the company behind this scheme, tried to scare me with intimidating letters and strong-arm tactics to get me to sign away my land. I may have signed a piece of paper, but I'm appealing to a higher power. They didn't know who they were messing with.
I'm joining with fellow farmers from Nebraska to Texas to educate people about the physical and environmental dangers posed by this toxic pipeline. We're talking to folks all over the country. Yesterday, however, I came to talk with the President.
Sign this petition and stand with me against Keystone XL. Tell the President to prevent another oil disaster on his watch. Click here to sign the petition and tell President Obama to reject the Keystone XL permit:
Shortly before midnight Mountain Time on August 23, the largest earthquake in Colorado in more than a century, with a magnitude of 5.3, sent tremors as far away as Kansas. Some twelve hours later, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered in Northern Virginia sent shock waves as far away as Toronto. The local damage in each event did not appear extensive, though structural effects, on bridges, tunnels, nuclear power plants and more are yet to be determined.
Through the afternoon and evening of August 23rd, the national media uncovered the big story of the East Coast quake: where their colleagues posted in New York or Washington were and what they thought when they felt a bump, sway, rumble or funny feeling. But with no national correspondents already on site, the Colorado quake was left to the locals. But both quakes were profound, rippling with far-reaching lessons about our outdated and unsafe energy practices that we ignore at great peril.
1. Human activity can cause earthquakes. No less an authority than the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) asserts this. And they offer as an illustration a series of atypical Colorado quakes in the 1960s, resulting from the Army’s injection of waste fluid produced by its Rocky Mountain Arsenal chemical weapons plant northeast of Denver.
2. Seismic activity has been linked to the injection of waste water from the unconventional production of natural gas using hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking). A southeastern New Mexico area that has been experiencing repeated earthquakes since the late 1990s are near the injection wells for oil production waste water, the New Mexico Tech Observatory has reported. In April 2011, in Arkansas, two natural gas wells were closed down until scientists can determine why over a thousand unexplained earthquakes occurred in areas near drilling sites and waste injection wells. Since the well’s closing, a supervisor at the Arkansas Geological Survey reports, incidence of earthquakes have declined dramatically, much as they did in Colorado fifty years ago.
5. Industry often seeks to keep information and historical data private.The epicenter of Virginia’s earthquake lies on the Marcellus Shale. Though no hydraulic fracturing permits have been issued due to a legal suit by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Center considers the George Washington National Forest -- much of which lies above the Marcellus -- among the ten most endangered in the South due to hydraulic fracturing plans for the area. A half century of lessons from Colorado's history with fluid injection and earthquakes will be essential to safeguard the integrity of Virginia’s fragile and ecologically essential Marcellus region. But while Virginia’s Marcellus has not been fracked yet, the commonwealth has been in the forefront of coal bed methane extraction, which -- like shale bed extraction -- depends on hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, blasting, explosions and injection of waste water under the earth.
Injecting High Pressure Water Deep into Rock Bed by Atlantic Council
Earthquakes in the nation's capitol are as rare as hen's teeth. The epicenter of Tuesday's quake was in Mineral, Virginia, which is located on three very quiet fault lines. The occurrence of yet another freak earthquake in an unusual location is leading many anti-fracking activists (including me -- they have just started fracking in Stratford, which is 40 minutes from New Plymouth) to wonder whether "fracking" in nearby West Virginia may be responsible.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of initiating and subsequently propagating a fracture in a rock layer, employing the pressure of a fluid as the source of energy. The fracturing is done from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations, in order to increase the extraction rates and ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas and coal seam gas.
How Fracking Causes Earthquakes
According to geologists, it isn't the fracking itself that is linked to earthquakes, but the re-injection of waste salt water (as much as 3 million gallons per well) deep into rock beds.
Braxton County West Virginia (160 miles from Mineral) has experienced a rash of freak earthquakes (eight in 2010) since fracking operations started there several years ago. According to geologists fracking also caused an outbreak of thousands of minor earthquakes in Arkansas (as many as two dozen in a single day). It's also linked to freak earthquakes in Texas, western New York, Oklahoma and Blackpool, England (which had never recorded an earthquake before).
Industry scientists deny the link to earthquakes, arguing that energy companies have been fracking for nearly sixty years. However it's only a dozen years ago that "slick-water fracks" were introduced. This form of fracking uses huge amounts of water mixed with sand and dozens of toxic chemicals like benzene, all of which is injected under extreme pressure to shatter the underground rock reservoir and release gas trapped in the rock pores. Not only does the practice utilize millions of gallons of freshwater per frack (taken from lakes, rivers, or municipal water supplies), the toxic chemicals mixed in the water to make it "slick" endanger groundwater aquifers and threaten to pollute nearby water-wells.
Horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracking (which extend fractures across several kilometres) were introduced in 2004.
The Research Evidence
I think it's really hard to deny there's a connection when the frequency of Arkansas earthquakes dropped by two-thirds when the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission banned fracking (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/21/fracking-shutdown-earthquakes-arkansas_n_851930.html). Note that they didn't stop entirely, which suggests that fault disruption may persist even after fracking stops.
According to a joint study by Southern Methodist University and University of Texas-Austin, earthquakes started in the Dallas/Fort Worth region after a fracking disposal well there began operating in 2008 and stopped when it was closed in 2009 (seehttp://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/does-gas-fracking-cause-earthquakes).
Blackpool, England banned fracking immediately, without waiting to see if more earthquakes would occur.
The Need for Federal Action
Despite strong anti-fracking movements in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- based on dozens of cases of contaminated well water, poisoned livestock, destruction of wildlife, and tap water that catches fire and explodes -- fracking has proved extremely difficult to regulate on a state and local level. New York governor Andrew Cuomo seems intent to allow the New York fracking to lapse. And a West Virginia judge has recently overturned Morgantown's ban on fracking, on the basis that it violated the constitutional rights of Northeast Natural energy company.
Hopefully today's events have caused some chickens to come home to roost for federal lawmakers. They need to send a clear message to Obama and the EPA to stop "studying" the issue -- that he needs to show some testicularity in standing up to the energy companies that are financing his 2012 campaign.
Meanwhile there is a legal precedent of an Arkansas man suing a fracking company for earthquake damage to his home. For people with earthquake damage from today's quake, there's a very nice lawyer at http://www.fracking-lawsuit.com/
One Family's Personal Account from the Marcellus Shale
Some of the earliest Marcellus Shale gas wells were drilled on properties surrounding Darrell Smitsky’s home near Hickory, Pennsylvania in 2006 and 2007. Five years later, there are 17 Marcellus wells in the one-square-mile area surrounding Darrell’s home.
His family has occupied their rural home for more than four decades, and prior to Marcellus drilling, their well water was famous for its excellent quality and taste. Not long after drilling began, the Smitsky’s water started looking and tasting funny, so they quit drinking it. Strange things began to happen around anything associated with water on their property.
Darrell had eight healthy goats as Marcellus drilling got underway around him, but over a period of several months, five of the goats died, dropping off one by one. Darrell recalls that tragic time this way, “It was like their back legs became paralyzed, and I would have to carry them into the barn. I tried various supplements and other things, but nothing worked.”
The fish in a small backyard pond began exhibiting strange symptoms as well, with their scales breaking down and becoming translucent, prior to death. Water plants they purchased from a local pond store turned brown and died. It finally became obvious that their well water and surface water were causing these impacts. Even though Darrell’s family began buying bottled water for drinking and cooking, they continue to shower in the well water. The Smitsky’s have developed brown rashes on the front of their lower legs, identical to other shale victims who live five miles away in Rea, Pa.
It was originally believed that no gas wells were drilled within a distance of 1,000 feet, but Darrell later learned that Range Resources had erred big time, and that his water well was within 1,000 feet of a Marcellus well they drilled on a farm across the road. Since this "less than 1,000 feet" proximity was never revealed prior to these incidents, Darrell's water well never received the required baseline testing before and after drilling. Why is this important? Because drilling is presumed to have caused water well contamination if it occurs within 1,000 feet of drilling, within 6 months.
Darrell’s well water tests indicated serious problems that also pointed directly to drilling contamination, especially when compared to other area water well tests close to drilling. Acrylonitrile appeared at an alarming level in Darrell’s water test, being 130-times higher than the permitted level in a Pennsylvania stream.
Darrell Smitsky's well water
test results
Pennsylvania DEP Lab 11-9-2009
Independent Lab 12-2-2009
Other contaminants showed up in the Smitsky’s well water tests done by the DEP. But keep in mind, the Pennsylvania DEP only tests for 14 things. Things like volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and acrylonitrile are not included in their tests, so the DEP test results often give an incomplete picture of the true contamination levels from Marcellus drilling.
Darrell and his well water
8-10-11
Toilet tank holding black well water
Toilet tank after toilet being flushed,
note black stain on side of tank
Brownish rash on front of Darrell's leg
matches those of other shale victims
who still shower in their well water
During the fracking of one of the Marcellus wells near Darrell’s house, a next door neighbor reported foam coming up out of the ground in his field. Around the same time, an abandoned well from the early 1900’s, located just up the valley from Darrell and his neighbor, started spewing fluids. Personal accounts indicate that the new Marcellus well wouldn't frack, even after repeated attempts by Range Resources. The old well nearby had never been properly plugged, just like tens of thousands of other Pennsylvania wells drilled in the past. Photos show this old well getting plugged during the summer of 2011. DEP methane monitors remain in the area surrounding the old well.
c.1901 well being plugged
7-11-11
Plugging the 1901 well at the intersection of
Elm and McCarrell Road near Hickory, Pa
Well plugging operations and equipment
Rig on site
Close-up of the plugging work as it nears completion
Aug 20 - 2:30 PM- POSTPONED - Bucks Transition Group Invites Residents to Help Plan Recycling Event
By Gail Stringer
Can you Re-Imagine Living Well on Less? This is the goal of the Bucks Transition Group's next planning meeting for an event to be held on October 15th between 1-4PM. Let's get people prepared for when resources are fewer. This will be the topic of Bucks Transition Group planning meeting will be held at the Lower Makefield Township Building Boardroom on Saturday, Aug 20th, 2:30 PM. Planning for a public event which will showcase the topic of reuse and repurposing will be the focus of the discussion. Contractors can pitch in with more use of easily accessed recycling units.
Consumers can learn to recycle their energy waste. How do you repurpose children's clothing, broken jewelry and craft items. Millions of tons of fresh and edible restaurant food is thrown away every night. How this food be repurposed will be a featured topic. Join our meeting at the Lower Makefield Township Building Boardroom, 1100 Edgewood Road, Yardley at 2:30pm on August 20th. All are invited to attend. Contact: mailto:buckstransition@gmail.com
New York Cannot Become Another Pennsylvania by Clare Donahue
By Clare Donohue
New York cannot become another Pennsylvania, where the people's water is getting poisoned and the corporate crooks are calling the shots.
By proposing utterly inadequate bans on unconventional gas drilling in the New York and Syracuse Watersheds, the Cuomo Administration is clearly demonstrating awareness that fracking is toxic and is a serious threat to human health. It is therefore unacceptable that he leave the rest of the good citizens of New York vulnerable to these toxic consequences.
Take action now: Governor Cuomo's Phone numbers and email address are:
(518) 474-8390 or (212) 681-4580
We don't have live with something that is poisonous and damaging, and the Governor has the power to do something about it.
IN CONGRESS: JULY 4TH 1776 -DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM OUTSIDE RULE
When you read this beautiful document, try substituting "the corporate state" for 'the king.'"
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declarationof the thirteen unitedStates of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Susan Corson-Finnerty, an Astute Homeowner and Journalist Leads Bucks Transition Group Session: Her Home Improvements with the Energy Works Program
The Bucks Transition Group's unique Open Forum in June allowed everyone to lead a session. It was well-attended by early adaptors in the sustainability arena, including one homeowner, a journalist and publisher who shared her experience with Energy Works, the energy efficiency/improvement program:
By Susan Corson-Finnerty
Energy Works is in the five-county area that includes Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks counties. It is sponsored by the Energy Coordinating Agency, the City of Philadelphia, PECO, PGW, and Keystone Help. It is a program to help homeowners retrofit their homes using highly qualified contractors and very low-cost loans.
We’ve been in the Energy Works Program for a year, and are now launching into phase two (we replaced all our windows first; now we’re about to install insulation throughout the house). We have a lot of glass (35 windows; about a third of the envelope of our house).
The first thing the Energy Works Program does is an energy audit of your home. This involves a blower door test, which gets air moving through every crack that leaks, and infra-red photography shows where those leaks are and what your house needs. They also do a safety audit of any combustible appliances in your home. We have an oil heater, so that was evaluated as well. The ways to reduce your energy use are detailed in a report written by the energy auditor, who may include rough estimates of the cost of each suggested improvement, and advice about which will give you the best improvement for the investment you’ll be making.
The staff at the Energy Coordinating Agency is very responsive to questions and helpful with the application process and locating contractors. The program is great in that it has built-in accountability. The first level is that you must select a contractor from a list of approved contractors—this ensures that they are qualified to do the work, certified in all respects, including licensed in lead abatement, now a legal requirement in Pennsylvania. The additional level is that ECA will send out an energy auditor to re-test your home again after the job is completed, to be sure it’s been done correctly. All participating contractors must agree to correct any errors and to pay for a third energy audit to verify that the work is correctly done once it’s been repaired. This ensures a high level of accountability.
Once the homeowner completes work suggested by the original energy audit and shows ECA a bill marked “paid” from the contractor, a portion of the cost of the original audit will be refunded. The energy audit currently costs $150, and a portion of that is refundable.
