Green Party of Pennsylvania

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, June 17, 2024

CONTACT: 

Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader

215-843-4256 and [email protected]

PA Volunteers Needed for Final Weeks of Green Party Nomination Petitioning 

The Green Party of PA needs 10,000 signatures by July 15 to get their candidates on the ballot. 

If you are NOT currently circulating a nomination paper for the Green Party’s statewide candidates, Jill Stein, Leila Hazou and Richard Weiss, now is the time to jump on board their ballot access campaign. The Green Party needs to finish strong in the next few weeks, and that means recruiting AT LEAST 25 more volunteers to collect valid signatures from registered voters. 

Wherever you are, the Green Party wants you to join in -- but help is especially needed to collect signatures in Berks, Bucks, Lancaster, Montgomery and Westmoreland Counties. 

Sign up here and you will receive detailed instructions.

Questions? Please email directly, [email protected] 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:

Green Party Kicks Off PA Nomination Campaign, GPPA News Release, April 5, 2024,
https://www.gpofpa.org/green_party_kicks_off_pa_nomination_campaign 

END ITEM 

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

Green Party of Pennsylvania

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sunday, April 7, 2024

CONTACT: 

Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader

215-843-4256 and [email protected]

Activists Locked Out by PA Governor

By Doug Mason

Due to PA Governor Josh Shapiro’s stance on climate change many environmentalists were enthusiastic supporters and promoted his 2022 campaign for PA Governor. Now it appears that they have been fooled.

Shapiro claims that he has an open door policy. When two dozen protesters from Pennsylvania Action on Climate (PAC) went to his office in Harrisburg on March 19, the door was locked and surrounded by a dozen capital police and state troopers. PAC had tried to set up a meeting both in person and online with the governor to no avail.

During this attempted office visit, three members of PAC were arrested on the floor of the Capitol building: Rev. Tim Seitz Brown, a Lutheran pastor from York; Rachel “Renzy” Neffshade, a Pittsburgh climate activist; and Doug Mason, chair of the Sierra Club Moshannon Group and of the Green Party of Centre County. The Moshannon Group has 905 members from Pennsylvania’s central counties from Maryland to New York. The Green Party of Centre County is a chapter of the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA, https://www.gpofpa.org). These three leaders were protesting Shapiro’s acceptance of bribes from the fossil fuel industry, despite his claims to be a climate advocate.

The three protestors attempted to read a statement from PAC, but it was ripped out of their hands. They were then handcuffed and taken to the basement of the Capital Complex to be processed. After about two hours, they were released on their own recognizance.

“I’m a 73 year old climate dissident who took the personal risk of acting in civil resistance against state government policies, as well as the business-as-usual activities of industry, economic systems, and individuals that fail to take urgent action to reduce and eliminate carbon dioxide emissions caused by fossil fuel use,” said Mason. “The risks I incur from this action are a small sacrifice compared to the scale and urgency of the threats of climate change to our existence.”

“I claim my right under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to conduct this nonviolent civil disobedience as an expression of my freedom of speech to petition to the government for redress of the extreme and manifest grievance caused by government policies and laws failing to effect carbon dioxide reduction or lacking in the power to enact necessary preventative and remedial actions to reverse the negative effects of carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and to limit fossil fuel extraction and halt the increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that are causing global heating and climate change,” concluded Mason.

The previous few weeks had been contentious between the governor and environmentalists. Maya van Rossum from the Delaware Riverkeeper Network,  concerned about hydrogen hubs, interrupted Shapiro at a Philadelphia union event, and a Dimock resident and disabled veteran, Ray Kemble, challenged him at another union event a few days later in Scranton over lax enforcement and water-supply losses.

Apparently the governor’s “open door” is not for people who are concerned about political corruption, hurt by fracking or want to comment on development of hydrogen hubs in PA. These three issues are connected because it is very likely that the way hydrogen is produced in PA will support the expansion of fracking.

