Just Say No to Liquefied Natural Gas Exports
As if the natural gas industry hasn’t done enough damage, now it's looking for new ways to further profits while sacrificing our clean air and water. Its new trick is exporting
liquefied natural gas (LNG). This would mean more destructive
fracking, more pipelines, and more carbon pollution.
The Sierra Club is
challenging a proposed LNG export facility in Maryland on the grounds that LNG exports would raise gas and electricity prices nationally and expand fracking.
We need to
tell President Obama that exporting dirty LNG is dangerous, environmentally destructive, and unacceptable.
Sign our petition urging the president to put the brakes on LNG exports.
Coal Victories Pile Up -- Now Let's Create Green Jobs
In late January, a Georgia utility
canceled funding for two proposed coal-fired power plants. Two days later, FirstEnergy Corp.
announced that it will
retire six of its dirtiest coal
plants in Ohio,
Pennsylvania,
and Maryland
by September. Then on February 5, the company said it will be
shutting three more coal plants in West
Virginia.
"All this news means cleaner air for thousands of Americans, and it's the
result of years of tireless advocacy by hard working local residents and
volunteers," says Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club's
Beyond
Coal campaign. "But the transition from coal to clean energy needs
to happen in a way that
protects workers and communities."
Solar Synagogue
Los Angeles Sierra Club member Jan Freed had a vision: He wanted
his synagogue to go green. Two years ago, he began a campaign to have solar
panels installed atop Temple
Sinai in Glendale, California.
The temple's new
solar
array was dedicated on January 29. "We are all here because of the vision
of one man who started us on the path of true environmental sustainability," Rabbi Richard Schechter said at the dedication. Read more in
Scrapbook.
Photo by Leonard Coutin
The Condensed Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian
Trail ran through Kevin Gallagher's childhood backyard in Virginia, and he and his
family regularly hiked sections of the trail near their Shenandoah
Valley home. Those hikes inspired him to complete the
entire 2,181-mile trail from Georgia
to Maine.
On his
six-month
trek, Gallagher took 24 photos of 24 steps along the trail each day, and he
returned home with more than 4,000 slides. He has just released
a video that strings together the scanned slides and takes viewers on a journey down the entire trail in less than five
minutes. Read more about
Gallagher's
journey and watch his video
Green
Tunnel.Photo by Kevin Gallagher
Tomorrowland
During the 1964 World's Fair,
General Motors' Futurama ride predicted a metropolis replete with fossil fuel–powered modes of transportation that would take humans to space, to the Arctic, and into the deep oceans. With fossil fuels, new technology, and unbridled human spirit, the city of the future would know no bounds.
Thankfully, our notion of what a city can be has changed a bit since 1964. But the question remains: In 2025, when 80 percent of Europeans, North Americans, and South Americans will be urban dwellers, what will our cities actually look like? Will they be sustainable?
Sierra magazine considers the possibilities.
Image: Vincent Callebaut Architectures
When You Speak, Your Voice Is Heard
Last week more than 800,000 Americans called, emailed, wrote letters, and even sent videos to tell the Senate to
let the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline die. The Sierra Club worked with many partners to generate what some have called the biggest day of environmental action since the first Earth Day in 1970.
A few days earlier, 86,000 Sierra Club members delivered the same message to the U.S. House. We know what an impact that has. But it's nice to get some outside perspective on the effectiveness of our grassroots mobilization against Keystone.
So we were thrilled to see
Forbes magazine credit the Club, our large coalition, and YOU who have taken action with showing how a "well-integrated grassroots initiative driven by superior digital strategies can trump the conventional inside-the-Beltway politicking of even so formidable a presence as the oil industry."
National School Lights Out Day
New Jersey high school student Victoria Pan wants to turn the
lights out at her school. And she wants other schools to go dark too.
Winner of the Sierra Club's
Joseph Barbosa Earth Fund Award in 2011, Pan created an organization called
Students Saving Energy. She is following that up with "
National School Lights Out Day" -- inspired by
Earth Hour 2012 -- encouraging schools to turn
off classroom lights on March 30 to teach students about electricity creation and consumption. If you're a high school student or know one,
pass this along.
Photo by Natalie Brasington
Sierra Club Getting Vets and Their Families Outdoors