In the ‘check-out’ energy audit by ECA for our home, the auditor said, ‘you have had so much improvement with air infiltration just by replacing your windows, it is as though you have insulated your walls.’ The contractor who has done the work on your home is not paid until the ECA auditor verifies that the job was correctly done.
If you take a loan and you are doing the qualifying amount of work (determined by the program), the cost of the loan can be as low as .99%, and it is unsecured. At .99% the cost of your loan will essentially be paid off fairly quickly by the energy cost savings you will realize from the improvements. When you finance using a Keystone Help loan, you aren't out of pocket to pay the contractor—they are paid directly by Keystone Help.
In our first phase, we replaced 35 windows (19 picture windows, most with casements). When I researched wood vs. vinyl vs. fiberglass, I learned some interesting facts. Fiberglass is much stronger than metal (which is what we were replacing), and for casements as large as ours, strength was very important. Over time wood or vinyl can sag out of shape and cause problems with opening and closing the casements. Fiberglass is as inert as the glass it holds, and does not expand or contract with temperature differences as wood and vinyl do, making the windows more stable over time. I also found that windows with metal cladding over the exterior wood can create hidden problems with wood rot that may not appear for many years. Information can be found about this using an Internet search. I recommend doing careful research before choosing the manufacturer and material your windows are made of.
We chose Marvin fiberglass windows. They make a product, Everwood, that is a dead ringer for real wood. We had an open house after they were installed. The whole community came over and they really couldn’t tell (we were happily showing it to them). Family-owned Matus Windows in Glenside did our work. It is a wonderful company, they are on the approved contractor list, and they installed Marvin windows for us, both Everwood and white-enameled fiberglass.”
Hey, Experts, Businessmen and Neighbors - Lead a Session on Home Energy Conservation
For people who are concerned about rising energy prices and the effects of fossil fuels on the planet, or who have expertise on how to help, the Bucks Transition Group (BTG) is sponsoring a Home Energy & Sustainability Forum on Saturday, June 18 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the BRYN GWELED COMMUNITY CENTER, 1805 Meadow Rd. in Southampton, PA.
In the face of high fuel prices, experts, including local businesspeople and residents alike are invited to lead a session to share information know about or to hold sessions on topics they want to learn more about.
As the second exciting open forum to be held by BTG this year, the Home Energy & Sustainability will have four half hour concurrent sessions about everything one can do to save on energy. People have expressed holding sessions on daylight replacing electric energy, cross ventilation, blocking north winds, air sealing & insulation, energy auditing your home, high performance heating & cooling, solar panels, net zero energy homes, indoor air quality and water conservation. This unique open forum allows participants to decide their topics and lead their own sessions.
This forum will increase awareness about how people can reduce their carbon footprint by lowering their energy use. mailto:buckstransition@gmail.com
Call for More Information: Gail Stringer: 215-295-7149
May 28th 7PM - Local Bee Sanctuary Film Screening! "Queen of the Sun"
By Michel Henkin and Shekinah Rae
Shekinah and I wanted you all to know about the screening of the film QUEEN OF THE SUN: What are the bees telling us? at Linden Hill Gardens (home of the Ottsville Farmers Market) next Saturday, May 28th form 7 to 10 pm.
Our dear beekeeping and biodynamics teacher, Gunther Hauk, will be there to introduce the film and answer questions. Gunther has started a honeybee sanctuary where he will share his wisdom with the public while continuing his work in developing ways to sustainably raise and support the honeybee. Gunther is featured in the film which looks at the plight of the honeybee and offers sustainable alternatives to the factory farming/industrial model of honey production.
Hoping you can join us for an inspiring evening. Honey-centric refreshments will be served. Suggested donation of $25 to $40 is requested and all proceeds will go to Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary. Please give us a call if you have any questions or would like to reserve a seat.
Video: Woman Saves Her Local Park from Global Gas Drilling
Jen Slotterback, while hiking with her dog in her favorite local park, stumbles upon surveying stakes by gas drilling companies. The actions she took started a snowball of action by her entire community. See video: http://bit.ly/mobp0m
May 13th 2011 Private Receiption with Arun Gandhi - May 14th 10 AM - Solving the BULLYING Epidemic - Family Day with Arun Gandhi - Join US in New Hope!
On May 13th 5PM there will be a private fundraising reception at Ramada New Hope, followed by Hors d'oevres andwith keynote address by Arun Gandhi.
On May 14th - 10am - 12pm - With one in three students being bullied in the US today, Gandhi will speak to students and parents about how to deal with these issues in a peaceful, non-violent way. This event will be held at the New Hope-Solebury Upper Elementary School from 10:00am to 12:00am. Crafts, Kirtan & music, snacks, yoga and a Q & A with Gandhi for a donation of $10 per person. For more information phone:
June 18th 1:00 PM - BTG - Home Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Day!
The Bucks Transition Group (BTG) has another open space forum in the plan for June 18th -- For four periods, people will be able to guide their own half hour sessions. The forum will engage local energy business entrepreneurs to share what they know as experts or people, including homeowners can hold sessions to have burning questions answered and network with participants. The open forum, also called an "unconference" or a "barcamp" which allows all participants to lead small roundtables under a theme was an overwhelming BTG success in January.
Bucks Transition Group helps to inform people about climate change and peak oil. The next planning session for this forum will be on May 21st; 2:30PM at the Lower Makefield Township Building Board Meeting Room, 1100 Edgewood Road, Yardley. All are invited to attend. For more information contact:
The transition towns movement gets big attention this week at the Bucks Transition Group meeting on April 16th. All are invited. The meeting will be held at Lower Makefield Township Building in the Board Room on the north parking level. Residents of communities across Bucks will be planning for three important events during the spring and summer -- Recycling Awareness Day, Repurposing Day and a Homeowners Energy Forum. How will Bucks be preserved beyond peak oil and climate change is exactly what this group of energetic residents shares with the community. This meeting of friends and neighbors occurs the third Saturday of every month. For more information contact Gail Sringer at mailto:gstringer@comcast.net.
See President Barack Obama Visit to Bucks County on April 6, 2011 to discuss alternative fuels:
What Quality of Water are YOU drinking? Mary Ellen Noonan of Bucks County Conservation District Can Tell You
By Mary Ellen Noonan
Bucks County Educator for BCED
Soil sediment is the number one pollutant in our waters in Bucks County. It goes into the water that we drink and is the most important issue as we deal with water quality. Now the Bucks County Zoning Officials have asked to be trained on how to protect our ground water. On May 12th, the session will be for all municipal zoning officials to learn about the conservation work done by the county. Your officials will learn that storm water control is important to understand in order to protect each individual property. Right now, the storm water brings in the sentiment from creeks and stream and if these areas are kept clean, you will have less sediment going into drinking water. Rain barrels are important and recharge the use of this water. And there's much more.
April 6th - Visit by President Obama to Bucks County on Green Energy Coincides with same day LWV meeting on Redistricting
President Barack Obama plans to stop in Fairless Hills, Bucks County at Gamesa Technology Corpto to hold a town-hall meeting with workers about building a clean-energy future for the 21st century. Gamesa employs about 300 people at the facility. President Obama introduces plan to limit foreign oil:
Smart Planet article on President Obama's alternative energy proposals:
Meantime on the same day as the President's visit, Lora Lavin, Pennsylvania League of Women Voters Vice President for Issues, presented the process of redistricting at the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. Redistricting occurs every ten years after the Federal census.
Do BIG Corporations Care about Communities or Not? Decide on Best and Worst and Rate them!
Want to pick a credit card company or buy a car or appliance? But you want to know whether the company cares about the earth, water and air? In an age where people can readily go after data, it's time to break down the differences between corporations that are responsible to the world climate, and those that just say they are. Test your knowledge between marketing and true action.
"You can use the Climate Counts Company Scorecard to see how serious companies are about stopping climate change - and how they compare to their sector competitors. The annually updated scorecard reflects the self-reported efforts of companies to address climate change - or avoid it altogether."
The potential Global effects of the Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Disaster on local life - see Animated MAP
Check here for Video Map of Radiation Plume reaching the U.S.:
Small amounts of radiation have also been detected in California, Colorado, Hawaii, and Washington. "They get caught up in the right wind pattern and they'll move across the ocean," said an environmental scientist.
Rare Blood Disorder Proves Water Should Be Protected - Childhood Story by a Doylestown Citizen
Hi, everybody~
I would like to add my 2 cents to John Bailey's appeal to attend the showing of "Gaslands". I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago at the County in Doylestown. My reaction?
That I was seeing the faces of my murderers on the screen.
As many of you know, I have a rare blood disorder called Polycythemia Vera. What you might not know was that in the early 1980's I worked in Cambria county of Western PA for a government run low income rural family housing program. I was daily in and out of homes in coal mining towns. Hospitality was often offered. Perhaps too late, I learned to refuse the water. The day I started turning down offered drinks was the day I saw tiny silver flecks floating in a glass just pulled from the tap. One house I visited had broken sewage lines and raw affluence and who knew what else. I put on a pair of rubber boots and went down into that mess, went back to my office and told my higher ups that they should be ashamed of themselves to allow a family to live there, and that the house should be knocked down, the foundation sealed in concrete, and the family relocated.
Today, right now, Cresson, one of the towns I frequented is engaged in a fight to stop gas companies from coming in and drilling the Marcellus shale using the fraking process. Why? Because they are afraid of the water supply being contaminated. They are also currently the site of yet another PV cluster in PA, and are being studied.
PV is not curable. It is not genetically transferred. It results from an exposure to radiation and/or environmental elements. I recognize that my time in Cambria pre-dates the fraking technique, BUT I am also possibly a walking example of what can happen when the body is exposed to environmental toxic poisoning.
Please go see the film. Bring other people. The full damage from this process might not manifest for years, although the short term ramifications are frightening enough. Pay particular attention to the map of PA that will be shown during the movie - you will see that we live in a tiny white area surrounded by red (signifying areas of active gas drilling) up and down the Delaware where the drilling has not yet started in ernest. It's scary.
My murderers? Not the individuals in the movie. Not necessarily the specific companies, because they would come and go, often declaring bankruptcy after pulling what they wanted from the ground and leaving the mess behind. I refer to the valuing of the income gained from the extraction process over the lives of the people affected by that extraction. The movie makes an excellent point - when looking at the sites spread out, it can seem like an individual anomaly here and there. It requires looking at the big picture of all those tiny drill sites in people's yards to see the pattern. Drilling may be unavoidable, but I have heard that there are extraction alternatives to the fraking process.
Feb. 19th 2011 - Gasland House Party sponsored by the Bucks County Sierra Club - Click Green It Above
The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."
After the movie there will be a short discussion period as well as a chance for you to take action on this issue. Contact David Meisner for more inforrmation:
Jan 22. Citizens Energy Forum - Lead a Session Yourself on Your Energy Concerns and Ideas
A fun and unique CITIZENS ENERGY FORUM where residents and experts alike lead sessions on cutting edge issues regarding energy. The Citizens Energy Forum was sponsored by the Bucks Transition Group (BTG), and had a room full of mobile roundtable sessions between 2 and 5PM at the Lower Makefield Township Building. All who had an energy saving idea or wanted to learn were able to speak up or listen. Experts lead a session to offer answers and residents raised their questions about how to make energy more budget-friendly.
“Energy is going to get more and more expensive and people can be energy priced out of their lifestyles” says Deb Barndt, moderator of the forum and member of the Bucks Transition Group from Doylestown. “There are a lot of creative people out there. They will be able to share.”
“This type of forum can bring people together on an equal footing,” says Hans Peters, co-moderator and member of Bucks Transition Group from Southampton. “We have a history here in Bucks proving that we can move forward towards sustainability in a constructive and creative way.” For immediate information contact BucksTransition@gmail.com
GREEN YOURSELF: Relax This 2011 Year by Kristina Leonardi
This time of year with its emphasis on excessive merry-making and gift-giving combined with cold weather, shorter days and a challenging economy (with a Mercury retrograde thrown in this year, too!) would cause even the jolly-iest of Santa's to pack their sack and head back to the North Pole to hibernate just like their grizzly neighbors so wisely do.
All our focus is on parties and socializing, yet our natural tendency is to go inward for the winter; we are pulled to do all of these external things in a very short amount of time when we should be winding down and checking in with ourselves and preparing for the new year to come..and therefore find ourselves off balance in a big way. It's no wonder anxiety and stress levels are skyrocketing and everyone is just doing their best not to crack under the pressure of the ho ho ho!
So how to make it through the holidaze in tact? We need to be extra-mindful, stay centered and connected to ourselves and not go to extremes or make any major decisions. Have an extra dose of patience with yourself and others, take deep breaths, laugh it off, do lots of yoga, tai-chi and meditation, use Rescue Remedy, have a massage, make soup, get some fresh air, spend quality time with good friends, cuddle with your loved ones, and most of all be kind and gentle to yourself.
Another idea is to give yourself the gift of having a session with someone who can offer an unbiased, positive perspective with adjustments and solutions that will put you back on track and in balance wherever you need it. I'd love to be able to help and get whatever is going on in your head out of it so that you can enjoy a truly peaceful and joyous holiday season! kleonardi@mindspring.com
Bucks is Proud that It has the First Solar Energy Plant in the Nation
Exelon Corp and Epuron y have a 3-megawatt solar panel "farm" in Fairless Hills, Bucks County which doesn't get a lot of attention.
Known as solar "farms," the solar power generating facilities, are being developed nationwide, and these generated about 6,000 megawatts of electricity last year. The goal is to produce about 2,400 megawatts of solar power in the United States in the next few years, but it is difficult to determine how many systems will be built to generate that much power.
Bucks County Community College, one of the most highly rated two year schools in the country has the nation's first Green Jobs Academy. Neither of these efforts, the solar plants or the Green Jobs Academy or the Solar Plants, has received very much national attention.
