October 2020 Newsletter
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No Action by MA Legislature on Climate
this Session is Unacceptable!
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At the end of July, the Massachusetts House passed an amended Roadmap bill and sent it to a Conference Committee to be reconciled with previously passed Senate climate legislation. The 2050 Roadmap was ECA Massachusetts' top legislative priority, and we had worked hard for its passage. (Read more about the bill in our Summer 2020 newsletter.)
But now two months later, there are rumors of difficulties in the ongoing climate negotiations in the Conference Committee. We have heard concerns that the House and Senate representatives will not reach agreement in this session. While we know that the legislature still has a lot on its plate, failing to act on the good work done by both the House and Senate on climate legislation in 2020 is unacceptable! THE CLIMATE CRISIS WON’T WAIT FOR TWO MORE YEARS for Beacon Hill to reintroduce legislation in the next session! Our communities, families and economy all depend on clear and effective plans to address the climate crisis over the coming years. Do not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Chairs Golden and Barrett, we hope you are listening!
We'll keep monitoring the situation and share legislative updates and potential actions at our virtual ECA Massachusetts chapter meeting on Tuesday, October 13. And ECA members will meet up with climate allies for an outdoor "stand out" in Newton on Saturday, October 10, to remind our representatives and senators that we need climate legislation NOW. We hope you'll join us! See Save the Date, below.
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More in this Issue
- Save the Date
- ECA MA in the News
- Celebrating Success: Our Actions DO Make a Difference
- Weymouth Compressor Station Shuts Down
- Elders Stand for Fair Elections - High Impact Volunteers
- "Tweet Storm" to Add Climate Question to Debates
- ECA MA Field Trip Highlights Forest Management Issues
- More ECA MA Activities
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, Noon - 1 PM
ECA Massachusetts members will join Green Newton and 350 MASS Newton Node friends (wearing masks and socially distanced) in Newton Center (corner of Beacon and Centre Streets) to stand out for strong climate legislation. Bring signs and banners (and wear a green ECA t-shirt if you have one!) and remind our representatives and senators that we need strong climate legislation NOW.
ECA Massachusetts Monthly Chapter Meeting. Continuing the discussion begun in our October 5 Deep Dialogue, our chapter meeting will focus on Our Election, Our Democracy, with a presentation by our Research Team explaining What's at Stake for the Climate. Since it's not too late for high-impact action to get out the vote, ensure fair elections and protect our democracy, we’ll talk about what YOU can do in the coming weeks. And we'll take action together at the meeting! We'll also share the latest updates about the Roadmap bill on Beacon Hill and other ECA Massachusetts news.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 7:00 PM EDT
Climate Justice: What Does It Mean and What Can You Do?, a special Climate Conversation presentation by Nia Keith of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, in partnership with the Chelmsford Climate Action Team. Ms. Keith is the statewide Climate Change Education Manager at Mass Audubon and an advocate for education reform and climate justice.
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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ECA Massachusetts in the News! |
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"Rick Lent, a member of Elders Climate Action in Massachusetts, says he is motivated to act for his granddaughter. He recounts the time she said to him, 'Please tell me that there is something hopeful regarding the climate in our, in the future, because I'm going to be living with the repercussions, and I'm scared.'
Lent takes that request seriously and says that working on behalf of future generations translates into effective messaging. 'When you show up as a group of elders, and you're talking to your legislator, our pitch is, 'I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for my grandchildren.' So it gives you a whole different story about who you are and why you're doing this work.'"
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Celebrating Successes:
Our Actions DO Make a Difference!
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In the midst of these turbulent times, it's easy to get discouraged and wonder whether one person (or a group of elders like ECA Massachusetts) can be effective and really make a difference. Here are recent successes and good news to celebrate, about actions in which our members have played a role!
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Weymouth Compressor Station SHUTS DOWN!
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After two major accidents during testing prior to Enbridge’s projected October 1 start, and after demands from Rep. Lynch, and Senators Markey and Warren, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) shut down the fracked gas compressor station at Weymouth, until an independently verified investigation is completed. Prior to the second shutdown, the plant was scheduled to move into full operation Thursday, October 8. While both accidents released large amounts of natural gas into the surrounding neighborhoods, the second accident is particularly troublesome to regulators because the plant’s operators have no idea what caused it. The shutdown was reported widely in the local press.
But the battle is not over yet. ECA Massachusetts has joined many allied organizations over the past months in protesting the Weymouth Compressor station, and activists continue to pressure the Baker administration and Federal regulators to make the closing permanent. To that end, dozens of us marched and held signs on the Fore River Bridge on Saturday, October 3. We were buoyed by a powerful, emotional visit from the Red Rebels (pictured above), an international performance troupe dedicated to highlighting the global climate crisis.
Learn more about how you can support FRRACS (the Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station) at nocompressor.com.
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Elders Stand for Fair Elections
High Impact, High Leverage Volunteering
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Many ECA Massachusetts members have been volunteering over the past weeks and months with Elders Stand for Fair Elections (ESFE), a nonpartisan campaign of Elders Action Network and Elders Climate Action. Focusing on Get Out the Vote efforts in six key states where we can have the greatest impact, volunteers are reaching tens of thousands of people – to ensure that all eligible voters have accurate information to cast their vote safely, and with confidence that their vote will be counted. Volunteers shared success stories at an ESFE virtual Town Hall on October 7, showing that our individual and group efforts make a difference! The following is only a sampling of what ESFE volunteers are accomplishing in many states during these critical weeks before the November election:
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Packing food boxes with voting flyers for Second Harvest Food Bank to Leon and Gulf counties in Florida, reaching 3,000 households. (See photos.)
