Earth Day, Environmental Justice, and Democracy

04/10/23 • 34 min

Environmental Voices: The PennFuture Podcast

Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. It was originally the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson and was inspired by the protests of the 1960s, and so Earth Day began as a “national teach-in on the environment” and was held on April 22 to maximize the number of students that could be reached on university campuses.

Earth Day now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.

To talk about how PennFuture will be celebrating Earth Day, as well as how it connects to our work in Environmental Justice and Democracy work, we’ve invited two special guests to the show today.

Maria Ocasio serves as PennFuture’s Lehigh Valley Field Coordinator. She is responsible for identifying, engaging, and mobilizing a strong base of volunteers within the community to bring about change and awareness on environmental issues in the Lehigh Valley.

Through PennFuture’s Democracy for All program, Emily Gale is PennFuture's Director of Civic Engagement. In this role, Emily has created a new non-partisan voter registration program for PennFuture, which is currently active in active Monroe, Northampton, Lehigh, Dauphin, York, Lancaster, and Luzerne counties.
Links referred to in this episode:
https://www.pennfuture.org/join-the-ace-program

https://www.democracyforall-pennfuture.com/

For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org

Earth Day now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.

To talk about how PennFuture will be celebrating Earth Day, as well as how it connects to our work in Environmental Justice and Democracy work, we’ve invited two special guests to the show today.

https://www.democracyforall-pennfuture.com/

For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org

Previous Episode

Bonnie Van Alen - A Lifetime of Achievement in Conservation

Last year we aired seven episodes of Environmental Voices – and they all ran roughly an hour long. Today, we’re doing something a bit different. A shorter episode, about 20 minutes, and just one guest.

For this episode we’re featuring a special interview with Jeanne Bonnie Van Alen. Bonnie recently stepped down from the position of Executive Director and President of Willistown Conservation Trust (WCT), a nonprofit land trust and conservation organization she founded over twenty-five years ago in Chester County, outside of Philadelphia.

Bonnie is also being honored this year as one of the women receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award in Conservation from PennFuture’s 2023 Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards presented by Ecosave.

Each year, PennFuture honors the accomplishments of outstanding women conservationists across Pennsylvania. The Ecosave presents 2023 Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards will tell the stories of 11 amazing women from Southeastern PA, and will take place live at the Fitler Club in Philly from 6-9pm on Tuesday, March 21st. Along with the awards, the evening will feature drinks & a dinner with an environmentally conscientious vegetarian menu.

You can visit pennfuture.org to purchase tickets and for more information about all the women being honored at the event.

Unfortunately, Jeanne Bonnie Van Alen will not be able to attend the live event, so we have instead asked her to join this special podcast to learn more about, and to celebrate, her life’s work.

For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org

Next Episode

Connecting with Lake Erie

Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. The city of Erie is the main access point for Pennsylvanians to the Great Lakes. The 3,200 acre Presque Isle state park, featuring 13 public beaches, is the most popular of all of Pennsylvania’s state parks, with almost 4 million people visiting it every year. This “almost an island” reaches out into lake Erie creating both Pennsylvania’s only seashore, as well as the Presque Isle Bay that the city of Erie sits on.
First Segment:
First we'll talk with filmmakers Melissa A. Troutman and John C. Lyons, who are the team behind the two-part documentary “Lake Erie, Our Kin” which was just released by WQLN public broadcasting in Erie.

Melissa wrote it and she and John co-directed it and also conducted all the interviews for it. Included among her long list of credits, Melissa produced and directed the Rights of Nature documentary, “Invisible Hand” with executive producer and Emmy winner Mark Ruffalo.

Born in Erie, John is an award winning filmmaker who had produced a number of feature length works and shorter documentaries. In 2020 he release the environmental horror film, UNEARTH about the evils that are released into the world when fracking goes wrong.
If you would like to watch the two-part documentary, "Lake Erie, Our Kin” visit the website for WQLN, Erie’s public broadcasting station, Chronicles Page - https://www.wqln.org/shows/chronicles

Second Segment:
For a number of years, a small but mighty group of activists in Erie have called themselves “Hold Erie Coke Accountable” which is exactly they have been doing in their efforts to require the Erie Coke factory, which sat right on the bay, from violating air quality emissions and spilling contaminants into the lake. The two leaders of Hold Erie Coke Accountable are Erie Benedictine Sister Pat Lupo and Dr. Mike Campbell, a distinguished professor of biology at Mercyhurst University.
Third Segment:
PennFuture is a statewide environmental advocacy organization, with offices in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and the Poconos. Since 2020 we have also been in Erie. Jenny Tompkins is PennFuture’s Campaign Manager for Clean Water Advocacy - Lake Erie Watershed
Environmental Voices is sponsored by Envinity. Designing and installing solar power systems for homes and businesses in Central and Western PA since 2005. Information on how Envinity can help to achieve net-zero energy can be found at Envinity.com

For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org

Environmental Voices: The PennFuture Podcast - Earth Day, Environmental Justice, and Democracy

Transcript

Speaker 100:00:14.730

Welcome back to another episode of Environmental Voices, the Penn Future Podcast.

Speaker 100:00:20.370

My name is Travis Dina Penn Future's Director of Development, and I'm your host. Environmental Voices is sponsored by Infinity Designing and installing solar power systems for homes and businesses in central and western pa since 2005. Information on how Infinity can help to achieve net zero energy can be found@in