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"Radio Free Vermont"

#105 February 2018/All Topics

Climate activist Bill McKibben makes a switch to fiction

When a conversation becomes as extensive as the one surrounding climate change, it can be difficult to remember where it started. Granted, it would be pretty hard to isolate a single point of origin for an entire field of study, developed by decades of observation and research. However, when attempting to identify the moment when

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February 1, 2018
3 mins read

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  1. Andre Williams on A new photography project features portraits and interviews with the people who roll through Philly’s streets
  2. captain obvious on The efforts to eradicate traffic deaths in Philadelphia launched in 2016. Ten years in, the City is still far from its goal
  3. PB on Grid interviews legendary activist George Lakey on his inspirations, the current political moment and what keeps him motivated
  4. isabel melvin on A new photography project features portraits and interviews with the people who roll through Philly’s streets
  5. Dave Liao on Frugal living and its many benefits

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Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ Philly Homegrown First Fridays: Each month, we open our doors for an evening of local love: shop unique, handcrafted goods, meet the makers, and connect with your neighbors. Enjoy complimentary wine, light refreshments, and a vibrant atmosphere where art, plants, and people come together. When: Friday, March 6th (6:00 PM - 9:00 PM) Where: Plant and People 3952 Lancaster Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19104 ➡️ Birding with Philly Queer Birders: It’s been a long winter, so come shake off the cold with queer community and #birdjoy! Join Philly Queer Birders and Audubon Mid-Atlantic as we check out early spring visitors, and perhaps some surprises along the way. When: Saturday, March 7th (9:00 AM - 11:00 AM) Where: The Discovery Center 3401 Reservoir Drive Philadelphia, PA 19121 ➡️ A Journey to Backyard Biodiversity: How do you transform a tangled mess of a backyard and a traditional lawn and into a thriving wildlife oasis? Join native gardening enthusiast Katie Fisk as she shares how she used native plants to turn her own yard into a haven for pollinators and birds. When: Saturday, March 7th (10:00 AM - 11:00 AM) Where: Jenkins Arboretum & Gardens 631 Berwyn Baptist Road Devon, PA 19333 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
Across the nation, more and more youth are reachin Across the nation, more and more youth are reaching for a bicycle for recreation and as a means of transportation. In fact, the advocacy group PeopleforBikes found in a 2024 survey that ridership for children ages 3 to 17 increased from 46% to 56%, reversing a decline. And on March 14 and 15 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the 15th Philadelphia Bike Expo (PBE) is working to instill cycling confidence in young people with its Kids Arena, aiming to build on that upward trend. The kids riding arena features separated courses with skill and safety stations for a full range of experience levels. The program will be overseen by Sam Pearson, a lifelong cyclist and the Healthy Communities program manager at Pennsylvania Downtown Center. “It’s a skills course,” Pearson says. “We’re trying to get them to show how well they follow the signs and interact with each other as they’re circulating.” The course “road,” as in years past, is halved by a center line, and riders must navigate cones and each other. There is also a roundabout where riders have to obey traffic signs, take turns and decide when to go straight or proceed around the traffic circle, Pearson says. There will be separate stations for riders to focus on a specific skill, and others where they must combine those skills in practice. Pearson says there are numerous benefits to these kinds of courses, called traffic gardens. Beyond balance work, she says children can work on gliding, braking, staying in their lane and responding to road signs. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Dawn Kane 📸 Photo courtesy of Diana Steif #philadelphia #safestreets #bikesafety #bicyclesafety #phillybikeexpo #bikephl
Amanda Parezo isn’t your typical bike lane advocat Amanda Parezo isn’t your typical bike lane advocate. For one thing, she doesn’t ride a bike. Parezo once loved cycling around Philadelphia. But in 2021, after a game of kickball at Hancock Playground in East Kensington, she was struck in the back by a stray bullet and paralyzed from the waist down. Now, she gets around town using a wheelchair. She rolls from her condo in Old City to her job at Thomas Jefferson University, where she teaches occupational therapy. In a city where sidewalks are often damaged or blocked, Parezo often ends up rolling into a bike lane. But bike lanes, she says, often aren’t free of barriers either. When a vehicle is stopped or parked in the lane, Parezo has to roll into the street, greatly increasing her risk of injury. “I feel like something’s going to happen as soon as I get into the street,” she says. “If it’s nighttime, that makes it exponentially worse, and then I just won’t go out because I’m scared. I’ll just stay home.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #visionzero #safestreets #accessibilitymatters #accessibilityforall #bikelane
