ECA Mass July 2023 Newsletter

July 2023 Newsletter

ECA Mass Meetings & Live Actions

URGENT! ACTION CALL

TUESDAY, JULY 18 @ Noon

We know that the heartbreaking timeline of the climate crisis will affect the grandchildren we love. Join us in calling for bold and urgent action.

We will be hosting a live Action call to provide actions and instructions to contact our legislators to urge them to vote the climate bills out of committee soon!!

On the call we will:

Describe the urgency of the moment.
Engage in brief breakout rooms to discuss and personalize actions.
Give instructions on how to call or email your legislators.

Take Action! RSVP here.

DEEP DIALOGUE

MONDAY, JULY 31

4-5:30 PM ET, Zoom

Reducing Air Travel

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82073609425?pwd=ZmdESzFiWkxkdDlQQWs4anZ2bkNHQT09

Feeling guilty about flying

When it comes to air travel, many older climate activists are in the same ~~boat~~ airplane; flying and feeling lousy about it. Aren’t these our golden years? That brief window of time between ages 65 and 85 when we have both the time and money to travel and the health to allow it? Why, then, should we have any guilt about flying? Oh yeah, climate change.

Air travel is bad for the climate

It turns out, air travel is very carbon intensive; it’s the fastest way, hour for hour, to heat the planet. In most cases, it’s more harmful than driving. A single roundtrip transatlantic flight emits 8 months of a person’s sustainable carbon budget of 2.5 tons carbon per year. And air travel has major equity implications - in the US, 68 percent of all flights are taken by the 12 percent of the population who fly six or more times per year.

We need to talk about it

I say this as a person who is still flying. I’m one of the many upper middle class climate activists who prefers not to think about the carbon impact of flying, because I’m not sure I could give it up. This has resulted in severe cognitive dissonance for me, that uncomfortable feeling that arises when thoughts, ideals, and actions are not in alignment. I suspect this is true for others. What to do about this inconvenient truth? First, we need to talk about it openly and honestly. That's why the ECA Mass July 31 Deep Dialogue is on Reducing Air Travel.

Our presenters:

● Dan Castrigano, Organizer at Flight Free USA. Dan will discuss the climate impact of air travel and how we can mitigate some of those harms.

● Professor Marianne Krasny, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell, and author of In This Together: Connecting with your Community to Combat the Climate Crisis. Marianne will talk about how our own ordinary acts can influence and inspire collective and widespread change.

We can do this!

The goal of the Dialogue is to help people work through this difficult issue, not by shaming them to forswear air travel, but by analyzing the data and encouraging practical commitments to reduce it and/or offset it in a meaningful way. We hope this presentation will catalyze the creation of climate activist social networks, with the goal of creating a common mechanism to offset air travel, without the greenwashing.

Seth Evans

Deep Dialogue Series

This important Deep Dialogue is being planned as part of a series with a common theme: Making Difficult Climate Decisions with Family and Friends. The series will focus on the fact that the climate emergency will not allow us to postpone reducing our personal carbon emissions until 2030 or 2050. And reducing carbon emissions is not just about big-ticket purchases such as EVs, solar panels, and heat pumps, though these are all important steps, if we can afford them. Some of our high-carbon-emitting lifestyle habits will also need to be curbed. The next two topics in this series will be:

Reducing consumption of meat and dairy: Monday, August 28
Reducing food waste : Date TBD

This Week! Help Amplify Testimony

on ECA Mass Priority Bills

Your Legislative Team is submitting testimony on two of our priority bills to the Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Committee (TUE) on July 12 and 13. The bills are:

S.2105/H.3203: An Act relative to the future of clean heat in the Commonwealth; this provides a comprehensive plan to transition off gas.

H.3694: An Act relative to the clean heat standard; this creates incentives/penalties for fossil fuel providers to support a transition to clean, electric heating in MA buildings.

You'll be receiving an Action Alert to encourage and support you in sending messages to your legislators.

If you're interested in attending the hearings virtually or in person, or submitting your own testimony, you can find out more at the links below.

