NOVEMBER 3, 6:30 p.m. ONLINE: UPROOTING RACISM, SEEDING SOVEREIGNTY - Racial injustice in our food system Rescheduled from July, this program features a riveting keynote address delivered by Soul Fire Farm’s Co-Founder and Farm Manager, Leah Penniman, and closes with a performance by world-renowned poet, Soul Fire Farm’s Program Manager, Naima Penniman. The storytelling weaves the history and structural realities of racial injustice in the food system, with movement strategies past and present of frontlines communities mobilizing for food and land sovereignty. RSVP: tinyurl.com/WISC-FoodSystem
This program is part of the Sierra Club of Wisconsin’s Environmental Justice series. Learn more at sierraclub.org/wisconsin/blog/2021/08/introducing-environmental-justice-event-series
NOVEMBER 10, 7:00 p.m. ONLINE: Indigenous resistance to mining in Wisconsin Tribes in Wisconsin have worked for decades to oppose destructive mining projects that threaten clean water and traditional food. Beginning with 1970s opposition to the Crandon Mine project, tribal governments have led efforts against international extractive industries and state politicians of both parties. Using people power, laws, and treaty rights, indigenous leaders have provided a model of persistence and resistance. RSVP at tinyurl.com/WISC-MiningResistance
This program is part of the Sierra Club of Wisconsin’s Environmental Justice series. Learn more at sierraclub.org/wisconsin/blog/2021/08/introducing-environmental-justice-event-series
NOVEMBER 17, 6:30 p.m. ONLINE: Chapter Awards - Celebrating environmental leaders Every year Sierra Club Wisconsin recognizes some of our many wonderful volunteers and community leaders for their dedication, passion and leadership. We could not do our work alone, and celebrating our award winners is one of the best parts of our year. Please join us and Wisconsinites across the state on Wednesday, November 17 at 6:30pm for a virtual ceremony that allows us all to be together and celebrate these environmental leaders from across the state. We're excited to announce the awards of these outstanding leaders. See you on November 17th to celebrate them and learn more about their work! RSVP: tinyurl.com/WISC-21Awards
EDUCATION GRANTS! CRSC is offering grants of up to $200 each for environmental education projects to schools or community organizations involving young people at the elementary and middle school level within the CRSC region: Crawford, Grant, Jackson, La Crosse, Monroe, Richland, Trempealeau, and Vernon counties.
Applications may be completed online, emailed or mailed. The deadline for applications is December 10, 2021. For more information, visit sierraclub.org/wisconsin/coulee/Education or tinyurl.com/CRSC-Students
New for 2021-2022, CRSC will recognize the achievements of and award $150 to a high school senior who demonstrates leadership, action, and environmental stewardship, and who understands the importance of civic engagement in protecting our environment. Eligible students are those graduating from high school in 2022 who reside in the CRSC region: Crawford, Grant, Jackson, La Crosse, Monroe, Richland, Trempealeau, and Vernon counties. The application includes essays and submission of a portfolio. The deadline for applications is March 15, 2022 with the award to be given by the end of April, 2022. For more information, visit sierraclub.org/wisconsin/coulee/Education or tinyurl.com/CRSC-Students
Funding for these environmental grants and awards is possible thanks to an annual grant from the Paul E. Stry Foundation, shared dues from Sierra Club memberships, and donations made by community members. To learn more about donating, please email CRSierraClub@gmail.com.
CRSC BOARD ELECTIONS The Coulee Region Sierra Club will hold elections for its board of directors in December. The board meets monthly to plan events, coordinate with the state Sierra Club, and network with local and regional partners and allies on Sierra Club issues.
There are four available seats. Terms are two years and begin in January 2022. If you are interested, please email CRSierraClub@gmail.com with your name, contact information, and a brief paragraph describing your experience and interests and why you would like to be on the board. PLEASE SEND NOMINATIONS NO LATER THAN NOVEMBER 20. If you don’t do email, please call 608-315-2693.
Qualifications include Sierra Club membership and past work or interest in outdoor activities and/or environmental issues. The board is especially interested in adding members who live outside of the La Crosse area, but anyone is welcome to nominate.
The chapter is helping with our elections this year. Voting will be online or by paper ballot. The December newsletter will have candidate statements, the ballot, and instructions for voting by mail or online. Those who do not receive a newsletter will get a postcard with instructions. Voting will close on December 28 with results announced in our January newsletter.
LAST CALL FOR CALENDARS! Sales of Sierra Club calendars help support our environmental education grants. Wall and engagement calendars for 2022 are available. Call 608-315-2693, or email CRSierraClub@gmail.com. Engagement calendars are $16 and wall calendars cost $15. Find other Sierra Club merchandise, including apparel, gifts, things for kids, cards, and outdoor items at store.sierraclub.org/storefront.aspx
CONGRATULATIONS SOLAR ON LA CROSSE SCHOOLS! Congratulations, Solar on La Crosse Schools, 2021 Organization Winner of the Sustainability Institute’s Inspiring Sustainability Award! tinyurl.com/21SustainAwards
CLIMATE CRISIS FILM FESTIVAL This year’s international COP26 summit is considered by many as the last chance for governments to agree on crucial climate policies that reduce carbon emissions and limit global temperature rise before the planet is set on the path to irreversible climate change. Taking place in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12, the mostly in-person conference is set to host over 200 countries, NGOs, businesses, faith groups, and other governing bodies. But the summit has been widely criticized for being inaccessible to those who are already experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis. For small countries and BIPOC communities and activists, particularly those in the Global South, where the first and most drastic effects of extreme weather are occurring, vaccine inequality and travel costs are barriers to seats at the proverbial table.
