BETTER PATH PRESENTS
WE'VE GONE MONTHLY - CHECK BELOW FOR SCHEDULE
Don't miss the Better Path Coalition's new webinar series, Better Path Presents. The Coalition turned 2 on April 13th under circumstances we could not have imagined at our kickoff rally in 2018. We decided to organize weekly webinars to help us stay connected, stay informed, figure out together how to be activists, advocates, and organizers who must work at a safe distance from each other and our targets, and make plans for how we can help shape the new normal. Now that the state has re-opened, we have decided to move to monthly webinars. Each webinar will include information about current actions and events and how you can participate.
OCTOBER 21 - Justin Mikulka on How the Fracking Revolution Broke the U.S. Oil and Gas Industry
Justin Mikulka, DeSmog
Justin Mikulka is an investigative journalist for the independent news and research organization DeSmog. For five years, Justin reported on the growing threat of explosive oil and ethanol trains in North America. He is author of Bomb Trains: How Industry Greed and Regulatory Failure Put the Public at Risk. Justin's talk will be taken from his research and reporting on the oil & gas industry's shaky finances.
OCTOBER 14* - Michael Mann Q&A with PA's Young Climate Leaders
Michael Mann, Author and Climate Scientist
PA Young Climate Leaders:
Ashley Barrasso
Angelina Coleianne
Ariana Genna
Aidan Graber
Carolin Mejia
Leandra Mira
Shana Rose
Nora Schindler
Muhammad Yankowy
Nahla Yankowy
Young climate leaders from across the state will introduce themselves in the first half hour of this very special Better Path Presents! Renowned climate expert Dr. Michael Mann will take the questions during the second half hour. *Please note that this event will start at 5:30 p.m.
Dr. Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).
Dr. Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy and The Tantrum that Saved the World. Forthcoming in early 2021 is The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet.
For more information, please visit: https://michaelmann.net/
SEPTEMBER 9 - An Evening with Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben, Author and Founder of 350.org
Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel.’ His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages; he’s gone on to write a dozen more books. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized twenty thousand rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement.
The Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize, and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities. Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist.”
A former staff writer for the New Yorker, he writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors . In 2014, biologists honored him by naming a new species of woodland gnat— Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.
For more information, please visit: www.billmckibben.com
Watch a recording of our webinar
AUGUST 12 - Nijmie Dzurinko on the PA Poor People's Campaign
Nijmie Dzurinko, Co-chair of the PA Poor People's Campaign and Co-founder of Put People First - PA
Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko is an organizer, healer and strategist who grew up in Westmoreland County and lives in Philadelphia. She is a co-founder and co-coordinator (as a volunteer) with Put People First! PA and is also volunteer co-chair of the PA Poor People's Campaign as well as a member of the national steering committee.
Watch a recording of our webinar
JULY 15 - Mark Jacobson on 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything
Mark Jacobson, Author, Scholar, and Co-Founder of The Solutions Project
Mark Z. Jacobson is Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment and of the Precourt Institute for Energy. He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering, an A.B. in Economics, and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford in 1988. He received an M.S. and PhD in Atmospheric Sciences in 1991 and 1994, respectively, from UCLA and joined the faculty at Stanford in 1994. His career focuses on better understanding air pollution and global warming problems and developing large-scale clean, renewable energy solutions to them. He has published three textbooks and 165 peer-reviewed journal articles. He received the 2005 American Meteorological Society Henry G. Houghton Award and the 2013 American Geophysical Union Ascent Award for his work on black carbon climate impacts and the 2013 Global Green Policy Design Award for developing state and country energy plans. In 2015, he received a Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for his work on the grid integration of 100% wind, water and solar energy systems. In 2018, he received the Judi Friedman Lifetime Achievement Award “For a distinguished career dedicated to finding solutions to large-scale air pollution and climate problems.” In 2019, he was selected as “one of the world’s 100 most influential people in climate policy” by Apolitical. He has served on an advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, appeared in a TED talk, appeared on the David Letterman Show to discuss converting the world to clean energy, and cofounded The Solutions Project (www.thesolutionsproject.org). His work is the scientific basis of the energy portion of the U.S. Green New Deal and laws to go to 100% renewable energy in cities, states, and countries worldwide.