Bucks Transition Group Sponsors Anti Frack Meeting - by Jerry Silberman
By Jerry Silberman
SEE FULL MEETING VIDEO UNDER STORY OF THE DAY LINK - USE COMPUTER HEADPHONES WHILE LISTENING
The meeting featured Paul Schmidt an environmental lawyer, Shireen Parsons of CELDF and Nancy Janyszewski, supervisor of Nockamixon Township, which has, for the moment, defeated fracking.
I have followed Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund for years, and the group has an interesting record in promoting local challenges to corporate power. Rebuilding democracy from the bottom up by asserting power at the local level and denying corporations rights as persons through local ordinances which challenge corporate and state prerogatives is an interesting exercise, and certainly valuable in exposing the corporate dominance and corruption of our state and federal governments.
Unfortunately, Ms. Parson’s message seemed to boil down to “its hopeless, just declare your independent democracy at the local level”. Blaming everything on corporations and the government is convenient, and talking about what should be or what we shouldn’t have to do (like using existing regulations to the extent possible to stymy the corporations, even when we know that it is merely a tactic to buy time) is actually fairly childish.
Claiming that we have never consented to government regulation, or laws we find we don’t like is simply wrong. In a representative democracy, our election of our representatives cedes to them the power to make laws, appoint judges, etc. To claim that corporate personhood is only court made law, outside the democratic process begs the question of who appoints the judges, and our legislators haven’t passed laws at our behest to overturn unpopular judicial interpretations.
We have also consented to corporate control of our lives and environment by choosing to engage in the consumerist values which they have propagated. If there is a spreading environmentally inspired anti-corporate backlash in America now (I wish!) it is relatively new, and doesn’t alter the fact that corporate consumerism was overwhelming believed in by Americans for at least a few generations.
The fact is, in fighting something like fracking, we need every strategy, in concert; town ordinances that challenge corporate power, (and face enormously expensive court fights with odds against them) nuanced local campaigns like the successful organizing in Nockamixon, broader lobbying campaigns like that focused on the DRBC, direct anti-corporate campaigns exposing the worst of the frackers….and we need transition education.
The local democracy that Parsons spoke about means nothing without a substantial local economy. Stopping fracking will never happen if we still insist on consuming fossil fuels like there is (in a grim self fulfilling prophecy) no tomorrow.
We can’t have our resources and consume them too.
Jerry Silverman's follow up comments 10/26/10
I have enormous respect for what CELDF is doing. What they are doing is certainly a thread of the quilt of transition toward a sustainable culture, but it is only one thread. Sharpening the contradictions between central, corporate controlled government and its targets/victims in smaller communities through the passage of radical ordinances, is useful, but remember that all of those most radical ordinances have been struck down by the courts, if anyone (corporation) cared to pursue it. One hopes, that as in Nockamixon, the activists had multiple lines of defense. CELDF ordinances can lend themselves to extreme NIMBYism, and the notion that the resources that happen to lie under the real estate of a particular township are the sovereign property of those who by accident of fate live above them is unsettling as well.
I know this is not what CELDF advocates, but it is certainly within the realm of perception of what Ms. Parsons was saying. I stay with my critique of Shireen's presentation at the meeting, and it is the height of arrogance toward everyone in the meeting for someone who was not there to attempt to speak for the speaker, as Gina does. Ms. Parsons managed to seriously irritate Nancy, the real leader of the Nockamixon effort, who perceived that her efforts were derided, despite their success.
Ecuador's constitution may have been re-written, but Ecuador is currently demanding a cash ransom from the world to refuse to allow furher fossil fuel exploitation of rainforests (by corporations) which will put that ecosystem at risk. Pennsylvania's written constitution is ignored. There is a role, and an important one, for all sorts of education, agitation, and different strategies, including campaigns against corporate personhood. But the anti-fracking effort challenges us to do real strategic planning so that we can win successively greater real victories. Nockamixon's is one important example of successful strategic thinking. Strategic thinking rarely works when its grounded in an dogma which precludes flexibility in tactics and organizing skills.
Supervisor forces Gas Drillers to Back Away from Bucks County's Nockamixon Township
Amanda Cregan of phillyBurbs.com Gas drillers have given up the fight in Nockamixon.
She says Arbor Resources has withdrawn its state permit to drill in Nockamixon, seemingly ending its battle to begin exploratory drilling for natural gas in the Upper Bucks community. Her article says:
9/29/2010 - 200 Turn Out - Moratorium Passed against drilling in Delaware Basin - Philadelphia - Click GREEN IT
1. City Council hearing on Tuesday generated an amazing turnout of 200, aired serious debate, issued new scientific findings, and raised key unanswered questions.
2. Council followed up by passing a resolution supporting a three-year statewide moratorium on new drilling permits today. A report will be issued and further actions taken.
3. Congressman Maurice Hinchey pressed the Army Corps of Engineers today to vote for delaying drilling in the Delaware River Basin until cumulative impacts are studied.
1. Philadelphia City Council chambers filled to overflowing on Tuesday, 9/28, for a 6-hour hearing on the economic and environmental impacts of gas drilling in our region. Two hundred people showed up, and so many stayed all day that Councilman Curtis Jones commented he had rarely seen such "patience, endurance, and passion."
Who came: educators, scientists, environmental lawyers, writers; apartment dwellers, landowners, and at least one organic farmer; lots of people in social services, creative arts and healing professions; at least one rabbi, one nun, a legislative aide for Senator Anthony Williams, a realtor, and two dragonboaters -- a moving array of ordinary people with extraordinary commitment to clean water, clean air, stopping global warming, and building a healthy economy with healthy people.
Professional environmentalists joined us, like the fantastic Faith Zerbe, staff biologist for Delaware Riverkeeper network and Riverkeeper Maya Van Rossum; Clean Water Action, Sierra Club, and activist folks. But most present were not people who usually do political work on clean water or press for corporate accountability on this scale. This is a growing network of justice-minded people who are seriously morally engaged, and it's very exciting. Thank you everybody, your efforts and commitment are terrific!!
Among other headlines at Tuesday's hearing, an Academy of Natural Sciences senior scientist presented preliminary study results suggesting salamanders are disappearing at an accelerating rate in areas of heavy Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania. Salamanders are known to be an indicator species.
Denise Dennis, a writer and the president of the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust, gave a stunning speech calling for a moratorium and asserting that the industry is behaving like Big Tobacco, trying to suppress scientific information while making false promises about jobs. We will be posting her speech, which got a standing ovation.
Dr. Michel Boufadel raised key questions about why the industry claims otherwise when engineers know that some fissures do connect geological layers, and could conduct fluids to aquifers. He asserted that the industry must prove that toxic fracking waste left underground in the hundreds of millions of gallons will be safe for 10,000 years. He also pointed out that endocrine disruptors are feminizing fish in many rivers. Fracking fluids contain endocrine disruptors, which harm human growth even in trace amounts, especially impacting young children.
We questioned how the salt line in the Delaware River will be impacted by fracking water withdrawals in combination with sea level rise; flagged the radioactivity of fracking waste, which comes up at up to 16,000 picocuries / liter (the safe level for drinking water is 5 picocuries / liter); and alerted Council to gas extraction's contribution to global warming.
Natural gas, scientists say, because it varies in its composition, traps 25 to 72 times more heat than carbon dioxide, yet massive routine emissions from natural gas extraction are unregulated and uncontrolled, as are huge carbon emissions from diesel use in natural gas extraction. Preliminary analysis by Cornell University's Robert Howarth, Ph.D., suggests that natural gas is on a par with coal and inbetween gas and diesel in terms of global warming impact -- far from any kind of "alternative" or "clean" energy claim.
We hope all will participate in 10/10/10 and challenge unconventional gas drilling, which poisons the atmosphere and speeds up climate change -- we must slow it down!
Coverage: "Marcellus Shale Ain't Nothing to Frack With," PhillyNow blog from Philadelphia Weekly on September 28th by Nick Powell.
2. Philadelphia City Council took action today! Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and Councilman Curtis Jones introduced a resolution which passed successfully, titled:
"Supporting House Bill 2754 calling for a 3 year Moratorium on Marcellus Shale drilling, drilling activities, and establishing the Marcellus Shale Study Commission." The resolution begins by reinforcing Council's calling on the DRBC to halt hydraulic fracturing operations until a cumulative environmental impact assessment has been conducted.
HB 2754, introduced by Representative Tony Payton whose district includes parts of North Philadelphia, calls for a three year statewide moratorium and establishes a Marcellus Shale Study Comission which would "study and analyze the environmental, social and economic impacts of Marcellus drilling in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
Council will also produce a report based on Tuesday's hearing, and recommend further actions. We hope they will directly write the DRBC specifically urging the DRBC not to issue any rules, further permits for test wells or water withdrawals, or any fracking permits until the cumulative impact study called for by Hinchey, Holt, and Sestak has taken place.
3. Today, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) wrote a strong letter to Peter Deluca, the federal member of the five-member Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) challenging DeLuca's assertion that drilling in our watershed must proceed now -- without waiting for a cumulative impacts study.
Eat YOUR WEEDS: Surprisingly healthful ideas - Cheltenham Transition Towns
You can snack on your garden even if you didn't plant a vegetable garden, you have no fruit trees, and you accidentally let you potted herbs go the way of the Dodo.
Its time to graze in your lawn. No, I am not advising you become a sheep but rather to weed and snack at the same time! Yes there are loads of edible weeds that are more nutritious than your grocery store lettuce, they add new exciting flavors to your plate and you make your lawn and garden happy too.
So here is the skinny on the all you can eat buffet awaiting you out your back door.
Purslane : (portulaca oleracea)
A juicy succulent loaded with vitamins and minerals. It has a slightly sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe, Asia and Mexico. The stems, leaves and flower buds are all edible. Purslane can be used fresh stir-fried, or put in soups or stews. It contains more Omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid in particular) than any other leafy vegetable plant. It also contains large amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, and some vitamin B and carotenoids), as well as dietary minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron.
*Do not eat very much if you are prone to kidney stones.
Lemon clover/ wood sorrel:
(Oxalis stricta)
A clover with a lemony kick! This is amazing in salads or as a topping (like you would use cilantro) it adds a zing to any dish. You can eat the leaves, pods and stems raw as a thirst quencher (but not the root). Or you can brew it into a drink much like lemonade.
*Lemon clover is very high in vitamin C.
Lambsquarter: (Chenopodium album) PHOTOS
Lamb's quarters is a close cousin to spinach, but much more nutritious.It is one of nature’s nutritional powerhouses. It has a mild flavor not unlike spinach. In fact it is a relative of Swiss chard, and beets. This is one of my personal favorites "chomp, chomp, chomp".
Plantain: (Plantago)
Plantain is used for an insane amount of medicinal remedies. The leaves are an excellent source of fiber. They can be eaten raw, especially the young ones (the others are a bit tough) or you can cook them. Rich in vitamin B1, removing them from your lawn and putting them into your tummy improves both.
There are loads of other edibles in your yard for more info, but remember...before you go grazing, make sure that you can clearly identify and differentiate edible plants from non-edible plants. There are many resources out there, for more info go here.
Now What?: What to do around the yard in late summer
Prune Prune Prune!
Deep summer is the time to make your cut backs and shape up. It is the perfect time to give your woody plants some structural beauty. The reason the summer is ideal to do heavy pruning is three fold. 1) It cuts down on the amount of water the plant needs in the driest part of the year. 2) It is early enough for the plant to put out new growth and have it harden off before the first frost. 3) It is early enough to avoid cutting off the buds of early bloomers (like azaleas, magnolias, and forsythia) which form their buds in the fall and over winter them till spring.
What's new with us?
We had a spring that exploded with color and clients (as evidenced by this being our first news letter of the year). We had more work to do then we ever expected and want to thank everyone that welcomed us into their garden or passed on a good word for us.
The Cheltenham Transition Towns group has also added a talented, fun, super hardworking artist to our team, Erin Obrochta. Here is her website:
All three of us have been pruning, planting, designing, installing, weeding, and working our way across Pennsylvania. If you (or someone you know) would like a couple of artist gardeners to help you with your green spaces we would love to dig in your dirt, put in your paths, or maybe..just maybe nibble on your weeds.
Warmly,
Ky and Eero (the artist formerly known as Karen)
OCT. 23, 2010 Forum Reveals Whether Bucks Audience want Gas Drilling in NOCKAMIXON
An event coordinated by Henry D'Silva showcased scientific proof that gasses from hydrolic fracting can infiltrate the water supply undetected. Professor Boufadel, chairman the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Temple University revealed the evidence which demonstrated contamination can occur down through the bedrock level beneath the surface of the earth. View Video:
Nockamixon supervisor Chairman Nancy Janyszeski indicated that some 300 leases held by property owners were sold to global entities which recently placed $5 million liens on the each of the owner's. Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware River Keeper Network indicated that the drillers make a profit while taxpayers are responsible for the aftermath of drilling. Because it is most northern in Bucks County, drilling for gas could affect water all points south of the town. That means all of Bucks County, according to Nancy Janyszeski, Chair, Board of Supervisors, Nockamixon Township.
The audience responded often with resounding applause and agreement that citizens are not fully protected from profit driven oil and gas corporations. Janyszeski is calling for additional forums about the full ramifications of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Bucks County.
Exploratory gas drilling is occurring right now because DEP was unaware the the permit it granted to one company was going to be used for drilling.
NEW YORK BILL PLACES TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON DRILLING
New York State's senate passed a bill that reaches beyond the debate over the environmental safety of drilling for gas in the Marcellus Shale and would effectively ban almost all gas and oil drilling in the state until next spring. The bill circumvents an environmental review by the state's regulatory agency that could be finished this year.
