Conservationist of the Year - Lynda Schneekloth

By David Kowalski
Conservation Committee Member
Adirondack Mountain Club - Niagara Frontier Chapter (ADK-NFC)

The ADK-NFC Conservation Committee honored Lynda Schneekloth with the “Conservationist of the Year” award at the Chapter's Annual Meeting and Picnic on Saturday, June 11, 2016.

Lynda Schneekloth was a founder of the Friends of the Buffalo River, which later became Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. She continues to serve as a Board member to this day.  She also serves as Advocacy Chair of the Western New York Environmental Alliance, and is Professor Emerita of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo. Lynda recently completed two terms as chairwoman of the Sierra Club Niagara Group. In her various leadership roles, she is frequently sought out by news media to comment on environmental issues.

In 2015, Lynda Schneekloth took the local lead in the global fight against climate change, initially enlisting help of Sierra Club members. It was a seminal year for climate action. In June, Pope Francis published an Encyclical letter addressed to all people about climate change and the injustices it creates. In December, the U.N. International Conference on Climate Change was slated to take place in Paris.

Building on the Pope's powerful messages, and in preparation for the Paris talks, Lynda wanted to raise awareness about the urgency to address global warming pollution and climate change, and the need for a justice-based transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.

Lynda Schneekloth led the effort to create a Western NY campaign called Rise Up for Climate Justice. What was new and different about the campaign was that it was not targeted exclusively to environmentalists. It was for everyone, since climate affects everybody and everything. The campaign successfully engaged not only environmentalists, but also faith groups, indigenous peoples, students, unions, artists, social/economic justice groups and politicians.

Representatives of all of these diverse groups spoke at, and participated in, a Rally for Climate Justice held in Niagara Square. About 400 people attended the rally. 60 organizations, unions and churches as well as over 2300 people signed a Climate Justice Pledge calling for bold climate action by elected officials and all people.

Lynda wanted to send the pledges to the U.N. Climate Conference in Paris. She arranged to have the names of signatories printed on a continuous paper roll. With the help of a shortened curtain rod, Lynda made and attractive metal scroll. When unwound, the paper was 42 feet long!

So how would the scroll get to Paris, get inside the high-security Climate Conference, and into the hands of someone who mattered? Well, Lynda is a professional planner. At a ceremonial Gathering of 200 people, Lynda presented the scroll to UB Law students who happened to be going to the Paris Climate Conference with their professor. They brought the scroll into the Conference, and somehow connected with the Executive Director of the National Sierra Club. The students told him about the significance of the scroll and the diversity of pledge signers. The Executive Director accepted the scroll and said, "This is how we will win."

Minutes after receiving the scroll from the representatives of Buffalo, the Sierra Club Executive Director was slated to meet with John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State and top climate conference negotiator, to convey to the U.S. Delegation the hopes of the American people. And because of Lynda's scroll and her leadership, the voices of Western New Yorkers were heard in Paris!

The Paris talks were successful in that over 190 nations agreed that it was time to take action in order cut global warming pollution. The Rise Up for Climate Justice campaign ended in 2015, but much more work needed to be done to fight climate change. The campaign evolved into a coalition, which includes members of the diverse groups cited above. In 2016, Lynda took on the leadership of the new coalition, the Climate Justice Coalition of WNY.

The 2016 Conservationist of the Year Award was presented to Lynda Schneekloth on behalf of the Adirondack Mountain Club - Niagara Frontier Chapter for:

"Conceiving and executing a successful campaign that inspired diverse groups of people to call for action on climate change and for a just transition to renewable energy, and her ongoing leadership of the Climate Justice Coalition of Western New York."

About the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK-NFC): ADK-NFC, with some 1000 local members, subscribes to and supports the mission of The ADK, both in the Adirondack Forest Preserve and in Western New York including Allegany State Park. Components of the mission include conservation, advocacy, recreation, education and stewardship. Join us to support this mission and to share our joy and knowledge of outdoor activities. Visit our website at ADK-NFC.org

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Elon Musk, Tesla Motors CEO, breaks down climate change for students at The Sorbonne in Paris right before the historic Climate Change Conference in which over 190 nations agreed to reduce global warming emissions to keep the global average temperature increase below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) relative to pre-industrial temperatures.

