Now is the time
to go outside online and in real life
By BILL ARMSTRONG
Outings Chair, Northeast Florida Group
If you want to get out for a walk beyond your neighborhood, I can take you on some “virtual” tours.
I’ve been getting out to local parks to shoot short videos at some of the beautiful parks that are open for your enjoyment.
They give a crisp introduction to the parks, and have an easy pace and narration to them.
After that, it's fairly easy to do some real-life hiking and kayaking on your own.
For a good overview of the status of area parks
go here.
For health and safety concerns, Sierra Club has prohibited all outings until June 14. They are continuously re-evaluating that policy and we will resume leading outings as soon as it is deemed safe.
When we do get back to leading outings, we have a lot of new ideas planned.
We will be doing regular cleanup projects both downtown on the new Emerald Trail and along Heckscher Drive. We’ll be looking to expand our outings to remove barriers to folks who have been unable to join us on regular hikes. We’ll be including more outings that will include wheel-friendly paved trails, shorter distances, and educational tours—something for everyone
.
|
By BARBARA GUBBIN
Legislative Chair, Northeast Florida Group
The Sierra Club’s priorities for the 2020 session of the Florida legislature focused on energy, water quality/quantity, planning for growth, state interference in local decision-making, and the budget. Sierra Club members visited our legislators in Tallahassee during the session and responded to legislative alerts. Despite that, our priorities fared poorly or were not addressed at all.
To see how your state senator or representative voted on the bills,
go here
. And
go here
for the names of your state senator and representative.
In
Energy
we hoped for actions to limit climate change and move to renewable energy. Legislation to ban all forms of fracking died in committee. SB 7018 requires the state to create a master plan for EV/charging stations along state highways but at the same time allowed for utilities to use conservation easements for oil and gas pipelines–a big negative.
Water Quality.
SB712 Clean Waterways Act was probably the most misunderstood bill of the session. It purported to improve water quality and passed with bipartisan support, but it failed to prevent water pollution including fatally weakening rules on applying biosolids. The Sierra Club, the Riverkeepers, and other organizations worked hard to get the bill amended, but the amend-ments were largely ignored. There were no bills passed to protect our springs from water bottlers; legislation exploring water fees was heard in committee but failed to move forward.
Toll road legislation
passed in 2019 was sweetened in 2020 as the roads have faced opposition, by prioritizing money for broadband, planning, and emergency staging in communities in the path of the roads. Some of the communities have shown opposition to the roads, and this looks like an effort to make them more palatable. Growth Management efforts were set back by SB410 limiting the authority of local governments to manage growth.
Pre-emption bills
allowing greater state interference in local decision making were approved. Action in previous sessions has included pre-empting local governments on tree ordinances and regulation of plastic bags and containers; this session it was to prevent a ban in Key West of certain sunscreens which have chemicals that harm coral reefs.
Land Acquisition
, also known as Florida Forever, was funded at $100 million–a positive budget move but at the same time Sierra Club points out that to “fully fund” Florida Forever in 2020-2021, the money in the Land Acquisition Trust Fund, after distribution to the Everglades, Springs, and Lake Apopka should all be allocated to Florida Forever—a much larger amount than $100 million.
Impact of Stay-at-Home on the Environment during COVID-19
: Many of us who care about our environment are responding to reports of clearer skies and cleaner water, and are hearing abundant birdsong during nesting activity in northeast Florida.
We are asking if this period of “home isolation” hasn’t made our communities think more deeply about the human impact on the environment and about climate change.
Perhaps we can come out of our COVID-19 experience with a renewed commitment to making change, including in how our politicians and government officials respond to issues impacting nature.
Communicate with your state senator and representative.
Familiarize yourself with the issues and the outcome the Sierra Club is for. Since in-person meetings with legislators are not an option, send them emails and set up meetings over the phone to discuss the issues. Ask them to justify how they voted, educate them on where the Sierra Club stands, ask for the opportunity to send them information on the key issues and offer to be one of their “go-to” people on environmental issues before and during the next legislative session.
|
|
Earth Day at 50:
A virtual celebration to vote for the earth
Earth Day's 50th anniversary on April 22 was an online experience and prompted some reflection in our Northeast Florida Group.
