College Close-Up: The Bois D’Arc Patriots of Old East Dallas 

boisdarc-patriots-saluteThis picture is from the mid 1970's.

It features members of the East Dallas Tenants and Small Homeowners' Alliance, and a very influential group of activists who organized them called the Bois D'Arc Patriots

Named after the native tree renowned for its durability and strength, the one Comanches used to carve their bows from, the Patriots were committed to representing the unrepresented in Dallas. 

Specifically, they fought on behalf of East Dallas residents who were being forced out of their homes by gentrification and bad city planning. Sound familiar?

During a high-profile fight over slumlords, the Patriots released a box of cockroaches during a Dallas City Council meeting in order to bring home the conditions residents were experiencing – as well as comment on the Council's inaction.

Dallas native John Fullinwider was an original member of the Patriots. He's gone on to become an acclaimed DISD educator as well as remain a mainstay in Dallas community politics, including being an advisor to Mothers Against Police Brutality.

He's also one of nine Guest Lecturers participating in Downwinders at Risk's College of Constructive Hell-Raising, a continuing ed course on community organizing beginning in January. 

This course is designed for anyone who wants to learn more about how to be an effective advocate, as well as know how others in DFW have forged productive social change despite the odds. 

The College of Constructive Hell-Raising offers the first opportunity for DFW activists to receive professional-style training for organizers.

Classes start January 17th. They're from 7-9 pm and run twice a month until May.  Maximum class size is 15. Applications are being accepted online now here. 

The cost is only $125, not due until your application is accepted. Scholarship money is available. 

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Announcing Texas’ First School for Organizers

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Using local social justice history lessons and expertise, the College for Constructive Hell-Raising aims for students to “think more like organizers”

January 17- May 23rd 

(Dallas)–Saying they want to encourage local residents to organize more effectively around the issues that concern them, clean air group Downwinders at Risk announced today it’s establishing a new “school” for doing just that: “The College of Constructive Hell-Raising.“

Meeting two Tuesday evenings a month from January to May next year, the College will expose its students to time-tested community organizing principles and use past DFW social justice campaigns to make points about strategy and tactics. Its curriculum is designed to assist any kind of organizing effort, not just the environmental fights Downwinders is known for winning.

Downwinders Director Jim Schermbeck said this kind of training is usually only offered at out-of-state facilities like the Midwest Academy in Chicago, or the Highlander Institute in Tennessee, and then only to professional staffers in intense one to two-week sessions costing thousands of dollars. Downwinders is charging just $125 and formatting the information into a more citizen-friendly evening continuing-ed type of class.

Supplementing eight out of the ten lesson plans are “guest lecturers” from past social justice campaigns who’ll talk about their own experiences in trying to change things for the better in DFW, including veteran civil rights organizers Peter Johnson and Robert Medrano, original Bois D’arc Patriot John Fullinwider, former State Representative Lon Burnam, West Dallas environmental leader Luis Sepulveda, long-time AIDS Services of Dallas Director Don Maison, Police brutality organizer Changa Masomakali, anti-nuclear organizer Mavis Belisle, and Zac Trahan, former Dallas Program Director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

By using this Who’s Who of change-makers, we’re not only giving students useful case studies in organizing, we’re  also passing along important local history lessons,” said Schermbeck. “Many of the controversies facing DFW today are rooted in the past struggles our guests will be talking about.”

He said Downwinders hopes graduates of the College will be able to use what they learn to successfully fight for a grassroots agenda in DFW, no matter the particular issue. “We believe the goal of building a more sustainable world is served through the strengthening of all of our allies. Environmentalism doesn’t exist in a vacuum.”

Only 15 students will be accepted in this first semester. More information and applications are available online at the Downwinders at Risk website: www.downwindersatrisk.org

All-Star End of Ozone Season Update and Discussion Oct 27th

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      "SMOG IN DFW"

END OF THE 2016 OZONE SEASON: 

ALL-STAR UPDATE AND DISCUSSION

 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27th

6-8 PM

DREAM CAFE @THE QUADRANGLE

2800 ROUTH STREET #170 DALLAS  (map)

 

THE FEATURED EARTH DAY TEXAS

EDMO EVENT FOR OCTOBER 

 

PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE: 

DALLAS CITY COUNCILWOMAN SANDY GREYSON

FORMER DALLAS COUNTY JUDGE MARGARET KELIHER

DR. ROBERT HALEY, TOXICOLOGIST, UT SOUTHWESTERN

DR. DAVID LARY, ATMOSPHERIC CHEMIST, UT AT DALLAS

DOWNWINDERS AT RISK DIRECTOR JIM SCHERMBECK

MODERATED BY RANDY LEE LOFTIS, TEXAS CLIMATE NEWS 

 

Despite five clean air plans written by the state and EPA, DFW has been in continuous violation of the Clean Air Act for smog since 1991.

The current state clean air plan for DFW has one more summer to "attain" the federal ozone standard of 75 parts per billion. We're at a regional average of 80 ppb, down exactly 1 ppb from 2015 levels. The region has never had a one-year 5 ppb drop in smog before.

