• Chapter Meeting Details
• Deep Dialogue Details
• Plastics - Source of Health Impacts on Children
• Climate Attribution Science Webinar
• No Kings Follow-Up
• Legislative Update
• New EV Owner Benefits
• Help ECA Mass Reach our Fundraising Goal - DONATE HERE!
• Earth Day is Soon!

Arnie Epstein

Leadership Team Member & Research Group Facilitator

DEEP DIALOGUE

MONDAY, APRIL 20

(One Week Early During Earth Week)

4 - 5:30 PM on Zoom

Challenges and opportunities in

achieving our climate goals

Register here for Zoom link!

In 2021, with ECA's essential advocacy, the state adopted the “Roadmap” legislation which set ambitious GHG emissions targets for 2030 and beyond. At the time, we had the wind at our backs. Climate change ranked near the top of public issues, the federal government adopted laws and regulations to promote clean energy, businesses set their own “net-zero” targets, and our country was a leader in international efforts to combat climate change.  

Five years later there has been a dramatic change in public perception, federal support, and international cooperation. We are facing a growing set of challenges. With the current conditions, what opportunities are there to continue and accelerate movement towards the state’s climate targets? Do we need to revisit the roadmap set out in the state’s Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP)?

Arnie Epstein will lead this discussion. Arnie lives in Stow, MA where he is Chair of the town’s Green Advisory Committee. Last year, Stow was one of the first communities in the state to be designated a Climate Leader and was presented with the state’s Leading By Example award.

As ECA members, we have a particular concern for the welfare of future generations, the impacts of climate change and other environmental factors on the health of our children and grandchildren. The toxic effects of plastics at all stages are cause for alarm, from manufacturing and recycling to presence in the foods we and our children and grandchildren consume, the plastic products in clothes and other fabrics in the home, and the omnipresence in most dolls and toys.  

The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, with lead author pediatrician Philip J. Landrigan, warned: “Infants in the womb and young children are two populations at particularly high risk of plastic-related health effects. . . . [E]xposures are linked to increased risks of prematurity, stillbirth, low birth weight, birth defects of the reproductive organs, neurodevelopmental impairment, impaired lung growth, and childhood cancer. Early-life exposures to plastic-associated chemicals also increase the risk of multiple non-communicable diseases later in life.”

In fact, non-communicable diseases, which are currently the major cause of illness and death in children and are being shown to be linked to the synthetic chemicals as those so abundant in the manufacture of plastics.     

"The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics” (Sept 2025) noted that “Food contact materials are an important source of human exposure to plastic chemicals. Food containers, drinking water bottles, and sachets, baby food pouches, tableware, and food processing equipment can all release plastic chemicals into food and beverages.” Effects of plastic chemicals endanger infants in the womb, reproductive potential (as polycystic disease and endometriosis), miscarriage, low birth weight, insulin resistance, hypertension and obesity in children.

Finally, early exposure to plastics is also associated with the development of chronic illnesses in adulthood, such as obesity, asthma, and heart and carotid artery disease, even possibly an association with dementia. 

We must reduce our plastics production and use if we want to protect our grandchildren!  

Wayne Wild

Webinar: The Growing Field of Attribution Science and How It Informs Climate Accountability

Host: Union of Concerned Scientists

Date: Tuesday, April 14

Time: 4:00-5:00 PM

Register here.

Did you know that we can now measure how much climate change has influenced the frequency, likelihood, and severity of extreme weather events like heatwaves and hurricanes? Or that we can trace responsibility for climate impacts to specific polluting corporations?

This webinar will offer a deep dive into the growing field of climate attribution science. We will discuss the latest science, how it underpins climate litigation and policy, and how you can effectively communicate the science to advocate for climate accountability. We will also cover key updates from the Make Polluters Pay movement, including climate lawsuits by state and local governments, and new climate superfund bills that are being introduced around the country.

Tina Grosowsky

Our attention and that of our allies is laser focused on the energy affordability bill that is now in Senate Ways and Means. We are aiming to keep the good things in the bill (e.g. some support for clean energy, discounts for lower income rate payers, control of third party suppliers), remove the bad things (e.g. cutting Mass Save funding for the Clean Energy Center) and adding controls on gas infrastructure spending and utility spending on lobbying and other things unrelated to delivering energy.

We are focusing advocacy for this agenda on Senator Barrett and other key leaders in the Senate and getting messages out to the public that:

• Identify reducing excessive utility profits from infrastructure spending as the best way to cut energy bills.
• Highlight all the ways Mass Save programs and clean energy are key to energy affordability in the long run.

Unity in the Climate Movement

We sponsored a panel discussion on the energy affordability bill that included representatives of Gas Transition Allies, Conservation Law Foundation, and Green Energy Consumers Alliance (see here for a review of the issues). Based on this discussion and input from the Roadmap Coalition, we expect that the climate movement will be speaking with a unified voice on energy and affordability, which was highly effective in getting the original version of the bill overhauled before the House sent it to the Senate.

Stay tuned for Action Alerts that call on you to reach out to your legislators as the bill is shaped in Senate Ways and Means over the next several weeks, debated on the Senate floor (maybe in May), and then finalized in a conference committee that may not finish up until late in the session.