Watch a recording of our webinar
Download Mark Jacobson's presentation
JUNE 30 - Liquefied Natural Gas’s Path of Destruction: PA, NJ, Overseas
Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Diane Dakey, Facilitator of Protect Northern PA discuss the push to bring LNG processing to NEPA, New Fortress Energy/Delaware River Partners’ proposed export terminal on the Delaware River at Gibbstown, New Jersey, and the fight to stop these dangerous projects.
Watch a recording of our webinar
Check out resources shared during webinar
Protect Northern PA
Sample LTE
Delaware Riverkeeper Network
Interactive Map of Route
Static Maps of Possible Transportation Routes
Petition
JUNE 23 - Hot Water: Radioactive Fracking Waste and Sanitary Landfills
Sanitary landfills in Pennsylvania and New York have been
allowed to take both solid and liquid waste from oil and gas operations. The leachate is now contaminated with toxins and radioactivity. Dr. Stolz will present the results of his
investigation and the "innovative" ways in which the industry,
with the help of legislators and regulators, are using to dispose
of their wastes.
Dr Stolz is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University. His career has been dedicated to studying the microbial metabolism of metals and metalloids (iron, chromium, arsenic, selenium, nitrate), microbial communities in hypersaline environments, and water quality. He has published 95 peer reviewed articles, 37 book chapters, and author/edited two books. He is currently co-authoring/editing a book on the "Environmental Impacts of Unconventional Oil and Gas Reserves Development" for Cambridge University Press.
Watch a recording of our webinar
JUNE 21, 7 p.m. - Gasland at 10
On the 10th anniverary of Gasland's HBO premier, Josh Fox will join us for a special Better Path Presents event to discuss his groundbreaking film, what has happened since, and what must happen in the future.
Watch a recording of our webinar
JUNE 19, 1 - 4 p.m. - Virtual Tour of PA Fracking Impacts
The Better Path Coalition has been organizing tours of SWPA fracking impacts for legislators since last summer. When COVID-19 forced us to put a hold on in-person tours, we decided to go virtual and expand the tour to include all of PA. We ask you to invite your legislators to attend. And please join us too!
Watch a recording of our webinar
JUNE 16 - Blowout Film and Discussion
Join us for a discussion of the documentary Blowout with filmmaker Hope Forpeace. The film looks at the gas industry's impacts in Pennsylvania, Porter Ranch, and 8 Mile. NOTE: We will provide you with the link to the film when you register so you can watch it in advance of the webinar.
Watch a recording of our webinar
JUNE 9 - Youth as Catalysts for Action: Unleashing the Power of Youth through Civic Engagement, Democracy Education, and Youth Success Stories
Young Voices for the Planet Founder, Director, and Film Producer Lynne Cherry will speak on engaging youth in anticipation of a
special Better Path Presents workshop for young people on June 20th at 3 p.m.
YVFP’s mission is to empower youth, through inspiring success stories, to take an essential role in informing themselves, their peers and communities, challenging decision-makers, and catalyzing change.Our award- winning films document youth solutions to the climate crisis and other environmental and social justice issues and feature diverse young role models, reducing the carbon footprint of their homes, schools and communities—while saving money and improving health. These films along with our civic engagement resources, give young people hope and the tools they need to change minds, change laws and change the world—even though they are still too young to vote.
Watch a recording of our webinar
JUNE 2 - Direct Action
Drew Hudson of Friends of the Earth will discuss Direct Action on the next Better Path Presents webinar. He'll discuss this timely topic using his experiences organizing Shut Down DC actions.
Watch a recording of our webinar
MAY 26 - Enabling a Just Transition: Public Ownership of Fossil Fuels
On the next Better Path Presents, hear from Johanna Bozuwa of the Democracy Collaborative and Collin Rees from Oil Change International on their new report, The Case for Public Ownership of the Fossil Fuel Industry they collaborated on for The Next System Project.
"We need public ownership for the people, not a bailout for fossil fuel executives. By assuming ownership and control of the coal, oil, and gas industries, the U.S. government can position itself to provide near- and long-term economic security for struggling workers and communities, and to proactively wind down fossil fuel production to meet climate goals. This approach would help manage further social, financial, and environmental stress from a sector already in decline before COVID-19."
Watch a recording of our webinar
MAY 19 - Laurie Barr on Orphaned & Abandoned Wells
Hundreds of thousands of orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells dot Pennsylvania. Only a small fraction of the wells have been plugged. The vast majority are in varying states of disrepair, many considered to be super-emitters of methane.
