November 2020 Newsletter
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We voted and helped maintain our democracy!
And now our climate work continues...
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A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who voted - and to the many ECA Massachusetts members who worked tirelessly with the Elders Stand for Fair Elections campaign to get out the vote in key states all over the country, to protect the results, and to defend our democracy. We have much to celebrate!
Now, after some deep breaths and rest, ECA Massachusetts is continuing the urgent climate work that is our core mission: to mobilize elders and society to address the climate crisis while there's still time to protect the well-being of our grandchildren and future generations.
Please join us in this important effort! We need you more than ever. Come to our chapter meeting tomorrow, November 10. And read more below about our activities and plans for the weeks ahead.
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In this Issue
- Save the Date
- Our Focus in the Coming Weeks
- Climate Science and Pathways to Net Zero
- Environmental Justice
- Recent ECA MA Activities
- NEW FEATURE! What We're Reading...
- Nature's Best Hope
- Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal
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ECA Massachusetts Monthly Chapter Meeting. This month features a presentation by Arnie Epstein, the first of a four-part series from our Research Team for Massachusetts climate activists who want to understand and participate in the state's planning to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This presentation, Getting to and beyond Net Zero - a Massachusetts Approach, will cover:
- Why we must go beyond net zero to “net negative” emissions.
- Progress the state has made to date in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- Core principles and challenges moving forward.
Future presentations in November, December and January will take a closer look at the key sectors and how we can achieve our goals. Please join us!
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1:00 PM EST
Climate Conversations, a monthly program sponsored by the Chelmsford Climate Action Team, focuses this month on Sustainability in Chelmsford, with a talk by Melissa Joyce, the town's Sustainability Director.
Electrification and Other Strategies to Reduce State Emissions, Part 2 of the climate series by our Research Team
Stay current! Check the ECA Massachusetts website event calendar and Facebook page. To get all our Action Alerts and meeting announcements, email Dawn Edell, dawnedell1017@gmail.com, and ask her to move you from the “Newsletter Subscriber only” list and put you on our ECA Massachusetts “Activist” list.
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Our Focus in the Coming Weeks
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Preparing Climate Activists to Get Massachusetts
to Net Zero and Beyond
The Baker administration has committed Massachusetts to getting to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and legislation confirming this goal may still be passed this year. The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs is preparing a study that will identify emission reduction pathways to get us to that target, and we will all have an opportunity for input into the process of choosing the optimal pathways. We will need to address how - and how quickly - to cut emissions from buildings, and from the transportation, industrial, agricultural, and electric power sectors, as well as approaches for the state to sequester carbon through our natural resources.
To prepare climate activists to fully and effectively engage in that process, ECA Massachusetts is presenting a four-part series that will provide us with the basic knowledge, facts, and figures needed to make sense out of the alternative pathways to net zero and the many challenges they pose. Join us for one or more of the presentations and get ready to help Massachusetts reach net zero and beyond.
Part 1: Nov. 10 – Getting to and beyond Net Zero – a Massachusetts Approach
Part 2: Nov. 30 – Electrification and Other Strategies to Reduce State Emissions
Part 3: Dec. 14 – Achieving 100% Clean Electricity in Massachusetts
Part 4: January date TBD – Beyond Emissions Reductions – Pathways to Net Negative in Massachusetts
Environmental Justice and ECA Massachusetts
Environmental justice (EJ) is a key component of our vision for an equitable, greener future environment that benefits us all. It is part of our mission statement. It is something we have supported in legislation and in our actions to stop a new gas line in Roxbury and to resist siting a compressor station in the EJ community of Weymouth. But we, along with all other Massachusetts climate change organizations, are becoming increasingly aware that we need to be doing more to support EJ and related concerns. In the coming year, you can expect ECA Massachusetts to devote greater attention to building our EJ awareness and actions.
This winter, we plan to hold one or more Deep Dialog sessions and a chapter meeting focused on increasing our individual and collective understanding of EJ concerns. We will be identifying ways to consistently apply EJ principles in our legislative and educational activities. We also will be exploring how ECA Massachusetts can become a better ally to the frontline organizations in marginalized communities that are addressing economic needs, racial justice, and other social issues, as well as environmental and climate concerns.