What will it take to address the Climate Crisis? Watch the 12 minute video for Elon Musk's view:

Looking Back: Paris, Pope and WNY Rise Up for Climate Justice Campaign

RISE UP FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE CAMPAIGN  

September to December 2015 

By Lynda Schneekloth, 
Sierra Club Niagara Group

December 2015 will be remembered as a significant time for the history of the world and the Earth. Over 190 countries, from the U.S. and China to the small island nations, sat together in U.N. Paris Climate Talks (COP21) to develop an agreement about a global address to the increasingly dangerous climate crisis. The people of Western New York had been preparing for four months for this meeting through the Rise Up for Climate Justice Campaign, sponsoring and attending gatherings, rallies, vigils, films, presentations and a community fast. We knew how important these meetings were and we had sent our message to the world leaders demanding a just and sane agreement. 

This campaign began In August 2015, as the Sierra Club Niagara Group was discussing the shift in the world’s imagination and actions on climate change. Pope Francis had released Laudato Si, On Care for our Common Home and its impact has been felt across the world. And the U.N. Climate Talks (COP21) were already in process with individual nations preparing their “Intended Nationally Determined Contribution” (INDC) that is, how much they would cut the emissions. 

What could we do in Western New York to make people aware of the urgency of immediately addressing climate change? How could we reinforce a conversation in our region about the moral imperative to stop burning fossil fuels and transition to clean energy? How could we manage this energy transformation in a democratic manner? From these questions, the Rise up for Climate Justice Campaign was born. Are you for Climate Justice (RU4CJ)? The Niagara Group made a commitment to spend some of our limited funds to support this effort and developed some aspirational goals for the work we had set for ourselves. 

We set out to raise awareness of the upcoming Paris Climate talks – a specific and time constrained objective. We organized public events for education and urged our elected leaders and institutions to push for ethical action from Washington. We used a “Climate Justice Pledge” to open the conversation and to give people an opportunity to take action about the Paris Climate Talks through collective and individual commitments. The Pledge had three aspects: We call on President Obama and the U.S. to lead the world in cutting greenhouse gas emissions; We call on our state and local leaders to take climate action through a just transition; and we call on each of us to take action on behalf of the Earth and future generations. 

The three months leading up to the Paris talks were intense for members of our Executive Committee and the Climate Justice Coalition that emerged. We used the insights of the NY City People’s Climate March (Sept. 2014) and our own local experience to build a diverse and large coalition. We formed a strong relationship with faith groups and together helped organize the Interfaith Climate Justice Community. The Catholic sisters, Creation Care and Network of Religious Communities were the leaders of this sector and together we began our campaign with a Prayer Vigil on Sept. 1, called by Pope Francis as the “World Day of Prayer for the Creation.” 

We contacted our brothers and sisters in labor and shared conversations about the ways in which this energy transformation was going to impact their working lives. The Western New York Environmental Alliance, a coalition of over 100 environmental groups, stepped up and agreed to use their annual Congress on the topic of Climate Justice. The coalition for social/economic justice groups -- Partnership for the Public Good and Open Buffalo -- worked with us and helped engage their members. And the University at Buffalo Law School played an important role through two seminars, including one in which students and faculty member, Jessica Owley, would actually travel to Paris for the talks. 

One of our initial acts was to contact the City of Buffalo Common Council President, Darius Pridgen. We asked for and received a resolution on Climate Justice unanimously endorsed by all member. Council President Pridgen opened our first rally in front of City Hall in Niagara Square with a fiery talk on the necessity of ‘justice’ in action on climate change. The rally was held on September 24, 2015 in support of Pope Francis’ U.S. visit and his address to Congress. 

Rally in Niagara Square [Click to enlarge] Photo: Nate Schneekloth

Whenever possible, we crafted our events to reinforce state and worldwide climate actions to involve our community in the global climate justice movement. 

Between September 1 and December 19, 2015, seventeen different organizations of the coalition held events focused on climate justice: films, presentations and panel discussion, public hearings, hikes and bike rides, art showings and a “Party for the Climate.” The RU4CJ coalition itself assumed responsibility for four major events: the Rise Up for Climate Justice Rally on September 24 with over 400 people attending; a ‘thunderclap’ on the Oct. 10 Day of Action that reached over 73,000 people; The Gathering, a ritual gathering of over 200 people to speak to our concerns and hopes about the Paris talks held on 11/28 as a part of world actions at the eve of the Climate Talks; and on 12/19, Report from Paris where we met with those from our community who attended the COP21 Paris Climate Talks and heard their words of insight, and yes, hope. 

