State Rep Jeffrey Roy

Kathy Raiz, Beyond Plastics

Jonathan Schrier, UN

Raising Our Voices to Support Forest Protection and

Public Transit Electrification 

As committee hearing season is coming to a close, ECA Mass members made two more efforts to capture the attention of key committee chairs and members by submitting oral and written testimony in late November. Members who are curious about the hearing process can access hearing videos by clicking on the “hearing” links below. You can always fast forward until you see a familiar ECA Mass face.

Save the Trees

At a hearing before the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, ECA Mass members Betty Krikorian, Glen Ayers, and Rick Lent (along with over 20 other forest protect advocates) testified in favor of H.4150, An Act Relative to Forest Protection. They asked the committee to choose to preserve our public forests as essential natural ecosystems as the best means we have to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. A key message from our team was that it is the mature, older forest which sequesters the most carbon. Allowing forests to do what they do naturally optimizes both carbon removal from the atmosphere and long-term carbon storage. Older trees do this better than younger ones.

Electrify our Transit

The Joint Committee on Transportation held a hearing on over four dozen bills dealing with topics from state road repair to the electrification of our mass transit system. Jeff Clark of the Transportation Working Group testified in favor of An Act electrifying regional transit authorities (S.2285/H.3366) and An Act relative to setting deadlines to electrify the MBTA commuter rail (S.2217/H.3392). These are ECA Mass highest priority bills before the Transportation Committee, as well as priorities of our allies, the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Coalition and Green Energy Consumer Alliance.

Many members of this ZEV Coalition testified on the various benefits of these two transit electrification bills, including:

• Meeting our greenhouse gas reduction goals, as transportation contributes over 20 percent of total emissions.
• Reducing the effects of air pollution. Vehicles are responsible for an estimated 2,800 deaths per year in Massachusetts.
• Advancing environmental justice, since transit is a lifeline for low-income residents.
• Getting cars off the road. Our climate goals require reducing vehicle miles traveled.

Electric Grid Needs Upgrades

The Legislative Team has also been delving into reforming the permitting process for siting the infrastructure required to expand our electric grid. We will need new substations and transmission lines to support the dramatic increase in demand for electricity that is necessary to decarbonize our buildings and transportation. But cities and towns and residents can make it difficult or impossible to build grid infrastructure in a timely fashion by using administrative means to oppose permits. The challenge is to empower residents with legitimate local concerns, while limiting the ability of those with less serious concerns to hold up the process. We will be exploring equitable means to balance local opposition with the critical need for infrastructure with key legislators in January.

Action Alerts Coming

At our next few meetings we will be developing strategies for moving our legislative agenda as committees begin voting on bills in January. Be on the lookout for Action Alerts that may call on members in specific key districts to advocate for some of our bills with their legislators. A few constituents of an influential legislator can sometimes be a catalyst for a legislator’s action that tips the balance in favor of a bill at a crucial moment.

Interested in learning more about our team and what role you can play in our efforts? Email Roger Luckmann at roger.luckmann@umassmed.edu.

Jeff Clark, Rick Lent, & Roger Luckmann

Are you looking to break away from plastic toys for the little ones and unneeded tchotchkes for their bigger friends and relatives? Are you giving some thought to lightening YOUR carbon footprint this holiday and not generating so much trash? We are too, and I have a few ideas for you.

Ditch the Plastic Decorations

Think twice when you’re tempted by cheap plastic decorations – do you really need them? How about getting outdoors and collecting some pinecones and branches? Don’t cover your tree in plastic tinsel anymore. It’s such a pain to remove, and most municipalities won’t take your tree if it has tinsel on it – they can’t chip them up and add that to their composting – so don’t even start.

Use Real Dishes & Flatware

Entertaining? Isn’t it time to get out that good china again? You know how pampered and special your guests feel when you use your real dishes and cutlery. Or you can buy reusable – and re-use them! Give yourself the gift of reusable bamboo and you’ll be set for more entertaining to come. But be wary of other “greenware” party utensils – most of those “plant-based plastics” are not recyclable or compostable, or only break down into smaller and smaller microplastics which often contaminate the plastic recycling stream. Get your grandkids off plastic tableware with rainbow colored stainless the little ones love from AhimsaHome (I know, I got this for my grands.)

Experiences as Gifts

Think recycled items and shop at resale shops or get away from thinking about items at all! My family has gotten used to and loves the EXPERIENTIAL gifts I give them, when I buy them tickets to a play or musical event they want to attend during the holiday season or after.

Stores to Support

Thinking about holiday food, you can shop online or in person at places like Debra's Natural Gourmet in Concord or Assabet Co-op Market in Maynard. Or send your family or friends sweets or a catered meal from them - who wouldn’t love a gift like that? And maybe they’ll invite you to join them, too.