The Green Party of PA, https://www.gpofpa.org, has opposed fracking since 2008, and it continues to represent the environmental movement in elections to this day. The Green Party of PA 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

Pennsylvania Action on Climate, https://www.pennsylvaniaactiononclimate.org

“Climate Activists Trying to Meet with Gov. Shapiro Arrested After Refusing to Disburse,” Patriot News, March 19, 2024, https://www.pennlive.com/politics/2024/03/climate-activists-trying-to-meet-with-gov-shapiro-arrested-after-refusing-to-disperse.html

Marcellus Shale Resolution, Green Party of PA, April 2011, https://www.gpofpa.org/fracking 

END ITEM

Green Party of Pennsylvania

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

CONTACT: 

Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader

215-843-4256 and [email protected]

Have a Green International Women’s Day, March 8

By Marci Henzi (Allegheny)

International Women’s Day (IWD) will be celebrated on Friday, March 8, this year.  But did you know that the first “Women’s Day” (No, not the still famous magazine first published in 1931 as a free leaflet for A&P grocery shoppers, almost exclusively women.) was celebrated on February 28, 1909, and that it was organized by the Socialist Party of America in NY City? Then it caught on throughout Europe, and in 1917, March 8 was declared a national holiday in Russia, right after women gained suffrage. That date stuck, and the day was associated with movements of the far left until the late ‘60’s women’s movement and the day’s adoption by the United Nations in 1977.

Now IWD has become more of a celebration of womanhood in the West, but in other parts of the world it is still marked by protest and calls for radical change. This twenty-first century contrast in meaning and significance has not gone without criticism.  Claims have been made that Western corporations have commercialized International Women’s Day and diluted its meaning. But still, the United Nations declares a yearly theme. This year’s theme is based on the United Nations 68th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) priority theme: “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective,” or simply, “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.”

And did you know that there are colors associated with International Women’s Day? They are purple -- signifying justice, dignity and loyalty to cause; green -- symbolizing hope; and white -- signifying purity. 

Maybe you are thinking of one of the Green Party’s Ten Key Values (TKV). And, I wish you would this IWD!  Here it is, TKV # 7: Feminism and Gender Equality.

“We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics.  We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as gender equality, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We recognize that the processes of determining our decisions and actions are just as important as achieving the outcomes we want.”

Please consider the intersection of TKV #7 and TKV #3: Ecological Wisdom through Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens by Greta Gaard, https://tupress.temple.edu/books/ecological-politics

Hoping you remember to have a Green International Women’s Day! 

Marci Henzi has been a Green Party of Allegheny County (GPOAC) delegate to the Green Party of Pennsylvania State Committee since 2019. In the past, she was also a member of the GPOAC Executive Committee.

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:

International Women’s Day, March 8, United Nations,
https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day

Green Party Ten Key Values, Green Party of Allegheny County,
https://www.alleghenygreens.org/about/ten-key-values

Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens by Greta Gaard, Temple University Press, 1998, https://tupress.temple.edu/books/ecological-politics

END ITEM

Green Party of Pennsylvania

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sunday, December 17, 2023

CONTACT: 

Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader

215-843-4256 and [email protected]

Green Party To Add Delegates to PA State Committee

At the State Committee meeting of the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA, www.gpofpa.org) on November 12, the 30 elected delegates voted by consensus to change the Rules (think “by-laws”) of the party to include more elected delegates from unorganized parts of the Commonwealth. Before this vote, around thirty percent of the GPPA’s 10,000 registered members lived in unorganized counties.

GPPA Co-Chair Jeremy Griffin (Delaware), explained, “The main reason this amendment had to be passed was to insure that we give a voice to unorganized Greens, no matter in which county they live. The amendment was discussed and approved by the Steering Committee, and I believe it will strengthen the GPPA’s democratic process at the state level.”

Green Party of Lancaster County Chair Tim Runkle, said: “The GPPA State Committee is both the governing body of the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA) and the representation of Greens across our Commonwealth. Our Green Party rules had been built in a way which ensures local representation through organized county committees. The rules, however, have failed to provide the vast unorganized areas of the Commonwealth a voice on the State Committee. The rule change proposed by the delegation from Lancaster County intended to resolve that issue as well as to preserve the intent of local representation. This change permits any registered Green in PA to participate in the State Committee while holding true the Green Party's Four Pillars of grassroots democracy and the Ten Key Values of decentralization.”