Being hopeful is not to say the agreement is what we had hoped for; the agreement is not nearly enough as it doesn’t even reach the standards set by the former Kyoto Agreement. In fact, if all of the pledges agreed to by nations in Paris are strictly met, the Earth will still experience catastrophic climate change as it will only limit global warming to 3.5 degrees C (6.3 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels by the year 2100. This level of warming would result in injustice throughout the world, with the most vulnerable the most impacted, and would leave a devastated planet for our descendants. One of the reasons there is no legal binding agreement is because it is known that the U.S. Congress would never sign such an agreement, a great sadness to all of us living in this country. What is hopeful is that all the nations of the Earth did come an agreement about action; they even identified an aspirational goal of 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels; they agreed to a review country goals in five years instead of ten, and agreed to annually report action toward their pledge. They have established a framework for action, this is the good news. 

These leaders tried and most of them engaged with a great sense of purpose. We are, after all, the first generation to really understand the catastrophic impacts of global climate change, and we are also, perhaps, the last generation to do something about it. But the negotiators could not step out of their role as heads of state to understand that we, together, share this planet. There will be no winners if we don’t all win. So we, the people, must lead: we must create a massive, global climate justice movement so overwhelming that they cannot help but act. This must be addressed at the international level but must work deeply into cities and regions. This is where most humans live, have the power to take action themselves, and the forum to impact our leaders. Regions like Buffalo Niagara can and should lead the way. 

Computer analysis of the text in the Buffalo News article “UB law students to attend climate conference - Two to present scroll of local pledges in Paris.” Size of the words reflects frequency of citation in the article. [Click Image to enlarge] Image: D. Kowalski

And our Climate Justice Pledge? We gathered over 2000 signatures from our community, 60 organizations, unions and churches, and 20 elected officials. We put these names on a scroll that measured 42’ when opened. The scroll was carried to Paris by UB Law students, presented to Michael Brune, head of the Sierra Club in a small ceremony, and in turn, Brune delivered our pledge to John Kerry, Secretary of State of the United States. Our call to President Obama was taken to the talks and the voices of Western New Yorkers concerned with the necessity of immediate action on climate change and climate justice was heard. 

The Rise Up for Climate Justice Campaign is over, the U.N. Climate Paris Talks are over. But the work is just beginning. Join us as we initiate next steps in our local and regional communities to cut greenhouse gas emissions, to increase ‘carbon negative’ actions, and to ensure that this energy transformation is embedded in a just transition and promotes energy democracy. 

Stay involved – Get involved! 

Link to the Buffalo News article: UB law students to attend climate conference - Two to present scroll of local pledges in Paris

For more information, see: niagarasierraclub.com; RiseUpforClimateJustice; Twitter.com/RU4CJBuffalo 

Funded in part by a grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and the Sierra Club Niagara Group; Communication Workers of America Int’l; United Auto Workers 9; Buffalo Teachers Federation; Peace Education Fund; Western New York Environmental Alliance. 

With support from The Interfaith Climate Justice Community; Network of Religious Communities; PUSH; Buffalo Zen Dharma Community; Working Families Party; ADK; WNY Peace Center; Western New York Land Conservancy; Partnership for the Public Good, PUSH, Open Buffalo.

Local Plea for Climate Justice was Heard at Paris Talks

UB Law students presented WNY climate pledge 
to national figure

By David Kowalski

The Rise Up For Climate Justice Campaign of Western NY created a pledge calling on President Obama and U.S. negotiators in Paris to make bold cuts in global warming pollution and to ensure justice for communities and workers during the necessary shift from dirty fossil fuels to clean energy sources. 

The campaign succeeded in outreach efforts to diverse groups of people and organizations in WNY and asked them to endorse the Climate Justice Pledge. Signatories included people of different faith groups, labor unions, students, people of color, indigenous peoples, teachers, community activists, environmentalists, artists, performers and local politicians.

Following a well-attended September rally at Niagara Square and subsequent events, the campaign sponsored a community Gathering on November 28 in Buffalo. About 200 supporters of the campaign gathered in the Temple Beth Zion auditorium to express their concerns about climate change and participate in various ceremonies (Video credit: Diana Strablow).

