Category: Environmental Forum - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Next Green Drinks June 27, 2019

6/17/2019

Green Drinks - Thursday, June 27th from 5:00-7:00 pm

Fresh Deli at the Freight House
421 W River DR, Davenport, IA (map)

Environmental Forum

Our next Green Drinks event will be on Thursday, June 27th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Karen Neder from the Earth Keepers group at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Moline will share with us her recycling program with Terracycle - Quad Cities. You’ll be surprised at what all you can recycle and keep out of the landfill. Set a reminder on your smart phone calendar, so you don’t miss this event. See our Green Drinks - Quad Cities website for the next meeting days.

We’ve been discussing various environmental issues, and brainstorming what we need to do to raise awareness of climate change and to encourage everyone to vote. Come join us on the last Thursday of each month at Fresh Deli, from 5 pm to 7 pm.

Susan Leuthauser

Green Drinks After Action Report

6/17/2019

Green Drinks - After Action Report
The Last Thursdays - March through May

Fresh Deli at the Freight House in Davenport
Environmental Forum

March 28th -
We had an enthusiastic crowd for our first Green Drinks event. Everybody was excited to start this tradition in the QCA.

April 25th -
On a stormy evening, Tara Witherow shared how she turned her lawn into a garden with native plants, which provide food for native insects and birds. Under the Davenport Native Roots Program, when a yard contains more than 80% native plants, it no longer needs to be mowed. Doing so, Tara no long used lawn chemicals, which end up in our water; eliminated emissions from lawn care equipment; brought back biodiversity; provided food for the pollinators; and brought carbon back into the soil. The added benefits are the time and cost savings in lawn care. That sounds like a win-win. You can learn more about what Tara did to her lawn the following Quad City Times article ("Lawns are Wasted Space") or contact Tara on her Facebook page.

May 30th -
Flood water covered the parking lot in front of Fresh Deli, but Green Drinks went on as scheduled. Dawn Temple, Administrator of the Rock Island County Soil and Water Conservation District brought her bin of worms and food wastes, and shared with us her Vermicomposting experience. In the US, we each generate about 277 pounds of food waste a year and only 3% of that is composted. Vermicomposting uses red wiggler worms, available from the bait shop, to compost. These worms eat their own weight in food every day, and produce nutrient-rich compost in about 3 months. This is done in a well-ventilated, covered storage bin that is kept indoors. The system is amazingly clean and odorless. It would be a great activity for the young environmentalist. For more information contact Dawn Temple on her Facebook page.

Susan Leuthauser

Environmental Forum Meeting

5/28/2019

PACG Environmental Forum Meeting -
Monday, June 3rd at 6:30 pm

Cobblestone Place
1212 W 3rd Street, Davenport, IA (map)

The PACG Environmental Forum will meet on the first Monday of each month. We welcome newcomers to our Forum ~ this week’s topics include:

June 27, 2019 PACG Environmental Forum Green Drinks on the last-Thursday-of-the-month (5:00-7:00 p.m.) networking opportunity at Fresh Deli (map) at the Freight House.

Earth Day 2020!!! Planning the 50th anniversary

Meeting with Iowa and Illinois state legislatures and federal representatives. Please bring a question you would like to ask your legislator to our meeting Monday evening.

Voters deserve to know: Which candidates commit to acting on climate change as a "Day One" priority when in office. Whether presidential candidates support the Green New Deal or can offer their own climate plan that also meets the scale of the crisis.

Sixty-two percent of voters believe that the federal government should do more to address climate change. (Jennifer Marlon et al., "Yale Climate Opinion Maps 2018," Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.)

Join us for this planning meeting!

Shirley Johnson

Earth Day 2019 Was a Success!

5/2/2019

2019 Earth Day Celebration - After Action Report

St. Ambrose University Rogalski Center and Freight House Farmers Market

The PACG Environmental Forum began the 2019 Earth Day celebration by screening the National Geographic film Paris to Pittsburgh on April 17th from 5 pm. to 7 p.m. at Rogalski Center, St. Ambrose University. This event was held jointly with the SAU Green Life Environmental Club. A panel discussion on Climate Change and actions needed to address this urgent issue followed the film. Approximately 120 students and members of the general public filled one of the Rogalski ballrooms, it was standing room only for the late comers.