On July 17 and 19, TUE will hold hearings on three more of our priority bills:

S.2365/H.3232: An Act establishing a zero carbon renovation fund; this calls for $300 million to fund building retrofits.
S.2178/H3213: An Act relative to better buildings; this calls for performance standards to decarbonize large building.
S.2144/H.3192: An Act relative to building energy and decarbonization; this addresses decarbonization of buildings with a comprehensive proposal.

Tina Grosowsky

It's Hot Out! Help Shave the Peak

When record-setting heat bears down on us, the demand for electricity skyrockets, stressing our electric grid and forcing utilities to fire up so-called peaker plants, in order to meet the demand. Peaker plants are the dirtiest and most expensive fossil fuel plants. On a peak day, demand for electricity can be twice as high, but prices can be ten times as high as non-peak days.

But we energy consumers actually have a say in whether peaker plants are used; we can choose to use less electricity during those late afternoon hours when demand soars on the hottest summer days (and coldest winter days). If the sum of these individual actions reduces peak demand sufficiently, the plants remain idle, helping the climate and saving us all money. Many corporations are already doing this.

In the long run, replacing all fossil fuel power plants with clean energy is essential. But until then, you can help shave the peak by signing up for alerts about when to decrease energy usage through the Green Energy Consumer Alliance’s Shave the Peak program. Sign up here.

Seth Evans

ECA Mass Gets Research Grant

Study to Look at Western Mass Attitudes About Offshore Wind

ECA Mass recently received a $4,400 research grant from the Environmental League of Massachusetts (ELM) to support offshore wind advocacy north and west of Springfield. This work will investigate the hypothesis that the farther away Massachusetts communities are from the coast, the less engaged they are with offshore wind initiatives. ECA Mass is a member of the New England for Offshore Wind Coalition and ELM is the Coalition's host.

Offshore wind is critical to decarbonizing the State. It will require massive investments and the coordination of many actors. It's new and vulnerable to apathy, misinformation, and controversy. All Massachusetts residents need to understand the importance of this climate change mitigation strategy.

The Western Massachusetts landscape is dotted with small towns. Research by Nonprofit Vote indicates that local libraries are hubs of energy in such locales. We'll seek advice from the Blue Marble Librarians to identify and work with activists who are both already knowledgeable about offshore wind and/or would want to be involved with this emergent industry. We anticipate that students from institutions such as Westfield State’s Wind Energy Center will also participate in this research.

Objectives include:

Developing presentations and materials on the benefits of offshore wind to small, non-coastal communities
Interacting with local institutions, businesses, and politicians to promote offshore wind
Activating social media to focus on offshore wind

This pilot will begin in 3-4 towns with approximately 10,000 people. What towns would you suggest? Email Michael at mjsales@comcast.net.

Michael Sales

Seaweed, Baby Ducks, and Green Crabs

Book Review & Interview

I have tremendously enjoyed reading all of Susan Shetterly Hand’s books, including her most recent, Notes On The Landscape of Home. In this book, she writes eloquently about specific places in the local landscape which are undergoing changes that negatively affect local environments, animals, and birds. She also writes about dedicated individuals and groups that are working to address the changes and bring a balance back to the areas.

I loved her photographic description of the baby Eider ducks, which use the rockweed to hide from hawks and eagles while feeding. I learned so much about both the usefulness of seaweed, not only for food and nutrients for humans, but also its function as a home to many creatures in the sea. I was fascinated by the work to understand the explosion in the population of green crabs, which have taken over the natural habitat of other crabs and eat the small snails that are an important food source for other birds and animals. The green crabs eat soft-shelled clams and also dig up eelgrass and burrow into salt water marsh banks.

Susan is an author, naturalist, and trained bird rehabilitator who has written several books about the Maine seashore environment and the people who live and work there. She has developed a special intimacy with the area near the Blue Hill peninsula, where she has lived for the past 50 years and writes so beautifully about. I spent an hour talking via Zoom with Susan about her life in Maine, her writing, and her understanding of the effects of climate change on her local environment.

As she interviews scientists, researchers, and those working on the land and water, she shares the urgency of understanding what is happening to the local birds, seaweed, and mammals that live both on land and in the water. The people she talks with are researching and working on restoring harms.

