by Eoin Carroll

Two months ago I told you that the three largest pollutants of the Chesapeake Bay are sediment and excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus).

Last month I explained that the majority of these pollutants ended up there via surface transportation caused by stormwater runoff and talked about ways homeowners could help reduce this.

This month I am going to talk about ways that everyone can become more watershed friendly regardless of where they live.  I have taken these tips from WatershedFriendlyPA.org which has many other ideas as well.

First I will talk about reducing contaminants in wastewater.  Sewage plants are marvels of technology but there are many things that they are not equipped to process.  Here are some of the most common ways you can help out:

• Proper storage and disposal of unused cleaning products, medicines, pesticides, old paint, etc.
• Use non-toxic cleaning products in moderate amounts.
• Putting grease and cooking oil down your sink is hard on your kitchen drain, your pipes, sewage pipes, and sewage plants.  At sewage plants, fats are hard to break down and so are mostly skimmed off and sent to landfills.  Why not send it there in the first place and avoid the clogs that they will cause in your kitchen.
• Compost food waste
• Pick up pet waste immediately and dispose of it properly.
• Use a commercial car wash (most car washes filter and reuse their water)
• Next is conserving water.  As we have discussed before, there is a limited amount of freshwater on earth.  Conserving it is important everywhere.
• Reduce water use inside the house by turning off the water while brushing your teeth and limiting shower time.  
• Do not pre-rinse the dishes before placing them in the dishwasher and only run the dishwasher when it is full.

Lastly you can get involved in community-based actions.

• Participate in community tree planting.
• Help plan or install a rain garden or native plant garden in a public space.
• Participate in an organized litter pick-up or pick up trash in your neighborhood on your own.
• Adopt a nearby storm drain and keep it clear of obstructions.

Your Watershed Circle will be trying to spread the word about upcoming events.  If you hear of one, please let us know so that we can help publicize it.  We will be adding these to the congregational announcement email that is sent out each week.

by Eoin Carroll

Last month I told you that the three largest pollutants of the Chesapeake Bay are sediment and excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus).

The majority of these pollutants ended up there via surface transportation caused by stormwater runoff. Stormwater runoff is precipitation (rain or snow) that flows across the land.

Undisturbed land can absorb most precipitation and produce almost no runoff.
It can do this by interception (keeping the precipitation from even reaching the ground), evapotranspiration (releasing water from its leaf pores), and by infiltration (allowing the precipitation to permeate into the ground).

Trees can intercept between 2000 gallons (deciduous) and 4000 gallons (conifers) per year per tree.

Infiltration rates

• Trees                                                                            17 inches/hour
  
• Shrubs and meadows                                             6 inches/hour
• Lawns                                                                           1 inch/hour
• Pavement and other impermeable surfaces    0 inches/hour

For stormwater planning purposes, lawns are categorized as impermeable surfaces due to their low rates of infiltration.

As land is developed, rain that falls on roofs, driveways, sidewalks, patios, and lawns runs off the surface rapidly picking up pollutants as it goes.  This can also cause flooding and stream bank erosion.  It also reduces groundwater recharge.

The old way of dealing with stormwater was to collect, channel, and remove the water as quickly as possible.

The new way is to spread it out, slow it down, and infiltrate as much of it as possible.

If you are a homeowner, you can help reduce stormwater runoff by:

• Reducing the amount of impervious areas (for example, reducing the size of your lawn)
  
• Planting native trees, shrubs, and plants
• Using healthy lawn care practices (most importantly minimizing fertilizer and herbicides)
• Installing rain gardens and rain barrels

Penn State Extension has a great guide called The Homeowner’s Guide to Stormwater which is available on their website and from Extension offices. It has lots of information and ideas to help reduce the amount of stormwater runoff from your property.

by Eoin Carroll

Pennsylvania has lots of water.

We have over 86,000 miles of streams (2nd only to Alaska).

While we are certainly not drought-proof, we usually enjoy an adequate amount of precipitation such that we can grow a wide variety of plants.

We have sufficient groundwater such that you can dig a well in most of Pennsylvania and expect to find suitable amounts of water.

When you view the earth from space you see a big blue ball.  This is because 2/3’s of the earth’s surface is covered in water.