This troubling inequity is very much on the mind of Susanna Basso, artistic director and co-founder of the Climate Crisis Film Festival (CCFF). “The most vulnerable communities have the least to do with carbon emissions,” Basso says. “For them not to be included at COP26 is particularly worrying. The least we can do as a festival is to give over our platform, showcase [these communities], and pass the mic.”
Accessible online from November 1 through November 14, the festival’s program includes over a dozen films from BIPOC filmmakers on the frontlines of climate change around the world, including shorts, mid-length, and feature-length documentaries from Pakistan, Niger, Brazil, Denmark, the United States, Panama, Chile, and New Zealand. The films, and the greater “festival ethos,” Basso says, are linked by the theme of “intersectionality.” The documentaries that were selected, in addition to their artistic power and gripping visuals, Basso says, confront climate change through the lens of social justice, gender inequality, politics, and the economy.
Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, and Bill McKibben will give the keynote opening remarks on November 1. Read more about the Climate Crisis Film Festival and register (free) to view these important films from November 1 through 14 at www.climatecrisisff.co.uk
NOVEMBER EVENTS
Now through November: Waking Up White Regional Read. www.laxwakingupwhite.com/waking-up-white-regional-read.html
November 1 - December 25: Third annual 55 Miles in 55 Days walking challenge Black River Falls. Lunda Community Center. lcc.recdesk.com/Community/Calendar
November 1-4: Nature Writing Workshops. www.mississippivalleyconservancy.org/events
November 5: Mississippi Valley Conservancy Fall Fundraiser and online auction 5:30 p.m. www.mississippivalleyconservancy.org/events/stronger-together-fall-fundraiser-live-online-auction
November 6: “Ecosystems as Models for Restoring our Environment” 3 p.m. Viroqua thearkviroqua.org/ecosystems-economies-john-giordanengo/
November 10: Sierra Club of Wisconsin Virtual Volunteer Night. 6:30 p.m. tinyurl.com/WISC-1110Vol
November 10: Friends of the Black River: “Life in the Clouds.” 6:30 p.m. Lunda Community Center, Black River Falls www.blackrivercountry.net/event/friends-of-the-black-river-educational-meeting
November 12: Just Keep Swimming - Fish Movements & Threats of River Fragmentation 7 p.m. JavaVino, La Crosse www.uwlax.edu/calendar/?e=25083
November 15: Building a Multiracial Environmental Community 6:30 p.m. tinyurl.com/WISC-MultiEnviro
November 17: Driftless Dialogs - Who are the Amish? 6:30 p.m. Kickapoo Valley Reserve kvr.state.wi.us/Events/Calendar1013Vol
WOLF UPDATE A Dane County judge has blocked Wisconsin’s November wolf hunt, but wolves are still under threat around the country., Read how you can work with the Sierra Club to help protect wolves in the U.S. at tinyurl.com/WISC-wolves
LINE 3 - THE FIGHT CONTINUES Since October 1, about double the amount of tar sands oil has been crossing Minnesota despite continued public opposition. Read the press release from Sierra Club including the North Star Chapter Director's response that the fight to stop Line 3 will continue. - Janette Dean
As Enbridge Announces Line 3 is Completed
Fight for Climate Justice Continues
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Contact: Gabby Brown, gabby.brown@sierraclub.org
Today, Canadian oil company Enbridge announced that tar sands oil will start flowing through the Line 3 pipeline this Friday. If allowed to continue operating, the pipeline will carry 760,000 barrels per day of the dirtiest oil on the planet from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin, running through more than 200 bodies of water along the way, including the headwaters of the Mississippi River and lakes in northern Minnesota where Native Americans harvest wild rice and hold treaty rights.
Originally proposed in 2014 as a replacement for an aging existing pipeline, the new Line 3 -- which is twice as large and travels along a new route -- has faced fierce opposition in Minnesota because of the threat it poses to clean water, Indigenous rights, and the climate. Enbridge originally planned to have the pipeline operational in 2019 but was delayed by grassroots opposition and legal challenges. A challenge to the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to issue a key water-crossing permit is still pending in federal court. In issuing the permit, the Corps failed to consider the pipeline’s impacts on the climate and on Indigenous rights. A victory for pipeline opponents in this case could send the Corps back to the drawing board on its environmental review and shut down operation of the pipeline in the meantime.
To date, more than 900 Indigenous-led water protectors have been arrested or cited for protesting the construction of Line 3 in Minnesota. Peaceful protesters have been surveilled, shot at with rubber bullets, and tear gassed. Police have made violent arrests and once in custody, many have faced solitary confinement and been denied medical care. Protesters have been hit with extreme charges including felony theft and felony aiding attempted suicide.
Sierra Club North Star Chapter Director Margaret Levin released the following statement:
“President Biden and the other politicians who chose to do nothing as treaty rights were violated, waterways were polluted, and peaceful protesters were brutalized have placed themselves on the wrong side of history. We will continue to seek to hold them accountable for failing to prioritize the best interests of our communities over the desires of a foreign oil company.
“This is not the outcome we hoped for, but the fight to stop Line 3 has always been a fight for climate justice and a future free from fossil fuels, and that fight will not stop just because Enbridge has succeeded in building this pipeline. Our movement is powerful, and we are not going anywhere. We will keep pushing forward -- demanding that our elected leaders live up to their promises and lifting our voices for healthy and safe communities and climate justice.”
LEARN MORE Learn more about the Sierra Club’s position on Line 3 at www.sierraclub.org/minnesota/beyond-oil and about Line 5 at www.sierraclub.org/wisconsin/line-5. In addition, the Sierra Club opposes new fossil gas infrastructure including a proposed plant in Wisconsin. See addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/no-new-fracked-gas-plant-near-lake-superior