I’m moved by this quote from an
excellent profile
of Denis Hayes, the organizer of the first earth day in 1970: "COVID–19 robbed us of Earth Day this year. So let’s make Election Day Earth Day. This Nov. 3, vote for the Earth.”
—Robert Blade, newsletter editor
I'm optimistic that in the long run we will move to a greener and more equitable and more cooperative worldwide community as a result of the corona virus. The short term effects will be very harsh but the long term benefits could be very beneficial.
—Brian Paradise, Northeast Florida Group excom
I spent some time on Earth Day Live—the Sierra Club long stream honoring Earth Day—but spent most of my time packing food bags. I got out in the woods yesterday, and I’ll get out again tomorrow.
—Bill Armstrong, Outings Chair
This time at home can be an opportunity to learn more about climate change. Three book suggestions: “What We Know About Climate Change” by Kerry Emanuel is a slim volume written by a scientist. She is not an alarmist but she spells out the facts. “The Water Will Come” by Jeff Goodell hits close to home. This book describes the inevitable loss of whole communities if nothing is done. And “Flight Behavior,” by Barbara Kingsolver. This novel seems like a simple story of an ordinary woman in a rural community. Her view of the world changes, however, when a natural catastrophe occurs in her backyard.
—Lucille Pendleton, Northeast Florida Group treasurer.
|
Our May meetings
go virtual: vote and learn
During the pandemic, our Northeast Florida Group is offering virtual meetings.
May 9, Saturday, 5 p.m.
Live online kickoff to Sierra Club's Battleground Voter Contact Campaign. To sign up for this event,
go here
.
This is a national Sierra Club event hosted by Executive Director Michael Brune who says, “We are committed to defeating Donald Trump in November and electing champions who will repair our country and protect our environment. We need you there to see how you're an important part of this movement. If you want to end the Trump presidency and elect leaders who will repair our country and our environment, please join me live on Saturday, May 9.”
May 11, Saturday, 7 p.m.
Live using Zoom, “Human Behavior Change for Conservation.”
Changing people’s behavior is key to addressing environmental issues we face today. But how do we change human behavior? Presenter Lauren Watkins of Impact by Design will help us discover the basics of the human behavior change process.
On May 11, join our Zoom
meeting here,
meeting ID 915 0851 7062. Or dial in by calling: 646-876-9923
This is the first session of a two-part series. In the next, which will be scheduled later, she will guide us through how to take what we know about human behavior and have positive conversations about climate change.
New to Zoom? Here’s how to get started:
• Before the meeting (give yourself at least 30 minutes to set Zoom up for the first time), download Zoom for your computer by
clicking here
or visit the app store on your mobile device to download the Zoom app.
• You can join a Zoom meeting without signing in–or you can sign up for a
free account
if you’d like.
• Before getting started, consider joining a test meeting.
Click here
to learn more. This will walk you through how to join a test meeting, and how to test your video and audio before joining a ‘real’ meeting.
• Finally locate the meeting link for the Sierra meeting (it's above) and click that to join.
Depending on your default web browser, you may be prompted to open Zoom.
|
Wash your hands
and your grocery bags...
By Janet Stanko
Chair, Northeast Florida Group
The pro-plastics interests are using COVID-19 as a platform for making us believe reusable grocery bags are a means of contamination and disease spread. They cite studies of the existence of bacteria on reusable grocery bags, stating that single use plastic bags are the way to keep safe. This has not been proven. In fact, other studies show COVID-19 lives the longest on plastic—longer than any other surface type.
Still, in none of the virus avoidance practices have grocery bags been cited as a major source of disease spread. If a grocery store won’t use reusable bags, simply put the items back in the cart and bag them when you return to your car.
Did you know that even the reusable poly bags are easily washable with the rest of your laundry? They air dry fast. The same can be said for reusable drinking cups.
During this time of caution and quarantine, we each need to make our own decisions on how best to protect ourselves, and within that, think about our use of reusable grocery bags. If out of a sense of caution, you feel the need to use single use plastic, it may be the best thing for your situation for now. For the rest of us using reusables, we need to use our own best practices.
|
|
