Team Leaders:
Rachel Mark, Unitarian Church of Harrisburg
Bob Mitchell, First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh
Team Mission
Our mission is to educate and engage Unitarian Universalists and other concerned citizens about the urgent need for environmental and climate action. We strive to live our lives in harmony within ecological limits (our 7th Principle), and to lobby elected officials for sound environmental policies, commensurate with Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. We support local, state, and national environmental coalitions that focus on critically reducing our carbon footprint while also protecting our land, air and water for this generation and future generations.
2026 Meeting Dates
Our Team meets monthly via Zoom.
We meet on the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m.
February 5
March 5
April 2
May 7
June 4
July 2
August 6
September 3
October 1
November 5
December 3
To attend our meetings on Zoom: click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85356830763
Our Biggest Weapon:
Pennsylvania’s “Green”/ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS Amendment
“…public natural resources are the common property of the people…”
Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution provides as follows:
“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
Beginning with the landmark Supreme Court Robinson Township decision, this ERA’s power to protect PA citizens is bearing fruit. Below are some examples that include everything from stopping a development to denying power line approval. There are more examples on the website www.forthegenerations.org.
More Information
We are fighting a Goliath here in Pennsylvania: the fossil fuel industry, which is adding to our climate emergency in various ways. These include:
• Ethane cracker plants (single-use plastics)
• New fracking infrastructure
• LNG processing plants
• Mariner East Pipeline
• Environmental racism
The results?
Contaminated water, damage to our health, cancer clusters, and climate change. But we are fighting back!
Did you Know?
- In the Pennsylvania legislature, the Chair of the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee lacks what should be a basic requirement for his job: a belief that climate change is real. Instead of tackling the issue for the citizens of Pennsylvania, he is an outspoken climate change denier. His name is Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, and he also serves on the Climate Change Advisory Committee. Rep. Metcalfe has called environmental activists “extremists” and “deep pocketed alarmists.” We have joined the many voices calling on Speaker Bryan Cutler to remove Rep. Metcalfe from these positions of power over our environment. This is just one example of the need to educate voters and “flip” elections in our Commonwealth in favor of candidates who realize the truth of climate change, and who will help us fight it.
- Climate change deniers seem to think that ignoring the issue is the way to make it disappear. Read Rachel Mark’s recent Letter to the Editor protesting Rep. Metcalfe’s attempts to silence environmental concerns
- Ten years after it was contaminated, the water in the low-income community of Woodlands, in Butler County, remains undrinkable. Approximately 50 to 60 of the area’s 200 homes remain without potable water. The well water was contaminated in 2011, shortly after State College-based Rex Energy (now out of business) began drilling and fracking multiple gas wells into the Marcellus Shale. These citizens are still waiting for municipal water to be connected to their homes. Stories like this are why we do what we do.
Partner Links
Better Path Coalition
PennFuture
PennEnvironment
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Citizens Climate Lobby
Resources
- Article I, section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution
provides as follows: “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural,
scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.” - PA Environmental Scorecard 2020-2021
- NEW Fracking Compendium – Physicians for Social Responsibility
- UU Climate Change Statement
- Oil & Gas Health Risks PA
- Environmental Justice Principles
- Clean Energy Jobs Fact Sheet
- Call to Communities of Faith and Spirit
- Actions to Take re: Fracking and Clean Energy
- Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) Report on Fracking
Action Alerts
Check back soon for the latest updates!
In the News
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), begun in 2009, is the first mandatory market-based program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. RGGI is a cooperative effort among the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia to cap andreduce CO2 emissions from the power sector.
More About Our Team
WHY JOIN US?
You can help us achieve a social tipping point. Protecting our environment requires a massive movement at a whole range of levels, and we believe we can make it happen. What we ask of our members is this: do what you can and dedicate time to it. Be hopeful. We have found that taking action helps us generate hope — that’s how social movements work! We also commit and dedicate our environmental justice work to those we love.