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June 2015 Volume 6, Issue 6 |
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In Memory of Those Who Have Fallen Bonnie Phillips, Friend of the Forest Ever since she was a little girl growing up near the shores of Lake Michigan in the 1940s, Bonnie Phillips talked to trees. And it was this inborn love of our nation's forests that inspired Bonnie to dedicate nearly half of her life advocating for their protection.
In 2008, she got a whiff of a few biomass energy proposals, facilities that would burn trees for heat and electricity. An asthma sufferer, Bonnie had given up using a woodstove years before due to health concerns, and now they were "hitting me in my own backyard."
In
2014, Bonnie joined took her biomass opposition to the national level,
and joined the steering committee for the Anti-Biomass Incineration
Campaign, a grassroots coalition of over 50 groups across the U.S. that
opposes "all industrial, commercial and institutional burning of biomass
and biofuels for energy." In 2015, Bonnie was hired on as campaign
coordinator, the last of her many contributions to the environmental
movement.
Remembering Marvin Wheeler When we formed Allentown Residents for Clean Air (ARCA) in 2012, we couldn't have kicked it off without Marvin Wheeler, who found us as an active member of the West Park Civic Association. As a retired school nurse, Marvin understood the health threat posed by the plan to burn 150 tons a day of trash and sewage sludge in the heart of Pennsylvania's third largest city. Surrounded by schools, parks, playgrounds, public housing, a hospital, and a prison, this experimental incinerator was a threat to all that Marvin held dear.
"The issue here is air quality... and when you think about that and the number of children in this area and the school less than a half a mile from here... what impact does it have on those middle school children?" Here is a fantastic video of Marvin speaking about the struggle, and how "we have to do something different," with green jobs and recycling, not incineration. Martin Litton: A Giant in Protecting the Earth
Whether protecting Giant Sequoias or giant rivers, he was at the forefront, educating the public and legislators about why reducing forests to rubble and damming rivers until they are a trickle were bad ideas. Martin's legacy will live on with the ancient sequoias and will be told in the geologic timetable that is found on the walls of the Grand Canyon. In 1960, Sunset Magazine ran Martin's cover story entitled "The Redwood Country," which is credited with launching a campaign which eventually led to the establishment of Redwood National Park along the northern California coast. Martin's love for flying brought him over the Sierra Nevada and head-to-head with the Forest Service's destructive practice of clear-cutting the forest. He became an activist working with many groups to protect forests along the spine of California.  For Martin's entire life he was a staunch
protector of the environment; he ran his last river trip in 2009 at the
age of 92, during a fundraiser for Sequoia ForestKeeper. That day, he
broke his own record as the oldest person to run the Grand Canyon in a
wooden dory.Even as he closed in on a century, Martin remained restless, he was quoted in a 2012 interview in High Country News: "I worry about the fate of the Earth. I still have time -- and a million things to do."
The Biomass Monitor is the nation's leading publication covering the health and environmental impacts of "biomass" energy. We accept submissions at thebiomassmonitor AT gmail.com. Cover photo: TJ Watt Photo of Martin Litton: John Blaustein Sincerely, |
- by Josh Schlossberg, Editor Any of us who have worked to try to make the world a better place hopes to have made a difference during our short time on Earth. We want to be remembered for our contributions, and maybe even carve out our own little place in history.
BIOMASS BREAKDOWN Top 10 Biomass Stories in the News
THE BIOMASS MONITOR CONFERENCE CALL Honoring the Environmental Movement's Fallen Heroes To honor the memory of those who dedicated their lives to the protection of the air, water, and living ecosystems that give us all life, and the wildlife we share it with, join The Biomass Monitor on a conference call on Thursday, June 18 at 5 pm PT (8 ET). Memorialize someone in your life who worked for the cause that underlies all causes -- the natural world we depend on for survival -- by joining us and saying a few words about this organizer, activist, or protestor: who they were, what they did, and why you admired them. RSVP here and email thebiomassmonitor at gmail.com for call in number. Calls are 3rd Thursdays of each month. Download the audio file for April's call, "Are Media Outlets Megaphones for Polluters?" with investigative journalist Steve Horn. |
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As a medical professional, Marvin taught kids about asthma triggers and understood that the incinerator would be a large one. He spoke about how asthma inhalers and medicines just treat the symptom after the disease, and spoke of the need to be proactive, not reactive.
Martin Litton spent his 97 years walking on this earth with a single mission: to lessen man's impact upon the natural world. 
