MONTHLY CHAPTER MEETING
TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, Noon - 2 pm on Zoom
(Join at 11:45 if you want to socialize!)
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Rep. Steve Owens and his staff, Emerson Gagnon, will join us to present on the Polluters Pay bill. This bill would require top polluters to contribute to a superfund used to pay for climate-related damages in Massachusetts and one of the bills that ECA Mass is supporting. Check out the fact sheet here.
We need you! Volunteers are needed to help with tabling for the Polluters Pay campaign at the Allston Brighton Open Streets Fair on Saturday, August 19, 10 am - 3 pm. Please contact Tina Grosowsky, tgrosowsky@verizon.net.
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DEEP DIALOGUE
MONDAY, AUGUST 28
New time! 5-6:30 PM ET, on Zoom
Reducing Meat & Dairy Consumption
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83538742353?pwd=YUU5QU16VVlDMExOMmlPSWVwTG9xUT09
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If you attended the July 31 Deep Dialogue on reducing air travel, you were challenged to think about how to better align your lifestyle with the scientific knowledge (and perhaps your own guilty feelings) about how much carbon our air travel puts into the atmosphere.
Bad for the Climate: Animal Products
Just as air travel is bad for the climate, so is the consumption of animal products such as meat and dairy. Indeed, 14.5 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to livestock farming, an industry that emits not only carbon dioxide (CO2), but also methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) — two gasses that play a similar role to CO2 in driving global warming. Eating less meat can also help reduce pressure on forests and land used to grow animal feed, which in turn protects biodiversity, the earth's ecosystems, and people living in poverty who are bearing the brunt of climate change.
But it's Hard to Change!
With our lifetime of dietary habits, moving to a plant-based diet is VERY difficult for many of us elders to contemplate. Changes of diet, like travel, often have to be negotiated with family and friends. As with air travel, the goal for most of us will be reduction, not elimination.
Our Goals
This Deep Dialogue will present the scientific facts about the climate change impact of animal-sourced foods, as well as offer an opportunity to discuss how one can use social networks to multiply the impact of changing one’s diet.
Our presenters:
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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.
- Our second speaker, to be announced, will present the scientific facts about the climate change effects of eating animal-sourced foods.
We can do this!
The goal of the Dialogue is to help people work through this difficult issue, not by shaming them to become vegan, but by analyzing the data and encouraging practical commitments to reduce one’s meat consumption in a meaningful way. We also hope this presentation will catalyze the creation of social networks to support these commitments.
Seth Evans
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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 topic in this series will be:
- Reducing food waste : Date TBD
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Confronting the Climate Crisis:
The Larry Rosenberg Memorial Webinar Series
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Nuclear Power: Expensive Menace or Low-Carbon Solution
Thursday, September 7
7:30 pm to 9pm
This discussion will explore the question of whether next-generation nuclear power should be a significant component of worldwide climate mitigation strategies.
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Vick Mohanka, Acting Deputy Chapter Director at the Massachusetts Sierra Club will be emphasizing the continuing dangers and uncertainties of nukes.
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Kaylee Cunningham, an MIT doctoral candidate in nuclear engineering and a widely-recognized social media influencer — TikTok's "Ms. Nuclear Energy" — will present the pro-nuclear case.
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Miriam Wasser, Climate Reporter at WBUR(Boston) will moderate.
Green Banks: Financing Climate Solutions
Wednesday, September 20
7:30 pm to 9pm
This forum will be a full, informative discussion about green banks on the national level, the workings of an actual green bank, and the plans for the new green bank in Massachusetts.
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Paul Mark, a State Senator from Western Mass., will speak about plans for the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank, the nation's first green bank dedicated to affordable housing.
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Nenha Young, the Director of Policy and Network at the Coalition for Green Capital, will provide a national perspective, including the role of the Inflation Reduction Act in stimulating new and existing green banks.
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Eric Shrago, the Vice President of Operations at the Connecticut Green Bank will talk about the experience of the nation's first Green Bank, est. in 2011.
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Lee Harris, staff writer at The American Prospect with many bylines in her name about green banks and capital markets, will moderate.
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Senator Edward Markey has also been invited to say a few words about his work to create a green bank at the national level. He will be joining us at the beginning of the session either on Zoom or via a pre-recorded video, depending upon his schedule.
Creating Sustainable Systems: Soil, Carbon, and Food
Thursday, September 28
7:30 pm to 9pm
The panel will highlight some of the technical/economic/political/practical challenges and opportunities that we need to honestly face in order to make nature-based climate-improving strategies actually work at scale. Our hope is to raise the level of discussion about these important strategies, acknowledging the unknowns and limits while suggesting ways forward.
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David Montgomery, Professor of Geology at University of Washington and an expert on regenerative agriculture, will focus on farming for soil quality as a way to both feed our growing population and reduce or even sequester greenhouse gasses.
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Walter Willett from the Harvard School of Public Health, who is currently the co-chair of the EAT-Lancet Commission on sustainable nutrition will summarize their findings about what we need to eat to survive in a climate-endangered world.
