2013 Green Living & Learning Tour

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UPDATE:  PLEASE GO TO OUR 2013 TOUR PAGE FOR ALL TOUR INFORMATION Save the date! Saturday, September, 28th 2013 Green Living & Learning Afternoon Tour & Evening Celebration

The 2013 Green Living & Learning Tour is that kind of occasion that gives us an opportunity to see what our neighbors are doing to make their lives and our community more resilient and sustainable, and a chance to explore what we can do as well.  Join us for an experience of sustainable, resilient community!

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In order to make this year's Tour a great event, we need your involvement in one or more of the following ways:

  • Write it on your calendar and plan to participate in the tour!

  • Give us your ideas for examples of sustainable living that you would like to see included in the tour! Note: It’s okay (even encouraged) to nominate your own home!

  • We need volunteers to make this event happen, so if you would like to be part of the tour planning team or if you would like to be a volunteer on the day of the tour, please let us know! Reply to sallystovall@gmail.com or 773-315-1109.

Check out information on last year’s tour on the Green Community Connections web site.

"We can't create a better world if we haven't yet imagined it.  How much better then, if we are able to touch such a world, experience it directly, and even live it if only for a brief moment."  -- Andrew Boyd, Yes! Magazine

2012 Oak Park/River Forest Sustainability Report Card

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PlanItGreen has just released the 2012 Community Sustainability Report Card for Oak Park and River Forest.  The Community Sustainability Report Card provides a snapshot in time of progress against sustainability goals that were created over a ten-month community engagementprocess in 2010-2011. Over time, the sustainability report card will illuminate trends, highlight successes and shortcomings, and ultimately help support decisions on future policies, strategies, and resource allocation needed to achieve the 10-year plan’sgoals by 2020.
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The report card provides grades on implementation progress within each of nine topic areas that are part of the Environmental Sustainability Plan for Oak Park and River Forest, and provides comparisons between baseline data on community resource and 2012 data. Grades are shown as a; Thumbs Up:  Exceeded Goals, Thumbs Sideways:  Met Goals and Thumbs Down:  Did not meet goals.
A quick overview of the results shows that:
    • 3 of the topic areas exceeded goals:  Energy, Education and Waste
    • 4 of the topic areas met goals:  Community Development, Water, Food and Green Economy
    • 2 of the topic areas did not meet goals:  Transportation and Open Space / Ecosystems

 

Review the complete report  here: planitgreen2012sustainabilityreportcard-final 
To schedule a presentation on the report card and an overview of 2013 priority implementation strategies, contact act@sevengenerationsahead.org.

Pledge to Act - Group Gathering on May 20th (New date!)

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We have already heard many great stories about people taking actions inspired by the One Earth Film Festival and we know that many of you are working every day to live more lightly on the Earth!  You are invited to attend a gathering together with others who are also working to reduce their “footprint.”  Join us on Monday, May 20, 2013, 6:30-8:30pm, Oak Park Main Library, 2nd floor Veteran's Room.This will be a highly practical, active and interactive gathering so come prepared to have fun and participate! demo 2 50percent

We will start at 6:30 with refreshments and conversation, followed by a time for sharing our accomplishments, our challenges, our plans for next steps and resources that will help support us in this important work.  Come for the whole time or as much as you can.

Following are the topic areas that we will be focusing on.

  • Conserving water
  • Reducing waste
  • Taking alternative transportation
  • Conserving energy
  • Eating (& growing) sustainable food
  • Restoring habitats & natural spaces (added by write-in request!)

Why are Pledge Groups Important?

We know that we are stronger together.  When we join together to share ideas, resources and experiences, we learn from one another and inspire and encourage one another.  As Margaret Mead famously said, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

NEXT STEPS:

1. Please let us know if you can make it to the gathering on May 20th, 6:30-8:30pm, at the Oak Park Main Library.  Please RSVP for the gathering at:  link

2. If you know of others who may be interested in working with others to lower their footprint on the earth, please share the invitation with them and direct them to this web page to sign up.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment

before starting to improve the world. -- Anne Frank

 

Home Energy Efficiency Program Extended

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Energy Impact Illinois (EI2), the US Department of Energy and utility supported home energy efficiency program, has been extended through most of the summer. Instead of ending on May 1st, the program will cover work that is completed by August 26th.

