July/August 2016 Newsletter

In this issue…

We’re All in for 100% Clean Energy

The City of Cleveland and the world is abuzz with excitement about the Cleveland Cavaliers winning the NBA National Championship. Let’s keep this momentum going to make Cleveland Ready For 100% Clean Energy by the year 2050. Our entire community must have the same commitment to achieving this goal because it will be a Win Win for All!

As I embark on this Ready For 100 Campaign journey, the realization of why Cleveland is vitally important to this campaign is extremely evident. Cleveland started the petroleum, oil and lighting revolution in the U.S. with General Electric and Standard Oil. The city leads the state of Ohio and the Midwest Region in their commitment to renewable energy by a comprehensive Cleveland Climate Action Plan, recent vote of support for a resolution of Cleveland City Council to return Ohio’s renewable energy standards and energy efficiency mandates and the 40 million dollar grant from the Department of Energy grant to LEEDCo for an off shore wind energy project.

It is imperative that we work as a team to engage the Cleveland community in the Ready For 100% Campaign. We must listen, learn, train and educate everyone to understanding the importance of clean renewable energy in replacing outdated fossil fuels. Sierra Club National Executive Director, Michael Brune states, “The transition from dirty fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas to clean energy is best viewed as not an obligation but as an opportunity. The problems that should motivate us to move beyond dirty fuels: air pollution and asthma, water pollution, climate instability, volatile prices and reliance on overseas oil sources.” This transition will also bring about a tremendous economic benefit to our community, not just with new jobs but savings in energy costs to families.

Clean energy prices have dropped dramatically in past years so that now it is less expensive to power homes and businesses with wind or solar. Let’s work together to bring about the change needed to transition Cleveland to a cleaner, healthier and economically vibrant city by being All In For 100% Clean Energy!

Jocelyn L. Travis
Ready For 100% Campaign Coordinator


Join us for the People’s Justice & Peace Convention
July 15-17 / Cleveland, Ohio

Open to the public. Free (donations accepted). Registration required.
Register at peoplesconvention2016@gmail.com
Detailed information at http://www.pjpc2016.org

If you are tired of traditional political conventions and want an alternative means of voicing your concerns about social and environmental justice, then consider supporting the People’s Justice and Peace Convention to be held July 15-17 at the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church and the Masonic Auditorium, both in Cleveland. Many local, state and national peace, labor, environmental, and justice groups are the sponsors of this event including NEO Sierra Club and National Sierra Club.

Current public policies disproportionately benefit corporations and the wealthiest individuals and promote and expand U.S. militarism, while the concerns of the vast majority of people are ignored, distorted and/or manipulated for political and/or economic gain. The People’s Convention will include a diversity of voices and experiences, transcending any one political party or perspective. Its purpose is to lift up issues and problems that the Republican National Convention (RNC) will not authentically address and to develop collectively agreed-to solutions, a “People’s Justice & Peace Platform,” that will achieve just, nonviolent, democratic and sustainable results.

The convention will feature the following:

Speakers • Workshops • Edutainment • Participatory development of “People’s Justice & Peace Platform” to be presented to both the RNC and Democratic National Convention (DNC)

The Speakers will be:

  • Michael Eric Dyson, Academic, Author, Radio Host and Professor – Friday, July, 15, 2016, 7 pm
  • Connie Burton, Poor People’s Advocate – Saturday, July 16, 2016, 1 pm
  • Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus President and CEO – Saturday, July 16, 2016, 1:30 pm
  • Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink – Sunday, July, 17, 2016, time TBA

Workshops and Plank development in 5 areas:

  • Racial and Social justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Environmental justice
  • Political justice
  • International justice

Funding is needed to defray convention expenses. Even if you cannot attend but want to be supportive, you can make a tax-deductible contribution by sending a check to the following address:

St. Paul’s Community Outreach (note People’s Convention in the memo line)
PO BOX 14418, Cleveland, OH 44114-0418
Any amount is greatly appreciated.


End Poverty Now: March for Economic Justice on July 18th

The march will demand that the Republican convention address the problems of poverty and social and economic injustice in our society. It is backed by a coalition of social justice, homeless, labor and environmental organizations. The march will begin with a rally at the corner of E. 45th Street and Superior in Cleveland at 2 pm. The march will begin at 3 pm and conclude with a wrap up rally at Perk Park on E. 12th Street at 4 pm. For more information, go to www.endpovertynow2016.org or www.facebook.com/endpovertynow2016.


