Sierra Club Offers Ways to Explore, Enjoy, Protect Environment in Traverse City Region

Public Invited to July 17 Organizing Meeting at TADL; July 21 Outing at Sand Lake Quiet Area

People who enjoy the outdoors or are concerned about the quality of their water, air and natural resources or their family’s health are invited to join a conversation about local environmental issues at a Sierra Club organizing meeting Wed., July 17, at 7 pm at the Traverse Area District Library, McGuire Room, 610 Woodmere, Traverse City. The event is free and open to the public.

Sierra Club Michigan Chapter staff and volunteer leaders will explore ways that local residents can get involved in the effort to protect the area’s great natural heritage through outings, legislative and political efforts and educational programs. The event will also offer the chance for people with common interests and concerns to enjoy refreshments and good conversation.

“Sierra Club has been involved in northwest Michigan for nearly five decades, since local residents mobilized to protect Sleeping Bear Dunes back in the ‘60s,” said Gail Philbin, Chapter assistant director. “The area has a strong tradition of active citizens who will fight to protect the environment but who also enjoy and engage in it through hiking, fishing and other outdoor activities. We hope they will come to this meeting and find out how we can work together.”

To RSVP for this event, email gail.philbin@sierraclub.org or call 312-493-2384.

On Sunday, July 21, at Noon, the Sierra Club will also host a hike at Sand Lake Quiet Area, a place of deep forests, lakes and wetlands where all motorized vehicles are prohibited. The event is free and open to the public. The 2-3 hour trek will wind through a serene portion of the Pere Marquette State Forest with five lakes surrounded by rolling hills of oak-pine forest.  To RSVP and for details, contact Lorne Beatty, Michigan Chapter Outings Leader, lorne.beatty@michigan.sierraclub.org or 810-632-7766.

Sierra Club Michigan Statement on President Obama’s Climate Plan

For Immediate Release
June 25, 2013

Contact:  Emily Rosenwasser, Emily.Rosenwasser@sierraclub.org, 312-251-1680 x119

Sierra Club Michigan Statement on President Obama’s Climate Plan

Washington, D.C. –  Today President Barack Obama announced his administration's next steps for building a legacy of action to fight the climate crisis. The plan includes new energy efficiency standards for federal buildings and appliances, scales up responsible clean energy production on public lands with an ambitious new commitment to power 6 million homes by 2020, and uses the full authority of the Clean Air Act to cut dangerous carbon pollution from power plants.

Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Director Anne Woiwode released the following statement in response:

"This is the change Michiganders have been waiting for on climate.

“President Obama is finally putting action behind his words, which is exactly what the Sierra Club, our 2.1 million members and supporters, and coalition partners have worked hard to achieve. Today, we applaud him for taking a giant step forward toward meeting that goal.

"By committing to establish new energy efficiency standards for federal buildings and appliances, scale up responsible clean energy production on public lands with an ambitious new goal to power 6 million homes by 2020, and use the full authority of the Clean Air Act to cut dangerous carbon pollution from power plants, the President is stepping up to reduce the climate-disrupting pollution that is destabilizing our climate while threatening our economy and endangering our communities and families with extreme weather and dramatic sea level increases.

"Here in the heart of the Great Lakes, Michiganders are looking forward to the day when the Administration sees fracked gas and tar sands in massive pipelines across our state for what they are - fossil fuels of the past, and a threat to Pure Michigan and public health. Nevertheless, the President's plan gives us hope he will cement his climate legacy and protect future generations by ending destructive oil drilling in the Arctic, rejecting dangerous nukes, halting mountaintop removal, abandoning dirty fossil fuels in favor of clean energy - and by making the critically important decision to reject the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline."

Sierra Club Hosts Free Screening of The Sky is Pink in Traverse City

Event at Library Focuses on Fracking and Other Issues in Region

Media Contact: Gail Philbin, gail.philbin@sierraclub.org

The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter presents a screening of The Sky is Pink, a short film about the controversial method of natural gas extraction known as fracking, Wed., June 26, at 7 pm at the Traverse Area District Library, McGuire Room, 610 Woodmere, Traverse City. The event is free and open to the public.

Grand Traverse-area residents concerned about the quality of their water, air and natural resources are invited to the screening, which will be followed by a discussion of important regional environmental, legislative and political issues. Sierra Club staff and volunteer leaders will present opportunities for concerned citizens to get involved in environmental protection efforts in northwest Michigan.

To RSVP, email William Strong at williamstrong@sbcglobal.net or call 269-372-3642.

The Sky is Pink is an 18-minute documentary by Josh Fox, the Oscar-nominated director of Gasland, about New York state’s urgent crisis of drilling and fracking, a brutal method of extracting deep-seated natural gas that recently has come to northwest Michigan.  Exempt from environmental regulations, fracking blasts 3-7 million gallons of chemical-laced water into rock to release gas.  The result is air pollution and toxic water wells that can produce flaming faucets, as shown in Gasland, and even earthquakes.

The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter has been working with legislators on a package of bills to delay its actual practice in order to strengthen regulations to protect people from the fallout of this dangerous process. Learn more at www.michigan.sierraclub.org/issues/greatlakes/Hydrofracking.html

For more information about this event, email williamstrong@sbcglobal.net or call 269-372-3642.