CANONSBURG, Pa. — The streams of people came to the public meeting here armed with stories of yellowed and foul-smelling well water, deformed livestock, poisoned fish and itchy skin. One resident invoked the 1968 zombie thriller “Night of the Living Dead,” which, as it happens, was filmed just an hour away from this southwestern corner of Pennsylvania.
The representatives of four states (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware) and the federal government - the five voting members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) have a regular meeting on July 14 at West Trenton Volunteer Fire Company in West Trenton, N.J., to consider, among other things, what steps to take in regulating natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale within our region. People are calling for a moratorium by writing to state senators to vote on legislation to prevent companies from putting in drills, tanks and extracting gas, procedures that threaten the environment along the Delaware. Contact your state senator for more information.
GASLAND MOVIE SCREENING BY HENRY D'SILVA AN OVERWHELMING SUCCESS
Henry D'Silva sponsored a streening of the movie which was well attended by almost 200 people.
"When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."
Living Voluntarily without Electricity - A Citizen's Carbon Footprint diary
By Henry D’Silva, Newtown
To find out if I could avoid burning carbon for a given period of time I decided to plan my “carbon fuel free time.” Life is so much easier if one hits a switch, pushes a button, or a computer key and Voila! Just look at the amazing results! But electricity in the US is mostly produced from carbon (fossil) fuel. So how about reducing carbon fuel intake by living without electricity? Here is my diary.
A recent three week computer malfunction was an incentive for me to try this. I enjoy books. I have long considered visiting the neighborhood library, wandering around our neighborhood, gardening or just appreciating a garden, visiting neighbors. I decided that living without electricity would be the perfect time to explore such opportunities.
My ongoing commitment has been to avoid driving two days a week and to drive less than 4,000 miles annually. Although retirement gives me some flexibility, my disability which caused me to retire, takes some away.
For this experiment, I made sure there were plenty of ice in the freezer and some ice packs in a cooler with bread, milk, cereal and fruit along with water, peanut butter and jelly so I would not open the door to the refrigerator and spoil the rest of the food. Granted, those identified food items involved the use of carbon fuels in production and transport to the table. I would hopefully be as carbon fuel free as possible for the specified period of time.
On a pleasant spring day in early May, I began at 8:00 AM by opening the windows to let in fresh air. I do this routinely. Having public water instead of a well, I could still take a shower. At 9.00 I began a moratorium to not cook or use any electricity for 10 hours. I was going to stay home. If I cheated, it was to use my electric scooter to get around my neighborhood and to keep my cell phone on and available. The home telephone did not ring as it is powered by a modem. I cleaned up much of my papers lying around and read several of them.
I found articles on politics, and on medieval art in various parts of the world and concepts people had at various times in history, such as transmission of disease and illness, the transmission of genetic traits much prior to Mendel and discovery of the actual science.
At 11.00 I gardened and weeded, observing bugs that crawl, hop and fly without a thought about my computer. I recognized hardly of these bugs any except for the occasional ladybug, ant and wasp. The air smelled pleasant and all seemed sunny and charming so far. I rode my scooter around the neighborhood and said hello to persons I saw. I did not stop to chat. I think I was distracted by what could go wrong with electric turned off. I returned at 1.00 pm. All seemed normal so I had a snack and cleared more papers. I found letters I was unaware of, from my sisters and a friend. I wrote back with pen on paper, thinking of past times and catching them up with my life.
I read an interesting article on a Greek town named Salonika where Christians, Muslims and Jews formed a vibrant close knit community that traded with other Mediterranean nations till 1941, WW II. I thought we could learn much from such communities which once existed in relative harmony. Perhaps many continue to thrive. Wouldn’t it be great to have such a community in one’s neighborhood?
My wife and son returned around 5.30 pm when I had to restore electricity. I had gone eight and ½ hours without electricity and repeated the experience again 2 weeks later. What is so nice about the experience is the quietude and a sense of freedom.
My thoughts dwelled on people who experienced blackouts for days. While my staged blackouts include emergency preparedness measures, there were times in my life when I went without electricity for days. As a child I vacationed with my dad in small electricity free villages in India. At 24 years of age, I volunteered helping refugees in camps near the India - East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) border in a war of separation of East and West Pakistan (now Pakistan). No electricity. People worked by day and gathered as a community after supper for stories, songs and music by the light of fireflies and small oil lamps. We retired to bed by 8.00 pm when I stayed awake for hours thinking of home, missing my family and friends, my books, magazines and perhaps the radio.
I wonder how I would fare should there be involuntary blackouts for days. I tell myself may not be so bad. It is natural to work by day and to relax and to sleep when it is dark.
The spring weather required neither heat nor A/C. The self-imposed blackout renewed my joys of reading, writing compared with typing on a keyboard, and to the possibilities of enjoying simple things. Without the din of an electricity hum I found great pleasure in the natural sounds around me and in speaking with folks whom I had ignored and who had ignored me.The eight hour period had a negligible impact on my energy use.
But what I did learn is that we don’t need to burn fossil fuel so intensely to enjoy life. We can even do this together as a demonstration to society with a few willing individuals. Imagine an experiment to free ourselves from a dependency and the insecurity that hold us slaves to ongoing consumerism.
Many in developing nations pay dearly for our lavish lifestyles even as we unknowingly place lethal millstones unintentionally around their necks. In a world of finite resources we could give others a fairer share. Is it possible to be free of life’s pressures in a move to nature, simplicity and less consumerism?
As an avid consumer till now, I believe it is possible to change our priorities and thinking by trying new ways together. I invite you and others to share this experience with me or bring your own ideas to the community table.
Henry D’Silva is a retired physician with an interest in Sustainability, living in Newtown, PA. He has a strong interest in the Transition Town movement which addresses Climate Change and Peak Oil via spirited community efforts using local ingenuity while sharing ideas and having fun. Please call 267-679-0617 or email him at henrydsilva@comcast.net.
BUY LOCAL! The Push against the Chain Store Encroachment in Doylestown
Walking down Main and State Streets of Doylestown it's easy to spot the signs in specialty store windows bidding consumers to "shop local." But there's more than that going on in the historic downtown. A Facebook page called, "No Subway in Doylestown" is opposing the Subway chain store from coming into downtown. 1600 people have joined the Facebook, many express unhappiness that a chain store would compete with the homegrown Pennsylvania hoagie shops during a strained economy.
The Doylestown Town Supervisors approved the Subway, but merchants and shoppers see this is one more step towards undermining sales of unique items of small businesses. "Why shop to a chain store to buy gifts when the person you are shopping for can buy the same item at big box stores anywhere in America?" asks Victoria Schade, owner of "Life on The Leash" which specializes in pet merchandise. "There are so many big box stores around these days, that people forget that they can shop local and still find the best," Schade says. Although franchise stores have helped many people to experiment with growing a business, whether a chain can succeed in a place where visitors seek an historic experience and one of a kind merchandise, remains to be seen.
Paul Thompson Saves Thousands of Dollars on his Heating Bill! - You Can Too
By Paul Thompson
How I got started on my smart heat pump water heater story started in November 2007 when I got my oil delivery which covered just the 5 1/2 month Summer usage. All the oil I burned was just to heat the hot water. I was flabbergasted at how much it cost to heat my hot water! I was using 134.5 gallons or .78 gallons of oil per day just to heat hot water. This works out to be over $700.00 dollars at 2007 prices of $2.50 per gallon. Today, that would be about $1000. This started my investigation to figure out what's wrong with this situation. I was blown away at how much I was spending.
. In August of 2008, I could not find a contractor who had even heard of such a thing so I installed my own do-it-yourself hot water heat pump. No warranties. Just my own determination to stop wasting oil and money. I bought a new tank at Lowes, the heat pump over the internet, then installed it myself at a total cost of about $900.00. I was hoping that it would work and pay for itself in a little over one year reducing my hot water heating bill to $300 a year, as opposed to over $1000.
So here it is a year and a half later and I definitely got all of my money back. I plugged the heat pump into a kill-a-watt electric monitor to keep track of my usage. The estimate on how much it would save proved to be accurate. I have a success story. I am spending a fraction that I did before. It is the most efficient way to heat your hot water unless you install solar which has a higher installation cost and you still need a back up system. I have too many trees near my house for solar so this is by far the most efficient way to heat my hot water.
What's next? What I learned is that heat pumps are a very efficient way to move heat. With the tax credits and tax rebates, this is the year to install energy efficient appliances if you ever want to do it. So I am now doing a whole house energy audit to find out if installing central air conditioning in my home is a good energy efficient decision. That's the project that I am working on right now.
Paul Thompson
Clearville, PA - Residents describe Fracking blowouts, Sudsy creeks and Animai Deaths:
Lower Makefield EAC: FRACTURING MARCELLUS SHALE and APPALACHIAN COAL. Click GREEN IT to view video!
WATCH Live Feed at 10AM on OneifByLandBucksCounty.com
Officials and citizens discuss the impact of coal mining. Sierra Club's Randy Francisco traveled from Pittsburgh to join the Lower Makefield EAC and local officials. Francisco presented options for energy, new industries and jobs.
Coal Country, a Sierra Club film about mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia, looks at all sides, including workers who favor coal mining because it's the only job in town. The film reveals how coal mining heavily impacts the fresh water supply and how local people are sacrificing land and suffering water pollution because of deregulation of coal mining.
How are Bucks residents involved? Counties like Bucks utilize mined coal through PECO. Residents can specify to PECO that they want to be converted to other types of energies such as wind generated electricity, according to Debbie Barndt of a "Transition Towns" group in Bucks. Barndt has also looked at government plans to bury CO2 under roads, which may include those in Bucks County. Check Transition Towns and Sustainability Blogs on lower right of this website.
Join neighbors at Lower Makefield Township Building, 1100 Edgewood Road, Yardley, PA Go to: http://www.org and or the Sierra Club, http://www.pennsylvania.sierraclub.org/southeastern
Watch Here League of Women Voters of Bucks County Forum on Gas Drilling:
FEB 24th (Wed) - 9:15 AM - Gas Drilling Forum - League of Women Voters of Bucks County presented a foum on fracting in the Delaware River area.
What this this presentation mean to you? MAKE A COMMENT BELOW! What does gas drilling mean for Bucks and the Delaware Valley? About 300 residents in Nockamixon have leases with gas companies for drilling. What are the rights of other citizens when there are trillions of cubic feet of gas in the region and for thousands of wells? Come to the gas drilling forums to find out and to share your views. Citizens videotape this meeting for citizens to view. Comment here.
FEB 26th 2010 (Fri) - 7 PM - Gas Drilling Talk - Lower Makefield Township Building,
1100 Edgewood Road, Yardley
19067, sponsored by Bucks Transition Group - Talk by Brady Russell of Clean Water Action. Contact
This is the issue that the people can't stop talking about. Pebble Hill Interfaith Church, Doylestown, Peace and Social Justice Committee held a public forum on oil and gas company where speakers talked of plans to drill, utilize fresh water and leave large gas tanks across Pennsylvania. The discussion won't quit! This event was moderated by Andrew Wright and opened with Adam Garber of Penn Environment.
The gas drilling boom is much like the Texas boom in the 1930's. Who stands to benefit? The governor is just beginning to look at how regulations will be enforced and whether drilling in NY will turn Pennsylvania into a wasteland for hundreds of millions of gallons of sludge. Will the PA water table be affected? Each well uses many millions of gallons of water and creates millions of gallons of highly toxic waste, which can not be processed by current sewage treatment plants. Many thousands of wells are planned in watersheds that provide drinking water for Philadelphia and New York City. The EPA warns that 9 million residents of NYC are currently at risk.
A pre-release version of 'Gasland,' a documentary on devastation in North Texas and Wyoming caused by gas drilling was shown. This film by local cinematographer Josh Fox and premiered at the Sundance 2010 Film Festival. Tracy Carluccio from Delaware Riverkeeper Network gave a presentation on their ongoing gas drilling legislative efforts.
The PA DEP is simply doing it's job -- like all our federal and state regulatory agencies, DEP is facilitating corporate profits by granting permits that legalize harms, and "regulating" corporate activities by specifying how much the corporations are allowed to pollute the environment and wreck the landscape.
Reviewer: P. Javsicas Dated: 2012-10-20 00:04:52
The gas drilling associations claim that PA is like "a mountain paradise despite intensive drilling for 2-4 years. But see it all from the air. No one is minding the store. The massive scarring at only 2% development: Well pads, access roads, pipelines, compressors, dehydrators, storage tanks, open flow-back pits, water withdrawal points, metering stations, staging areas for service equipment. Gravel pits everywhere... no doubt many of these are illegal.
The PA government from the local municipality level all the way to Harrisburg are totally beholden to industry. These operators like Williams/Cabot/Chesapeake are complete renegades operating outside the People's Law and with utter contempt of it. Permits? They don't give a damn about getting permits. They will build it NOW without permits BECAUSE THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT.