Want to know more? Please contact Tina, Roger or Rick for more information.
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Recent ECA Massachusetts Activities
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October 13 -
Monthly Chapter Meeting
Our October chapter meeting focused on Our Election, Our Democracy, with a presentation by ECA Massachusetts Leadership Team member Roger Luckmann: What's at Stake in the Election for the Climate?
Roger reviewed how each year brings new temperature records and increasingly frequent severe weather - hurricanes, floods, droughts. Forest fires are becoming widespread, along with mass deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, rapidly melting Arctic ice, and numerous other indications of a changing climate. Except for a brief pause resulting from the global pandemic, greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, foretelling increasing disasters in the years ahead. As Roger explained, our country must take a leading role if this future is to be averted. The programs and policies enacted by the next administration will determine whether this is possible. Roger examined the likely outcomes in his presentation. If you missed the meeting or want to check the details again, see his presentation slides here or at the home page of our website.
Our popular first-Tuesday-of-the-month chapter meetings are easy to attend wherever you live - via Zoom - with timely topics, interesting speakers, and opportunities to meet other elders who want to learn more about climate change and take action. We hope you'll join us for a future event!
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November 5 - Forest Trip
Our September 29 forest field trip to the Muddy Brook Wildlife Management Area was such a success that we scheduled another forest outing on November 5. This time, eighteen ECA Massachusetts members joined other activists to see the remaining Old Growth Forest at the Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, only about an hour's drive from Metro Boston. The field trip was educational; member Glen Ayers told us about forest cycles and the part they play in carbon drawdown. And it was a beautiful day for a hike. Some of us climbed all the way to the top of Mt. Wachusett!
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Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
Douglas Tallamy (Timber Press, 2019)
If you have watched David Attenborough’s new movie A Life on Our Planet, you know his argument on the importance of re-wilding our neighborhoods to saving species and the planet. Douglas Tallamy’s book tells you just what is involved…at the scale of your own backyard. It’s a well-illustrated, well-written book (with plenty of references) that might change how you look at your garden and the birds and insects that inhabit it. Tallamy is a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware. His research focuses on how insects rely on very specific attributes of various plants and how the plant/insect interactions determine the quantity and diversity of animal communities. A warning: you will never look at your lawn the same way again! I know it’s changing some of my garden practices…and recommendations for public gardens where I live.
--Rick Lent
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Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal
Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin (Verso, 2020)
The main theme of this short, dense, very informative book is that the needed transformation of our energy system to avoid global catastrophe is enormous but is economically feasible. Pollin (a progressive economist from UMass Amherst) details what’s required: a $2.6 trillion investment in clean energy and energy efficiency, worldwide, every year, half of which would come from public funds and half from private sources. Regarding these private sources, Pollin writes that we will “need to bring big private capitalist firms into the mix, though they will have to be heavily regulated.” Chomsky approvingly quotes from a study by Jeffrey Sachs, pointing out that decarbonizing the US economy can be carried out with a much smaller effort than many people assert: we need to devote only 1 to 2 percent of GDP per year through 2050, as compared with about one-third of GDP paid out by the federal government to support World War II. Regarding capitalism and climate change, Chomsky points out that if private profit remains the guiding principle of the economy, there is no hope and that “[i]f policies and practices continue to follow the present course. . . [o]rganized social life will collapse.” But both he and Pollin say that there is not nearly enough time to ditch capitalism: we need to deal with climate change more urgently.
Two other topics (among many) that Chomsky and Pollin weigh in on: (a) while many activists think that stopping economic growth is important, the authors explain why they disagree with advocates of “degrowth;” and (b) the authors explain that a key aspect of the green new deal is ensuring that the changes we need to make in our energy system protect the well-being of people whose lives are currently tied to fossil fuel production.
As you can tell, this book is not an easy read, but I recommend it for those who want to delve into the details of how a global green new deal could work and why we need to push for it.
--Larry Rosenberg
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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.
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