September 2020 Newsletter
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The November Election is Only Two Months Away
PLEASE VOTE!
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The mission of Elders Climate Action Massachusetts is to mobilize elders and society to address the climate crisis – while there is still time to protect the well-being of our grandchildren and future generations. Our members TAKE ACTION, together in teams, and individually. We lobby our lawmakers to pass pro-climate legislation; we submit op-eds and letters to the editor; we use social media to spread the word; we do research to inform our advocacy; we make presentations about climate change; we work with partner organizations; and WE VOTE.
The November election is only two months away, and the most important action we can take now, to impact climate policy – and all that we care about – is to VOTE. Together, we can ensure that our public officials understand the importance of climate action and the power of pro-climate voters.
Read more in this newsletter about how we’re working for safe and fair November elections, with the Elders Stand for Fair Elections (ESFE) campaign. Learn how you can volunteer NOW with one of the ESFE teams to help people vote safely and make a difference in these next nine weeks. And join other ECA Massachusetts members on Monday, September 21, for a Deep Dialogue about the November election (see Save the Date, below).
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In This Issue
- Save the Date
- Elders Stand for Fair Elections - Volunteer for 9 Weeks of Action
- ECA MA Endorses Offshore Wind Coalition
- It's the Homestretch for 2050 Roadmap Bill Advocacy
- Other ECA MA News
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ECA Massachusetts Chapter Monthly Meeting. This month our featured speaker is Stephen Long, Massachusetts Director of Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.
Steve will speak with us on how The Nature Conservancy recognizes that reducing fossil fuel use is the most important thing we can do to fight climate change. However, 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. “Natural climate solutions” are actions to protect, manage, and restore natural and working lands, such as forests, farms, and wetlands, to both reduce emissions from lands and to remove and store carbon that has already been emitted. Massachusetts has some of New England’s richest natural carbon resources in our forests, wetlands, and soils. With currently available practices, Massachusetts’ lands have the potential to remove and/or reduce an additional 1-2 million metric tons CO2e per year. Come hear Steve's update on Massachusetts and NGO efforts to enhance and improve public policy for natural climate solutions.
We will also hear an update from our Legislative/Policy Team on the status of the Roadmap Bill in the Mass House and Senate Joint Conference Committee, and how we can support the bill, and other current legislative matters. Please join us!
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1:00 PM EDT
Climate Conversations, monthly program sponsored by Chelmsford Climate Action Team and ECA Massachusetts. This month's guest is Jillian Wilson-Martin, Natick's Sustainability Manager, who leads the Town's climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. She will speak about Natick’s recent accomplishments, which include greening the Town's electricity aggregation program, implementing more than $1M in energy conservation measures, installing nearly two megawatts of municipal solar, expanding curbside recycling services, completing three MVP action grants, revising Natick's stormwater bylaw, and kicking off an energy resiliency study. We expect to learn a lot from her that will inform the work that Chelmsford and other towns are doing locally.
Deep Dialogue. ECA Massachusetts' thought-provoking conversation series is now meeting once a month. For September, we plan to focus on the November elections!
Stay current! Check the ECA Massachusetts website event calendar and Facebook page. To get all our Action Alerts and meeting announcements, email Dawn Edell, [email protected], 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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Volunteer for 9 Weeks of Action to Ensure Fair Elections in November! |
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On September 2, more than 100 people from across the United States gathered for a virtual Town Hall, organized by Elders Stand for Fair Elections (ESFE), a campaign of Elders Action Network and Elders Climate Action. National Campaign Leaders John Sorensen and Paul Dryfoos kicked off the Town Hall with an urgent call to action. "We are fighting a perfect storm of election disruption," they explained, a "fight for the future of our democracy," noting:
- Pervasive vote suppression affecting historically marginalized groups
- Unprecedented challenges to safe and fair voting due to COVID-19
- Untrue claims that mail-in voting is prone to fraud, while the majority of people want to vote by mail
- Disruption of the US Postal Service and other extreme acts of disenfranchisement.
With only two months until November, ESFE's national and state teams (Arizona, Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) are making a big push to scale up work to ensure a COVID-safe and fair election. At the innovative Town Hall, participants divided up into break-out rooms via Zoom for meetings with the team leaders, who described dozens of volunteer opportunities and called on everyone to help. ESFE needs organizers, researchers, phone bankers, social media and traditional media know-how.