Reviewer: N. Shulte Dated: 2012-07-16 14:41:25
Over 800 walkers and allies from across Indian country and survived extreme weather conditions with the message 'All Life is Sacred, Protect Mother Earth'. They see the ongoing damage to Mother Earth. They wanted to raise awareness about sacred sites protection, cultural survival, youth empowerment and Native American rights. Now they want to know if anyone recalls the walk of 2008 and who stands with them. www.longestwalk.org
Reviewer: Trevor Day Dated: 2012-06-02 10:30:50
If you own your own home in Philadelphia I would suggest filling out and submitting the application below to exempt up to $15,000 of the value of your home from taxes This information was just posted today. Copy this link:
http://www.phila.gov/pdfs/homestead_application.pdf
Reviewer: Christina Consolo Dated: 2012-04-23 23:49:33
Fukushima Is Falling Apart: Are You Ready? Preliminary reports of soil contamination are coming in from the USGS, who has seemed reluctant to share this information. Click “see all” to read letter below from Senator Ron Wyden who was shocked when he visited Japan. Los Angeles, California, Portland, Oregon, and Boulder, Colorado, have received the highest radioactive particle contamination in the entire US. Please help purchase a spectrometer through Amazon by donating directly via PayPal to fukushimafacts@gmail.com in order to get the most accurate radiation readings and thus get you the most precise information possible by shopping. That being said, every single city tested across the country showed contamination from Fukushima. What is even more alarming, however, about the numbers coming in, is that they are from samples taken April 5th, of last year. The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, has only recently confirmed that there were three meltdowns, and they have been ongoing, unabated, for thirteen months, and no effort has been made to contain them. Maybe you have heard about sick seals, polar bears, tainted fish, mutations in dandelions and fruits and vegetables, possibly even animals already, and seaweed. In fact the kelp from Corona del Mar contained 40,000,000 bcq/kg of radioactive iodine, as reported in Scientific American several weeks ago. If you don’t know your becquerels, its a lot. That’s what your pacific fish feed on. And that was only ONE isotope reported. There were up to 1600 different isotopes that have been floating around in our air, pouring out of the reactors, and steaming out of the ground, every second of every day, for 13 months. See letter Senator Ron Wyden sent to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Ichiro Fujisaki, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and NRC’s Chairman Gregory Jaczko: http://bit.ly/I5Vae5
If Unit 4 pool gets a crack from a crack and it leaks, it would be the end for Tokyo
Japan lawmakers warned about Spent fuel Pool #5 during testimony of former ambassadors
Gundersen: #3 fuel pool worse off than #4 - Mechanically it’s rubble, the pool is rubble -- Nobody has even gotten near it yet.
Reactor #4: “Risk of another colossal radiation” if cooling problems arise, experts say - “Tepco has been racing to fortify crumpled outer shell.”
Drought warnings from atmospheric scientists, hydrologists, Native Peoples, water managers, and decision makers to examine how climate warming translates into hydrologic extremes like floods and droughts. The state of the science in terms of climate change and extreme hydrologic events and examines the conventional wisdom that, because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, climate change will accelerate the hydrologic cycle, fuel more evaporation, and generate more precipitation.
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/11/indigenous-people-climate-change/
Garlic Mustard has become a serious threat to our native ecosystems as it invades more and more of our natural areas each year. In order to eradicate it from an area it is necessary to uproot the plant and dispose of it in plastic bags (DON'T throw it on the compost pile or just leave it uprooted on the ground as it has the ability to produce and distribute seeds even under those conditions!). When pulling or cutting Garlic Mustard you've probably noticed the pungent garlicky scent that it emits. It was, in fact, originally brought to this country as a culinary herb and "escaped" into the wild. So, prior to eliminating it, harvest some of those fresh green leaves and make Pesto! Following is a recipe for Garlic Mustard Pesto provided by the local chapter of Wild Ones natural landscaping organization. Scott's tried it and says it's great!
Garlic Mustard Pesto
3 cups Garlic Mustard leaves, washed, patted dry, and packed in a measuring cup
2 large garlic cloves, peeled & chopped
1 cup Walnuts
1 cup Olive Oil
1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup grated Romano Cheese (or more Parmesan)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Combine Garlic Mustard leaves, garlic and walnuts in food processor and chop. Or divide recipe in half and use a blender. With motor running, add olive oil slowly. Shut off motor. Add cheeses, salt & pepper. Process briefly to combine.
Serve warm over pasta or spread on crackers as a appetizer. It also makes a great topping for baked fish.
Enjoy....and get rid of that Garlic Mustard!
Reviewer: Carl Regler Dated: 2011-11-09 01:12:44
The Native Peoples Occupy the Occupiers.on Wall Street at Liberty Park, as they should. How many people can forget who was here first and suffered the most? The Native Peoples are the true leaders. I watch the occupiers sitting on Native land, from Wall Street to Main Street and now see that the Original Peoples' pain is shared in different ways by many. Native Peoples as the true First Nation are the rightful ones to guide the protesters in finding answers to preserving civilization. Here's a radio show: http://bit.ly/sRu9xL by a Mohawk.
Reviewer: Ken Weir Dated: 2011-11-09 01:12:20
We are still raising money for a television initiative a series of commercials that will tell the 'other side' of the Marcellus Shale story. A media campaign will provide access to a viewing audience in excess of half a million people. We must raise $15,000.00 for this three month campaign. Please contact ken weir kenweir629@yahoo.com. Thank you for supporting this project!
Reviewer: Barbara Norman Dated: 2011-09-20 01:24:27
Now the call is to occupy Wall Street. 5,000 young New Yorkers were joined by people from everywhere to submit to arrest to bring justice to the bankers who have toppled our economy. Pizzas were paid for by donors from around the world. Ponzi by schemes by suits against tax paying Americans must end! http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet
Reviewer: Judy Wicks Dated: 2011-09-02 16:01:13
I was arrested on day 5 of the Tar Sands protest. It was very inspiring and I encourage everyone to get down there to join this action. Its so important – the damage done to the Boreal Forest in Alberta, Canada, where the tar sands are being mined involves destroying millions of acres and the lives and livelihoods of indigenous people and wildlife. I know some people felt it was inappropriate to use our time in this way because we need to focus locally on fracking, but I feel we have to do both – work on local and personal issues like fracking and changing our own life styles, but we also need to voice our opinion on national issues.
We need all of us to get out there if we are ever to have the force to change national policy and if we don’t, we are sunk. So please, if you are able, join this very important sit-in. You will not be sorry. tarsands.org
Reviewer: David Scott Dated: 2011-08-24 23:11:33
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R), architect of Republican budget proposals that are devastating to working families, refuses to meet with his constituents unless they are big donors or pay to attend “meet and greets.” A group of seven unemployed workers is staging a daily sit-in at Ryan’s Kenosha office until he meets with them to talk about the jobs crisis.
Reviewer: Vicki Dated: 2011-08-24 23:08:00
I'm off to Washington next Tuesday to join the sit in at the White House protesting the gas drilling Tar Sands Pipeline...Will be there for Sept. 1st when Josh Fox, Mark Ruffalo and the heads of the grassroots groups join together to hopefully get the message to Obama. Interesting, news of it on NPR but not a word on any TV news in spite of all the arrests made.
Tens of thousands of people are gathering at meetings all across the country this weekend to share stories and craft a plan for working together to fix our broken economy. I'm hosting a meeting here in Levittown and I hope you'll join us. Can you make it on Sunday? For more locations: http://bit.ly/qObG3g
Reviewer: Jill Weiner Dated: 2011-07-11 14:56:39
Catskill Citizens has learned that reporter Ian Urbina who wrote the "Drilling Down" series for the NY Times is now under internal investigation for his reporting on shale gas extraction. Both the NY Times and Mr. Urbina have been subjected to relentless pressure from an industry determined to suppress the truth about fracking and the marketing practices used to encourage unwitting investors to pour money into suspect shale gas "plays." Copy and read: http://bit.ly/nNnQPF
The NYS legislature couldn't get it done. Gov. Cuomo is ASKING for a MASSIVE PUBLIC OUTCRY. He needs the cover. Let's give it to him. He says Jam the phone lines, ALL DAY, every day, both offices-- until he issues a statement.(212) 681-4580 (518) 474-8390. Make your call NOW.
I just saw a gas drilling ad that said something like “Meet the people that oil and natural gas make jobs for”, then it changed to a picture of an attractive black actor saying, “I’m one”. Later another “I’m one” displayed a picture of an also attractive 40-ish white female actor. The industry really is saturating every available media. So far I’ve seen billboards, TV ads & now this. We do need to pull out all of the stops for this fight.
Reviewer: Clare Maher Dated: 2011-06-13 21:40:32
The Marcellus Shale Coalition is staging a major conference in Philly on Sept. 7-8. Numerous pro-fracking politicians will be there with the corporate reps. Check out shalegasoutrage.org for info about a HUGE RALLY against dirty drilling, with a march and concert. Telephone DRBC: (609) 883-9500. Tell the DRBC to keep the moratorium in place until the EPA study says gas drilling will not destroy our clean Delaware River water! DRBC website http://www.state.nj.us/drbc/staff.htm
Email contact: clarke.rupert@drbc.state.nj.us
Communications assistant: katharine.o'hara@drbc.state.nj.us
Supervisor, Watershed Planning and Compliance Section chad.pindar@drbc.state.nj.us
Basin Planner jessica.sanchez@drbc.state.nj.us
telephone number:
fax number:
(609) 883-9522
By now, we all know what the problems are with shale gas methane mining. Thankfully, a courageous NY Senator, Tony Avella is responsive to the will of The People. Of his fracking ban bill is #S4220, Tony says, “4220 or fight!”. Declare what WE WANT, what’s best for us (who stand in harm’s way) and stop allowing entrenched political insiders or polluter-friendly politicians to tell us what is, or is not possible.
1. On Monday, June 13th at 11:30am support the Avella Ban: Attend a press conference in the Legislative Office Building in Albany o in the LCA Room. The LCA Press Room is located on the third floor of the Capitol between the Senate and Assembly chambers.
2. On Monday, please contact your legislators in the New York State Senate: Tell them WE WANT A BAN NOW! URGE them to SUPPORT Senator Avella’s ban bill #: S4220. Also, contact your Assembly members and ask them to co-sponsor and vote for AssemblymanColton’s bill #: A7218. Let them know we stand with Senator Avella and Assemblyman Colton and urge their support for their bills.
Marcellus Shale Coalition mouthpiece Travis [S]Windle sez, "We gave this document a pretty thorough analysis, and the numbers are staggering. We're certainly heartened by these really positive economic indicators." Happy days are here again....Before you read this typical regurgitation of corporate/state spin, watch [S]Windle comment at a public hearing that "hydraulic fracturing has never contaminated groundwater." Note that the lovely EPA spokesperson doesn't challenge [S]Windle's lie.
youtube.com/watch?v=7hXjQuobyhA
Reviewer: Ute Arnold Dated: 2011-05-21 09:02:59
Urgent: An imminent vote on PA HB1100 - a "wolf in sheep's clothing." At first blush it seems to place regulations on "fracking>" But on closer read it doesn't allow municipalities to actually take action against "frackers". Send your letters to Senators cmcilhinney@pasen.gov and boneill@pahouseegop.com or look up your senator at http://bit.ly/lpps8J
Help protect sacred land in Lancaster: Please contact Local senator on the Susquehannock village being desecrated by realtors. Time gets closer to the building of houses on the Susquehannock village and gravesite behind the corner of Wabank and Waypoint Rds. Your Senators: http://bit.ly/lpps8J We are asking everyone who believes in history to also contact Senator Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster PA,and let tell him to stop the building of this site before they continue.There are places in Lancaster county where European graves are saved for historical reasons,and this Susquehannock site should be saved as well.Are we not human just because our skin is not white? Are we not human just because some are not "Federally recognized" by the state or government? Is it bad enough that Native Americans are the last race on the planet to get equal rights? I think that I have made my point.Now please help us make the same point to the Pennsylvania government,and save this site,as there are very few left. How can we teach our children and grandchildren true history,if there's nothing left to teach,or no landmarks to show them? Thank you, cherokee4lyf@yahoo.com
"The Pennsylvania spill 'has nothing to do with hydraulic fracturing,' [Senator James] Inhofe said in an interview with Fox News Radio, noting the spill was above ground." (Reuters). "The spill was above ground"??? Besides being a moron, Inhofe is one of the top congressional recipients of coal, oil and gas corporation payoffs.
Regarding the fracking chemical spill in PA, while I was glad that our local stations covered this story, I, too, thought it was down-played. You could tell that talking points had been handed out because those who were interviewed all seemed to be using the same terminology in their attempt to assure us that everything was fine. You could also tell that the residents who were interviewed must be making major bucks and under the spell of the industry as they complimented the clean-up efforts and that every "puddle" was being checked. I know this: I don't want to eat beef or drink milk from the cows in that pasture near the over-flowing frack pit.
Reviewer: Loretta Weir Dated: 2011-04-19 09:49:20
Hey, I just signed the petition "Demand the US Attorney General Investigate Corruption in the Governor Corbett Administration" and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name.
Our goal is to reach 200 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here: http://bit.ly/eraNu5.
Cut and paste into your browser. Thanks! Loretta
Reviewer: Ed Bonsell Dated: 2011-04-17 18:26:13
For Earth Day, April 21st, 4PM several groups will be gathering in front of the DEP regional office in Norristown to voice our dissatisfaction with the way they're handling the gas drilling issue. Please consider joining us at the Department of Environmental Protection Regional Office, 2 Main St., Norristown. Going out in publicly and speaking what's on your mind- if it's good for Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya it must be good for US. For more info: Green Party of Phila. 215-243-7103 or gpop@gpop.org. Sponsored by the Green Party of Philadelphia and endorsed by Brandywine Peace Community, BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action, Bucks County Green Party, Citizens for Clean Water, Green Party of Delaware County, Green Party of Montgomery County, Protecting our Waters and Saint Vincent’s Peace and Justice Ministry.
Reviewer: Anthony M. Dated: 2011-04-15 23:48:40
The joke's on us, folks. GE and other corporations will have a tax bill for 2010 of ZERO. GE had $14.2 billion in profits in 2010. and contribute NOTHING to the federal government while every last dime is soaked from us. This coming MONDAY, April 18 is TAX DAY—and "we the people" will demand our country back from corporations. Time: 12 PM. Where: WELLS FARGO Pennington, NJ. 12 noon. And don't go alone, because none of us can win this fight by ourselves.
