The December Election will be by electronic balloting this year. During the election period, click on the link below to vote (once per member, joint members may vote separately).

Miami Group Executive Committee Members

Candidate Biographies for December election

Linda Benson
A 30-year member of the Sierra Club and serves the Miami ExCom as Group Treasurer. The environmental adventure began with one
canoe\camping experience in Everglades National Park, which led to a lifetime of environmental concern. Linda has enjoyed two
types of travel as a method of environmental action; (1) collecting data as a citizen scientist and (2) as a volunteer in the
restoration of public lands.

Kaatje Bernabei
A retired teacher of special children with four amazing granddaughters, that motivates her to continue the fight for our planet. There is no planet B! She has lead Sierra Club outings for many years. Her love for nature goes back to her adventurous childhood in Africa, going on amazing walks with her father and camping in the wild. The most memorable climb was to the active volcano, the Nyiaragongo in Congo. As a scout leader and as a Sierra Club leader, she has organized and participated in numerous beach and mangrove clean ups, as well as planting mangroves and beach grasses. Kaatje is also a willing speaker at public hearings when it comes to protecting our natural resources, our environment and its wildlife. My vision for the Sierra Club is that we work together with all the environmental organizations, with the human rights groups and with the indigenous people . We need to be on their side and fight with them for their land, for their water. Only by unity can we win the fight against the climate disasters, against global warming. Every day species are going extinct. Greed is ruling the planet. We need to welcome with open arms our brothers and sisters of all races, the young ,the old, people of all walks of life. We need to fight for equality ,for livable wages, for sustainable food, for clean energy, for healthcare and for housing for all people. Only then can we save the planet.

John Bernabie
All-time record temperatures, disastrous flooding rainfalls, droughts lasting years, melting glaciers and polar ice caps, rising sea levels, polluted air and water, extinctions of many life species: climate disaster is real, and the human species does not have much time to stop the inevitable. Humans are a part of nature, not its master. Yet humanity in the developed countries continues to play a suicidal ode of greed and ignorance. More than ever, the Sierra Club needs to be a loud wake-up voice of reason prompting and promoting sensible legislation and public education to deal with the life-threatening issues nature faces. The capitalist litany of “more is better and higher profits are essential” threatens nature and hence our lives. Perhaps this is an inconvenient truth, but it is a truth nonetheless. Sierra Club’s efforts should shift strongly to promoting this awareness. Most animals will fight to protect their lives when threatened. The human animal needs to do the same. I want to fight. John Bernabei, Ph.D. Retired educator, married, father of 3, grandfather of 4, member of the Sierra Club for many years, Board Member of the Miami-Dade Democratic Environmental Caucus.

Noel Cleland
As a Miami native, Noel has watched South Florida’s ecology change dramatically, from the westward encroachment into the Everglades to the reduction of marine life on our coral reefs. An avid cyclist, he has been involved in the environmental movement since the first Earth Day. He tries to live a lifestyle that minimizes his impact on the planet, and has served on the Miami Group Executive Committee since 2011. Presently serves as chairperson, and political committee co-chair. PERSONAL VISION It’s hard not to read very many of the publications concerning the environment without becoming a doomsayer about the future of our civilization. However, the human race has now realized it has the task of giving the universe self awareness, and we must meet that responsibility with long term vision. To quote the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” We are rapidly approaching an era where growth will be limited by the availability of resources, so we must learn how to use our resources more wisely. Recognizing that the environment, economic justice, and the defense budget are all inextricably linked, we must educate people both at the personal level, with the food they eat and the things they purchase, and at the community level, as to how to make the grass roots efforts change the way we are destroying the planet. QUESTS In the “big picture”, our time spent on this earth is of little significance. However, depending how we use that time, we can each have a dramatic effect on what comes next. My quest is to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Vote here (link will be active November 13 through December 12)