                                       Community Gathering       Photo credit: Jim Anderson

[Click image to enlarge]

One ceremony at the Gathering involved the campaign's Climate Justice Pledge. A scroll bearing names of organizations and people who signed the Pledge was presented by Lynda Schneekloth, chair of the local Sierra Club Niagara Group, to University at Buffalo Law students Bridget Steele and Andrea DiNatale.

 

UB Law students accept the scroll of Pledge signers. Photo credit: Nate Schneekloth

The students and their faculty adviser, Jessica Owley, planned to transport the Pledge scroll to Paris and deliver it to a national Sierra Club official who could pass it on to a U.S. negotiator at the U.N. Climate Conference.

The scroll contained 2,361 names of citizens, organizations and local public officials from Western New York who signed the Climate Justice Pledge. Among the organizations were 17 labor unions, 13 faith groups, 9 socio-economic & civic groups, 7 union leaders, 3 peace groups, 9 elected officials, 1 political party, and 8 environmental groups. The list is here.

Scroll of Climate Justice Pledge signers. Photo credit: Lynda Schneekloth

The UB student-faculty contingent traveled to Paris and arrived at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which ran from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12. They shared their observations, opinions and photos through social media, primarily on a website called SUNY Buffalo Law School’s Climate Change Blog.

On Dec. 9, a blog titled "WNY Climate Justice Pledge Makes It to Paris" was posted on their website. As it turned out, the Pledge not only made it to Paris, the students managed to connect with a national figure, Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the national Sierra Club, and present to him the scroll of WNY Climate Justice Pledge signers!

Michael Brune holding the Scroll presented by Alyssa Erazo, reading the Pledge, and Collin Doane.

Following the presentation describing the significance of the WNY Climate Justice Pledge scroll and the diversity of pledge signers, Michael Brune accepted the scroll and said "This is how we will win."

"Twenty minutes after receiving the scroll from the representatives of Buffalo, Mike Brune was set to meet with John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, to convey to the US Delegation the hopes of the American people, including Western New Yorkers," Chris Kennedy wrote in her blog post. She added:

"I would like to think that it was the commitment and enthusiasm of the people of Western New York that made John Kerry decide that the U.S. needed to support a Climate Change Agreement with a Legally Binding Transparency System.

Although that may not be the case, I am sure it is not coincidence that Kerry changed his tune shortly after meeting with Sierra Club Executive Director Mike Brune who passed our message and our scroll along."

John Kerry served as the top U.S. negotiator at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris. We may never know what transpired between John Kerry and Michael Brune, who heard WNY Climate Justice Pledge message when he received the scroll and said "This is how we will win."

What is clear is that, thanks to this terrific group of young law students and their University at Buffalo faculty advisor, the Western New York plea for Climate Justice was indeed heard at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. And for that accomplishment alone, we can all feel very proud of them and extremely grateful.

UB law students (L to R): Bridget Steele, Leah Bernhardi, Christina Kennedy, Alyssa Erazo, and Collin Doane. (Center) Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club in holding the WNY Climate Justice Pledge scroll. (Far Right) Sandy Chelnov, Rise Up for Climate Justice Campaign.

 [Click image to enlarge]

Rise Up for Climate Justice! Rally at Niagara Square on September 24

GETTING TO PARIS AND A SANE CLIMATE AGREEMENT

Mobilizing Western New York for Climate Action and Social Justice 

(September – December 2015) 

Rise Up for Climate Justice

JOIN US 

Rally at Niagara Square on September 24 at 4:00pm

 The day Pope Francis speaks to the U.S. Congress

As President Obama said, “Climate Change is not a problem for another generation.” 

Failure to act would constitute a grave injustice to all future children of the Earth as well as to poor people and poor countries that contribute the least to global warming pollution.

SCIENCE TELLS US WE MUST STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS TO CURB GLOBAL WARMING, AND JUSTICE DEMANDS THAT WE ACT IN EARNEST NOW.

WE CALL ON THE PRESIDENT AND LEADERS OF ALL NATIONS
TO SIGN AND ENFORCE A UNIVERSAL, LEGALLY-BINDING AGREEMENT 

TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUPPORT A JUST TRANSITION 
FROM FOSSIL FUELS TO CLEAN ENERGY SOURCES.

"A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor." -- Pope Francis

To learn more about CLIMATE JUSTICE, Click Here.   

For more information and opportunities to participate/volunteer as organizations or individuals,
visit the Sierra Club website: www.NiagaraSierraClub.com
Contact us at: niagarasierra@gmail.com