Main Line Green Initiative

08/20/2026

Organizers with Philly Thrive and People’s Tech Project aren’t waiting for an artificial intelligence data center in the Bellwether District to be announced. In the deep freeze of February, the Point Breeze environmental justice advocacy group took to the sidewalks of Grays Ferry, knocking on 1,876 doors and speaking with nearly 500 people.

The advocates expect a developer to start building as quickly as possible to avoid community resistance. “They can’t wait to build the data center,” says Shawmar Pitts, Thrive’s managing co-director. “You need a lot of room, and you need water. The Schuylkill is right there. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out what they are trying to do.”

Thrive members aren’t the only people suspecting a data center at Bellwether. As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer in December, HRP representatives would neither confirm nor deny that they were speaking with data center developers. Grid asked a City representative about plans to build a data center and did not receive a response.

“I think we are purposely targeted,” says Thrive board president Sonya Sanders, speaking about the history of placing polluting facilities in Black and Brown communities. “They put them in our areas because they feel as though we can do nothing.”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/08/01/philadelphians-fight-potential-data-centers-in-the-city/

✍️ Bernard Brown
📸 Tracie Van Auken

08/20/2026

08/20/2026

When we went to print last month with “APOCALYPSE NOW” splashed across the cover in 138-point type above a raging Canadian wildfire, I wondered if people would think we were being alarmist. Little did I know that the cover would prove timely.

It wasn’t just the smoky air from those Canadian fires haunting us. It seemed like one climate-fueled crisis followed another: oppressive heat waves, unbreathable air, flash floods. Until a few weeks ago, I’d never even heard the term microburst — a violent downdraft capable of producing winds as strong as a weak tornado. Then one ripped through my neighborhood, snapping mature trees in half and uprooting giants that had stood for generations. I continue to look in disbelief when I see houses in plain view that were very recently hidden behind leaves and branches. But it really happened, and those trees are gone.

For a while, it felt as though we no longer had weather. It was more like one assault from nature after another.

Fear has a way of getting our attention. Maybe living through summers like this will finally convince us to examine human beings’ place in nature more deeply. But fear isn’t the only reason — or even the best reason — to care.

The same systems that can overwhelm us are the ones that nourish us. A forest is not just a place where fires burn; it is also a place of beauty, refuge and renewal. A river or stream is not just a threat during a flood; it is a living system that has shaped our communities for generations.

This month’s issue is about rediscovering something we all need: the quiet joy of being outside.

➡️ Read the full note from our publisher at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/08/01/publishers-notes-beyond-the-fear/

✍️ Alex Mulcahy

08/20/2026

Urgent Action Needed! Stop the 754-acre data center campus in Upper Mount Bethel!
https://bit.ly/DRN-NoUMBTdc
Message the Upper Mount Bethel Board of Supervisors today to stand up against data center developers.

Slate Belt Holdings, LLC, is partnership between Talen Energy and River Pointe Logistics to develop a 754-acre data center campus in Upper Mount Bethel, just south of the Delaware Water Gap.

In order to gain legal leverage to advance their project, Slate Belt Holdings filed a legal action to the township’s existing zoning that seems clearly intended to strong arm local government officials into approving the project the companies want.

The companies then forwarded to the Upper Mount Bethel Township Supervisors a lopsided Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) offering to drop their legal challenge (“validity challenge”) and provide what sounds like significant funding in exchange for the township agreeing to zoning changes that are agreeable to the data center and ties the hands of the township on several critical issues.

Township officials are weighing their decision, with a meeting set for Monday, August 17th.

Our organization believes signing this MOU is a bad idea and will undermine the ability of the township to ensure essential protections for the community and environment.

If you agree, please consider joining with others to submit a letter to the Upper Mount Bethel Township Supervisors to

• Reject the MOU,
• Obtain an independent legal assessment on the “Validity Challenge” used to pressure the township, and
• Pass a comprehensive data center ordinance

Township Supervisors have an obligation to serve the interests of the community and to safeguard the environmental resources for the benefit of the people. https://bit.ly/DRN-NoUMBTdc

08/20/2026

Just so we are all clear, there is NOTHING environmentally friendly about DATA CENTERS.

08/20/2026

For more information: https://www.chestercountyswa.org/DocumentCenter/View/3066/P4P-Flyer-and-Press-Release-color-version

08/11/2026

In today's installment of Trail Notes: THE HOLE TRUTH

Want to know the "hole truth"? Sinkholes on the trail are a real problem!

Sinkholes on the SRT are exactly as dramatic as they sound and fixing them is even more dramatic. One week you're on your bike cruising through Pottstown. The next week after a big storm, you find yourself dodging a cavern in the pavement threatening to give you a flat.

What causes sinkholes? Subsurface erosion, water damage, aging infrastructure underground, and the general chaos of nature doing nature things. What fixes them? A whole lot of engineering, fill material, compaction work, and trail resurfacing that adds up fast.

The Schuylkill River Greenways Stewardship Fund is designed for exactly these moments where an emergency fix is needed, but we don't want to take funds from other important projects, like trail expansion, to pay for it. Because the trail doesn't give advance notice when it's about to surprise you.

Your donation helps us keep the ground under your wheels solid and the surprises limited to scenic views.

Donate today to help plug the funding gap and keep the trail in top shape for generations to come: https://support.schuylkillriver.org/stewardship-fund