Susan's writing is a warm grounding in the natural system that we depend on and which is facing an existential crisis because of global warming. She gives me hope that understanding more about the complexities of the environment will inspire younger generations to continue to work to address the climate crisis with urgency.

At the end of the interview, we discussed her interest in what she can do in her own home to personally make an impact. She said she’s exploring changes in how she heats and cools her house. I sent her contact information about the Maine Energy Efficiency program, for which she was thankful; I’m sure she’ll research clean energy alternatives to her home heating and cooling systems.

Tina Grosowsky

ECA Mass Speaks Out

Using our Voices to Support Important Legislation

Support Solar AND Natural Lands

The ECA Mass Natural Solutions Team went to bat on Beacon Hill again, this time in support of Senate Bill 2150/House Bill 3225, An Act to encourage solar development on built and disturbed land. Glen Ayers, Betty Krikorian, and Rick Lent all submitted their comments in support of this bill.

As Betty wrote in her testimony, “A conflict has developed between advocates for two important climate mitigation goals: preservation of our forests and natural lands and generation of solar energy. Current laws and business incentives favor the solar industry and solar installations are too often being deployed to the detriment of forests and natural lands and the communities where solar development is occurring.”

Forests Sequester Carbon

Rick argued, “Why is it so important to protect undisturbed natural lands and forests from development for large-scale solar? Because we need to do more than just meet our GHG reduction goals to survive on this planet and recent research shows that undisturbed forests sequester carbon in significantly greater quantities and for far longer than is commonly believed (see New Trees Are No Substitute for Old Trees). We also must protect the plant and insect diversity that makes the whole world work. Without insects, we can’t survive. A 2021 synthesis of more than 80 insect studies found that insect abundance is declining by 1-2% each year. By 2050, we may not have the insect life necessary for our ecosystems to function.

Support Community Solar

“Massachusetts must both meet our GHG reduction goals and protect biodiversity. This act…will support new community solar projects in the built and disturbed environment. Such community solar projects allow renters to access the benefits of solar…It will limit or stop efforts to clear natural, undisturbed land for large-scale solar installations. There is plenty of disturbed land, roof-tops, and parking lots that can be used instead.”

Incentivize Solar in the Built Environment

Betty continued, “We do need both forest and land conservation and solar power, but it makes no sense for this to be an either/or proposition. We need to both maximize climate change mitigation and meet our state clean energy goals. However, the incentives in our current laws make it more advantageous for solar developers to buy and clear-cut forested lands to put up solar arrays than for developers to seek out disturbed lands, large rooftops, or to construct parking lot canopies where solar installations can be built. Using such sites for solar development could be a win/win proposition that provides solar power while saving our trees.”

Tell Your Rep/Senator!

Please consider telling your state representative or senator that you support Senate Bill 2150/House Bill 3225, An Act to encourage solar development on built and disturbed land.

Rick Lent

Want to Educate Yourself About Plastics?

Plastics & The Future Of Our Planet: A Conversation With Bill McKibben &

Elizabeth Kolbert

Weds, July 12 at 7 PM

On Zoom

Join us for a conversation about plastics and the future of our planet with environmental leader and author, Bill McKibben, and Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Elizabeth Kolbert, moderated by Beyond Plastics president and former U.S. EPA regional administrator, Judith Enck. Register here.

Sponsored by Beyond Plastics

We Speak for the Trees

Protecting Forests

is a Key Part of

Climate Mitigation

Rally to Protect October Mountain State Forest

On June 17, about 45 activists converged on October Mountain State Forest in Washington, MA to attend a rally and to speak in favor of protecting the mature trees growing at this publicly-owned forest. At 16,500 acres, October Mountain is the largest State Forest in Massachusetts, and many people think that this Public Trust Forest should form the core of a larger protected area of intact forests in Western Mass that should be made off-limits to logging and managed similarly to a National Park.

DCR Plans to Sell Timber from the Forest

ECA member Glen Ayers traveled from Greenfield to attend the rally, representing the ECA Natural Solutions Working Group. The rally was organized by Susan Purser of Preserve October Mountain State Forest and Janet Sinclair of Save Massachusetts Forests, and highlighted the threats to our State Forests from the very agency, DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation), tasked with their protection. DCR intends to sell off the standing timber to private loggers; forest protection activists argue that our publicly-owned forests or “Public Trust Forests” should be fully recognized for the essential role that they play in drawing down CO2 from the overburdened atmosphere during this time of climate emergency.