GPPA Communication Team Co-chair Chris Robinson (Philadelphia) predicted, "This will be the first step in building new Green Party Chapters in our Commonwealth's 50 unorganized counties. With a presidential election in 2024, it will be important to give a voice to every Green Party member."

The Rules of the Green Party of Pennsylvania, Rule II State Committee, Section 2.b)  has been amended to read:

“All State Committee members shall be elected as determined by the rules of the County Committee of the county of their residence to one year terms, or a part thereof. Registered Greens who have no organized County Committee in their county of residence shall be elected by the State Committee during the first meeting of the calendar year. The number of members permitted for unorganized County members shall be no more than two per county.” 

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 Please see:

Ten Key Values, Green Party of the U.S., https://www.gp.org/ten_key_values 

The Rules of the Green Party of Pennsylvania, https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1G4U0TsI0fzoQY4akq4TeRpsMmE9XQcIh 

END ITEM

Working toward a future where people and planet are valued, and our government represents all of us.

September 2022

PA Greens File Nomination Petitions to Put Fracking, Healthcare, More on the Ballot

On Monday, August 1, the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA, https://www.gpofpa.org/) filed more than 500 petitions containing thousands of signatures from registered voters from across the state to qualify five candidates for ballot access in the November 2022 general election. This will put critical issues like fracking, climate change, healthcare, criminal justice modernization, corruption in government, and voting reforms on the ballot, giving voters a starkly different political vision than offered by Republicans and Democrats.

The Green Party candidates include Christina "PK" DiGiulio for PA Governor, Michael Bagdes-Canning for PA Lieutenant Governor, Richard L. Weiss for U.S. Senator, Jay Ting Walker for PA Representative District 23, and Queonia "Zarah" Livingston for PA Representative District 32.

These Green Party candidates call for a statewide ban on fracking; a just transition for workers and families to a renewable energy green economy to address climate change; a single-payer healthcare system that protects and expands abortion rights; decriminalization of cannabis and an end to cash bail; a gift ban to address legislative corruption; ranked choice voting and proportional representation for fair elections that end gerrymandering and better reflect constituencies; and more. Read the complete release here. 

More information about the candidates and the full GPPA platform is available at https://www.greenslate2022.com/

PA Green News

By Chris Robinson

PA Green Party Calls for Community Based Economics

By Treasurer Joseph U. Murray, Green Party of Berks County

Housing, food and utilities are the basics for a human life. Yet in a nation with a $25 trillion economy, homelessness, hunger and poverty are steadily increasing as a recent letter from Habitat for Humanity stated: “17% of children in your home state of PA are living in poverty . . . . Secure housing provides a pathway to financial stability, safety for children and a healthy environment in which whole families can thrive.”

I paraphrased Habitat’s letter. They referred to home ownership, but the same applies to safe, affordable decent rental housing. The Green Party Platform warns, “State governments continue to weaken or preempt local rent control laws, while landlords who violate housing code requirements by failing to keep their property in habitable condition, are often tolerated or given lenient penalties. Housing discrimination also remains rampant against people of color, immigrants, disabled, single people, gays and lesbians, and families with children . . . .” 

Behind this lies record profits for the oil and gas industries and cash flows for the private equity firms that snapped up foreclosed homes after the Wall Street-caused financial crash of 2008. Since that time those same financial corporations have been buying rental housing from small landlords in hot markets and jacking up rents while evicting rent-subsidized tenants to maximize investment returns . . . . 

This system is fully supported by the Democratic and Republican Parties which are the political franchise of the Wall Street powers. They will tell you it’s the best system for the majority and those who don’t benefit from it are at fault. This is a well proven lie by our own history, by the results of the GI Bill and VA mortgages which were established after WW II veterans fought politically for them here at home.