So why should we care?

Humans are very dependent on freshwater and there is a great deal less of this.
Only about 3% of the water on earth is freshwater.
2/3’s of this is locked up as ice meaning that we are dependent on 1% of the earth’s water.

As Unitarian Universalists,  our 7th Principle is “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”  We are a community that highly values the environment and are always looking for ways we can help protect and improve it.

Water is the foundation of life. The cleaner the water the healthier the ecosystem.

There is no economical way to create new water, so we must make good use of the water we have.

How we treat our water has a big impact on those downstream of us.

Here at the UU we are in the Abraham’s Creek watershed.  Abraham’s Creek flows through Francis Slocum park and then continues on to connect to the Susquehanna River which flows down to the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay is an amazing environment rich in natural resources. Unfortunately its health is poor.  Its largest problems are excess sediment and excess nutrients.

The major supplier of freshwater to the bay is the Susquehanna River.  Unsurprisingly, the major problems of the Susquehanna are excess sediment and excess nutrients.

If we want a healthy bay then we need healthy rivers.
If we want healthy rivers then we need healthy streams and creeks.
If we want healthy streams and creeks then we need healthy watersheds.

Our new Watershed Circle has formed to be part of the solution.  In future talks, we will be sharing information on things we can do to improve the health of our watershed.

by Brian Dugas

Sorry, I’m going to get real for a few minutes:

• Loss of civil liberties LGBTQ+, minorities, women
  
• Voting disenfranchisement
• Environmental degradation
• Restrictions on institutions of higher education
• Dismantling of public institutions meant to protect us: education, health services, environment
• Corruption, graft, and greed conducted in the open, in front of an ineffective or complicit Judicial and Legislative Branches.
• Rising costs on everything from: services, utilities, and rent, to products, goods and groceries.
• Stagnant and declining wages due to corporate greed and manufactured inflation.

The list seems endless, and I’m sure that it barely scratches the surface. Who knows what deals and corruption are occurring behind the closed doors of our hallowed government institutions.

I realize that I don’t have to tell many of you this depressing news, we see and hear it on a daily basis—--- unless you are lucky enough to be able to turn it all off and avoid the news and social media - might be a good idea if you can do it. In order to avoid being overwhelmed, I am finding that it is easier to deal with issues that impact me at the local level rather than focusing on the collapse of an empire. Things like pollution from fracking, corruption of elected officials, loss of support for public schools, and the denial of rights of friends and neighbors are all local issues that I feel I can focus on, and it is at this level that we as a church community can be most effective. If you would like to get involved with any of these issues, please join us on the social action committee or speak to me at any time.

Today, I would like to share with you an opportunity to strengthen our community at the same time that we reconnect with nature. Some of you might remember that our original intention with buying this church in the country was to have an environmental theme. The efforts of the Green Team and those congregation members and friends who supported our projects was exceptional. In addition to those projects we had a wonderful custom of camping each year at a campground in Tunkhannock in order to reconnect with each other and nature. Over the last few years we have had some success with reinvigorating this nature experience. This year, many of us feel that we need to reconnect and build community more than ever.

Our planning team has met and begun organizing the events and logistics for our camping trip on August 23 and 24 at Bear Creek Camp. This is a Saturday and Sunday with the service being held on Sunday, August 24th in the woods of Bear Creek. There are events and activities planned for both Saturday and Sunday.

There are: Cabins, tent space, a kitchen, an in-door bathroom and showers, a fire pit, and a playground right next to our site. There are costs for the cabins and tents, but assistance and support is available to those in need. The bottom line is that we want everyone to be able to participate, so if there is a way we can help, let us know. Please sign up using the online questionnaire in the announcements, or in person here in the church so we know how many people are coming and what their preferences are.

