Originally Posted on July 20, 2016
EQAT will be brining their dual message of "Power Local Green Jobs" to this Sunday's march.
Robert Leming, from The Earth Initiative, honored to be marching with them.
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Fracking is one key issue for the marchers, as we in Philadelphia are just east of the Marcellus Shale fileds, and "black trains" roll through our City, along our rivers, through our communities.
The following reflections are mine, in no way associated w the EQAT team and ethic:
Anna Beale, a founder of Earth Initiaive, has followed and met with Joanna Macy. Joanna has had her should to the wheel of what she and others call "The Great Turning" for many years, and has delineated Three Dimensions of that Turning, I give her short cuts - a deeper dive here :
1. Holding Actions - essentially, our finger in the dike
2. Analysis of structural causes and the creation of structural alternatives
3. actions that lead to a shift in conciousness
Proponents of fracking love to position it as a holding action - better than coal, better than crude, frees us from imports, creates jobs
But, on the other hand they do not want to pay their fare on the downsides - they insist on freeloading when it comes to:
Methane leaks - methane an EXTREMELY potent greenhouse gas, and, largely, loosely or uncontrolled now
Local degradation of the land, the water tables, the trails - disruptions for the wildlife (all things dear to us at Earth Initiative)
The resulting low price, undercutting jobs that we could be creating in the solar, wind, sustainable biomass industries (think strucural changes)
Here in Pennsylvania, our State Government has us headed in the direction that Kentucky and West Virginia took with coal; taking crumbs from the table, rather than investing in the future.
Put strong methane controls in place, protect the environment (crazy that this needs to be said, insisted on in these days), protect our communities - pay for these - then we can talk.
Pennsylvania, the United States, the World need to understand that there is a people's movement gathering, underway, that will not relent (think change of consciousness).