The Green Party has a different vision of how our society should work. Compare our existing system to this Green Party Key Value:

COMMUNITY BASED ECONOMICS

“[The Green Party supports] redesigning our work structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy. We support developing new economic activities and institutions that allow us to use technology in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological and responsive and accountable to communities. We support establishing a basic form of economic security open to all. We call for moving the narrow ‘job ethic’ to new definitions of work, jobs and income in a cooperative and democratic economy. We support restructuring our patterns of income distribution to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal monetary economy – those who take responsibility for parenting, housekeeping, home gardens, community volunteer work and the like. We support restricting the size and concentrated power of corporations without discouraging superior efficiency or technological innovation.”

The Green Party Platform calls for renter/tenant’s rights, publicly elected local rent control boards, promotion of affordable housing policy as a national priority, and vigorous enforcement of fair housing laws. The focus of Green Party values is community, humanity and the Earth that sustains all life. If we continue with the present system of politics and economics you will witness human civilization devour itself and the Earth leaving only the mocking cries of scavengers as our legacy of existence. Story Here  

 Campaign Updates

Edited by Chris Robinson

GENERAL ELECTION, November 8
The following Green Party candidates will be on the 2022 General Election Ballot.

Christina “PK” DiGiulio (Chester County) for Governor of Pennsylvania
Michael Bagdes-Canning (Butler County) for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania  

PA Green Gubernatorial Candidates Say “End Legalized Bribery!”

The Harrisburg Four were arrested inside the PA Capitol on June 13. They appeared in magisterial court on August 9, including Green Party candidate for PA Lt Governor Michael Bagdes-Canning. The Four were in the Capitol, appealing to all 203 members of the PA House of Representatives to support a gift ban. The Gift Ban, HB 1214, is a bill to ban lobbyist gifts to legislators. It has been supported by a number of organizations including March on Harrisburg and the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA, www.gpofpa.org).

All of the defendants used a necessity defense and were found not guilty of various charges including criminal trespass. The defendants’ arguments included citing a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which compiled the scientific findings from thousands of studies around the world.  The report made a stark case that climate change is accelerating, is caused by human development, and can only be halted by a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and carbon-intensive industry.

"The IPCC lays out the case for urgent action clearly in their recent report on climate change, and we're glad Judge O’Leary agreed," said Bagdes-Canning. "We're calling on all elected officials and candidates this year to pledge to uphold Article 1, Section 27, of the Pennsylvania Constitution demanding that we protect the environment for future generations, instead of taking lobbying gifts – sometimes called 'bribes' -- from fossil fuel companies which are destroying that future . . . .” 

"I find it disgusting that corruption is effectively legal in PA," said Green Party candidate for PA Governor Christina DiGiulio. "I support the Harrisburg Four's message. When elected PA Governor, I pledge to support a lobbying gift ban and to refuse bribes from lobbyists, especially fossil fuel interests. I promise to fight for a just transition that bans fracking statewide, while making sure no worker or family is left behind. I call on all candidates for PA Governor this year to make the same pledge and to declare a climate emergency," DiGiulio added. "Climate action cannot wait. We must act now." Story Here

It’s Time to Fix Things

Michael Bagdes-Canning (Butler County) for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania

...It sometimes seems to me that things are impossibly broken. The climate fight seems lost. The Supreme Court has rolled back protections for women, the environment, and voting rights. We’re in yet another war. It seems that there is a mass shooting every week. Our prisons are filled. We are faced with a housing crisis, a crisis at our border, and the pandemic still rolls on. There seems to be no way out of this, and many have given up . . . 

While organizing to stop fracking and climate change, one of the epiphanies I had occurred when I was working with folks in the struggle against mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining in WV. One of their organizers said, “You know, we’re fighting the same monster, it just has many heads.” When I looked around, I noticed that not only were fracking, climate, and MTR related, but the monster also had its dirty hands in crushing unions, destroying local economies, pitting people against people in another region. Once I saw that, I knew that the monster was also pitting us against each other

Running for PA Lt. Governor has given me another way to bring many movements together. I’ve come to believe that just showing up for each other is not enough. It is important for us each to see where our struggles intersect. We also have to overcome the divisions that artificially keep us apart. We have to come to know each other. I’ve seen this play out. My friends in the Green Party of Allegheny County (GPOAC) have done an amazing job of building the Green Party but also making connections with front-line struggles. GPOAC consistently shows up, and they get to know people who oppose injustice. They have helped build bridges between groups. They are a great example of what building strength looks like . . . 