Laurie Barr and her associates at Save Our Streams PA started a project they called Scavenger Hunt PA to locate and photograph wells and test them for leaks. Laurie's efforts have been nationally recognized by the press and the research community alike. Last May, she began working on a documentary, Releasing Methane, that looks at the issue in oil and gas producing states across the country to provide "a comprehensive picture of the environmental and regulatory issues surrounding abandoned oil and gas wells and emerging solutions."
Watch a recording of our webinar
MAY 12 - Community Watchdoggin', featuring Chris "PK" DiGiulio
Chris "PK" DiGiulio has been watchdogging her community on the frontlines of the Mariner East pipeline for years and has developed a training. "The definition of a watchdog is: one that guards against loss, waste, theft, or undesirable practices.
Who can be a watchdog? Anybody.
What is better than a watchdog? A team of watchdogs.
When it comes to the fossil fuel industry, watchdogs become a community necessity.
With regulations fixed to aid the industry and regulators understaffed and budgets being slashed, especially in the environmental realm, community watchdogging becomes a way for a community to gather the evidence they need to fight the injustices placed upon them by both our government and the industry. Developing a well orchestrated community watchdog team, I have found, helps to keep our regulators, elected officials, and industry accountable for their damaging behavior to individuals, the community, and the environment. This presentation is what I have learned through my experience fighting the Mariner East pipeline project and the fracking industry. I will share what we have created and show why anybody can be a watchdog. We I’ll talk about what is needed, safety and legal precautions, and what to look for while in the field."
Watch a recording of our webinar
MAY 5 - Justin Nobel on Radioactivity in Shale Gas Development
Justin Nobel's groundbreaking piece, America's Radioactive Secret published in Rolling Stone in January reviewed his three years of research into radioactivity in oil and gas development. He writes on issues of science and the environment for Rolling Stone and has a book on oil and gas radioactivity forthcoming with Simon & Schuster entitled PETROLEUM-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It.
Watch a recording of our webinar
APRIL 28 - Disrespect: Rogue Creek Garbage, COVID-19, and the Missing Rights of Nature, featuring Dr. Michael Schroeder
What’s the connection between the abundance of plastic garbage in our local waterways and the global COVID-19 pandemic? Both phenomena, along with the fracking & pipeline revolutions, global climate disruption, and systemic animal cruelty, are rooted in the same fundamental disrespect for the non-human natural world that defines our contemporary consumer-based capitalist society and political economy. In this presentation and invitation to dialogue, Michael Schroeder, Executive Director of the Quittapahilla Creek Garbage Museum in Annville, PA, and Associate Professor of History at Lebanon Valley College, will explore these not-so-hidden connections to argue the critical need to expand our conception and practice of “rights” beyond the inalienable rights of individual citizens to also embrace and codify into law the inalienable rights of non-human Nature.
Watch a recording of our webinar
Mentioned by Michael Schroeder
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
APRIL 21 - COVID-19: Pandemics, Pollution, and Public Health, featuring Dr. Ned Ketyer
Our first webinar looks at the intersections of COVID-19 and pollution and climate change. Dr. Ketyer is a Pittsburgh-area pediatrician with special interests in developmental pediatrics, preventative medicine, and environmental health. After completing his pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Dr. Ketyer practiced general pediatrics for 26 years before retiring from patient care in 2017. He writes and edits his practice’s popular blog, The PediaBlog, and remains a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health. Dr. Ketyer is a consultant for the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project bringing attention to the health impacts of shale gas development in the Marcellus Shale gas patch, a board member of Physicians for Social Responsibility - Pennsylvania, and a Climate Reality Project Leader.
In all these roles, Dr. Ketyer connects the vast petrochemical “clusterfrack” underway in SW Pennsylvania with local and regional health impacts, and the global ecological and public health catastrophes resulting from plastic pollution and climate change that threaten the health and well-being of all passengers on this shining ball of blue.
Watch a recording of our webinar
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REGISTER FOR OUR
UPCOMING WEBINARS
Please register before 6:30 the evening of the webinar unless otherwise noted.
November 11 - Two Sessions
Dr. Sandra Steingraber Pennsylvania Launch of the 7th Edition of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking (Unconventional Gas and Oil Extraction)
Legislative Briefing (open to public) - Noon
Register Here by November 10
Public Presentation - 7 p.m.