And for those of you willing and able to get involved with an important issue facing many people in our country and recently in our own communities, we are working with other organizations to organize a meeting between concerned community members, legal experts, and leaders from the Latino community. Our initial intentions are to meet and discuss how we can make personal connections and find ways to support the Latino community in this region. The meeting is on Monday, June 9th at 5:30PM at King’s College. Please see me for any additional information or questions. This is a closed meeting, by invitation only for obvious reasons, but consider yourselves to be invited. Thank you.

by Dave Nichols

I think most of us agree that we are causing the planet to warm up by releasing greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and that warming is a threat to our sustainability. Three quarters of the emissions are from energy usage in the form of electricity, heating, transportation, and industrial processes. The remaining quarter of greenhouse emissions comes from food production. Even though it is a smaller source, it is still significant. Further increase in food production by itself will lead to excessive global warming.

There are several ways to constrain the carbon emissions footprint from food:

1. One thing we can do on our own is reduce the amount of meat and dairy in our diet. Livestock, especially cattle, requires a large amount of land for animal feed. Twice as much land is used for animal feed than land for human consumption. Animals also generate greenhouse gas from methane they release from digestion as well as manure. The carbon footprint of beef is much greater than eating pork. And chicken has a lower footprint than pork. Therefore, changing the type of meat we eat can be helpful.
2. Encourage more sustainable farm practices. Overuse of pesticides and fertilizers may lead to short-term gains in productivity but will damage the environment over time. Slash and burn methods are used widely in some parts of the world, leading to high carbon emissions and loss of forests.
3. Reducing over consumption of food. Ten percent of the world’s population does not get enough calories but 40% of the population gets too many calories.
4. Reduce food loss and waste. Globally we lose about 20% of our food supply.
5. Things that matter less regarding emissions are eating locally sourced food and eating organic. Locally sourced foods are often produced less efficiently, and food transport has a comparatively small carbon footprint. Also, most foods are safe for consumption if the chemicals used in agriculture are used at low levels.

The idea for today’s social action minute came from an activity we had at a Climate Reality meeting. At that meeting we were each asked to sort a stack of cards. On each card an action was listed that one could take to reduce climate change. The cards were sorted in three columns by 1) actions that we currently take, 2) actions that we might want to take, and 3) ones that we would not want to do.

One of the cards suggested hosting a plant- based protein potluck. Members of our group agreed that that would be fun and informative. We are hoping that some of you may be interested as well. Unless there are any conflicts, we plan to have it here after the services on March 2. There is a sign-up sheet on the table in the back if you would like to take part.

Sources
Food production is responsible for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions
https://ourworldindata.org/food-ghg-emissions
Climate Reality Leadership Training – Al Gore Presentation October 18, 2025
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions

by Dave Nichols

I want to use this time to bring our attention back to the subject of Climate change and how we, living in the industrial age, are making the planet hotter. We are making it hotter because we are putting more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. The best known is carbon dioxide.

Prior to the mid-18th century, before the industrial age, there was some carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which contributed to warming. The average global temperature then was about 59F. A good deal of the warmth that allows life to exist is due to the presence of greenhouse gases. It has been known since the early 1800’s that, absent greenhouse gas, the global temperature would be slightly below zero Fahrenheit. The planet would be lifeless and frozen solid. A certain amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is necessary to trap and then emit some of the planet’s heat loss back to the planet. At the beginning of the industrial age the concentration of carbon dioxide was just under 300 parts per million. Since then, it has been rising at an accelerated rate and is now about 420 parts per million. This increase has supercharged the warming effect. The last time it was this high was 3 million years ago, before humans, when the global temperature was 4.5-7.2 degrees higher than during the pre-industrial period. The sea level was at least 16 feet higher and possibly 82 feet higher at that time. Over the past 1/ 2 million years geologic data has shown that sea level change tracks closely with carbon dioxide concentration.

The current average temperature is about 2.5 degrees above the pre-industrial temperature. The 10 highest average global temperatures in the last 50 years have all occurred in the last decade.

Climate scientists generate theoretical models, and they look back at geologic data to make predictions about the impacts of climate change. Their predictions of rising sea level, extremes in heat, and the disruption of the biosphere present us with challenges that we must address. With advances in terrestrial and satellite sensors we can closely monitor the effects of climate change at a detailed level. Two good sources of information on this topic can be found on the nasa.gov website and a recent book by Lawrence Krauss, The Physics of Climate Change. My focus for future social action minutes will be to discuss not only the dangers of man- made global warming but also ways that it is being addressed and how we can help.