If the state plan does fail next year, what happens? 

Meanwhile, advancements in technology are making it possible for citizens to use increasingly sophisticated tools previously available only to government or industry in their fights for cleaner air.

How much of government's air quality watchdog role can now be assumed by citizens, and should be? 

Pics from Our “Meet the Drones” Mixer

drone-mixer-12Here's the link to some pictures of our October 6th "Meet the Drones" Mixer featuring the squadron from University of Texas at Dallas. 

Thanks to TCU's Dr. Mike Slattery for hosting the public debut of our North Texas CLEAN Air Force – an exciting new effort combining citizen know-how with academic expertise to better help us identify DFW air pollution problems.  Representatives from TCU, UTA, UTD, UNT, UNTHSC were on site. Thanks as well to all the supporters and curiosity-seekers who showed up to see the show. 

This was the first of what we hope will be a series of such events around North Texas to show off the capacity and potential of this new tool for citizens. Stay tuned for news on when we'll be coming to a campus near you.

Texas’ Official Smog Denier Denied Spot on EPA Smog Committee

honeycutt-w-bkgroundYou've probably have never heard of the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee but if you live in DFW or another "non-attainment" area for smog, you are governed by its judgment about what does, or does not, constitute a "safe" level of exposure to smog. 

The mission of the Committee is to periodically review the latest scientific literature on the subject of smog pollution and determine if the federal standard needs to be adjusted accordingly. Its members, all experts in their fields, serve as volunteers to advise the EPA. Although its recommendations are not automatically enforced, they carry a lot of weight and often determine when and by how much the standard will be changed. 

Since 1991, based on wave after wave of studies on air pollution, the standard has been repeatedly revised downward, from a one-hour exposure level of 120 parts per billion to an eight-hour exposure level of 75 ppb currently, soon to come down to 70 ppb.

The original recommendation of the Committee this time around was for the standard to be lowered to between 65 and 70 ppb. The Obama Administration, after ungracefully backing-out of such a change prior to the 2012 election leading to the departure of then EPA chief Lisa Jackson, agreed to a 70 ppb standard last year. It's expected to be enforced at the beginning of the next decade.

Because of the volunteer nature of the job, there's always turnover on the Scientific Committee. This past year a new slot opened up and the EPA was taking nominations to fill it.  Seeing an opportunity to put one of their own on the body, the Oil and Gas industry, as well as many others, supported none other than Texas Committee on Environmental Quality staff toxicologist Michael Honeycutt for the job. 

This is akin to nominating Donald Trump to be a Sorority Mom. 

Honeycutt has turned his office, never held by anyone particularly citizen-friendly before, into a shameless base camp for every industry fighting new environmental regulations of any kind. He is the go-to contrarian when independent scientists conclude new, lower levels of exposure to a poison are justified, whether it's Benzene, Arsenic or smog. Honeycutt never met a toxin he didn't want to shill for.

In the case of smog, Honeycutt hired Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Gradient Inc. at the tune of about $1 million in taxpayer money, to help him sell the idea that smog isn't that bad for you and a new lower standard for exposure was completely and utterly unnecessary to protect human health. Gradient has a impeccable reputation – for being Big Tobacco's bought and paid researchers whenever it needed somebody in a white coat to talk about how exaggerated the risks of smoking were. 

Teaming-up, industry, Gradient and Honeycutt hit the road as EPA was mulling over a new ozone standard, spreading the gospel of smog denial. They mounted a campaign to block the EPA from implementing the 70ppb standard. They failed. But they weren't through. 

For sheer gall, their next move can't be beat. When a slot on the smog standard-deciding Scientific Advisory Committee opened up, industry decided to nominate Honeycutt to the job. Who better to decide the level of harm the public should be exposed to than the guy who says there's nothing to worry about? 

Honeycutt had the support of industry and its supporters in Congress. Oklahoma Senator Jim "Snowball" Inhofe is a big fan. How could he not get the job? 

Alas, it might come as a shock, but the Obama EPA did not appoint Honeycutt to the position. 

Instead, it decided to pick Donna Kenski, the data analysis director for the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium. for the open seat.

As you can imagine, the air is heavy with disappointment on Congress Ave in Austin and K Street in DC. Here's the reaction of one of industry's paid spokesmen, who coincidentally happens to be that same US Senator who backed him,   

"It's disappointing EPA overlooked so many well-qualified candidates who would have brought much needed geographic diversity, fresh perspectives, and balance to the powerful CASAC panel," Sen. Jim Inhofe told ME in a statement. "The Obama-EPA has once again ignored established policies and public input on candidates and instead has hand-picked an ally to fill one of its last advisory appointments of this administration." 

This is the kind of small, but important battle that takes place all the time in government. When you think about voting for president, the EPA's Scientific Advisory Committee is probably not the first thing you consider. But it makes a huge difference whether such a committee is headed up by real scientists, or junk scientists like Michael Honeycutt. Smog standards can save thousands of lives across the country every year. Those lives depend on the EPA using the best science, not the best science money can buy.