We need to build solidarity across fights. We need to recognize that we are often fighting different heads of the same monster. That’s what my run for PA Lt. Governor is all about. I want to build bridges between the many organizations which oppose injustice. There’s lots that is broken. It is now time for us to fix things . . . Story Here

Richard L. Weiss, Esq. (Allegheny County) for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania 

Richard told GREEN STAR, “The U.S. has a higher incarceration rate than any other country in the world.  Conditions in prisons are human rights violations, with overcrowding and inadequate food and healthcare.  Prisoners are preyed upon with unreasonable charges to buy their own food and communicate with their family.  Many inmates of local jails are held without being convicted of any crime solely because they do not have enough money to pay cash bail.  Decriminalizing cannabis would have an immediate effect on reducing prison and jail populations. All current prisoners and inmates serving time solely for cannabis charges should be released and all past criminal records from cannabis convictions expunged.”

You may volunteer to get Richard on the ballot at[email protected].
You may follow Richard’s campaign here, Twitter: @RichardLWeiss. 

Jay Ting Walker (Allegheny County) for PA House District 23
      

 Zarah Livingston (Allegheny County) for PA House District 32

‌National ‌Green‌ ‌News

Edited by Noah Alter

2022 Inflation Reduction Act Capitalizes on a World in Crisis

Last month, news media outlets across the U.S. and globe boasted of the ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ which according to mainstream headlines, targets climate change; ever-increasing medical expenses, namely senior citizens’ medicine on Medicare; the creation of an abysmal 15% corporate tax rate; and an asinine multi-billion-dollar IRS investment, enabling the federal agency to hire nearly 87,000 agents over the course of the next decade.

 The name given to this piece of legislation is extremely illusory, and it does not address the pressing issues at hand, particularly the global climate emergency. Rather the legislation furthers climate change . . . . In response to the legislation, the Green Party of the United States warned that the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act overtly allows corporations to capitalize on a global crisis by expanding massive new oil and gas leasing in disproportionately impacted minority communities.

 This "climate deal" provides a relatively small number of renewable investments and further subsidizes oil, nuclear, natural gas, and carbon capture while requiring the U.S. Department of the Interior to offer at least 2 million acres of public lands and 60 million acres of offshore waters for oil and gas leasing each year. The bill also does not address the essential phase out of fossil fuels (i.e., coal). We must demand transparency within our government to ensure they put us, the people, and our planet before profit.

 President Biden and Congress have the moral obligation to immediately declare a climate emergency and pass effective, comprehensive climate change legislation, including a rapid ten-year transition to real zero emissions and 100% clean renewable energy. Moreover, Biden and Congress must urgently address inflation and the developing recession by passing legislation that benefits the working class of this country as it does not require 87,000 IRS agents to audit roughly 788 billionaires. Story Here

Global Green News

Edited by Hal Brown

Green Party of U.K. Demands Action on Rising Air Pollution

The UK Green Party is asking for more investment in public transport as well as walking and cycling infrastructure. They also demand to implement the so-called Clean Air Zones, published in 2017 to address all sources of pollution and reduce public exposure to them. These strategies should accelerate the transition to a low emission economy, by setting emission standards and minimum requirements . . . Story Here

Italy: Snap Elections Push The Italian Greens To Find New Partners

 Italian President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament and announced new snap elections that will take place on September 25. This comes as Italy’s main coalition collapsed, pushing the Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, to resign . . . .
The far-right in Italy is often associated with climate skepticism and preserving the status quo. Their ascension to power might threaten Italy and the European Union’s ability to face the climate crisis just as the continent faces record-breaking heat waves and wildfires . . . 
To counter the powerful right-wing coalition, the greens propose an alternative urging left-wing parties to form their partnership. “To put social justice and climate justice at the center,” the Italian Greens announced an alliance with Sinistra Italia (Italian Left), a small left-wing party with minor to moderate success in the country . . .Story Here