Register Here by 6:30 on November 11
October 21
Justin Mikulka on How the Fracking Revolution Broke the U.S. Oil and Gas Industry
Register Here by 6:30 on October 21
October 14 Special Event
Dr. Michael Mann Q&A with PA's Young Climate Leaders
Register Here by 4:30 on October 14
BETTER PATH PRESENTS RECORDINGS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
June 16
Petition to remove Metcalfe as chair of ER&E committee
Lynne Cherry and Jaysa Hunter-Meller, Youth Ambassador on Protect PT Virtual Lunch Hour on 6/17 at noon
JUNE 9
We Declare Jubilee: Everybody's Got a Right to Live
PA Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
June 14 2-6 p.m.
Join a caravan or watch online
Mass Poor People's Assembly & Moral March on Washington
Poor People's Campaign
Three opportunities to watch
June 20 10 a.m., 6 p.m., June 21 6 p.m.
Visit June2020.org to watch
Invite Your Legislator to PA Fracking Impacts Tour
Better Path Coalition
Two call-in days in advance of June 19 tour -
June 10 and 17
Invite template, sample tweets, legislator contact info on our event page
You're invited too! Register here!
JUNE 2
Connecting Wildlife, Connecting Communities
A Panel about Wildlife Corridors in Pennsylvania
Thursday, June 11th 7-8:30pm on Zoom
Register: bit.ly/pa-panel
MAY 26
Better Path Presents - Save the Dates
6/16 Blowout
6/19 Legislator Virtual Tour
6/20 Lynne Cherry Webinar for Young People
6/21 Josh Fox on Gasland at 10
MAY 19
Virtual Tour of SWPA Fracking Impacts, Thursday, 5/21 at noon
Email Lois Bjornson to RSVP
Hosted by EHP and PSR
Speakers:
Lois Bjornson
Matt Mehalik
Ned Ketyer
Leann Leiter
Watch at:
facebook.com/EnvironmentalHealthProject
www.environmentalhealthproject.org
youtube.com/user/BreatheProject
Diane Sipe on Marcellus Outreach Butler's panel discussion on Planet of the Humans
Saturday, May 23 at 7:00 pm
Register Here
Participants are urged to view the film beforehand. It can be viewed free through May 21 at here.
Tammy Murphy on upcoming PSR events
May 27th Pennsylvania Physicians for Social Responsibility is partnering with ProtectPT and Halt the Harm Network
for a talk with author Eliza Griswold where she will discuss the impact of her locally sourced book: Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America.
Register Here
On May 28th at 7:30 p.m., Pennsylvania Physicians for Social Responsibility will host a film-screening of Triple Divide {Redacted} with directors Melissa Troutman and Josh Pribanic. We are in the process of establishing a registration form and deciding which platform we will use to share the film-screening.
Better Path Presents - Save the Dates
6/16 Blowout
6/19 Legislator Virtual Tour
6/20 Lynne Cherry Webinar for Young People
6/21 Josh Fox on Gasland at 10
MAY 12
Gillian Graber of Protect PT on Amity and Prosperity Now: A Virtual Discussion with Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author Eliza Griswold, May 27 at 6:30. Register here.
MAY 5
Karen Feridun on behalf of Food & Water Europe on an upcoming online conference. The Heinrich Böll Foundation, Deutsche Umwelthilfe and Food & Water Action Europe are organizing the online debate series “Fueling the Fire: Fracking, Plastics, Methane Emissions and the Gas Lobby”. Guest speaker will be, among others, Prof. Robert Howarth from Cornell University, USA.
Fracking, plastics and the climate - the still widely unknown nexus and its implications for the European Green Deal
Thursday, 7 May 2020 at 4-6 pm CEST (10 a.m. - noon ET)
The underestimated impact of fossil gas on global warming: The important role of Germany as the EU’s largest gas market
Wednesday, 13 May 2020 at 4-6 pm CEST (10 a.m. to noon ET)
Simultaneous interpretation (German/English) will be provided throughout both events.
You can register for each event here: www.duh.de/projekte/veranstaltungsreihe-zuendstoff-fuer-die-klimakrise/
APRIL 28
Karen Feridun on Call state senators to tell them to vote NO on SB327. Read details of bad bill here
Michael Bagdes-Canning on The Story of Plastics virtual screening by MOB on 5/2 and Medicare for All PA discussion from The Patio Series on 4/30
APRIL 21
Michael Bagdes-Canning on The Patio Series
Megan McDonough, Pennsylvania Organizing Manager, Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action on
Have an action or event you'd like to announce on an upcoming webinar? Email betterpathpa@gmail.com with the details by Friday of the week before the webinar.