If Congress fails to approve a budget and government is shut down (potential at midnight Friday) the refuge will be CLOSED to ALL public entry and ALL programs will be canceled.. By direct orders from Washington, gates will remain locked and any trespassers will be in violation of federal law. This will hold true worldwide until further notice on ALL non emergency U.S. federal facilities. Please stay tuned to public news channels for the most up to date status on potential shutdown. Contact: www.fws.gov/heinz/
Here's Mark Ruffalo wearing our new t-shirt design, "Don't Ruin My River," at the ceremonial First Cast at Junction Pool in Roscoe. See un-naturalgas.org. Please help spread the word that Fracking and Fishing (and other sorts of enjoyable human activity) Don't Mix. There is nothing "natural" about gas extraction.These profits benefit people: Shirts are $15 each crew neck for men in L, XL or 2Xhigh v-neck for women in M, L, XL Lawn signs are $5 each, or 10 for $45. Buttons and bumper stickers next! Just let us know how many you want and we will arrange to get them to you. Discounts on multiples for sporting goods stores. Thank you for supporting this effort to keep our rivers and our towns healthy!
Reviewer: David Scott Dated: 2011-03-30 20:04:44
According to The New York Times, last year General Electric (GE) made over $14.2 billion in profit, but paid NO federal tax. None.
In fact, thanks to the millions GE spent lobbying Congress, we American taxpayers actually owed GE $3.2 billion in tax credits.
Now GE is slashing health benefits and retirement benefits for new employees among non-union workers and is expected to push unions to accept similar cutbacks3, while its CEO, Jeff Immelt, gets a 100% pay raise. What's worse? Immelt now sits as chair of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (Jobs Council), representing corporate America to the President on matters like job creation and corporate taxation. That's a slap in the face to every hardworking, tax-paying American.
Reviewer: Rabbi Arthur Waskow Dated: 2011-03-29 21:40:56
I am writing you because people in & near Philadelphia have expressed concern about the climate crisis, fracking, coal-caused disease and eco-destruction, environmental injustice, etc. I want to raise the question whether we in Philadelphia might want to create our piece of this national action on April 20. I am aware that day is the 2d day of Passover. For some Jews, that might make it impossible. For others, it might seem a memorable response to the meaning of Passover. Shalom, salaam, shantih, peace -- Arthur
Reviewer: Richard McLaughlin Dated: 2011-03-27 13:48:22
BARK FOR LIFE! April 30th - I will give musical performance at at George Bush Park.. The Bark For Life is a walk-athon event for dogs and their owners to raise funds for the American Cancer Society's fight against cancer. www.relayforlife.org/panewhope. A 1 mile walk, contests and fun activities for dogs and owners. New Britain Veterinary Clinic will provide nail clipping - donation - $8, microchiping - $35. Susie Danzis of Training Tailso offers one on one training sessions (15 minutes each) with families and their dogs for a donation. Families can sign up at the event. There will be music, food, vendors, cat and dog rescues. Chrysa Smith, author of The Adventures of the Poodle Posse book series, will read from one of her books and lead a craft activity for children. Dancing dogs from the Lower Bucks Dog Training Club will wow us with their dance moves. Does your best buddy have a cute little tail? Enter her in the shortest tail contest. Maybe Fido has a flair for fashion. We are looking for the best dressed Royal Couple in honor of the royal wedding the day before. All this and more! Registration form available by downloading from website or by contacting Linda Pickett.
Reviewer: Carol O'Connell Dated: 2011-03-22 20:42:47
Solebury Township Bd of Supervisors Chair Peter Augenblick told me that Aquetong Watershed recent update to water supply planning shows that we are in a water deficit going forward. What happens if our water is contaminated and our supply is already tight? What happens with the huge amount of water needed for the frack drilling process when domestic supply is tight over the foreseeable future based on current demand? Written comments accepted through the close of business (5 p.m.) April 15, 2011
Go to this link to act: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=66
Below are Talking Points from Delaware Riverkeeper Network that you may want to address when making your comments on Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) site www.drbc.net. ( Link for comment page under #1 below)
Written comments accepted through the close of business (5 p.m.) April 15, 2011
Reviewer: Rebecca Lucas Dated: 2011-03-21 02:00:56
If you haven't added your prayer to the peace pole that will be planted near the Great Pyramid of Giza, please do so soon. We're hoping to collect one millions prayers from people all over the world, all of which will be placed inside a peace pole reading "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in many languages.
http://www.jamestwyman.com/Sign_Up_Peace_Prayer.html
Reviewer: Larry Menkes Dated: 2011-01-22 21:40:25
What you need to know about natural gas extraction, with Theo Colborn, PhD. A TEDX video production. This new film was premiered at the Warminster Township Environmental Advisory Council's Third Thursday video discussion on January 20th.
The following is my brief impressions of the video discussion. As the organizer and moderator I am unable to fully report on the event due to distractions but is a fair recollection. I hope to combine this with other accounts from those in attendance, if possible.
The video, What you need to know about natural gas extraction, is neither dramatic nor as exciting as the two dominant films about hydrofracking. However it is blunt, accurate, and filled with unimpeachable facts from the point of view of a renowned scientist.
It somewhat reinforced the impression that mature wells appear far less intrusive than working drilling operations. However it affirms and illustrates how intrusive and toxic these operations are during the lengthy periods of drilling. The video was a rather thorough explanation of the process and certain health and environmental effects from the point of view of a world class endocrinologist and health specialist.
There were representatives from a number of groups that spoke briefly to introduce themselves, their organizations, and their position on fracking. David Meiser from the Bucks County Sierra Club; Iris Bloom from the Philly Chapter of POW (Protect Our Waters); and Connie Borechevsky from the League of Women Voters of Bucks County. Connie explained the LWV position on natural gas extraction. There was also a representative or two from the Hatfield Township EAC, who admitted that they knew little except for what was reported in the press.
The 47 minute video by Dr. Theo Colborn, PhD. was very informative. This video is available to watch online at http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.video.php. It was produced by TEDX, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (www.endocrinedisruption.com).
The audience seemed apprehensive, some angry, and some outraged. A few seemed to equate the lack of substantive information with something like official indifference to their concerns. Among the representatives of organizations there was a sense that an official inquiry or investigation into why this situation persisted for over a year and a half in spite of violations of regulations.
In the discussion that followed the screening, more than one person stated that the State could not be considered a credible arbiter of this situation since it was seen as a part of the problem. There was concern that legislators may have been co-opted by large campaign contributions from powerful industry forces. There was some concern that gas industry money and influence was to blame for the lack of a severance tax and lack of stronger public safeguards..
That this surfaced during the transition toward a new administration seemed irrelevant given the severity of the situation. There was some question about this drilling effort coming at a time of economic vulnerability in Marcellus and Barnet shale areas.
Because of the seriousness of this situation my opinion is that an inquiry by an independent blue-ribbon panel could go some way toward allaying public concern about State inaction, if not further delayed. A significant increase in transparency was also called for by the audience.
On behalf of myself, members of the audience, and the EAC Network I wanted my legislator, and other local leaders to use the power of their good offices to get answers to our questions, to assure us that our water is completely free of frack waste; that our local sewage treatment plants have not been party to any frack waste disposal, and that there are no plans to do so in the foreseeable future. If there is contamination of our local streams It'd be helpful to know where and to what extent. Toward that end I forwarded a shorter version of this report to State Representative Bernie O'Neill (PA 29th Dist.) with a copy to my Representative, Kathy Watson (PA 144th).
Mere assurances will likely not suffice but might if backed up by hard data and credible, current test data.
Also helpful would be meaningful regulations on natural gas extraction that are well policed and enforced. That, is another matter but has been considered as a part of the cycle of failure. Some scheme to indemnify citizens and local municipalities from the many and various harms that natural gas extraction can cause.
Since this was developed as an educational event there was no cohesive call to action in the end, although it was mentioned. The discussion was spirited and we ended a bit later than the scheduled 9 PM time for the event.
Reviewer: Ed Bonsell Dated: 2011-01-22 09:45:30
I went to the presentation about gas drilling at Warminster township building that Larry Menkes put on last night. It was very good. Theo Colborn spoke and showed a film. Representatives from the Sierra club and the League of Women Voters were there. The crowd was very upset about drilling and the Hatfield frack water dumping incident and enthusiastic about doing something about it.
I spoke about the BuxMont Concerned Citizens I hope some of the people sign up. The Delaware River Basin Commission is having a short comment period before any ruling. Several groups are petitioning to lengthen the comment period. One groups is the Delaware River Keepers http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/
A yahoo group just started up just for networking in bucks and montgomery county's called BuxMont Concerned Citizens.
Reviewer: Ralph Eldridge Dated: 2011-01-17 11:57:32
We will all benefit from each other’s knowledge and experience which is more palatable than people telling us what to do. We in America are independent and would rather figure out for ourselves. The key is to begin!
Reviewer: Larry Menkes Dated: 2010-10-22 19:13:35
Peter, as usual, raises a critical question about the worsening energy crisis. The sad truth is that as long as we continue to blindly waste 50% to 90% of the energy that we use no amount of new capacity will satisfy our profligate demand.
However, the "wide adoption" that Peter suggests would require that we activists quickly put our money where our mouths are, get energy audits of our homes and businesses, do the required work and set a good example. The law of exponential growth dictates that if we join the first hundred monkeys we'll develop a critical mass before we lose our homes to unaffordable energy costs.
I'm watching "Need to Know" on WHYY right now and they just did a piece on this topic in the Phoenix Arizona area! And, at the ASPO conference at the beginning of this month the big news was the DOD Joint Chiefs report stating that oil demand will begin to exceed global supplies in about 2012.
At the conference we asked why nobody, outside our well informed circles, is paying attention and acting appropriately... like their hair was on fire. We decided that, among other reasons, Americans live in a collective trance that "everything's fine", or will be so once the economy recovers. Who knows that denial ain't just a river in Egypt?
What seems to be unfolding in our economy is the mother of all Black Swans. Anyone that believes that the next twenty years will be even remotely like the last better think again. Try taking the Crash Course (free at www.chrismartenson.com)? How much reality can YOU handle? How well do we understand what the relationships are between energy, the environment, and the economy?
FInally, the more energy used, the more climate change we'll experience. Our best chance for getting back to 350 (ppm CO2) is to stop wasting energy. Who noticed what's happened in the Arctic this past sumer? Do you that Richard is the 28th named storm this year, and is expected to reach Hurricane strength.
Reviewer: Peter Javsicas Dated: 2010-09-15 20:21:10
I think it would be great if such techniques as passive house solar windows were adopted widely. In my view we should be focusing our ingenuity and capacity for invention on energy conservation even more than we do on clean renewable energy production. A recent article in the New Yorker made a convincing case for the notion that good energy production, no matter how we do it, we just can’t catch up with our growing world energy consumption.
I saw two of the CNN segments on gas drilling in PA, one just a description of the issue, which was pretty even handed, if superficial, and one that interviewed Josh Fox and showed a homeowner igniting his tap water (from Gasland). It also included a brief interview with a representative from the gas drilling industry who said that the EPA had studied the homeowner complaints and that fracking had not caused the problems - they were just natural occurrences. We really need more science. Thorough and complete work by qualified environmental hydrologists.
Reviewer: Larry Menkes Dated: 2010-09-01 20:58:04
The Fourth Turning, Apocalypse and third World America
Reply to Rob Kall 9/1/10
Rob,
I deeply appreciate your attention to the concept of Relocalization. It is a crucial topic and holds the best promise for coping with the uncertainties of peak oil, climate change, resource depletion, water, population, and the synergistic effects of simultaneous multiple crises.
As the founder and Coordinator of the Pennsylvania's first Relocalization Chapter (then known as an outpost) The Earth Charter Lifeboat Academy of PA (after Caren Black's Titanic Lifeboat Academy in Astoria Oregon: http://www.titaniclifeboatacademy.org/) I think that the concepts behind Relocalization are sound and represent the best thought out top-down approach to the problem.
Now that all Relocalization Chapters have been (more or less) absorbed into the Transition US organization, we now have a complimentary model for a bottom's up approach. The guidelines are well articulated in the two books, Post Carbon Cities (Daniel Lerch) and The Transition Handbook (Rob Hopkins). I recommend them to anyone serious about coping with the historic changes that are almost upon us.
As Katrina, The Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Cuba's "Special Period", Pakistan's Mega Flood the Haitian Earthquake, and many other disasters demonstrate, the ability of a federal government to cope with this type of situation is limited at best. When possible, and planned, local communities can and do cope, at least for a short term crisis. With a well thought out, locally tailored plan that provides for long-term survival basics a community can do well for its inhabitants in a prolonged crisis.
But, as Jim Hansen, of NASA Goddard, and others have said, we don't have much time to prepare. We have squandered our best opportunities and still we diddle around with solutions. This is understandable since our first reaction to catastrophic news is paralyzing denial. We can get over this quickly if we acknowledge that our collective survival depends on our moving quickly through and beyond acceptance to action.
As Rob Hopkins and Bill Mettler (Transition Cheltenham) know, this can be a lot of fun. Don't deny yourself this unparalleled historic pleasure. Roll up your sleeves and get to work. You don't have to do this alone, and you can't. But we can do this together. This is our chance to craft a far better world, the world of our dreams and highest aspirations.
The following is Rob's editorial comment:
On Sep 1, 2010, at 13:45, rob@opednews.com wrote:
I started reading Arianna Huffington's new book, Third World America, which expresses serious concerns about America's future, particularly the future of the middle class. It's very well written by the way. More to come.