Scores of people in Oak Park, River Forest, Chicago, and others have already taken advantage of the program. What they get is “one-stop shopping”: qualified energy auditors from EI2 come and analyze what can be done to weatherize the house, at what expense, and providing what savings. EI2 connects people up with contractors that are highly qualified and thoroughly vetted and have a an extra certification from Building Performance Institute.

If the homeowner decides to proceed with the recommended improvements, the program subsidizes 70% of the cost of the work, up to $2500 ($1750 subsidy). For most houses, the work does not exceed $2500 so the homeowner's expense does not exceed $750.

The result is a more comfortable home, lower heating and cooling bills, and less CO2 emissions contributing to global warming.

The August 26th deadline is not far away. People who call now for an assessment are getting appointments in June. Once the assessment is done, the homeowner makes the decision whether to go ahead with the work, signs an agreement, schedules the work, and gets it done. Most often it is a one-day job, usually focused on air sealing in the basement and insulation in the attic. All of this must be complete by August 26th to qualify for the subsidy. (The program calls it a “rebate” – but it is paid directly to the contractor and the homeowner never has to put out more than his/her 30% share.)

Interested people in Oak Park and River Forest can call: Pamela Brookstein at (708) 252-0623.  (Get your energy assessment free by hosting a "house party" - see what this is all about in this video.)

Others in the six-county area can call EI2 at 1-855-9-IMPACT.

 

Smart Meter Training for Congregation Green Teams

Faith In Place, in consultation with ComEd, is developing an instructional kit on how to use the new smart meters smartly. Congregation green teams will be able to borrow the kit to use at Smart Meter OPSunday coffee hours they host during the coming months to educate their congregation's members. The kit will include images, literature, and some visual aids on energy conservation. (And Faith In Place will throw in $100 for the coffee!) Representatives from the green teams of each congregation are invited to a training event on May 18,  10am-12pm, First United Church, 848 Lake Street in Oak Park.  At the training you will see the kits, get trained on how to do a coffee hour presentation, and sign up for your preferred date.

Now, as smart meters are being installed in our area, is a perfect time to educate people about how to use all the data that is available to them, for their benefit. And meeting at a Sunday coffee hour will be a good way to get a fairly large audience and distribute information so that it will actually be acted on.

Please RSVP to James Babcock (jlbabck@sbcglobal.net)

The Case for a Federal Carbon Tax

CCL Logo Members of the chapter of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby that meets in Oak Park will host a workshop on “The Case for a Federal Carbon Tax” on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM, Oak Park Public Library, Small Meeting Room, 834 Lake Street.  A Carbon Tax is a fee levied on carbon based fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas.This meeting will present the benefits of carbon tax, how it would work and what we can do to enact one.

This event will be interactve and engagement-oriented. There will be several five minute presentations, followed by a substantial period for dialogue and Q&A. The meeting will conclude with opportunities to learn more and become involved through one of four groups -- Citizens Climate Lobby, Green Community Connections, 350.org, and/or the divestment campaign.

 

Who is Citizens’ Climate Lobby?

  • Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a five-year old, international volunteer organization devoted to creating massive support for climate legislation.
  • Citizens’ Climate Lobby now has over 80 chapters in the US and Canada.
  • Members of Citizens’ Climate Lobby chapters write letters to the editor, meet with editorial boards, present educational events, and meet with members of Congress.
  • CCL operates on the theory that engaged citizens can influence legislators to act constructively on the climate crisis.

 

Carbon Tax and Rebate

Citizens’ Climate Lobby advocates a revenue-neutral carbon tax, with a monthly rebate check to every household.  For information, call Jim Dickert at 708.763.8184 or email: jdickert@sbcglobal.net.

Submitted by Jim Dickert

Split Estate

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Saturday, Mar 2, 12:30P/

River Forest Public Library

Tickets

Debra Anderson/2009/76 min

Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.

This compelling Emmy Award winning documentary shows the dirty side of hydraulic fracturing and natural gas, an energy source the industry touts as a clean alternative to fossil fuels.

Zeroing in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, this clarion call for accountability examines the growing environmental and social costs to an area now referred to as a “National Sacrifice Zone."

This is no Love Canal or Three Mile Island. With its breathtaking panoramas, aspen-dotted meadows, and clear mountain streams, this is the Colorado of John Denver anthems — the wide-open spaces that have long stirred our national imagination.

Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One Garfield County resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match.  Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children.  All the while, the industry assures us it is a "good neighbor."

Ordinary homeowners and ranchers absorb the cost.  Actually, we all pay the price in this devastating clash of interests that extends well beyond the Rockies.  Aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states, the industry is even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.

As public health concerns mount, Split Estate cracks the sugarcoating on an industry touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, and poignantly drives home the need for real alternatives.

This trailer includes footage not in the film.  This scene was shot for 'Split Estate' but not included in the film.  The filmmakers chose to focus the theme of the film on human health and had to eliminate many stories about contamination and animals that included domestic pets, livestock and wildlife.

Houston, We Have a Problem

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Saturday, Mar 2, 3P/Oak Park Village Hall - Tickets

52 min/Mature

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Cheap Energy  Step inside the energy capital of the world, to hear the hard truth about oil, straight from the Texas oilmen themselves. For decades American presidents have warned of our nation’s dependence on foreign oil. See just how the U.S. Energy Policy turned into a strategy of defense, not offense; the recent Gulf disaster, an inevitable tragedy.

View trailer here.

Today, in the midst of unsolvable wars, global warming, recession, peak oil, and oil spills, the world’s energy demand continues to skyrocket. The U.S. energy demand alone is predicted to go up 50% in the next 20 years. Hear the confessions of oilmen, who work in the trenches every day, scrambling to feed America’s ferocious appetite. Globally, the gloves are now off. Aggressive strategies for securing crude go to the highest bidder or the biggest bully. 80% of the world’s oil is owned by governments who hate us, and yet every year we spend over 700 billion dollars on foreign oil. Will this addiction be our demise? As Americas become more and more fed up with corporate lies and powerless politicians, we stand at the crossroads. See birth of the clean energy revolution and 21st century “Wildcatters” who are leading the way. HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM brings both sides together, seeking solutions, making it clear that we must embrace all forms of alternative energies in order to save the planet and ourselves.

Programming note:  will be shown with Stories of TRUST:  PA.

Pipe Dreams

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Sunday, Mar 3, 1P/Oak Park Public Library - Tickets

Leslie Iwerks/39 min

Across the heartland of America, farmers and landowners are fighting to protect their land, their water, and their livihood in what has become the most controversial environmental battle in the U.S. today:  The Keystone XL Pipeline.  Routed from Hardity, Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, this tar sands pipeline is set to cross the country's largest fresh water resource, the  Ogallala Aquifer and the fragile Sandhills of Nebraska, posing devastating consequences to human health, livestock and agriculture.

Visit the Pipe Dreams website to view the trailer.

Programming note:  will be seen with A Wild Idea.

A Wild Idea

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Sunday, Mar 3, 1P/Oak Park Public Library - Tickets

26 min/

A Wild Idea is an award-winning documentary about the Yasuni-ITT Initiative, Ecuador's unprecedented proposal for fighting global climate change.  In exchange for payments from the world community, the country will leave untouched its largest oil reserves. If the proposal is accepted, it will conserve the Amazon’s biodiversity, protect the rights of indigenous people and avoid the emission of millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

A Wild Idea was directed and produced by Verónica Moscoso as her master's thesis at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.  

The film takes the viewer to the Yasuní National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, capturing the rain forest’s stunning biodiversity. It also focuses in the millions of barrels of oil lying beneath the part of the park known as the ITT Block.

Exploiting the ITT seemed to be the logical step Ecuador had to take, but political changes have transformed the way the country views oil development. Through testimony representing different perspectives and rich archival video, A Wild Idea shows how the seemingly utopian ideal of keeping valuable oil underground turned into an official proposal.

As the film progresses, the complex initiative becomes easy to understand. The audience sees what’s at stake if the proposal is not accepted. And the political twists and turns that made it possible and that could also threaten the success of this revolutionary idea.

If accepted, the Yasuní-ITT initiative will protect perhaps the most biodiverse place on Earth. It would also respect the rights of two of the last nomadic indigenous people that live there in voluntary isolation. And it would avoid the emission of hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A Wild Idea is a thought provoking film that explores the complexity of oil development within a fragile ecosystem, its local and global implications, and its effects on the planet as a whole.

AWARDS: Best Student Film at the Green Screen Film Festival in 2011; Official Selection of Toronto International Film Festival.

Programming note:  will be seen with Pipe Dreams.