DR Congo: Plastic Pollution Causes Water Cuts

Thousands of bottles, cans and other rubbish thrown into Lake Kivu caused the shutdown of the Ruzizi dam facilities near the city of Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), thus causing power cuts in several localities . . . .
It is extremely difficult to clean the thousands of plastic bottles and other debris which are attracted to the Ruzizi River dam at the end of the lake, which stretches over 90 km on the border between the DRC and Rwanda.
“All the waste we throw into the lake or the river ends up here, regardless of where it was thrown. Even in Goma, the waste dumped there is only a matter of time. As the lake flows towards the Ruzizi River, little by little, the waste comes and in the end, it will end up here,” notes Liévin Chizungu . . . Story Here

Asia-Pacific Greens Federation Support The People Of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has been in a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis because of President Gotabaya (Gota) Rajapaksa‘s mismanagement of the country. In May, Sri Lanka defaulted on foreign debt for the first time since their independence. This has created shortages of goods, sky-rocketed inflation, and pushed millions of people into poverty . . .. The people of Sri Lanka still want to see the new President step down. Wickremesinghe was installed by Rajapaksa and remains very close to his family. . .
On July 18, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency, giving security forces the power to arrest and detain any protester without probable cause. Next, the day after his inauguration, he continued the fight against protesters by sending the police and the military to disperse a peaceful protest site . . . 
The NGO Human Rights Watch as well as the Asia Pacific Greens Federation (APGF) urges the new president to listen to what his people want. Their non-violent protests show that they want to do no harm, but simply to have a democratic state with better living conditions. The APGF stands in support of the people of Sri Lanka. There is change to be brought to the country, and they are at the heart of it. Story Here

GPPA Meeting Dates for 2022

All State Web Conferences will be 12 noon to 4pm.

September's meeting will be in-person in Bellefonte, PA.

You can now register for the September meeting Here

• Saturday, September 10, and
• Sunday, November 13

Green Party of Pennsylvania

Communications Team

Issue Credits:

Editors: Noah Alter, Hal Brown, and Chris Robinson

Contributors: Michael Badges-Canning, Christine "PK" DiGuilio, Joseph O. Murray, and Chris Robinson

Layout: Hal Brown, Sherri Miller, and David Ochmanowicz Jr.

Graphic Arts: Kevin Richardson

     

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The GREEN STAR is an official publication of the Green Party of Pennsylvania Communications Team * 2022.

Pennsylvania Green Party candidates: "It's worth the effort"

Posted by David Ochmanowicz · November 23, 2024 2:54 PM

The Time Has Come

Posted by David Ochmanowicz · September 30, 2024 10:16 PM

8/25 Bensalem, PA - Dr. Jill Stein & Dr. Butch Ware Meet & Greet Fundraiser

Posted by David Ochmanowicz · August 23, 2024 6:34 PM

 For Immediate Release

September 25, 2015

Contacts:

Jay Sweeney [email protected]

570-587-3603

David F. Ochmanowicz Jr.  [email protected]

GPPA welcomes Pope Francis to Pennsylvania

The Green Party of Pennsylvania welcomes His Holiness Pope Francis to our beloved Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. His much-anticipated visit to Philadelphia is a joy to so many.

In Pope Francis’s recent encyclical about climate change and the environment, Laudato Si’ (Praise Be to You), he has shown his passion to live up to his adopted papal name Francis, after the Christian patron saint of animals and the environment.  

“Pope Francis shares many of the The Green Party of Pennsylvania’s values.” said GPPA Chair Jay Sweeney.   “He is outspoken on social justice, environmental and economic issues that our party has been equally outraged over”, Sweeney concluded.

“Pope Francis’s encouraging words and efforts to address climate change, his implicit opposition to fracking, his care and respect for people of all nations and his criticism of the ‘cheerful recklessness’ of pure unregulated capitalism show that we share mutual goals in these important areas”, said GPPA Steering Committee member David Ochmanowicz Jr.

The Green Party of Pennsylvania is an independent political party that stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. The Green Party of Pennsylvania stands for grassroots democracy, social justice, non-violence and ecological wisdom.