12 - Eliza Griswold, Author of Amity and Prosperity

10/24/18 • 55 min

In this episode you’ll hear a recording of a webinar presentation that Eliza Griswold, author of Amity and Prosperity brought to the network. The presentation is followed by a Q&A with Eliza.

In Amity and Prosperity, the prize-winning poet and journalist Eliza Griswold tells the story of the energy boom’s impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia and one woman’s transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist.

“In her new book, Amity and Prosperity, journalist Eliza Griswold provides a deeply human counterpoint to this political fray. She takes on the decidedly fraught issue of energy extraction through a vivid, compassionate portrait of one family living in the long shadow of industry . . . Griswold chronicles these escalating horrors with disarming intimacy.”

— Meara Sharma, The Washington Post

As mentioned in this episode

Credits

This podcast is a project of halttheharm.net, a website and resource that connects you with leaders, activists, researchers, economists, legal experts, and funders to protect your community from oil & gas industry. Halt the Harm is a network of leaders who are taking action, sharing resources and information, and supporting each other’s campaigns. Find out more at halttheharm.net

The soundtrack Halt the Harm podcast is"One of These Days" by Eilen Jewell from her album Sea of Tears.

Recorded, produced, and published by Ryan Clover in the studios WRFI Watkins Glen, Ithaca

In this episode you’ll hear a recording of a webinar presentation that Eliza Griswold, author of Amity and Prosperity brought to the network. The presentation is followed by a Q&A with Eliza.

— Meara Sharma, The Washington Post

As mentioned in this episode

Credits

The soundtrack Halt the Harm podcast is"One of These Days" by Eilen Jewell from her album Sea of Tears.

Recorded, produced, and published by Ryan Clover in the studios WRFI Watkins Glen, Ithaca

Previous Episode

11 - Raina Rippel, Environmental Health Project

In this episode Raina Rippel from the Environmental Health Project talks about the Citizen Science Toolkit, a helpful resource for anyone who wants to protect their family and neighbors from the harms of fracking. This toolkit is an expansive document that details ways that anyone can participate in monitoring environmental health impacts.

We talk about the implications of health monitoring, how the toolkit was created, and provide some insight into the role of citizen science in protecting ourselves from industry that is looking for the cheapest and fastest way to extract gas and bring it to market.

Raina says we all need to be involved in protecting our family and neighbors from the potential harms associated with unconventional oil and gas development – there are tools at our disposal to do this right now.

As mentioned in this episode

About Raina Rippel

In 2011, Raina Rippel helped found the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (EHP) in response to growing concerns associated with gas drilling activity and health impacts in Washington County, PA. Formerly Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility/Maine and the Center for Coalfield Justice, Rippel has on the job training in environmental public health, medical education and outreach, community organizing, strategic development and leadership.

Rippel heads up a team of fifteen staff and consultants and various interns with expertise in healthcare, public health research, toxicology, air and water quality, strategic development and community organizing, in conducting a targeted and timely public health response to unconventional shale development. EHP focuses their work on gathering data from residents of southwest PA and beyond on probable health impacts from oil and gas development, determining routes of exposures, and providing best-practice air and water monitoring tools and guidance, as well as accessible and effective interventions for individuals, households, and communities.

Citizen Scientist Toolkit

This Citizen Scientist toolkit will provide listeners with an easy-to-follow framework for taking steps to becoming a more informed, empowered member of your community. By carefully following the procedures and protocols that are defined in the toolkit, listeners will become a citizen scientist, and their efforts can have an impact that extends well beyond their community. Their data can be added to the findings of many others. Together, this information can help listeners, their community, researchers and scientists truly understand the type and level of fracking-related risks.

Credits

The soundtrack Halt the Harm podcast is"One of These Days" by Eilen Jewell from her album Sea of Tears.

Recorded, produced, and published by Ryan Clover in the studios WRFI Watkins Glen, Ithaca

Next Episode

13 - Dante Swinton, Energy Justice in Baltimore

In this episode Dante Swinton, the coordinator of the Divert Baltimore Program talks about organizing and advocating for alternatives to developing a waste incinerator that would cause a public health crisis in Baltimore. By taking leadership and a design thinking approach, Dante is able to show that diverting the waste from incineration has social, environmental, and economic benefits.

Dante advocates for thinking outside of the box, instead of just focusing on what we’re against. He says it’s important to build a solution. With a strong solution we can be effective in our efforts.

As mentioned in this episode

About Dante Swinton

Dante has had an interest in environmental protection for 20 years, and has worked with Energy Justice Network since summer 2015. He has run for state and local office to raise waste/recycling, energy, transit, and domestic violence issues. He has a Bachelors in Environmental Studies from Winthrop University, and a Masters in Nonprofit Management and Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Baltimore.

Dante is the Divert Baltimore Program Coordinator; Environmental Justice Researcher & Organizer with Clean Air Baltimore. More information at https://www.cleanairbmore.org

Credits

The soundtrack Halt the Harm podcast is"One of These Days" by Eilen Jewell from her album Sea of Tears.

Recorded, produced, and published by Ryan Clover in the studios WRFI Watkins Glen, Ithaca