Anyway, today we have an article by Jim Quinn,The Fourth Turning - Skies Darkening,that is apocalyptic. Things are at a point where we need to start thinking about stronger measures to bring about change. The Democratic victories failed to make anywhere close to the changes we need.
The other day, I referred to a locavore picnic I attended, based on relocalization ideas.
Last week I interviewed the authors of the book, Abundant Community, which explores returning from consumerism to community.
That's where we need to be heading. The idea of boosting production or increasing output or efficiency is mired in the old way of thinking-- about more is better. We need to end that approach and switch to the model Keith Farley describes, in his book TIME's UP, where he suggests that we need to start buying things that last, keeping them, fixing them buying used goods, with the goal of decreasing production. That idea challenges the consumer economic model. It challenges the idea that we maintain a healthy economy by maintaining production and consumption.
We need to develop new economic models based on decreasing demand and increasing sustainability. That means sourcing things locally, depending less upon massive, centralized systems to provide health or food or energy. Biological entities don't survive when they get too big. Humanity cannot going on building bigger and bigger corporations and systems to purportedly take care of us. They stop working to take care of we-the-people and start working to maintain their own existences and the power of those who run them.
I've written about the need for a war on big:Time To Declare War on BIG; America Needs Giant Killers. One way to do it is to eliminate the need for or interaction with big operations, companies and systems. That takes a change in lifestyle. Even if we do a 5% change, it can make a difference and be a start.
OpEdNews.com is committed to being a valuable resource for discussing the issues of the day and providing the tools and information you need to adapt as our world changes
Reviewer: Ken Gallagher Dated: 2010-08-28 09:30:42
There is a large amount of gas which is removed from landfills. This can be harnesses and purified instead of just burning off into the atmosphere. So, why is this gas unavailable for heating and electrical generation? Natural wells in the earth are very harmful to the surrounding environment. Once the drinking water supply is effected, it is very expensive to purify water and ultimately rcauses increase in water and sewer bills. We have what we need right here, aboue the surface of the ground. Man made gas, in landfills, just waiting to be harnessed and used wisely
Reviewer: Larry Menkes Dated: 2010-08-15 23:51:03
The Sunday edition of the Intelligencer's article "From Dump the Pump to kill the drill" was a game-changer in the struggle to keep toxic chemicals used in hydrofracturing for natural gas in Eastern PA out of the Delaware River Basin. This body of water is the source of drinking water for over 17 million people.
Bucks County, with a long history of activism and a deep love of the Delaware River and the environment, was ripe for a reaction against natural gas extraction, which from all appearances is not quite ready for use in Special Protection Waters, let alone anywhere.
The Intel article awoke a sleeping giant... local activists from the 1980's who are hardened from years of working to protect the Delaware. This experienced cadre can shift the balance of power to citizens whose rights are routinely being trampled by the gas industry.
The August 19 event in Warminster Township (see events) will bring a lot of people together who will collaborate on ways to require transparent and totally responsible gas extraction. If you care about your drinking water you'll want to come to Warminster this Thursday, at 7 PM at the Township Building; 401 Gibson Ave. Info at 267.992.8020
From the Living Planet Report 2008 I quote the following: “Humanity’s demand on the planet has more than doubled over the past 45 years as a result of population growth and increasing individual consumption. In 1961, almost all countries in the world had more than enough capacity to meet their own demand; by 2005, the situation had changed radically, with many countries able to meet their needs only by importing resources from other nations and by using the global atmosphere as a dumping ground for carbon dioxide and other green house gases.”
Humanity’s demand on the planet’s living resources, its Ecological Footprint, now exceeds the planet’s regenerative capacity by about 30%. This global overshoot is growing and, as a consequence, ecosystems are being run down and waste is accumulating in the air, land and water. The resulting deforestation, water shortages, declining biodiversity and climate change are putting the wellbeing and development of all nations at risk.”
Reviewer: Ralph Eldridge Dated: 2010-03-15 21:53:24
Where are the local officials when it comes to helping citizens cope? When the tree blew down on Rt. 202 I didn't have water, lights, heat, a refrigerator or a stove. PECO controls everything in my house. If this ever happens again, I would like to have at least the kitchen in operating condition. PECO controls sustainable living right now. There has to be a better way.
Reviewer: Henry D'Silva Dated: 2010-03-15 20:39:59
Nothing is truly sustainable. The universe began with or without a Big Bang and if and when it will end, we (meaning likely all of humanity and life as we know and can imagine EVER) will NEVER know. Many species have gone extinct long before humans appeared. Nature uses multiple processes to ensure dominance of a species is eventually limited, whether it be destruction by meteorite, famine, fire, flood, disease, quakes or global warming/climate change.
Humans did evolve in a manner to acquire and to utilize knowledge to a degree that over centuries enhanced their own survival. Agriculture is a unique example of evolution leading to acquisition of skills other species have been very limited to the point where it amazes us to note how smart an animal can be (relatively). Yet a similar level of smartness in humans is taken for granted by us and we use terms such as ”bird brain, smartest monkey in the zoo” etc.
But natural selection via evolution is a process of advancement and of limitation in its impact on species.
I believe our human skills which we acquired through the brilliant process of evolution, may also be our demise or at minimum, result in a great decline of the human presence in nature and on our planet through the process used by nature & evolution called natural selection. Natural selection also weeds out the predominant species when it encroaches significantly upon the habitat of others. Even if we have not accepted this, I believe this to be the case. We may never know or find out.
Nature will decide or has already decided when human skills that for centuries have lengthened our lifespan (via agriculture, domestication of animals for human use, introduction of sanitation and technology that preserved and enhanced distribution of food and advancement of health etc. yes even legislation favoring clean air and clean water) need to be curtailed so other life forms and the great natural process needs protection from these ultra smart beings who just aren’t smart enough to protect themselves.
Greed is a human feature shared only by animals who relate closely to humans, such as household cats and dogs, perhaps chimps.
My theory is the desire to acquire more than we need resulted from our long standing sense of insecurity. Having ample food helps us feel secure, even if this is false because this security has to do with more with perception than with reality. We rarely observe obesity in the wild (in absence of disease).
Curiosity and the quest for discovery predominate in humans although certainly present in many if not most species. Such human features produce the drive to develop and invent new techniques and technologies.
All of this (curiosity, need for discovery and invention, greed, the desire to dominate) coupled with reproduction and the instinct not only for survival but also for predominance by numbers (very hard to get people to talk rationally of population control even with intense environmentalists) make us intentionally or otherwise draw on natural resources to the point of being oblivious of the Living Planet Index (perhaps you wondered why I was ranting about evolution etc.) and how our human strengths bestowed on us through evolution are now the demons haunting us with threats of mass extinction not only of ourselves but many others in our paths. Nature pulls them along in the trawler net although the big catch is us, humans.
Please do comment and criticize.
Reviewer: Henry D'Silva Dated: 2010-02-25 07:02:16
The Sustainability Dilemma --
I don't mean to question or criticize defending and protecting our precious
environment and our community values. However, I do want review some history and invite some comments and criticism. My data is largely limited to the US.In 1800 the US population was 5.3 million. Average US lifespan was 35 years (some data estimate 24 years in 1796). People lived without electricity and cars.
By 1900 US population was 63 million, lifespan rose to 48 years. The first
electric power plant was built at Niagara in 1895. Most persons had no
electricity or cars in 1900. (http://vicentelopez0.tripod.com/eleceng.html).
Come Y2K US population was 281.4 million. 2010 predicts around 315 million, average lifespan 79 years. Electricity serves 99% of US population 50% being coal generated. An estimated 246 million vehicles (cars, buses, trucks etc.) were registered in 2010.
What do humans want and what are human needs in the US from 2010 through 2050?
Whereas defining our needs is problematic, defining our wants as simply
limitless is perhaps easier.
So what are basic human needs in 2010 in the developed and in the developing world as we seek to define sustainability? How long do we expect to live?
What do we need (not want) to consume during our lifespan? Are we prepared to ration ourselves? If so how?
Some groups such as Transition Towns suggest answers such as communities that work locally, growing and consuming foods locally and generating local clean renewable energy, biking, walking, focusing on community (people) values & local interaction and libraries rather than TV and other gadgets and appliances, re-discover value in family & neighbors, reducing fossil fuels consumption and building resilience.
Will it work? Do we have a choice? Will super Technocrats provide quick,
dependable and affordable solutions for all of us that electricity and
gasoline did until they poisoned us? All the CFLs, LEDs, caulk and littered
dollars Amory Lovins sees together with Solar, Wind, Hydrogen, (even nuclear if I may mention) etc. will unlikely help if we choose to live to 90 (or 85) in ever burgeoning human numbers who demand more in the US and across the world.
But who is going to bell the cat? Birth control, Compassionate Choices,
Death panels or am I going too far?
Are we prepared to program routine brownouts or blackouts of sufficient
length and frequency into our lives? How about clean air, water
restrictions, pitcher baths and other means of conservation?
Do we seriously need to re-consider and re-assess and perhaps downsize our needs before nature makes that choice for us? Or will nature attend to us the way nature knows best?
Please feel free to comment on (or condemn) my thoughts and/or to offer your solutions.
" Coal Country" is coming! Coal Country is a vey moving documentary examining the complex economic, environmental, and social impacts of coal through the hearts and minds of the people it matters to the most. Will the US pursue "clean coal" development? We need to be informed about all the implications of its' development! Come see the film!
Reviewer: Ann Dated: 2010-02-15 09:46:46
JUST SAY NO TO FRACK
1 DRILL PAD NEEDS 3-5 ACRES OF BULLDOZED FOREST
3-9 MILLION GALLONS OF WATER , DRAINING STREAMS AND THEN NO PLACE TO DUMP TOXIC SOUP DISCHARGE.
LITTLE OVERSIGHT OR REGS IN PLACE.
COST OF DRILLING DOES NOT SAVE MONEY OVERALL SO THE CHOICE IS,
POLLUTED WATER SOURCES, OR GAS, FOR NO ECONOMIC BENEFIT EXCEPT FOR EXXON, WHO STILL HAS NOT CLEANED UP VALDEZ ALASKA
Reviewer: Ken Gallagher The Peace Project Dated: 2010-02-08 12:07:33
The Peace Project of Montgomery County
Peaceproject3@gmail.com
215-855-7530
Mosaic Vision
Mission Statement: We strive to establish peace by promoting dialogue among diverse cultures and faiths; while respecting the backgrounds and beliefs of all individuals.
Our Standard:
We honor diversity while celebrating similarities. Diversity +unity= peace.
Sampling of Fall 2009 events:
1. Dialoguing for Peace at Lansdale Public Library. We toured Mystic India, viewed the Power of Forgiveness, and explored one hundred years of forced boarding schools and the effects on the spirit of Native Americans.
2. We collected blankets of peace for Native American reservations and the homeless in Lansdale.
3. We continued Building Bridges of Peace through books, music and film.
4. We did several outreach events:
• Peace summit for ages 9-16
• Interfaith Peace walk
• International peace dinner
• Task force for the homeless
• International Spring Festival Committee
Upcoming Events
Program: Film- The Power of Firgiveness
Please join us at Trinity Lutheran Church at 1000 W. Main St. in Lansdale. We are offering a 5 week seminar from January 6 to February 10, at 6:30 pm. Learn about the healing process of forgiveness and its physical, mental and spiritual benefits.
Join the Peace Project, First Baptist Church and Peaceful Hearts as we celebrate the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Located at First Baptist Church at 7th and Broad St. on Sunday January 17th from 2 to 4 pm.
Please join the International Spring Festival Committee on January 20 at 6pm, located at 401 Hancock St in Lansdale for a taste of the International Spring Festival.
Please join us at the Lansdale Public Library on January 27th from 6:45 to 8:45 pm for an inspiring film of the “Children’s March.” In May 1963, over 3,000 children as young as four years old, marched for freedom in Birmingham Alabama.
Join us on February 24th from 6:45 to 8:45 pm at the Lansdale Public Library for a powerful documentary “A Place at the Table: Struggles for Equality in America.” A group of young people share their ancestors’ struggles, triumphs, fears and hopes. This is a moving story of what it means to be an American.
Join us on March 24th from 6:45 to 8:45 pm at the Lansdale Public Library for the academy Award film “One Survivor Remembers.” The story of an ordinary teenager who lost everything to the Nazi regime, but held on to hope while refusing to allow her own humanity to be diminished by others.
Future Events
Please Join us on April 17 from 11 am to 5pm. For the 19th annual International Spring Festival at North Penn High School.
Join us on Saturday May 1st at 7 pm for a very special event: Peace through Music; Songs Around the World. No passport necessary. Come to our first annual Peace Party as we take an amazing cinematic journey through song and dance. We will be joined by local artists and musicians who will share their talents and skills so that our heart beats can act as one. Location: TBA.
Join us on Saturday June 19th from 10am to 5 pm for Lansdale’s first annual Pow Wow. Celebrate, educate and advocate for the struggles and triumphs of our Native American brothers and sisters. Location: TBA.
Join the Peace project on June 18, 19, 20 and 21 as we ask churches, temples, synagogue and mosques to gather in prayer for “right relationships with our Native American brothers and sisters.”
Wanted: A Peace Project Dream
A safe fun and creative space to provide interfaith and multicultural programming. We envision a mixture of a living museum, an educational forum and a sacred space. We are an all volunteer staff with a very limited budget. If you have or know someone who may be willing to donate or share space, primarily in the Lansdale community or nearby please call or email.