Welcome Jocelyn L. Travis

Jocelyn L. Travis has been hired by The Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club as a Conservation Program Coordinator to manage the Ready for 100 Campaign in Cleveland. Jocelyn is a resident of Cleveland with a history of activism in the Glenville Community and throughout the greater Cleveland area. She has a background in non-profit management and has been a volunteer with the national, state and local NAACP for over forty years. Jocelyn received her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Cleveland State University and Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Alabama State University. More recently she has worked with issues of the environment with the NAACP Climate Justice Department and the Ohio Environmental Council.

The Ready for 100 Campaign is seeking a commitment from the City of Cleveland to become 100% Clean Energy by the year 2030. This campaign will be implemented with the support of the Northeast Ohio Sierra Club and community allies concerned about the future of Cleveland. The Cleveland campaign is the only current Sierra Club campaign in the Midwest Region. The National Ready for 100 Campaign is also being conducted in California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho and Virginia.

Anyone interested in becoming a campaign volunteer or receiving Ready for 100 Campaign updates should contact Coordinator, Jocelyn L. Travis at jocelyn.travis@sierraclub.org (216) 926.6535.


The 2017 Summer Sprout New Garden Application is Now Open!

Application Deadline: August 2nd, 2016
Looking to start a new community garden with your neighbors, church, or organization? The Summer Sprout Community Garden program can help! Gardens enrolled in Summer Sprout are eligible for soil testing, soil amendments, plants, seeds, technical assistance, and education. Existing community gardens interested in expanding may also be eligible! (Pending availability of resources.). Applications can be found here: https://u.osu.edu/summersprout/files/2016/02/2017-summer-sprout-application-21rg0uo.pdf

Want to know more? Attend an informational session!

  • July 11th, 6pm-7pm – Jefferson Library (850 Jefferson Ave., Cleveland, OH 44113)
  • July 21st, 6pm – 7pm – Eastman Library (11602 Lorain Ave., Cleveland, OH 44111)
  • July 23rd, 10am-11am – OSU Extension Office (5320 Stanard Ave., Cleveland, OH 44103)

Cahoon Creek Clean-up

Saturday, April 16th was a wonderfully perfect day for a stream clean-up. With temperatures in the 70s and nothing but sunshine in the forecast it promised to be a day custom made for trash busting in Cahoon Creek. The weather kept its promise and so, we kept ours. Our River Warriors – Duncan Engle, Cayden Keys, Vince Milluzzi, Heather DiBiase, Elizabeth Hiser, and Sue Engle – commenced retrieving close to 100 pounds of plastic, Styrofoam, broken glass, paper, rusting pipe, rebar and a plumbing pipe (itself weighing close to 200 pounds!) from this darling little stream. However, this is only the beginning for the three young men on our tour of duty. Cayden and Vince have their eyes on future stream clean ups in their town of Columbia Station. Duncan has his sights on continuing the Cahoon Creek clean-up to the northern and southern ends and maybe a clean-up of Huntington Beach. It is very exciting to see this young generation take ownership of the waterways!

Sue Engle


“In Nature Everything is Connected to Everything Else.”

So said John Muir, roughly translated. In this year of presidential, electoral politics, we should recognize an especially important connection: the connection between climate change, increasing global violence and military conflicts.

Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything, has advanced the climate change conversation. Klein notes how Western, industrial nations resist essential, rapid policy changes away from fossil fuels which are now deemed indispensable for “modern” life. Western nations ignore the disproportionate, environmental impacts on people of color in the “Third World,” more properly described as the “Global South,” in tropical and sub-tropical zones in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The Global South may suffer the worst impacts but Europe and North America are hardly immune to the effects of more frequent extreme weather, manifested in floods, droughts and forest fire crises. National Geographic has published a future map highlighting coastal North America, minus many major cities inundated by rising sea levels.

Klein recently delivered the annual Edward Said London Lecture which she titled, “Let Them Drown…” to drive home the point. Edward Said (1935-2003) was a Columbia University professor and author of Orientalism. Klein highlighted Said’s concept of “othering,” how the powerful discount the lives of the less powerful. She says fossil fuels not only drive climate change but require “sacrifices of people and
places,” frequently where these fuels are extracted in “national sacrifice areas.” Marginalized people in the U.S. and abroad pay the price for high energy consumption in “modern,” developed economies.

