Green Party of Pennsylvania
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 13, 2021
CONTACT:
GPPA Communication Team
Chris Robinson, 267-977-0570 and [email protected]
or
Tina Olson, [email protected]
Walk For Our Grandchildren and Mother Earth, June 20 -- June 28
By Michael Bagdes-Canning.
Like you and all my Green friends, I know that climate change is endangering all future generations, and I am part of a team organizing a major action in June to challenge this outcome, the Walk For Our Grandchildren and Mother Earth. I hope you will consider walking with us. This isn’t just any stroll. We aim to pressure President Biden and his administration to do everything in their power to end fossil fuel extraction and burning, the making of nerdles for the dead-end plastic industry. We want them to transition immediately to renewables, especially wind and solar, energy efficiency and battery storage. We aim to take the fight directly to Biden – the march will start in Scranton, PA, the birthplace of “Scrappy Joe” and end in Wilmington, DE, where he has made his adult home. But “Uncle Joe” is not our only target.
This fight is personal to me. I live in the shalefields of western PA, and the last 10+ years of my life have been consumed by fighting fracking and climate change. This walk will take us from the shalefields of northeastern PA, past fracking waste disposal sites, through many pipeline fights, into environmental justice zones, and then into the corporate wasteland of Wilmington – corporate home to frackers, pipeliners, trash burners, and the dirty banks that fund them (and so much else). And, if you know me, that won’t be the end.
As we all know, President Biden has proposed policies to accomplish these goals. But his Jobs Act is not sufficient. Much bolder action is needed. Our goal can be summarized by the proposal for a Thrive Act, which would invest one trillion dollars per year for the next ten years to build a jobs-creating, justice-based, renewable-energy economy. In the process, we intend to demonstrate that ongoing fossil fuel projects like Dakota Access Pipeline, Line 3 in Minnesota, Mountain Valley Pipeline, and similar projects presently permitted, financed and under construction, must be terminated immediately.
Vaccinated people of all ages are invited to participate and walk with us (those ineligible for vaccination are welcome). On the Summer Solstice and Fathers’ Day, June 20, we will gather and rally in Scranton, PA, where Biden was born and raised. Over the next eight days we will walk and drive to Wilmington, DE, Biden’s long-time residence. Along the way we will meet activists fighting environmental assaults and injustices like the Marcus Hook refinery in Philadelphia, the Gibbstown LNG export facility on the Delaware River in NJ, and a toxic trash incinerator in Chester, PA. On June 28, in Wilmington, we will challenge financing by Chase Bank, the largest U.S. funder of fossil fuels.
Please feel free to contact me so I can share my excitement about this great event and answer any questions you may have,
Thanks, Michael, 724-431-8560, [email protected].
Michael Bagdes-Canning was the 2020 Green Party candidate for PA House District 64. Please follow Michael on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/mike4pa64/; Twitter, https://mobile.twitter.com/bagdescanning; Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/mikebagdescanning; and his website, https://www.mikeforpa64.com/.
The Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA) is an independent political party that 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 visit www.gpofpa.org. Please follow GPPA on social media:
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/,
Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/ and
Twitter, https://twitter.com/GreenPartyofPA.
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