The second Earth Day celebration was held on Saturday, April 20th, from 9 am to 1 pm at the Freight House in Davenport. The Environmental Forum teamed up with the Freight House Farmers Market and Living Lands & Water to host this event. Twenty speakers gave 10 minute “mini-TED” talks on various environmental topics. There were over twenty display and activity tables hosted by environmental organizations, a museum, and vendors. Many learned how to repurpose a T-shirt into a tote bag and Farmers Market kicked off their 2019 Bag Reduction Program.

There was live music, children’s activities, door prizes, and networking everywhere during the event. The river and weather cooperated - about 2,000 visitors enjoyed a beautiful sunny morning along the riverfront and learned about the urgency of protecting the environment. Visit our FB page for more pictures of the event.

Planning for the 2020 Earth Day events has already started. 2020 will mark the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day! If you have any suggestions, please contact the Environmental Forum and/or join us at one of our meetings on the first Monday of each month.

Susan Leuthauser

Candidate Questions - Environmental Issues

4/22/2019

Candidate Questions - Environmental Issues

Let’s get organized before the next presidential candidates come to town! It’s hard to know what questions to ask, but here is a list that we have created. If you have additional questions you think should be asked, please contact our Office Manager, Amber Bordolo and we will add to this list.

If you attend a candidate’s event, print off this list (see the download link below) and have it handy in case you have an opportunity to ask questions. Listen carefully to the answers on the topics below. Take notes if you can, and report back to us in the Blog Comments below.

These are also good questions that should be addressed to your State legislatures when they hold legislative sessions or campaign for re-election.

1. Will you support the only current proposal that addresses the climate crisis, the Green New Deal?

2. Are you aware that the EPA had the lowest number of environmental fines in 2018 in decades? What will you do about the EPA’s substandard implementation of their own regulations?

3. Do you support protecting National Parks from drilling and exploration/extractive industries?

4. What is your plan to address this administration’s rollbacks on environmental protections on clean air and water, pollution and the use of clean energy?

5. What is your plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing our use of renewable energy?

6. What is your position on our country’s commitment to the Paris Climate Accord, and would you continue our planned withdrawal from that commitment?

7. Currently, corporate interests are prioritized over public health risks. What specifically will you do to change that?

8. What is your plan to invest in renewable energy and what is your timeline for doing so?

9. Are you in favor of carbon and other user taxes to address business’s negative environmental impacts?

10. Are you in favor of enforcing stricter federal regulations on companies who are out of compliance with environmental (EPA) regulations, regardless of their containment area?

11. Would you extend the current rebates on solar which are set to gradually fade starting in 2020?

Our Environmental Forum suggests the following questions for our Illinois and Iowa State legislators:

1. What are your specific plans to reduce our state’s carbon footprint, and what are your target dates and measurement tools?

2. Would you support implementing the current laws and standards of the EPA for each industry/company operating in the State?

3. Is there a state target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and, if so, what are the timelines?

4. Currently, corporate interests are prioritized over public health risks. What specifically will you do to change that?

5. What is your plan to invest in renewable energy, and what is your timeline?

6. Are you in favor of carbon and other user taxes to address business’s negative environmental impacts?

7. Are you in favor of enforcing stricter federal regulations for companies who are out of compliance with environmental (EPA) regulations, regardless of their containment area?

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Celebrate Earth Day in Davenport

4/15/2019

Earth Day Celebration - Saturday, April 20th at 9:00 am

Freight House
421 W River DR, Davenport, IA (map)

Environmental Forum

Join us in celebrating Earth Day on Saturday, April 20th from 9-1. There will be mini TED talks throughout the day, live music, 20 demonstration tables, and a full activity tent for kids with reptiles from Nahant Marsh and birds from the raptor center. And there will be door prizes! Food will be available at the adjacent restaurants. The interior portions of the Farmer's Market are up and running. The flood has not defeated us, but it does remind us that Climate Change is real.

Lori McCollum

Paris to Pittsburgh Film on Climate Change

4/15/2019

Paris to Pittsburgh Film - Wednesday, April 17th at 7:00 pm

Rogalski Center
St. Ambrose University
W High ST, Davenport, IA
(the parking lot is at Lombard ST and Ripley ST) (map)

Environmental Forum

Join us in viewing Paris to Pittsburgh, a free screening of the film produced by Bloomberg Philanthropies and RadicalMedia in 2018. We are co-sponsoring this event with the Green Life Environmental Club of St. Ambrose University to kick off the Earth Day weekend. There will be a panel presentation after the screening to discuss climate change and ways you can personally address this issue.