The 2015 Edward Said lecture was presented by Dr. Cornell West, who Bernie Sanders has put on the Democratic Party platform committee. He will clash with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who heads the committee and represents Hillary Clinton. West has said, “We live in a world in which Palestinian, red, black and poor people’s lives matter so little,” Common ground brought West and Said together
in 1977, when West was 23 and Said was 42. Now, even in 2016, Clinton promotes the exclusive interests of the Israel Lobby, which in effect dismisses Palestinians as expendable.

After hearing Edward Said give a lecture, West approached Said saying, “My brother, we need to spend some time together. I’m a Cognac man, what are you drinking?” and from there they became fast friends.

Bill McKibben, also appointed to the Democratic platform committee by Sanders, will bring out another clash with Clinton, on environmental issues. One huge difference is on fracking. Sanders supports a moratorium on all fracking in the U.S. while Clinton has supported only regulation of fracking. If McKibben can succeed in forcing an anti-fracking debate, that will be a big step forward.

But, returning to Climate Change, violence, and military conflict, there is an opportunity for the peace and environmental movements to make common cause. Several years of drought preceded protests and then civil war in Syria, as farmers left their land after agricultural failures. In the Philippines, drought and crop failures have led to violent confrontations with military units sent to suppress protests over food shortages.

Like Sierra Club, Cleveland Peace Action ranks Climate Change as one of its top issues. CPA and NEO Sierra Club need to consider joining forces. We need to explore how together we could become more effective if we coordinated our programs for public education and political advocacy on climate change in the coming year.

Thomas Kim Hill (active in CPA, former co-chair NEO Sierra Club)


Rudy M Licursi

Rudy Licursi

Rudy Licursi

Rudy passed away in April. He was 86. In his will asked that contributions be sent to the Northeast Ohio Sierra Club. We thank him and his family. Here is his obituary published in The Plain Dealer on Apr. 3, 2016 – See more at: http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?pid=179502127#sthash.usTNI3Ze.dpuf


Meat-free Recipes from Anne’s Kitchen

Refreshing Watermelon Salad

Watermelon Salad

Watermelon Salad

Ingredients:
4 cups of small watermelon cubes
1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/3 cup halved Kalamata olives
7 mint leaves
1/3 cup salted roasted cashews
Juice of one lime
2 cups shredded lettuce or other tender greens

Procedure:
Place the cut watermelon, red onion slices, olives, and cashews in a medium bowl. Chiffonade the 7 mint leaves by placing the mint leaves on top of each other in a pile, rolling them together, then thinly slicing the roll at an angle. You will get thin slivers of the mint to sprinkle over the rest of the ingredients in the bowl. Squeeze the lime over the salad.

Place a half cup of shredded lettuce on a plate and spoon the watermelon mixture on top. Refreshing! Serves 4.

Hummus Many Ways – Basic Hummus Recipe

Hummus Many Ways

Hummus Many Ways

Ingredients:
1 14 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
2 Tbsp. tahini
1 garlic clove
Pinch of salt
Juice of half a lemon
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Paprika
Extra virgin olive oil

Procedure:
Put all the ingredients, except the paprika, in a food processor and blend until smooth. Place the hummus in a bowl, sprinkle with paprika, and pour a light coating of olive oil over the top. Serve as a dip with cut cucumbers, carrots, and/or fresh green, red, orange, or yellow bell peppers. You can also serve hummus in a sandwich or wrap with lettuce and tomato. To add a delicious zing, add pickled veggies to your sandwich.

There are many variations of hummus that you can make. Here are some examples:

Roasted Garlic Hummus – Instead of using the raw garlic, use a whole head of roasted garlic. To roast a garlic head, slice off 1/4 of the head of garlic across the top. Place the garlic head, cut side up, on a piece of aluminum foil. Pour olive oil over it, fold the foil over the head to cover it securely and place the wrapped garlic head in an oven preheated to 350 degrees. Cook for 55 minutes. Remove the garlic head from the oven, uncover it, let it cool, then squeeze the soft garlic into the food processer and mix it with the other ingredients in the basic recipe.

