PA Greens Oppose Tree-cutting in Philadelphia Park
Green Party of Pennsylvania
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 10, 2024
CONTACT:
Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader
215-843-4256 and [email protected]
PA Greens Oppose Tree-cutting in Philadelphia Park
On May 5, the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA) Steering Committee endorsed a public letter to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker requesting that she end the slaughter of heritage trees in Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park. As chainsaw crews level acres of trees in the Park, regional and state organizations, along with environmental experts, convened at the site and delivered a message urging Mayor Cherelle Parker to intervene before the Fairmount Park Conservancy clear-cuts and fills a natural floodplain.
GPPA Steering Committee Member Alex Casper said, “The City of Philadelphia is tearing down 441 trees at FDR Park. Many of them are heritage trees, sacred to the Lenni Lenape people. The city wants to make room for 16 artificial-turf soccer fields to host the FIFA World Cup.” Casper continued, “I myself go bird watching at FDR Park ever since I used to live in Point Breeze. The meadows and habitats within them are home to red-winged black birds, gray catbirds, red cardinals, tree swallows, etc. Destroying these habitats takes away a vital home for wildlife. I have urged our state and local Green Parties to sign on to the demand that the Mayor protect these sacred trees and our cities best habitats.”
Green Party of Philadelphia (GPOP) Co-chair Belinda Davis said, “All aside from the public's recreational enjoyment, it is hard to see how this is consistent with the city's climate goals, of which the Mayor has made so much.”
The organizations which have requested the intervention of Mayor Parker include: Clean Air Council, Clean Water Action, EnviroPhilly, Green Party of Philadelphia, Green Party of Pennsylvania, LandHealth Institute, Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, Monarch Defenders, Save The Meadows, SEAMAAC Inc., Sunrise Movement Philadelphia, PennEnvironment, Philly DSA, Philly Thrive, and Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania.
“I am glad that the Green Party has joined the coalition of environmental organizations (and a petition from more than 3,000 citizens),” said GPPA Communication Team Co-leader Chris Robinson. “Ecological Wisdom is one of the four Green Party Pillars, and the Green Party Platform calls for a Green New Deal, which includes, ‘creating a federal program . . . for carbon sequestration to fund local public initiatives [to] plant trees, reforest and afforest public lands.’ Unfortunately, the interests of the two corporate parties lie elsewhere.”
The Green Party of PA, https://www.gpofpa.org, is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please email [email protected]. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/; and Twitter, https://twitter.com/GreenPartyofPA.
For more information:
Joint News Release about FDR Park, May 6, 2024,
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_9hH7ASvTgGAKoNQamYvgJmwXZWtHvFn56mkqnkO3dI/edit
Our Ten Key Values, Green Party of the U.S.,
https://www.gp.org/ten_key_values
Platform of the Green Party of the U.S., III. Ecological Sustainability, A. Climate Change, Economic Bill of Rights, GREEN SOLUTIONS, 7. Carbon Sequestration Using Ecological Restoration, https://www.gp.org/ecological_sustainability#carbon
END ITEM
Mozambican Liberation Day and Green Party Ecological Wisdom
Sunday, October 8, 2023
|
I am truly honored to be speaking to you today, among such distinguished guests. In the name of the Green Party of Philadelphia (www.gpop.org), I want to welcome the ambassador of Mozambique, members of the consulate, and the other dignitaries who have come to join in this flag-raising.
We know the green in the flag stands for the gifts of nature and living in harmony with it, and that is what we too are about, as Greens. We are here in the interests of friendship and building on that friendship in peace and justice. I have been asked to talk briefly about Ecological Wisdom, one of the Green Party’s four pillars, and connected with the messages of the Partido os Verdes de Moçambique and the Ecological Party of Mozambique.
I believe, as an historian as well as chair of the Green Party of Philadelphia, that it is especially important for those in the U.S. and the global north generally to recognize the historical and the ongoing ecological damage rendered out of all proportion in the global south, including and even especially in Mozambique. Friends don't let friends contend alone with destructive droughts and related fires. Friends don't cause friends to confront catastrophic floods and cyclones, with their devastating immediate and also cumulative effects.
Aside from exponential increases in the spread of disease that can be linked to climate change, there are now already extremely serious deficiencies in the availability of surface water, despite the country’s many rivers, and the intrusion of saltwater deep into the country. Average temperatures are quickly climbing, especially in the southern and central regions, challenging the survivability for people, animals, and plants alike, even as conditions have paradoxically caused an astronomic increase in fossil fuel consumption from the mid-‘90s to present.
These conditions also deeply threaten relations with Mozambique’s neighbors, such as Zimbabwe and Zambia, while at the same time foreboding a crisis of climate refugees. Even in moments as celebratory as the present one, we need to all take action to halt further climate change, as well as to deal equitably with its already drastic effects in Mozambique as in the U.S., and across the world in the spirit of friendship and peace.
We are one planet. We are here to celebrate and build on relations. Building those relations means knowing one another better. I look forward to learning more about the vibrant nation of Mozambique today - - including what we can learn from Mozambicans about ecological wisdom. Thank you!
Belinda Davis (Mount Airy) has been chair of the Green Party of Philadelphia since 2019.
The Green Party of Philadelphia (GPOP, www.gpop.org) is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPOP candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPOP, please follow GPOP on social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
For more Information:
END ITEM
|