Volunteers for Earth Day at Davenport Farmer's Market

4/8/2019

Earth Day Volunteers Needed - Saturday, April 20th at 9:00 am

Freight House Farmers Market
421 W River Dr. Davenport, IA (map)
Environmental Forum

Your Environmental Forum is asking for all hands on deck to help with the Earth Day event. We need volunteers!

Early set up - need people to be there by 7:30 or 8:00 am
Check-in table
Demonstrators Coordinator - arrive at 8:30 am
Activity Tent - Two shifts 9-11, 11-1 (need several volunteers for this)
Working the PACG table - need 2 people per shift 9-11, 11-1
Social Media Station - need 4 volunteers for 1 hour shifts.
Break down - 1:00 pm need at least 4 people

Contact Amber Bordolo or Lori McCollum.

Green Drinks Quad Cities in the Quad-City Times

3/22/2019

Environmental Forum's Green Drinks-Quad Cities in Local Press

Enviro-minded people invited to new group
from the Quad-City Times - March 20, 2019
Alma Gaul agaul@qctimes.com

Quad-Citians interested in the environment and conservation are invited to meet like-minded people Thursday, March 28, at the Fresh Deli restaurant at the Freight House, 421 W. River Drive, Davenport.

The gathering from 5-7 p.m. will be the first meeting of a group called Green Drinks Quad-Cities, a local affiliate of an international organization that was formed in London in 1989 and now has groups in 500 cities.

The purpose of Green Drinks is for people to get together, talk, exchange ideas about environmental issues, maybe even have fun and make new friends, said organizer Lori O'Dell McCollum, of Rock Island, representing Progressive Action for the Common Good, a Quad-City group that promotes community betterment and progressive values.

The Green Drinks group will meet the last Thursday of every month and is open to anyone.

While there are lots of environmental/conservation groups in the Quad-Cities, "most people don't know each other," McCollum said. "It will be a loosely formed networking group; it doesn't have a specific agenda," she said of Green Drinks. "We'll just wait and see what people want to do. A few groups are structured and have speakers. Every group seems to do something different."

To spread the word, McCollum is contacting a wide swath of entities in the public, private, nonprofit and educational sectors. This includes Sierra Club, Partners of Scott County Watersheds, Audubon Society, Earth Keepers, Niabi Zoo, Food Rescue, university Extension services, state departments of natural resources, The Nature Conservancy, Living Lands & Waters, Nahant Marsh, area colleges and others.

In Iowa, there are Green Drinks groups in Des Moines, Iowa City, Ames and elsewhere; in Illinois, groups have organized in the Chicago area as well as Peoria.

For more information, go to greendrinks.org, or email to McCollum at lori_mccollum@sbcglobal.net or Susan Leuthauser at swleuthauser@gmail.com.

Read the Article Online here

Protect Iowa's Net Metering - What You Can Do Now , March 16, 2019

3/15/2019

Contact Your Iowa Legislators to Protect Solar Power!
Environmental Forum

Senate File 538 presently in the Iowa House proposes to do away with net metering in the state. This would be an additional blow to conservation efforts of renewable energy. And of course, it's been suggested by MidAmerican Energy.

Please take the time to contact your legislators and demand that this bill be defeated when it comes up for a vote. This is a shameful backwards step for our environment. Here is an example of what you can write or tell your legislator:

Dear Legislator:

I am writing today to ask you to oppose SF 538, which would effectively end net metering in Iowa.

Solar sales and installations will likely decline as prospective customers do the new math on the expected payback period for a new installation on home or business. This will cost valuable jobs in the solar industry.

Net metering brings value to the grid. It produces energy which goes back into the grid, serving the needs of our neighbors during the daytime or peak demand hours. It adds clean energy, taking pressure off the grid and producing electricity when it is needed most, and when it's most expensive for the energy utilities to produce.

Mid-American energy had over $600,000,000 in net profits last year, which suggests this is really not about getting extra dollars from solar customers. Their true motivation is to squash the solar industry in the state, and continue their big-utility monopoly while also touting their "dedication" to green energy.

Please consider how this will effect solar customers who have invested in clean energy production. In addition, it will negatively impact as jobs in the state, and allow the monopolization by the energy companies to continue. At the very least, this bill should be tabled until the Iowa Utilities Board releases its findings from MidAmerican Energy and Alliant Energy's pilot projects on net metering, which will not be completed for over a year.

This is a giant step backward for Iowa. Please vote against this bill.

Sincerely,

For more information, read this article from Energy News Network.