Old Growth Forests = Climate Mitigation

During the Baker Administration, the management of our State Forests and Parks was mostly turned over to the timber interests and private loggers, who received millions of dollars in state subsidies to chop down our oldest forest stands. The oldest, or Mother Trees, are the ones that both contain the most stored carbon and also have the greatest number of connections to the surrounding trees, helping to guide and raise the younger trees and smaller plants in the forest. Unfortunately, the oldest and biggest trees are also being targeted for cutting, since they contain the most wood and are prized economically. Forest protection activists maintain that these trees are more valuable when left standing, where they will continue to grow for hundreds of years, a concept that has been termed Proforestation by scientists.

Healey Moratorium

The good news is that thanks to activism, the Healey Administration has enacted a one-year moratorium on the logging of the Commonwealth’s Public Trust Forests. The Administration has also begun the process of determining just how important our forests are to the goal of reaching net-zero by 2050, and recently announced the Climate-Focused Forestry Initiative and unveiled the Forests as Climate Solutions webpage. This means there will be plenty of opportunities for climate activists to join with allies and help influence state policies on forest protection and climate mitigation efforts.

Forests Need Permanent Protection

All of this is especially important in light of the recent release of the groundbreaking report Wildlands in New England, which found that in Massachusetts, only 3 percent of our forests are permanently protected, and of that small amount, 90 percent is publicly-owned and has the weakest level of protection - it is only administratively designated as reserves, something that can be changed at a whim by the Governor. Because of the climate emergency, now is the time to take action to permanently protect our forests, especially our Public Trust Forests. The Natural Solutions Working Group will be following this issue closely. We invite you to get involved and make a difference. We can change bad policies based on outdated thinking, if we all work together. Interested in learning more about the Natural Solutions team? Email ecanaturalsolutions@gmail.com.

Glen Ayers

Actions to Support Allies

Stop Private Jet Expansion

in Massachusetts

Bill McKibben (Third Act), Neil Rasmussen (Save Our Heritage), and Kannan Thiruvengadam (East Boston/Eastie Farm), who are fighting to prevent a major private jet expansion at Hanscom Airfield or anywhere, held an informational webinar on June 21 about the community-led campaign fighting this disastrous project. You can watch a recording of the event here .

Kannan Thiruvengadam of Eastie Farm in East Boston highlighted the urgency of action to fight climate injustice.
Neil Rasmussen, president of Save Our Heritage, presented recent research on the impacts of the proposed development on state and municipal climate goals.
Bill McKibben, internationally recognized climate change expert and activist, addressed why he calls Hanscom a “zombie project from the fossil fuel era.”
Dan Zackin, Legislative Coordinator 350 Mass, briefly discussed the Make Polluters Pay campaign.

Sponsored by the Coalition to Stop Private Jet Expansion at Hanscom or Anywhere (including Mothers Out Front Chapters in Acton, Bedford, Concord, East Boston, Lincoln, and Winthrop). Website: Stopprivatejetexpansion.org

Find us on Social Media

Join over 1300 ECA Mass members who have been following us on Facebook. Our Facebook page features listings of upcoming events (in-person and Zoom), news about climate change solutions, carbon saving ideas, and links to other organizations’ events, and more.

Visit the ECA Mass Facebook page and click the like button!

Phillip Sego

This Newsletter is Published for Members and Friends of the

Elders Climate Action - Massachusetts Chapter

ECA Massachusetts is a chapter of the national Elders Climate Action. We are a movement of elders committed to making our voices heard... to change our nation's policies while there is still time to avoid catastrophic changes in the Earth's climate. Visit the ECA Massachusetts website, event calendar, and Facebook page to learn more about our chapter's activities and climate news. JOIN ECA MASSACHUSETTS AND STAY CONNECTED! Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, and for more active participation, sign up to receive Action Alerts and meeting announcements. Fill out our subscription form.