By all accounts, 67-year-old Harry Fenton was a mo By all accounts, 67-year-old Harry Fenton was a model of safe cycling. He used hand signals when he was turning and stopped at every stop sign and red light, even when there wasn’t a car anywhere in sight. To be visible, he wore fluorescent jackets, vests and shirts, and he never left the house without his helmet or fully-charged lights. He found routes that felt safe and then stuck to them. Fenton, in other words, did everything right. But he couldn’t prevent what happened to him on the morning of Sept. 2 while he was riding his bike in Fairmount Park. At the intersection of Belmont Avenue and Avenue of the Republic, a speeding driver struck him and fled. Fenton was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, making him the fourth cyclist killed in Philadelphia last year, and the eighth person killed in a crash on Belmont Avenue in the past six years. Belmont Avenue has been part of Philadelphia’s “High Injury Network” — the 12% of roads that are responsible for 80% of the city’s total fatal and serious road injuries — for years. So why have the dangerous conditions there remained unaddressed? The answer is linked to the nearly decade-long history of Vision Zero, the City’s safe streets initiative. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #visionzero #safestreets #bikesafety #bicyclesafety #bikephl
New issue alert! Grid 202 has arrived and with it New issue alert! Grid 202 has arrived and with it comes another set of important stories to tell. Here are just a few of the ones you’ll find in this month’s pages: • The efforts to eradicate traffic deaths in Philadelphia launched in 2016. Ten years in, the City is still far from its goal • Could Philadelphia’s environmental science high school be for sale? • For some undocumented minors living in Philadelphia, making it to the United States is just one step in a long journey to safety and security ➡️ Read the full issue now at gridphilly.com 📸 Cover photo by Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #phillynews #sustainability #sustainableliving #environmentalnews #independentjournalism
📱 Shortly before my 24th birthday, I decided to re 📱 Shortly before my 24th birthday, I decided to replace my iPhone with a flip phone. I have abstractly considered making the change on numerous occasions, tired of the Internet following me around everywhere I go, always on the verge of being mindlessly lured to it. During the short portion of my life when the Internet was stationary, I spent a lot of time sitting at the family computer. I was jealous of my older sister when she got a cellphone. I begged my parents for an iPod Touch, making do for a while with a hand-me-down Samsung that wasn’t connected to a phone number and only worked on WiFi. When I finally got a smartphone in eighth grade, I was congratulated. Yet after a decade of smartphone ownership, I’m unsatisfied. It hasn’t improved my life, it’s made it worse. How much time has been lost to a bottomless feed? How often have I gone to check the weather, but instead open Twitter, browse for ten minutes before ripping myself away and locking the screen, only to return to my physical surroundings and realize that I still don’t know the forecast? ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Gabriel Donahue #philadelphia #technology #smartphones #digitaldetox #flipphone #offline
🏞️ The Fairmount Park Conservancy, Philadelphia’s 🏞️ The Fairmount Park Conservancy, Philadelphia’s largest parks-focused nonprofit, has tread perilous ground over the past several years as it leads one of the largest open space transformations in the city’s recent history: a $250 million overhaul of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park in South Philadelphia. The conservancy has caught flak from some community and advocacy groups that are critical of elements of the plan. As reported in Grid #187, it is just the latest chapter in a long history of controversy over public park management in Philadelphia dating back to colonial times. Despite these circumstances, Anthony Sorrentino, who became chief executive officer of the conservancy in October, is taking a decidedly optimistic — and open — approach to the job. Even before his first day, Sorrentino was waxing poetic and engaging in conversation about Philadelphia’s park system in a LinkedIn post. During an interview with Grid at the conservancy’s West Fairmount Park offices in November 2025, Sorrentino opened with an offer to “call me Tony” and said he planned to serve as a “happy warrior” for Philadelphia’s parks, boosting not only their physical quality but their profile in civic life. “The conservancy is 28, going on 29 years of age, and has been going through its own growth spurts all that time, and I think it’s matured into an organization that’s kind of ready to be more than one or two things,” Sorrentino said, noting that it has traditionally served in a fundraising capacity. “There’s a moment for greater, lower-‘a’ advocacy. That might be the next level of maturity for the organization.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Kyle Bagenstose 📸 Albert Yee #philadelphia #urbannature #urbanparks #phillyparks #fairmountpark #fdrpark