Roger Luckmann 

No Kings and the Climate Movement

We havent heard all the stories yet or seen all the photos, but by all media accounts in the US and ABROAD, NO KINGS on March 28 was an 8 Million people success! ECA MAss is proud to have been part of the "Climate Contingent" planning group, where people showed up not only on Boston Common but at the 160 or so protests around the Commonwealth wearing GREEN ARMBANDS. 

Keep your GREEN ARMBANDS handy as we move into Earth Week in collaboration with ThirdAct, 350 MA, Mothers Out Front, Sierra Club, Sunrisers, XtinctionRebellion, and more! We're showing up with these green armbands, so people will see us not as our various groups but as a CLIMATE MOVEMENT. With over 1200 subscribers to this newsletter all over the state, ECA members are planning, hosting and participating in programs and actions everywhere!

Maiyim Baron

Talking to your friends, family, and neighbors about climate change is an easy activity. For Earth Day (April 22) and Earth Week (April 18-26), Campaign Nonviolence is inviting Elders Climate Action to ask its chapters and local groups to host a Solutions Circle or Solutions Sit-In on environmental solutions.

These fun and uplifting gatherings can be living room gatherings, potlucks, book club discussions, outdoor picnics, or community center events. If local groups want to take bolder action, they can also hold Solutions Sit-Ins at decision-makers' offices. It's easy! We have a collection of stories about environmental solutions and a toolkit with a step-by-step guide to how to host a Solutions Circle/Sit-In. You can also mobilize your folks to take action on a specific solution as part of your ongoing campaign.

On Earth Day (April 22) or during Earth Week (April 18-26), you can celebrate and popularize these heartening stories by hosting a Solutions Circle. Gather your friends, explore environmental solutions, discuss them together, and take action to share the solutions with others. It’s simple, hopeful, inspiring … and much needed.  

Connect with MaiyimBaron@gmail.com if you'd like to talk about this more, and please do let her know what you're planning. She can also help by getting you a list of ECA folks in your area.

It’s easy to hold a Solutions Circle:

1. Gather a group
2. Explore climate solutions
3. Take action to share solutions with others

Maiyim Baron

In celebration of Earth Day 2026, we invite you to join Third Act MA, Bill McKibben, and Boston Interfaith Climate Allies (BICA) for ONE SUN, ONE EARTH, ONE PEOPLE - A SACRED CELEBRATION.  

Gather at "The Embrace" on the Boston Common at 1:30 PM to celebrate our Earth, proceed to The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul across Tremont Street, where Bill McKibben, Founder of Third Act and an environmental leader, will share his knowledge of the climate crisis that we face. Afterwards, with music and singing, we will step out on the steps and proclaim our solidarity with our Earth. MORE INFO TO COME!

Maiyim Baron

Massachusetts' Bottle Bill is now over 43 years old - and way out of date.

Please sign the petition to update the Bottle Bill and let our state legislators know you support legislation to change it.

For more info on the proposed law, now in the Senate Ways & Means Committee, see here.

Dave Damm-Luhr

Dear ECA Massachusetts Chapter Members,

We’re reaching out to ask for your help to continue our public awareness and legislative advocacy efforts! Our fundraising goal this year is $4,600, but we are still about $1,000 shy of that amount. That’s what we need to maintain our website, produce legislator and member info material, communicate with our members, and buy necessary audio-visual equipment and educational materials. We rely on donations rather than membership fees to do this work. Please donate what you can to help us meet that critical goal!

The ECA Mass Chapter is known for its careful analysis of legislation and trustworthy advocacy. We have developed positive working relationships with a growing number of legislators and their staff. And our efforts to develop beneficial working relationships with allies such as Mothers Out Front (MOF), 350MA, Acadia Center, Third Act, The Environmental League of Massachusetts (ELM), Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and Mass Power Forward (MPF) have grown stronger with every interaction.

The ECA Mass teams work hard to keep advocating for the most relevant energy and climate legislation and policies we need moving forward. Our chapter meetings, Deep Dialogues, and newsletters all support those efforts. 

If you value the work that the ECA Mass Chapter has been doing, we appreciate your support at this time. 

Click this DONATE button now. 

(Note: If you are paying by check or through an IRA, be sure to designate ECA Mass as the recipient in the memo line.)

Thank you from the ECA Mass Leadership Team.

Maiyim Baron

Arnie Epstein

Tina Grosowsky

Rick Lent

Roger Luckmann

Launa Zimmaro

If you would like to become more involved with ECA Mass on one of our teams (Communication, Education, Legislative, Membership or Research) please contact Tina Grosowsky, tgrosowsky@verizon.net.

Tina Grosowsky

We send announcements of our meetings and Action Alerts to eca-mass@googlegroups.com, which includes all those on our active list. 

Please contact Dawn Edell if you want to confirm you are on our active list.

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Did you miss an ECA Mass Chapter Meeting or Deep Dialogue? Or do you want to share one with friends and family? 

We have you covered! Videos of past chapter meetings are here and videos of past deep dialogues are here.