The Peace project of Montgomery County
www.peaceproject3@gmail.com or 215-855-7530
Rosemary Gallagher, Executive Director
Highlighting Egypt
Official Name: Arab Republic of Egypt
Capitol: Cairo
Languages: Arabic, English and French. Coptic Christians still speak a language that is descendant of the ancient Egyptian language.
Religion: about 94% are Sunni Muslim, about 6% are Coptic, Christian and others
Ethnic Groups: About 90% are Egyptians, Bedouins and Berbers. The other 10% are Nubian, Armenian, Syro Lebanese, Greek, Jewish, French and Italian.
Location: North eastern portion of the African continent. It is home to the Sahara, which is the world’s largest desert. It also has the world’s largest river which is the Nile River. Egypt also houses the oldest and most famous of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, which are the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx. Egyptian civilization dates back to at least 4000 B.C. The oldest “Golden Rule” has been traced back to ancient Egypt.
Daily Life: Family is the main focus of daily life and elders are respected for their guidance. Western clothing may be worn along with traditional clothing. Soccer is the favorite sport and backgammon is a favorite game. Bizarres are a fun place to socialize, shop and bargain. Egyptians in general are considered to be kind, generous, with a good sense of humor, and a love of stories. Egyptians in comparison to Western culture seem to have a more relaxed attitude.
Egyptian Holidays: Sham el Nessim (The arrival of spring) this festival unites Muslims and Coptic Christians in a tradition which is over 4,000 years old. Another celebration which Muslims and Coptic Christians honor is Sebooh. It is held on a newborn baby’s seventh day of life. Families gather together to pray and honor this new life. The most important Coptic Christian holiday is Easter. This holiday is celebrated after a 55 day fast. Christmas is the second most important Coptic Christian holiday. It is celebrated on January 7. Important Muslim holidays include Ramadan, Eid el Fitr and Eid el Adha. Please refer to our Fall 2009 newsletter for detailed descriptions of these holidays.
Eat Like an Egyptian. This the way you can make Egyptian yogurt salad. Ingredients:2 cups of raisins, 2 cups walnuts, 2 large containers of plain yogurt, 2 medium cucumbers, peeled and diced, one tablespoon of crushed dill one tablespoon crushed mint and one teaspoon of lemon juice. Mix and serve chilled. Enjoy with mint tea or mango juice. While dining, listen to some Egyptian music on line for free.
Resources: www.touregypt.net www.memphis.edu/egypt Egyptian embassy 2310 Decatur place, N.W. Washington D.C. 20008
Voices of Faith
Who are the Copts?
The Term Copt: and Egyptian has the same meaning and derives from the Greek word Aigyptas. The Coptic language Is the last shape of the language of the ancient Egyptians. The founder of the Coptic Church. According to early writings, Coptic Christianity began with a visit in the first century A.D. from the Apostle Mark. St. Mark is regarded by the Coptic hierarchy as the first of the unbroken chain of one hundred seventeen popes. He is also the first of the Egyptian saints and martyrs. Church of Martyrs. After the martyrdom of St. Mark, the Coptic Church faced severe persecutions. The seventh persecution (284 to 305 A.D.) is considered by the Copts as the age of persecution. Catechetical school of Alexandria was founded by St. Mark. Its main discipline was religion. The Church of Monasticism This movement was started in Egypt and is ascribed to St.Anthony (251-356 A.D.)
Doctrinal: St. Athanasius was a Coptic Pope. He was the Egyptian Hero of Faith, who defended the divinity of Jesus Christ. In 325 A.D., he contributed most of the Nicene Creed, which all Christians profess in their faith.
Worship and Practice In the Coptic churches, most prayers are read out loud and repeated as it would have been spoken in ancient Egypt. Their sabot days are Saturday and Sunday. A place of worship is considered sacred so, shoes are removed before entering. Coptic priests wear black vestments and have long beards. The Coptic Pope is called a patriarch. Coptic Christians usually tattoo a Coptic cross on their wrists.
The Coptic Church is related to other eastern apostolic churches such as Greek, Armenian, and Syrian orthodox churches. In 1954, the Ethiopian Church officially separated from the Coptic Church. They now have their own Pope but follow the rituals of the Coptic Church. There are about 6 million Coptic Christians in Egypt. They reside mostly in middle Egypt.
Copts Today Coptic Christians hope and pray for the same things that all people of good will want: A safe place for their families to grow and flourish. Throughout the centuries Coptic’s have suffered oppression and persecution. Until all global citizens accept that justice and equality has to be for everyone, or it will not exist for anyone. We will continue to be at war with one another.
We would like to thank Fr. Antonious Salib for providing some materials for this section of Voices of Faith. For more information please contact St. Mary and St. Kyrillo Coptic Orthodox Church P.O. Box 340 Hatfield, Pa. 19440-0430.
Reviewer: Larry Menkes Dated: 2010-02-06 21:19:15
There's a lot more than the devil's own toxic cocktail coming from Marcellus Shale drilling. The air pollution coming from there can travel far from the sites, and on a NW breeze beautiful Bucks County is downwind. Yet "indoor air pollution can be can be 10 times worse than L.A. on a bad day, no matter where you live." Friday, March 5th (7 PM) the Environmental Home Store in Doylestown will be presenting a dynamic video-discussion led by Jill Kowalski, and indoor air quality specialist and green interior designer, in the regions most non-toxic retail space. Located at 320 N. Broad St., the EHS is Bucks County's first source for non-toxic interior finishes, kitchens and bath and more. Best yet, it's free!
Reviewer: Dave Meiser Dated: 2010-01-04 09:28:24
As for the rate caps coming off, I am not a Peco customer, I am a member of the Energy Cooperative! (http://www.theenergy.coop) which is a nonprofit cooperative, owned and controlled by the consumers who use our services in Southeastern PA. I have EcoChoice100 which is 100% renewable, real, and local electricity available to members in PECO’s service territory. Yes it is more expensive than Peco but it is 100% renewable electricity! (no Coal, no Nuke) and I will not have the sticker shock with the upcoming Peco rate jump!
They also have home heating oil and bio-Biodiesel
Reviewer: Larry Menkes Dated: 2009-12-23 10:57:07
Taking Personal Responsibility for Climate Change
As a professional Sustainability Advocate I'm often asked about what things a person can do to make a difference for the environment. I usually suggest low hanging fruit like changing light bulbs, except these days I recommend switching to LED's. Yes, LED's. (I know they are expensive but I paid over $25 for my first compact fluorescent lamp in 1986 when the climate crisis wasn't as obvious.) Then, I usually recommend getting a certified home energy audit by an experienced auditor and following his advice. My final bit of advice, when someone who is only willing to do one thing asks about the single best thing to do, I give them John Robbins advice, give up eating red meat.
This essay on taking responsibility for climate change, from Jan Lundberg, (http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=581&Itemid=1) pretty neatly and eloquently sums up my attitude on the foundations from which we should act. Because he's such an authority, I urge you to take HIM, not me, to task if you disagree with his analysis and prescription. By the way, Jan's put his money, his mouth, and his energy toward making a real difference. For example, he's instituted the low carbon Sail Transport Network to bring goods and produce across Puget Sound, the region in which he lives.
I've heard many arguments about how we should start by giving people the simple, easy things to do. I guess they figure that will eventually lead them to doing the more important things. That strategy may have worked in 1986, but we're too close to the edge of the roof today for that to work. As Sam Walton said, "the time for incremental change has passed. What we need is a revolution". My strategy is to lead people to the big changes: if they can get it they'll take care of the little things along the way. Which works best? I really can't say for sure, but if you manage live for another decade, we'll both find out.
Reviewer: Ted Inoue Dated: 2009-12-19 06:34:46
I'm with Larry - conservation first!
To get technical. and address the generator question specifically, on industrial scales, combined heat and power systems work very well, achieving total energy efficiencies from gas turbines of 75%+. These systems use the normally wasted heat from the generators for industrial processes or space heating. A good natural gas generator is about 38% efficient at converting the energy in NG to electricity. What does this mean for a homeowner? If gas costs $1.70/CCF, that translates to $0.153/kwh, a little less than PECO charges now and a lot less than it probably will charge after the rate caps. So we're actually right around the point where a good gas generator costs about the same or less to run than buying the electricity from PECO costs.
Keep two things in mind:
1) residential generators are meant to be used for "backup" purposes, running a few hours here and there. If you're looking at using the generator for 100% of your home's needs, then you need one designed for continuous use, which is considerably more expensive. In round numbers, you're looking at $10,000+ for a home generator system.
2) Natural gas prices are very volatile. Some say gas prices are headed down because of the huge shale gas finds (ignoring the environmental questions about that for now) However, if everybody switches to NG because it's inexpensive, costs will rise.
In this area, you're mostly buying gas from PECO or Electricity from PECO. So you're tied to them regardless. Some may want the security of having their own electricity supply. But do we really want every home to have a generator humming away, 24/7/365? Bucks is a peaceful, quiet place to live.
Anyway, to be pragmatic, I'm with Larry. Tune up your home and save about 30%. And, keep in mind that improving your home affects future owners, reducing their energy use, pollution generated, etc. The best thing you can do for yourself and future generations is make your home as energy efficient as possible.
To this end, see: www.TedsEnergyTips.com
Start with tips 7 and 8.
Reviewer: Larry Menkes Dated: 2009-12-18 19:30:37
Forget the backyard generator for now. Most of us unwittingly waste 50% to as much as 90% of the energy we use in our homes. Invest your generator money in a proper home energy audit. That'll buy you a scientific assessment of where the waste is and the most cost effective strategy for fixing it.
Since lighting is 10% to 20% of the home energy budget it's an easy one to address. While you're waiting for the auditor, get rid of your wasteful incandescent light bulbs. Compact fluorescent lamps can save 70%. Holiday lights draw a lot of power at some homes but LED lights can cut the waste by almost 90%. And nothing beats turning of the lights and appliances you're not using. There are dozens of ideas like this that a certified energy auditor will tell you about and back it up with numbers that make sense.
Reviewer: Steven Nosrevi Dated: 2009-12-03 09:33:29
Using technology to get the message of mass transit across is nothing short of amazing. However, it is clear that the invited group (PA-TEC) was invited only to be attacked. It seems that boorish Councilman Joseph Denelsbeck had an agenda and refused to listen to PA-TEC's answers. On a larger scale, it is a shame that a small town like Rockledge, (who is very lucky to have mass transit), is unwilling to help out neighboring towns along the usused railway line by at least keeping an open mind concerning the return of a sorely needed railway line. The greater good is unimportant, it seems. I distinctly recall Denelsbeck screaming "Oh, Bucks County's problems are OUR problems?" to which PA-TEC member Paul Iverson answered "sure they are. We all sit in traffic, yes?" Denelsbeck did not answer. Hopefully, Rockledge will step outside of their shell, see the larger picture, and help PA-TEC in their efforts.
Reviewer: Regina Dated: 2009-12-01 10:02:15
I enjoyed the web broadcast. Even though my computer screen kept freezing every 5 seconds, the audio came in great. I was glad to at least be able to hear what people were saying.
Regarding the meeting: I feel disappointed in the apparently intransigent behavior from the Rockledge Borough council. I found the one councilman's (whose name I can't recall) behavior at times to be rather rude and belligerent. Since they voted unanimously to reject PA-TEC's proposal, it seems to me that the Rockledge council is not the least bit interested in considering any change in their community's status quo. As a supporter of the revival of the R-8 line, I consider this a shame, and I only hope that other townships and/or boroughs will have more of an open mind to the potential benefits of restoring the train line.
Reviewer: Jon Frey Dated: 2009-11-30 20:43:49
PA-TEC extends its gratitude to OneifbyLand Productions for covering and promoting our meeting in Rockledge Borough on 11/30/2009.
Having our event webcast on OneifbyLand.com was an excellent way for our group to reach out to many people in the region who are interested in transportation projects such as the R8 Newtown Line, but coiuld not personally attend.
We are grateful to the OneifbyLand Productions team for all of the hard work and time they put in to covering our event. Their team was very polite, couteous, and interested in covering our event for what it was as a good team of journalists would.
Reviewer: Ralph Dated: 2009-11-23 14:47:47
You can read on trains. Less stress and it doesn't burn a gas hole in my pocket.
Reviewer: Ted Inoue Dated: 2009-10-11 08:10:57
In fact, Bucks residents do have access to many forward thinking, green-minded people who can help to create your own super-efficient home or make your existing home more efficient. Did you know that one of the few Sustainable Building classes is held at Bucks County Community College? These last four years, this class has been quietly educating architects, builders, contractors and others so that now there are nearly 100 certified Sustainable Building Advisors in the area.
The challenges we face in creating our own homes like the Passive Haus are cost and familiarity. Most contractors in our area, along with the building officials, are very resistant to trying anything that isn't main-stream. However, there are some who will work with you, and it's quite possible to put together a talented team in Bucks to create a house to these standards.
Reviewer: Liz Beth Dated: 2009-03-24 20:36:04
I am impressed, Love the stories.
Reviewer: Elise Dated: 2009-03-13 17:42:57
Melissa the site looks great!
Reviewer: Dave Dated: 2009-02-22 10:00:38
This is a great site. Bucks County residents should appreciate te wealth of information here. I certainly do.
Reviewer: Diane Dated: 2009-02-18 18:04:27
Ahhh, can't wait to see this technology promoted in the United States both for what it will save in terms of global warming and also in promoting good health for all Americans.
Reviewer: Keith Dated: 2009-02-18 16:01:06
I wonder why the man from California couldn't get a credit for a heat exhanger? Hummm.... Necessity the mother of invention will in due course - I believe - mandate this sensible approach to being practical and kind to the planet.
Reviewer: Rachel Dated: 2009-02-18 11:21:58
If only there were a way to access advanced technology. Regular people need a direct line to scientists.