💍 Growing up, Maddy Hirsch wanted two things: to m 💍 Growing up, Maddy Hirsch wanted two things: to make useful things with her hands and to own her own business. Guided by those goals, she enrolled in Temple University’s entrepreneurial studies program, only to feel disillusioned with what she saw as its narrow focus on traditional and tech startups. She transferred to the Tyler School of Art & Architecture, but found it too centered on conceptual art. “I wanted to understand how my work moves through the world on a very physical level,” Hirsch says. “I like making tangible things that people can interact with every day.” Before dropping out of Tyler, she took a jewelry-making class that helped bring her path into focus. Here was a medium that blended art and craft and opened up a feasible avenue toward entrepreneurship. “Making jewelry made perfect sense to me: It’s practical, fun and pretty,” Hirsch notes. “So in 2017, I started working for a jeweler in Philly, and I’ve been doing this ever since.” After a few years working her way up — from running errands on Jewelers’ Row to setting diamonds at a hip-hop jewelry store on South Street — Hirsch opened her own brick-and-mortar shop, Tshatshke Jewelry Studio (Tshatshke is pronounced “CHOTCH-kee”) in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Emily Kovach 📸 Tracie Van Auken #philadelphia #jewelrymaker #jewelryshop #phillyartist #supportlocalartists #supportlocalbusinesses
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ Elkins Park Library Winter Seed Sowing: Join Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership and Penn State Extension Master Gardeners to learn about the importance of native plants and how to grow them ourselves. Attendees will learn how to start seeds outside in containers, protected from wildlife, while also benefiting from the cold temperatures. When: Saturday, February 21st (11:00 AM - 12:30 PM) Where: Elkins Park Free Library 563 Church Road Elkins Park, PA 19027 ➡️ Meeting of the Griots: Join us for an unforgettable intergenerational celebration of story and local history during the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. February 2026 marks the centennial celebration’s theme: “A Century of Black History Commemorations.” Meeting of the Griots Exhibition is a free, family-friendly gathering bringing together elders, youth, artists, scholars, and community members to share stories, preserve heritage, and experience culture and connection. When: Saturday, February 21st (11:00 AM - 3:00 PM) Where: 1501 North Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19121 ➡️ Big Rocks, Big Trees: Some of the biggest Tulip trees in the Wissahickon await you on this 3.5 mile hike using a lesser traveled footpath in the Lower Wissahickon. On the way we will see other Wissahickon iconic landmarks such as Kelpius Cave and 100 Steps. When: Saturday, February 21st (9:00 AM - 11:30 AM) Where: Hermit Lane Trailhead Kiosk 2RG2+44G Philadelphia, PA 19128 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
🍬 Emily Grossman and Alyssa Bonventure, co-owners 🍬 Emily Grossman and Alyssa Bonventure, co-owners of All Aboard Candy, opened their Rittenhouse Square store last June with a clear mission. “If you’re an adult, we want you to feel like a kid again,” says Bonventure. “And if you’re a kid, we want to introduce you to the joy of feeling like a kid in a candy store.” People of a certain age will recall when penny candy stores were as common as convenience stores are today. Luckily for candy lovers of all ages, Grossman and Bonventure believe “candy is having a moment,” in large part thanks to social media. Friends since the sixth grade, the two 30-somethings saw their peers experimenting with cool hobbies when the COVID-19 pandemic began. They brainstormed business ideas, giving jewelry making a try, but found it way too complicated. Then Bonventure remembered a bachelorette party she had attended in New York where the hostess created a “charcuterie” tray of colorful bulk candies. She and Grossman thought they could have fun with the candy board concept and maybe even sell some. Both women grew up in “fun food” households where candy was taboo-free. Grossman’s great-grandmother kept chocolates in her bedside table, and her mother “never went to synagogue without a bag of Haribo gummies in her pocket.” Bonventure, meanwhile, fondly remembers frequenting the Candy Kitchen in Ocean City, Maryland, as a child. Partnering on a candy business just felt right. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Marilyn Anthony 📸 Tracie Van Auken #philadelphia #allaboardcandy #candyshop #candystore #supportlocalbusinesses #shopphilly