- Contacting progressive churches and faith organizations, providing weekly voter information for e-newsletters to congregations.
- Offering voter public service announcements (PSAs) to radio stations focusing on underserved communities. Due to one ESFE volunteer’s efforts, voter information is now reaching the entire Hualapai Native American Nation in Arizona through PSAs on KWLP Radio!
- Connecting with community colleges, getting voter and ballot information to college students.
- Phone banking to underrepresented and environmental voters. Volunteers told heart-warming stories of conversations with voters grateful for this one-on-one assistance in how to register, safely vote, and request mail-in ballots. One man in Georgia asked the ESFE volunteer to stay on the phone with him while he went to his computer and completed online signup for his absentee ballot, and then said he’d help his wife, son, and mother to do the same!
There are many more volunteer opportunities, and it’s not too late for high-impact outreach with ESFE! Learn more at the Elders Stand for Fair Elections website, https://eldersaction.org/fair-elections/, and sign up to help!
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"Tweet Storm" to Add Climate Question
at First Presidential Debate
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Before the Presidential debate on September 29, news reports revealed that moderator Chris Wallace's list of debate topics did NOT include climate. ECA Massachusetts members joined friends, family, and climate allies nationwide in a "tweet storm" demanding that climate be added to the debate list. And Chris Wallace listened. He asked questions about climate change! And the Vice Presidential candidates also faced climate questions at the October 7 debate! (Those of us elders who are rather new to Twitter are glad we learned how to tweet!)
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ECA Massachusetts Field Trip
Highlights Forest Management Issues
By Maiyim Baron (ECA Massachusetts Leadership Team)
With help from Janet Sinclair (Save Massachusetts Forests)
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Above: Grady McGonagill, ECA Massachusetts founder and leader emeritus,
and Janet Sinclair, of Save Massachusetts Forests
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Tuesday September 29 was a warm sunny day, and Boston area ECA members drove out to meet fellow member Bart Bouricius at the Quabbin Reservoir near Hardwick in Central Massachusetts. Bart had organized a field trip, to see what is going on at the Muddy Brook Wildlife Management Area (WMA). We were joined by Dr. Bill Stubblefield, a Harvard-trained biologist and forest protection activist, and Janet Sinclair from Save Massachusetts Forests, https://www.savemassforests.com/.
Some of the Muddy Brook property is owned by New England Forestry Foundation, which has granted a wildlife conservation easement (WCE) to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, to manage the area for wildlife. This management generally amounts to clear cutting the forest for hunting, all but for the technicality of leaving a few isolated trees here and there, although this project is nominally a “pine barrens restoration.” On our field trip we viewed the sorry state of 500 acres already cut at Muddy Brook and learned of the state’s plans to clear 600 more acres in the near future. This video by the Wendell State Forest Alliance, “The Pillage of Muddy Brook,” graphically shows results of the logging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw6mFGGeD9A&t=87s
Bill explained that over 90% of the 500 acres so far affected were in fact historically not pine barrens at all. Notably absent was the key species itself—pitch pine. Bart pointed out that the chestnut stump sprouts prevalent in the area are proof that these never were and likely never can be “pine barrens.” Effectively a clear cut, the heavy equipment used for logging compacts and damages the soil underneath. The top insulating layer of duff is also removed by the equipment, letting heat and cold penetrate the ground more than it naturally would, affecting vital microbial life.
These pine barrens projects themselves are controversial, but Muddy Brook is a case of very severe “management“ for no good reason. Left alone, this property would be more beneficial for native species habitat, and would store and sequester more carbon, allowing natural selection of local species populations, and creating more forest resiliency in the face of climate change and threats of fire (now increased due to the logging), than by cutting it all down.
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More ECA Massachusetts Activities |
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September 8 - Monthly Chapter Meeting
Perhaps we should call September "forest month" for ECA Massachusetts, since the September 29 Muddy Brook field trip was not our only forest activity. At our September chapter meeting, our speaker was Steve Long, Director of Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, whose illustrated presentation, "Natural Climate Solutions: Massachusetts Policy Update," focused on forests. The Nature Conservancy recognizes that reducing fossil fuel use is the most important thing we can do to fight climate change, but reducing fossil fuel use alone is not enough to reach the goal of "net zero" emissions. We must support policies that recognize and support natural climate solutions, and forests - including wildlands, woodlands, and trees in cities - are critical to those efforts in Massachusetts. Did you know that 67% of total terrestrial carbon storage in Massachusetts is in forests, and that approximately 7% of all carbon generated in the state is absorbed by forests? Steve gave us a detailed look at current and future state forest policies and strategies, which generated a lively discussion and Q&A session.
Steve shared his presentation slides so you can review this wealth of information if you missed the meeting or want to check the details again.
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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October 5 - Deep Dialogue
Our thought-provoking ECA Massachusetts Deep Dialogue series has been scheduled less frequently during this hectic pre-election season, but we met on October 5 for a special virtual conversation via Zoom about Our Election, Our Democracy. Facilitated by Leadership Team member Seth Evans, the discussion gave those of us who are anxious about the coming election an opportunity to talk about the different possible scenarios with ECA colleagues - and there were familiar faces and new people in attendance! This open-ended discussion built on readings recommended by Seth:
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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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