Biodiversity for a Livable Climate is one of ECA Mass’ oldest allies. Founder Adam Sacks’ daughter, Ceilidh, co-founded and runs YES! the wonderful plastic-free refills store in Arlington, in the same block as the Arlington Capitol Cinema and very accessible.  

Homespun, the Waldorf School store whose mission is to enrich students’ lives with high-quality art and craft supplies, toys, books and games that feature products made with natural materials is online or you can go visit them at 703 Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington.

Check out this plastic free gift giving guide from the Plastic Pollution Coalition for a whole list of stores and online shops for a plastic FREE-er holiday season this year.

For more ideas come to our monthly chapter meeting on Tuesday December 12th to hear more from our Beyond Plastics speaker and let’s make this the first of many more Plastic FREE-er Holidays!

Maiyim Baron

We know that plastic pollution is bad. It simply lasts forever in the environment, compromising natural systems and often killing fish and animals. Many of us avoid using plastic shopping bags or plastic straws. What other steps can we take, even small ones, to reduce plastic waste in our lives? Here are 4 examples from my own home:

• No more plastic pens. I switched to fountain pens - remember those? They are fun to write with and can last a lifetime. One refillable fountain pen and a glass bottle of ink can replace dozens of disposable, plastic ball point pens.
• Solid shampoo and conditioner. I used to go through multiple plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner each year. But last year, I switched to solid shampoo and conditioner. It’s like a small bar of soap that you hold in your hand as you rub it across your head. It comes in different formulations for different hair types. And even the packaging is non-plastic.
• No more plastic dispensers of dental floss. A year ago, I switched from plastic packages of dental floss to small cardboard packages. After you use the 100 yards of floss, you can recycle the whole package with other paper products.
• Milk in glass bottles. Yes, this is still a thing! If you look around you can find milk in old-fashioned, returnable milk bottles.

Perhaps you have some favorite ways to remove plastic from your life. I’d love to hear about them.

Rick Lent

Satisfactory? Needs Improvement? Both? Those are some of the summary assessments that readers will find in the Healey administration’s first annual climate report card.

According to the report, the state is on track for its 2025 goals, but a major acceleration in progress will be needed to meet the 2030 and 2050 legally required goals set out by the Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy, passed into law in March, 2021, including reaching net zero carbon emission by 2050.

The report card, legally required by the Roadmap Act, details some of the gains and challenges made during the preceding year in each sector of concern: electricity generation, transportation, buildings, and nature-based solutions that can sequester carbon. It also assesses progress in addressing climate resilience and environmental justice.

So what grade would you give our efforts? Read the report and you will probably agree that however well we have done, we definitely need to step up our game to reach our goals, especially in the building sector, which faces the greatest challenges to decarbonization. If you care to share your own assessment, email us at massinfo@eldersclimateaction.org.

Seth Evans

This year is the 50^th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) which was signed into law on December 28, 1973. For over half a century, the ESA has proven to be one of the most effective wildlife conservation laws, credited with saving 99 percent of the species it protects. Today, hundreds of species are stable or improving, thanks to conservation actions undertaken by federal agencies, state and local governments, conservation organizations, and private citizens. Many others have recovered to self-sustaining levels and no longer depend on federal protection for survival. Much work remains to protect the approximately 1,700 federally listed species. Please join the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and many other conservation partners to celebrate successful species conservation. Major threats to native plants and wildlife continue to be habitat loss and invasive species. Increasingly, climate change is expanding the scope and complexity of stresses to our native flora and fauna. 

We can help native plants and wildife by planting with natives, planting pollinator gardens, volunteering with local conservation organizations, stopping the spread of invasive species, dimming lights at night (especially during peak of spring and fall bird migration), using decals on windows where bird collisions occur, and learning about recovery work happening in Massachusetts.

For more information see these five actions that may be taken to help native species.

Sherry Morgan

ECA Massachusetts is one of a number of Elders Climate Action chapters across the country. Our chapter directly benefits by being part of the ECA community. ECA provides support, resources, actions, campaigns, programming, and educational opportunities for our chapter members and members across the country. 

Members of the Massachusetts Chapter participate on the ECA Council of Chapters and other national committees, attend ECA's national calls, workshops, and special programs, and take action through ECA national alerts and newsletters. With ECA's coordination, our members are encouraged to work at the national, state, and local level, and collaborate with other ECA chapters and partner organizations to maximize our impact.  

This year, our parent organization, the national Elders Climate Action, needs our help to raise more than $25,000 between before the year end to meet its 2023 expenses. We are calling on our chapter members to help ensure ECA can fulfill its budget and enter 2024 ready to meet the growing challenges of the climate crisis. 

Can you help? Making a contribution is easy. Please click here to make a donation of whatever amount is comfortable for you.

Seth Evans