📝 Publisher’s Notes: Controlling the Past 📝 Last 📝 Publisher’s Notes: Controlling the Past 📝 Last Thursday, National Park Service employees pried loose the plaques at the slavery exhibit from the President’s House where Judge’s story, and the story of other slaves of our first president, were on display. The exhibit had been there since 2010, but it fell victim to the Trump administration’s goal to have only parts of our history on display. Unfortunately, being patriotic in this country is complicated. Our history includes slavery and our profoundly cruel and barbarous treatment of Native Americans. We aspire to be the land of the free, so examining our roots causes cognitive dissonance. Yet there is no choice but to accept that cruelty is in our creation story. These are the facts. The deluge of lies that comes from our highest office recalls this chilling quote from George Orwell’s character Winston Smith in “1984”: “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past … Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records, and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it.” ➡️ Read the full note from our publisher at gridphilly.com ✍️ Alex Mulcahy #philadelphia #publishersnotes #ushistory #historymatters #environmentaljustice #environmentaljusticematters
🫙 When people walk into SHIFT Sustainable Goods + 🫙 When people walk into SHIFT Sustainable Goods + Services, after the aroma of eucalyptus welcomes them in, they might find themselves looking at the chalkboard and wall of glass jars, feeling like they’ve stepped into a general store from a previous century. But at SHIFT, rather than creating nostalgia, reducing waste and protecting the earth for future generations is the number one goal. Tucked on Haverford Avenue in Narberth, SHIFT is a refillery, where customers can bring their own containers (or purchase one at the store) and buy any of more than fifty liquid household products by weight, such as laundry detergent, deodorant and hand soap. When it comes to the containers customers bring to fill, Eagle and Bezak have seen it all: glass jars, an old whiskey growler — one customer even ran over from a nearby laundromat with a drinking glass, filling it with just enough detergent for their load of laundry. These small, individual choices to avoid buying products packaged in single-use plastics are at the core of SHIFT’s values. “Every shift counts,” Bezak says. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Julia Lowe 📸 Chris Baker Evens #narberth #refillery #refillshop #refillrevolution #zerowaste #wastefree
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ 2nd Hand Circus Scrap Night - Sustainable Love: On the eve of Valentine’s Day, 2nd Hand Circus invites you to fall back in love — with the things that have been left behind. Scrap Night is a curated evening of short circus works made from thrifted, passed-down, recycled, or once-forgotten objects. Eight circus artists each receive (or bring) a secondhand item and transform it into a brand-new act. Think juggling, contortion, aerial, fashion experiments, and delightful curiosity — all sparked by old stuff with a story. When: Friday, February 13th (8:00 PM - 10:30 PM) Where: Thunderbird Hall 2856 Frankford Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19134 ➡️ 2026 Winter-Spring Permaculture Design Course: Come join us for our seventh annual permaculture design course! The permaculture design course, or PDC, is an intensive 72-hour internationally recognized permaculture certification. It’s designed to give participants the inspiration and knowledge they need to make a positive change in the world, needed now more than ever. It will give you the skills necessary to design your home/yard/landscape into an ecologically-resilient edible system, and for some, it could be the first stepping stone to a permaculture career in design, education, consulting, or regenerative farming. When: Saturday, February 14th (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM) Where: Hundred Fruit Farm 1744 Holicong Road New Hope, PA 18938 ➡️ Great Backyard Bird Count: Join experienced, knowledgeable guides from the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club for a birding walk at Laurel Hill East or Laurel Hill West, and learn to identify birds by sound and sight and record them in the Great Backyard Bird Count, an annual global event during which participants around the world record data about local birds to help scientists better understand and protect them. When: Sunday, February 15th (9:00 AM - 11:00 AM) Where: Laurel Hill East 3822 Ridge Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19132 or Laurel Hill West 225 Belmont Avenue Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
