Calendar of Events

General Program Meetings

All General Program meetings are open to the general public. If you are interested in the subject of a particular meeting, please attend. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call Bruce Blake - Programs - (630)629-2520 or Rllnstns1@aol.com

Location: All meetings are held at the Glen Ellyn Public Library unless otherwise noted.

Glen Ellyn Public Library, Meeting Rooms A & B

400 Duane Street

Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Duane Street runs east and west and is the first street on the south side of the Metra train tracks. The Library is 4 blocks west of Main Street.

The River Prairie Group of the Sierra Club has general program meetings four times each year presenting speakers on environmental topics and to provide information for new members about the club's activities.

Upcoming General Program Meetings and Special Events

Green Readin' Book Discussion
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival - John Vaillant
January 29, 2012
2:00 pm
Helen Plum Library, 110 W. Maple, Lombard

This chilling and suspenseful story tells how one Siberian tiger fought back against a poacher hunting it for the black market.  At the heart of the story lies the challenge of preserving this magnificent species in the face of pressures from the growing human population with which it coexists in Russia's Far East.

Green Readin' Book Discussion
Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future - Jeff Goodell
February 26, 2012
2:00 pm
Helen Plum Library, 110 W. Maple, Lombard

American faces an energy crisis from the dwindling supplies of fuels to the environmental effects of the fuels we rely upon for every aspect of our lives.  Big Coal reveals the true social and environmental costs of the energy source supplyin ghalf of America's electricity.  Any discussion of America's clean energy future must begin with Big Coal so we can understand where we are and how we got here.

New Members’ Meeting
March 5, 2012
7-9 PM
Glen Ellyn Public Library, 400 Duane St., Meeting Room B, Glen Ellyn

We would like to invite our new members  (and also anyone interested  in what the Sierra Club does in DuPage County) to meet and talk to the the Sierra Club's River Prairie Group of DuPage County about what we are doing. If you have an interest in the environment, like outdoors exploring or would like to become more involved with these issues, please join us.  We will have a special presentation on bicycling trips.

Movies
Dirty Business and Sinking the Heartland
Co-sponsored by Sierra Club and Just Views of DuPage Peace Through Justice Coalition
March 9, 2012
7:20 pm
DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church, 1828 Old Naperville Road, Naperville

Dirty Business - “Clean Coal” and the Battle for Our Energy Future

Flip a switch and lights go on. Electricity is as simple as that until a power outage or until you begin tracing backwards from the switch through the complicated corporate utility delivering the energy, the power generating plants making it and for 50% of the electrons, the mines yielding the coal for burning. The bright light shining in your home has a dirty history. On average, Americans burn through 20 pounds of coal produced electricity each day. The environmental and health impacts of burning fossil fuels have brought the country to a critical decision point on finding ways to move forward with clean energy.

The Sierra Club and Just Views of the DuPage Peace Through Justice Coalition are co-sponsoring a showing of two movies, Dirty Business, an exploration of the coal industry's “clean coal” publicity campaign and Sinking the Heartland, an examination of long wall mining in central Illinois. The movies will be followed by audience discussion.

America is moving forward with clean energy but the fossil fuel industries continue to slow the progress. Join us in shaping the landscape for the future of clean energy in Illinois.

Directions: If coming from east or west on route I-88, exit at Naperville Road onto Freedom Drive.  Turn left (East) onto Diehl Road and continue across Naperville Road/Naper Blvd, and then turn left/north at the first street (Old Naperville Road). The Unitarian Church is down one block on your right.  Note:  For other route options and a map, see church website: www.dupageuuchurch.org. The church phone is 630/505-9408.

Green Readin’ Book Discussion
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - Barbara Kingsolver
March 25, 2012
2:00 pm
Helen Plum Library, 110 W Maple, Lombard

The tale of one family eating locally for a year delights the reader with Kingsolver's story telling magic.  Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, there is something in this banquet of a book for everyone who's thinking about how to eat tasty, healthy and sustainable food.