Environment Meetups > The Philadelphia Environment Meetup Group

Come and eat, talk, and wake up with green minded folks from every walk of life.
To add to the already successful green drinks that Grow Design hosts, the Urban Green Partnership would like to help connect the breakfast crowd.

Once a month a…

Philadelphia, PA 19147 - USA

Sunday, April 29 at 11:00 AM

Attending: 0

Details: http://environment.meetup.com/228/calendar/5545166/

With all of the greening going on around town and the Sustainability awards last night who do you think should be featured for their green lifestyle or green achievments?

With Philadelphia magazine, the city paper, Philly Style and others doing green issues.  Who else should we be looking to in the region to start informing hteir readers about green?

http://urbangreenpartnership.org/uncategorized/small-composter/

http://urbangreenpartnership.org/uncategorized/state-business-see-local-growth-for-green-services/

here are some tips, tricks and mental morsals for your inner green
 
http://urbangreenpartnership.org/uncategorized/keen-on-green/

This week, leaders of the environmental and conservation communities came together with leaders in the faith and women’s communities to defend the honor of two outstanding public servants.

Governor Rendell’s cabinet officers needed to be confirmed by the Senate on or before April 25. But in a classic political late hit, a Harrisburg tale of "Gotcha!" unfolded. Governor Rendell agreed to withdraw and immediately resubmit his environmental secretaries’ nominations, giving more time for their approval to be granted. 

What went down? Information was spoon fed to an opinion columnist who published allegationsâ without attributionâ the weekend before the scheduled confirmation votes. The Pennsylvania Environmental Council provided that columnist all of the relevant exculpatory information regarding Secretary McGinty, but those facts were excluded from the column. What senator would want to be treated in this manner?

The easily refuted and disproved allegations against Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Michael DiBerardinis were never aired during their respective confirmation hearings before the Senate. The secretaries were never provided a proper public forum to defend themselves against the innuendo.

Someone interested in the real facts of this matter would have a hard time finding them in the media coverage to date. They can be found here, here and here.

Who should be flagged for the late hit? As the facts are now catching up to the smear, Harrisburg insiders are trying to finger the identity of its mastermind. Was it a political enemy of Secretary McGinty? Was it a polluter or other sore loser in the political Rolodex unhappy about the strong state mercury rule that protects Pennsylvaniaâs babies, or the Clean Vehicles Program that protects our health while saving us fuel and money?

Listen in to the April 26 press conference we held in the Capitol Rotunda. It includes representatives from PennFuture, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania Chapter, the Pennsylvania Interfaith Climate Change Campaign, Clean Air Council, and the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association. Later in the afternoon, additional organizations added their voices to the call for an end to this inexcusable smear campaign, including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Clean Water Action, Pennsylvania Council of Churches, and Pennsylvania NOW.

Organizations large and small across the state, together with citizens in every corner of the Commonwealth, are calling on the Senate to confirm these impressive environmental cabinet officers as soon as possible, and put an end to this shameful smear. You can do your part by taking action here.

Excited by all the articles and TV segments about how to “green” your home? Ready to become the next Ed Begley, Jr., with a composter, rain barrel, and recycled milk-jug fencing in your yard? Not so fast: Policies and regulations you may not even know about may stand in your way.

As writer Stan Cox reveals in an article published yesterday on the progressive webzine AlterNet, some suburban homeowners’ association covenants and local land-use statutes actually hinder homeowners from making changes to their property that are designed to protect the environment. Some of these rules even promote energy consumption, chemical use, and sprawl. Here’s an exerpt:

The Property Cops: Homeowner Associations Ban Eco-Friendly Practices

Homeowner association regulations often make environmental responsibility impossible by outlawing clotheslines, solar panels — even gardens.

The house Heather and Joseph Sarachek were building in Scarsdale, N.Y., was to be a model of green efficiency, complete with geothermal heating and cooling. Even the electricity to run the system would be clean, coming from solar panels on their roof — but when the time came to install the panels last fall, construction came to an abrupt halt.

A local Board of Architectural Review refused to issue the Saracheks a permit for the solar apparatus, having received a letter from at least 15 neighbors — among them doctors, lawyers and other presumably well-educated people — arguing that the panels “would clearly be an eyesore in our lovely Quaker Ridge neighborhood.”

Read the rest here .

Apparently this is what happened to Al Gore –- taken to task recently about the Brobdingnagian* size of his own footprint — when he tried to put solar panels on his mansion in a Nashville subdivision.

But there’s hope. Journalist Peter Friederici, a professor at Northern Arizona University**, tells me, “An Arizona court ruled a few years ago that homeowners associations [HOAs] do not have the power to regulate the placement of solar panels. State law allowing the panels, it decreed, supersedes what HOAs decide. I imagine many HOAs still do have such rules, though, and as far as I know there hasn’t been a ruling about the right to hang your clean underwear for the neighbors to see.” Perhaps there should be one!

* I felt this word fit perfectly, but for those not familiar, it alludes to the giants among whom Gulliver walked in his famous Travels.

** This is a correction. In the original post I stated Arizona State University. I regret the error.

Environment Meetups > The Philadelphia Environment Meetup Group

Thursday, April 26 Ride your bike to work with Mayor Street!

Ride begins @ 8:00 a.m., Memorial Hall (42nd and Parkside) and terminates @City Hall, Dilworth Plaza north side (15th & Market)

Ri…

Philadelphia, PA 19147 - USA

Thursday, April 26 at 8:00 AM

Attending: 0

Details: http://environment.meetup.com/228/calendar/5689096/

Behold, a mixed platter of Earth Day weekend observations…Recycling ConfusionOn Saturday I volunteered at the local recycling center as part of my work requirement for Weaver’s Way Co-op. The job consisted of helping people tote cardboard and plastic from their cars to a waiting garbage truck. It was heartening to see how many other […]