🪲 Will you find yourself alone again for Valentine 🪲 Will you find yourself alone again for Valentine’s Day? It can be hard to find the right someone, but you’re not alone. Female oriental cockroaches can also have a hard time finding a mate. But when one gives up on finding a male to settle down with, she moves on to plan B: The female oriental cockroach can reproduce all on her own through the ultimate act of self-love, laying a clutch of eggs that hatch out as her clones. The story of the lonesome cockroach is just one of dozens profiled in Kenneth D. Frank’s “Sex in City Plants, Animals, Fungi, and More: A Guide to Reproductive Diversity,” the second work by the author of “The Ecology of Center City, Philadelphia.” Frank, a naturalist and retired physician who lives in the Fitler Square neighborhood, has long been fascinated by mosses and other diminutive plants that grow between the bricks of his sidewalk. He says the idea for the book came from his study of primitive plants called liverworts. “They’re so tiny, and some require both sexes to produce spores. And you wonder how they get together.” Beyond the natural limitations faced by immobile plants, Frank realized the urban landscape erects other barriers: buildings, roads and fragmented habitats. “It came to me that it would be fun to look at specific organisms and probe into how they do it.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Jared Gruenwald #philadelphia #urbannature #urbanwildlife #wildlifeinthecity #entomology #insects
🌳 Deep inside Fairmount Park, some hardworking dre 🌳 Deep inside Fairmount Park, some hardworking dreamers are changing the way Philadelphia treats, uses and benefits from trees that historically would have been thrown in a dump. The Philadelphia Reforestation Hub, found within the park’s Organic Recycling Center (ORC), is focused on integrated wood waste diversion. Part of its approach to urban forestry management, the hub assesses logs salvaged from across the region — the result of ice and snow, wind, storms and removals for manicured parks — for possible new uses. In 2024, the hub diverted nearly 450 logs from waste piles, milling enough to remove more than 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere. And at least 15% of the proceeds generated from lumber sales that year went to TreePhilly, which plants trees in the city. At the heart of the hub are Carlos Alvarez, director of social enterprise operations, and sawmill operations manager Freddy Ortiz. Together, they have graduated four trainees and taught hundreds of Philadelphia schoolchildren about the social and environmental benefits of saving, using and repurposing fallen trees, while spotlighting best practices for safety and proper tree care. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Daniel Sean Kaye 📸 Tracie Van Auken #philadelphia #fairmountpark #urbannature #reforestation #upcycledwood #wastediversion
🚲 Who rides in Philly? There’s the stereotype: the 🚲 Who rides in Philly? There’s the stereotype: the white, male, hip, young, upwardly mobile cyclist. And then there’s the much more diverse reality: the immigrant e-bike delivery riders, the scooterists, the skateboarders, the kids pedaling their way to school. “We Ride in Philly” is a project, in conjunction with the grassroots bike advocacy organization Philly Bike Action!, to uncover the broader spectrum of micro-mobility users in the city. We set up at a fixed location and talk to whomever will stop to chat. We seek to not only see but to understand: Why do these Philadelphians ride? What dangers do they face on the street? And how do they use the city’s growing network of protected infrastructure? The share of the population that rides in Philadelphia is ultimately pretty small. According to the U.S. Census, about 2% of Philadelphia workers commute by bike. That is, in large part, because many Philadelphians don’t feel comfortable getting around in the city’s current bike lane network. That begs the question: Who else might ride in Philly if we made it safer? ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #bikephilly #bikephl #citybiking #bikesafety #bicyclesafety
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ Black History Month Open House at Founder’s Hall: In honor of Black History Month, join us at our February Open House as we highlight the history of the desegregation of Girard College. Learn about the three generations of Black Philadelphia activists who fought from the 19th century until 1968 for this change, from Nathan Mossel to Raymond and Sadie Alexander to Cecil B. Moore and the Freedom Fighters. Explore the legacy of the the pioneering Girard students of color and the ongoing work of the school today. When: Saturday, February 7th (10:00 AM - 2:00 PM) Where: Founders Hall at Girard College 2101 South College Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19121 ➡️ From Our Hands to History - Celebrating 100 Years of Black Artistry & History: Celebrate Black artistry every Saturday in February at The Movement Philly with artists and makers from across the country. Shop. Celebrate. Support Black creativity. When: Saturday, February 7th (12:00 PM - 6:00 PM) Where: The Movement Philly 7133 Germantown Ave Philadelphia, PA 19119 ➡️ Black History Tour: A tour exploring the Black history and legacy rooted in Fairhill, highlighting stories of resilience, leadership, and community impact. When: Saturday, February 7th (1:00 PM - 2:00 PM) Where: Historic Fair Hill 2901 Germantown Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19133 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