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Ilan Zugman, 350.org's Latin America Director, will provide an overview connecting the pressure on land use with fossil fuel extraction from a Global South perspective.
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Danielle Nierenberg, co-founder of Food Tank, has a long history of making discussions exciting and insightful, will moderate.
Larry Rosenberg was a lifelong progressive activist. He was an early member of both 350 Massachusetts and the Elders Climate Action Mass chapter. From union organizing to central American solidarity work, from advocating for a just Middle East peace to pushing for climate action, his insightful analysis and enduring commitments made him a meaningful contributor to positive change. His sharp intellect also led to jobs programming wind farm software, leading an anti-military weapon proliferation research team, and supporting health-focused international development projects. After years of living with lymphoma, shortly after the COVID pandemic began, Larry's cancer turned virulent. He died in 2022 after arranging to donate his body to the U.Mass Medical School. These three webinars are a tribute to Larry.
Seth Evans
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Check out the Climate Action Now App |
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Use the Climate Action Now App on your phone to take daily actions on the climate crisis!
Simply point your phone camera at the QR code to get started.
Maiyim Baron
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With our allies, ECA has started this sign-on letter to support the Municipal Reforestation Program and legislation.
Please click on this link and sign on as an individual, in order to amplify our collective voices. You can also share this link with family, friends, and other groups who you think might be interested. Together we can make a difference. Thank you for taking action today!
Glen Ayers
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As the world struggles through a July that could well be the hottest month experienced in 120,000 years, most climate activists and scientists would agree that the only way to turn the tide is to stop burning dangerous greenhouse gasses and end the era of fossil fuels.
To highlight the urgency of this need, on September 17th, we are joining others in the March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City. This action is planned to amplify the September 20 UN Climate Ambition Summit in New York, and make demands on our executive branch to quickly phase out all dependence on fossil fuels. We must let our government, media, and the world know that we are serious about preserving a tomorrow. ECA Mass and other climate change groups in New England will be doing everything we can to help publicize the march and get as many people to New York as possible.
Our world is in crisis, and the biggest cause is fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas. The fossil fuel industry is responsible for 86 percent of all CO2 emissions in the past decade. Despite the industry’s knowing for decades about the dangers of global warming, their whitewashing and financial and political power remains the major force impeding the transition to clean energy.
What: March to End Fossil Fuels
When: Sunday, September 17
Time: 1 pm (end time around 4:30 pm)
Where: New York City, exact route to be announced
Transportation:
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Several bus options will be available, leaving the Boston area around 6-7 am and arriving around noon. Return buses will leave New York late afternoon and arrive in the Boston area around 11 pm-12 midnight. Cost $35 - $70. Reserve a bus seat here.
- Amtrak: Lower emission and more comfortable way to travel. Fares less than $100. Leave Boston at 6:30 am and return at 7:30 pm.
Deadline to sign up: Look for a signup email within the week, with a deadline of September 1.
Seth Evans
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Can’t make it to NYC on September 17, but want to help out? Join ECA Mass activists for a night of calling to New York area residents to inform them about the march. We are asking elders to sign up for calls on Thursday, August 17, 2023. To sign up, please register here.
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Beginning to End the Climate Crisis:
A History of Our Future
Book Review
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We all know Greta Thunberg, the Swedish girl who protested outside Parliament and started the Friday for Future movement. But many are not familiar with German activists Luisa Neubauer and Alexander Repenning. Their book, Beginning to End the Climate Crisis: A History of our Future, published in German in 2019, was recently translated into English by climate activist Sabine von Mering, Professor and Director of the Center for German and European Studies at Brandeis University.
Considering themselves possibilists, as opposed to optimists or pessimists, Luisa Neubauer and Alexander Repenning describe pathways to a viable future, warning that it won’t be handed to us. They invite our participation, fully explaining the crisis we face and the work that’s required. They intertwine their personal stories with observations, events, and strategies.
Luisa, currently 27, learned about the greenhouse effect in geography class when she was 13. After high school, she worked for an environmental magazine and was asked to interview Bill McKibben. As her understanding of global warming increased, so did her disillusionment with the tepid response, leading her to co-organize Fridays for Future Germany. When the German coal commission ignored climate targets, Luisa arranged a permit for a large strike, expecting about 500 protesters. Ten thousand showed up. Luisa has continued organizing protests, participating in political events, researching, speaking, serving on panel discussions – in many cases, at the highest levels – and is said to be the most prominent representative of the German climate movement.
Alex, who is 34, was working at Right Livelihood, an organization established to honor and support efforts that address serious global challenges, when he saw Al Gore’s documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth. Alex became increasingly concerned by the threat of climate change and, specifically, with how it exacerbates inequities. He has been active in encouraging political participation and global learning.
The book covers a lot of ground, initially expressing powerfully the injustice that younger generations feel, as their future is stolen. It describes progress, or lack thereof, going as far back as the 1980s, when the science was definitive and alarm bells were sounding. But beyond lamenting the crisis, Luisa and Alex propose steps toward meeting the challenge. From institutionalizing responsibility to creating clear communication, rethinking economic systems, redefining the good life, addressing justice issues, getting educated, imagining a positive future, and getting organized, they challenge the reader to participate.