See the Volunteer Form below, which lists all of the key campaigns and actions, and how you can sign up. Whatever your skills and interests, there is a role for you in this campaign! Fill out and submit the form by clicking on the button below.
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ECA Massachusetts Endorses Offshore Wind Coalition
By Betty Krikorian, Maiyim Baron and Tom Amiro
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On August 26, advocates for offshore wind power announced the formation of New England for Offshore Wind (NE4OSW), a new coalition of over 40 businesses, research institutions, environmental organizations and labor unions, intended to create a stronger regional voice to build support for offshore wind (OSW) development. On its website, and in a letter to New England governors, the group said, “We view offshore wind as the single biggest clean energy lever we can pull to address the climate crisis, and we celebrate that it also strengthens our regional economy, protects ratepayers, creates jobs, and improves public health by reducing pollution.” The organization “aims to drive New England governors and legislature to make commitments by 2022 to power one-third of our region with offshore wind.”
On August 31, ECA Massachusetts became an early endorser of the coalition and its goals, indicating our willingness to participate in advocacy opportunities and to have our logo displayed on coalition materials.
New England is particularly well suited for offshore wind facilities as we have strong and consistent offshore winds, a wide, shallow continental shelf that facilitates siting of wind turbines and a dense population with high energy demand along our coast.
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It's the Homestretch for Roadmap Bill Advocacy:
Please Contact Conference Committee Members!
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As we reported in our Summer newsletter, our top legislative priority, the 2050 Roadmap bill, now H.4912, passed the Massachusetts House on July 31 and is now in Conference Committee, where it will be reconciled with the Senate’s Climate Change bill, S.2500, before the final bill emerges.
ECA Massachusetts worked closely with Rep. Meschino, the bill’s author, and other climate change groups throughout the process, and we are now asking that you...
Write and call the Conference Committee members with the following message:
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Include all essential elements of the roadmap process, including the backcasting model development and initial review (Section 12 of H.4933), plus review of the model every 30 months
- Reduce time to key Roadmap planning deadlines as in Amendment 97
- Include all of Amendment 52 (Environmental Justice) as written in H.4933
When writing, these points are detailed further in the email template attached here. Please send the email to all six committee members. It doesn’t matter that you are not their constituent, but you may wish cc your own Representative and Senator when sending the email.
When you call the members’ offices, use the above talking points. For phone numbers of the Conference Committee members, click here.
Thanks for pushing this major climate legislation forward to victory!
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More ECA Massachusetts News |
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August 11 - Monthly Chapter Meeting
At our August chapter meeting we had the privilege of hosting author and activist Frances Moore Lappé, who spoke about her forthcoming book, It’s Not Too Late! Crisis, Opportunity, and the Power of Hope. Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, gained world-wide attention 50 years ago (and many of us still use her book in our kitchens!). Since then she has written nearly 20 books, the most recent of which is Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want.
We also celebrated progress! Our Legislative policy team explained what happened on Beacon Hill leading up to passage of the 2050 Roadmap bill, and next steps in Conference Committee. And Paul Dryfoos of our Leadership team updated us on the state and national Elders Stand for Fair Elections Campaign and volunteer opportunities.
Our popular first-Tuesday-of-the-month chapter meetings are easy to attend wherever you live - via Zoom (see screenshot above) - 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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Welcome two new ECA Massachusetts Leadership Team Members!
Tina Grosowsky has been working in Public Health/Tobacco Prevention for over 20 years. She is currently the Program Director for the Central Massachusetts Tobacco Free Community Partnership at UMass Medical School, a state funded program through the MA Department of Public Health. The program works on racial justice, public policy, cessation and prevention.
Roger Luckmann is recently retired from UMass Medical School, where he served as professor of family medicine and community health and was involved in delivering primary care, teaching, and research on cancer screening. He joined ECA Massachusetts nine months ago and has been active on our Legislative and Research teams.
ECA Massachusetts has a collaborative leadership structure. The Leadership team is our central coordinating and decision-making group. Read more about other Leadership team members here. And learn more here about other teams in our evolving organization, which work to advance key priorities, such as Action Planning, Legislative, Research, Presentation and Education, and Social Media.
We hope you'll consider getting more involved in climate action, with ECA Massachusetts teams! Think about where you might fit in, where your skills might have high impact, or where you see an opportunity for personal growth and learning.
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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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