🧵 Cristina De Jong, a master’s student studying te 🧵 Cristina De Jong, a master’s student studying textile engineering at Thomas Jefferson University, is a fervent reader of clothing labels, carefully assessing fiber content before purchasing new garments. “I’ve sort of given myself a reputation among my friends and family,” says De Jong. “I will be your sustainable clothes consultant. Like, tell me if you’re going to buy something and I’ll tell you if this is a good purchase for you or not.” De Jong is president of the Jefferson University chapter of Pennsylvania Fibershed’s 2025-26 student ambassador cohort, an application-based program that operates as an on-campus organization. Alongside five other Jefferson student ambassadors, De Jong is a peer educator on sustainability in textiles and fashion, and helps facilitate on-campus events like clothing swaps and natural dye workshops. The ambassador program, in its first year, also has a chapter of six students at Drexel University, where Pennsylvania Fibershed co-founder Rachel Higgins is a professor of fashion design. Higgins formed Pennsylvania Fibershed with Leslie Davidson in 2023 to strengthen connections across the state’s fiber, textile and fashion industries, building up circular and sustainable supply chains. Educational programming has always been a core component of the nonprofit, which now has its 12 peer educators sharing information about the impacts of fast fashion and overconsumption. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Julia Lowe 📸 Lexy Pierce #philadelphia #pafibershed #textiles #textileindustry #sustainableclothing #sustainablefashion
💧 On Feb. 11, 2025, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz released a 💧 On Feb. 11, 2025, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz released a database of 3,483 National Science Foundation grants that the Senate Commerce Committee, headed by Cruz, described in a press release as “woke DEI grants.” Cruz had previously used the list of grants to prepare an October 2024 report claiming that the Biden administration had politicized science. Buried in the list was a 2022 grant for $449,633 to Drexel University to develop a pilot program to crowdsource stormwater inlet cleaning in flood-prone neighborhoods in Camden, New Jersey. The pilot project survived both its mention in Cruz’s database and the funding chaos of the first year of the Trump administration, but the episode sheds some light on what is at risk as the political winds shift against environmental justice programs, and how these efforts can survive. “We wrote this grant many years ago,” Drexel Engineering professor Franco Montalto says.“What it has turned into is the development of an app that enables crowd sourced inlet cleaning to reduce flooding.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Matthew Bender #camden #stormdrain #stormwater #stormwatermanagement #floodwater #floodprevention
📉 It was going to be transformational. A place for 📉 It was going to be transformational. A place for neighbors to shelter during extreme heat or cold. To receive relief and support after natural disasters. To learn about large forces like climate change and environmental justice and understand how they intersect in this corner of South Philly called Grays Ferry. The building would host teach-ins and green job training and provide a new home for Philly Thrive, the community organization instrumental in shutting down the Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery that had been poisoning the neighborhood for more than a century. The Grays Ferry Resilience Hub, as envisioned by neighborhood resident and Philly Thrive board president Sonya Sanders, was going to be a place where people could come to get their needs met, whether that was food assistance, home repairs or resources to help neighbors advocate for their rights. The hub was to be a central operating location for all of Philly Thrive’s programming — a physical representation of their holistic approach to environmental justice. The staff already had its eyes on the perfect building. Then, with the issuance of a single executive order, their plan went up in smoke. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Sarah Ruiz 📸 Jared Gruenwald #philadelphia #phillythrive #environmentaljustice #environmentaljusticematters #publichealth #climatechange
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