Roasted Pepper Hummus – Add a whole roasted red, orange or yellow bell pepper to the food processor. To roast a bell pepper first wash a red, orange, or yellow bell pepper and place it on a cookie sheet. Cook the pepper on the “broil” setting until the skin is black (watch it closely-it only takes about 2 minutes or so). Use tongs to turn the pepper over to expose another side to the flames. Repeat this until all the sides are black. Remove the blackened pepper from the oven and place it in a closed paper bag for an hour. Remove it from the bag and peel away the blackened skin. The skin should come off easily but you can do peel it under running water, if you want. Cut out and discard the seeds, ribs, and woody top. Add the remaining “meat” of the pepper into the food processor and mix it with the other ingredients in the basic recipe.

Spicy Hummus – Add 2 teaspoons cumin and 3 teaspoons red pepper flakes to the food processor and mix them with the other ingredients in the basic recipe.


Upcoming events

A Day in the Life of Euclid Creek
Saturday, July 16: 9 am – 2:30 pm
Acacia Reservation, Greenwood Farm, and Euclid Creek Reservation – Wildwood Park
What does a creek do all day? Join Cleveland Metroparks and Friends of Euclid Creek to get up close and personal with a unique natural resource in northeast Ohio. Get to know this urban watershed through the water and animals that call it home. Explore all or part of the day. Let’s do lunch, celebrate Friends of Euclid Creek’s 15th anniversary, and look back at the day’s results. Find out how we can help make Euclid Creek healthy. If interested in being a participant, please register for lunch at Wildwood by July 13.
http://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/Main/EventsProgramsCalendar/A-Day-in-the-Life-of-Euclid-Creek-9218.aspx

Circle the City with Love
July 17th, 2016, from 1:00-3:30
Circle the City with Love is a participatory event taking place on the Hope Memorial Bridge connecting Lorain and Carnegie Avenues on July 17th, 2016, from 1:00-3:30 pm, the day Cleveland officially welcomes the Republican National Convention to the city. To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/circle-the-city-with-love-cleveland-2016-tickets-26232890281?aff=efbnreg

Rain Barrel Workshop
Sunday, July 24, 2016 11 am to 4 pm

Instructor: Jessica Ferrato, Sierra Club
Community Greenhouse Partners, 6527 Superior Ave., Cleveland OH 44103

Cleveland residents, bring your unconnected rain barrels for painting & hookup workshops. Don’t have a rain barrel yet? Learn how to sign up for a free rain barrel from your neighborhood CDC. Non-Cleveland residents, we have rain barrels for you too! A suggested donation of $75 will cover a rain barrel, connector kit, sanding, priming, and painting & hookup workshops. Want a professionally painted rain barrel without all of the work? Artists from the Collinwood Painted Rain Barrel Project (www.paintedrainbarrel.org) will be on hand to discuss your needs. Learn what you can grow with the water you save, including vegetables and other food, as well as perennial gardens for butterfly habitat, beauty, and storm water function! Learn about the financial and environmental benefits of harvesting rainwater! Learn how to apply for credits on your sewer bill! Suggested donation to attend: $20 (goes towards supporting our workshop instructors and host)

To register or reserve a rain barrel, please RSVP to tim@communitygreenhousepartners.org or jessicaferrato@sierraclub.org / 216-339-9855

Macroinvertebrate Monitoring for Scenic Rivers
Wednesday, July 27 10 am – Noon

North Chagrin Reservation
Help measure the water quality of the Chagrin River. Learn to seine (net) and identify the aquatic macro-invertebrates (insects) that live in the river and are indicators of water quality by determining the type, quantity and diversity of macro-invertebrates. (Monitoring)

This event is weather-dependent. Registration required. To register, click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQ6OkcuCbsBHp7A4uFHkIYBBvlXCb8Sua8qaHRJ97SxUA-BA/viewform?c=0&w=1

American Community Garden Conference in Cleveland
August 4th – 7th

Cleveland State University (2121 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115)
Registration for the conference is now open! For more information or to register please click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-american-community-gardening-assocation-conference-in-cleveland-oh-registration-25741563710

The American Community Gardening Association’s annual conference brings together hundreds of individuals from across the United States, Canada, and abroad who are engaged in all aspects of gardening and greening. The conference includes hands-on workshops, presentations, poster sessions, keynote speakers, and visits to community gardens, urban agriculture sites, food security projects, and other green space in Cleveland.

August 27, 2016, 10 am
Walk Findley State Park, Ohio

Walk 3 miles or 3 hours in Findley State Park, Ohio and see forests, tall pines, part of the Buckeye Trail, and nature. For more information contact Dennis at dennislakeerie@aol.com or 216-939-8229.
For park info: http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/findley

Donate