Although the focus is on Germany, Luisa and Alex also refer to U.S. events and policies. Their prescriptions are relevant to Americans, considering that we are a comparably prosperous country and a large contributor to global warming. Overall, they challenge us to “embark on the biggest transformation since the industrial revolution,” freeing ourselves from seeing the future simply as an extension of the past. Without doubt, a huge task, but they remind us, “Our advantage is that we know what must be done. We also know how, and above all we know that it is possible.”
Margie Lee
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WHAT ARE YOU READING?
Would you like to review a book for our newsletter?
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ECA Mass Legislative Update |
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Working to Push
Our Priority Bills
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The legislative team has continued to meet weekly to prepare and review in person and written testimony on our priority bills at July legislative hearings. (See high-priority bills and fact sheets here). Due to an electrical fire in the State House basement, the July 19 hearings on clean energy were moved to October 21. The team is discussing the increasing urgency of the climate crisis and how to amplify our message to both the legislature and the administration that business as usual will not work to get us to meet the state’s emission reduction goals.
Building Decarbonization
On July 18, we co-sponsored an ActionR with the League of Women Voters and Mothers Our Front to make calls to legislators about four of our priority bills on building decarbonization. It was a successful initial experiment with hosting action calls. We'll continue to tweak the process and hope to schedule more action calls in the fall.
It's All About the Data
We met with EEA (Energy and Environmental Affairs) climate analysts Sarah Basham and Stuart Iler at our August 4 meeting to inform us about how the state is collecting, analyzing, and sharing data related to tracking the state’s climate mitigation efforts. Timely, accurate data on emissions reduction is critical to tracking progress towards state emission goals and to identifying where we are falling short in time to ramp up the effort needed to hit our targets.
Meeting with Legislators
The legislative team is setting up meetings with key legislative committee chairs in September to lobby for the legislation we want to see in a climate bill this session and to highlight the urgency of passing climate legislation ahead of the business as usual calendar, which typically has bills passed near the end of the two-year session. Legislative team members continue to sustain relationships with our allies and other organizations working on legislative advocacy.
Tina Grosowsky
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STAY CURRENT! As always, find more climate events and updates at the ECA Mass event calendar on our website or visit our Facebook page. Do you want to get more active in ECA Mass and learn more about what YOU can do? Sign up here for the ECA Mass Newsletter plus Chapter Action Alerts, or ask Dawn Edell, dawnedell1017@gmail.com, to add you to our “Activist” list for all our Action Alerts and meeting announcements.
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Actionar Call - Our First! |
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On July 18, ECA Mass hosted its first Actionar call with Mothers Out Front and League of Women Voter Massachusetts. What's an Actionar? It's a call to action on an issue to either make a phone call or send an email. Members were educated on the four priority bills of this session and made calls to their legislators to share our sense of urgency for the climate crisis and pass legislation as soon as possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts.
This was the first successful Actionar call and we will continue to tweak the process and schedule more calls in the fall. See the video here.
Tina Grosowsky
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New Building Code Being Mischaracterized |
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New Mass Building Code
A part of the state’s visionary climate legislation, aka the Roadmap Bill, required the state to develop a net zero building code for Massachusetts communities to adopt by the start of 2023. The intent of this building code is to ensure that new construction is compatible with the state’s targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector. The state did issue this new building code, also called the specialized energy code, and, so far, 18 towns have adopted it at their town meetings or through a vote of the city council. Many more communities are planning on adopting the new code later this year or in 2024.
Distorted Facts
Unfortunately, the Homebuilders and Remodelers Association of Massachusetts (HBRAMA) released a report last month claiming the net zero code, “will likely push homeownership out of reach for many more families in Massachusetts.” The press release for the report was widely distributed to the media and reported by the major newspapers and television stations. HBRAMA claimed that the report was based on research by the Wentworth Institute of Technology and the MIT Center for Real Estate.
MIT and Wentworth Push Back
However, the report is a distortion and mischaracterization. It is attempting, through false information, to prevent additional communities from adopting the specialized energy code. Both the researchers from MIT and Wentworth Institute issued their own press release, refuting the claim of HBRAMA including this statement: “Adoption of the opt-in specialized code is crucial to helping Massachusetts achieve statutory emissions reductions.”
We must all pull together to achieve our urgent climate goals. We ask the Homebuilders Association of Massachusetts to join us.
Arnie Epstein
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Did you miss a past meeting? |
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Did you miss an ECA Mass chapter meeting or deep dialogue? Or do you want to share one with friends and family?
We have you covered! Videos of past chapter meetings are here and videos of past deep dialogues are here.
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Homemade Bio Enzyme Cleaners |
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Dr. Ram Prakash, who is visiting his daughter in Mass this summer, has developed a method to use kitchen scraps as compost, mixed with enzymes to produce non-toxic household cleaners. He makes his own bio enzymes as an alternative to harmful chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides. Dr Prakash will introduce himself at our monthly chapter meeting. Please feel free to contact him at rprakash@rataneng.com. |
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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.
Phillip Sego
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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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