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Like many people my age (33) or younger, the emergency of climate change weighs on my mind every day, not just on Earth Day. And as I have been knocking doors across the 12th Middlesex Representative District in Brookline and Newton, I’ve spoken to countless parents and grandparents who are also thinking a great deal about this crisis as their children and grandchildren grow up in this world. People of all ages and backgrounds are ready to act and looking for ways to do so.
The effect global warming is having in our communities and around the planet is clearer than ever. A significant share of the 117 million displaced persons globally are being forced from their homes by shifting climatic conditions and conflicts over the resources necessary to live. Some of them are seeking refuge here in our Commonwealth in greater numbers, which is a topic for a future newsletter.
But environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are already driving up our healthcare costs, flooding our homes, and reducing our quality of life here too. Massachusetts is one of the fastest-warming states in the country, along with the rest of the New England states, due to climate change in the Gulf of Maine.
Urgent measures are needed at the state level to prepare our communities physically and financially for climate resilience and pollution reduction mandates.
The only thing we have to fear is inaction
The situation can seem very frightening and provoke anxiety that makes us want to check out from paying attention sometimes. But there is still time to limit the climate damage, and that is reason enough to hope and fight. Every action that our communities and society take now, whether on prevention or mitigation, still has an effect on containing the rise in temperature and the consequences of the changes already locked in. We have a responsibility to act in the face of this and not turn away, for our own sake and for the sake of the generations to follow us.
But even more encouragingly, we can see that promoting a rapid and just transition to a greener, cleaner society can address many of the things ailing us as a people. New jobs with varying educational or vocational needs, more responsible construction in developed and formerly industrial areas, less costly public health problems from plastics and particulates, less congestion from reorganized transportation networks, environmental justice for low-income and minority communities, and more await us if we choose to pursue comprehensive climate action now. Massachusetts is especially well-positioned to be a Green Technology hub for the nation.
The work so far
I am an environmentalist and climate action advocate who has previously been endorsed for Newton City Council by Sierra Club Massachusetts and Sunrise Boston for my prior activism and advocacy for cutting off the reliance on and new exploitation of fossil fuel resources. I am now Vice Chair of the Programs & Services Committee of the Newton City Council, which is one of the two committees that deals most directly with environmental impact and resilience work. Most recently, I helped shepherd through the passage of a significant compromise reform of the protection of trees on private property in Newton, and I also supported and strengthened the city’s plastic waste reduction ordinance, including adding an amendment prohibiting deliberate balloon releases.
I have also been a vocal opponent of the private natural gas utility industry’s lack of repair efforts to leaking pipes and the legacy of costly, damaged roads from its digging to expand infrastructure. Our state regulators need to do more because municipalities are not allowed to do much about this. I have supported Newton’s cutting-edge efforts to reduce and green our energy usage, but now we need additional financial support to help people and businesses with this transition, to decarbonize and weatherize their buildings. I also championed prohibiting new construction hookups to natural gas in Newton, before anyone else on the Council got on board with the idea, and eventually Newton was granted permission from the Legislature as part of the Ten Communities pilot (an effort led by activists in the Town of Brookline) to formulate a local ordinance to this effect.
There is, realistically, only so much that individual municipalities can do. It now requires a higher-level intervention by the government – and I’m not holding my breath for the Republican US House of Representatives to take speedy action, which means we need Massachusetts to do what it can for now.
Even here in Massachusetts, the kind of action we want will never happen from the top down. It will only happen when all of us organize with one another to compel our elected officials to get their act together and move faster on this. Enough ordinary people coming together for real climate justice can outweigh powerful opposing interests any day.
What’s next?
It’s time to set some binding mandates and timetables for complete electrification of Massachusetts within 10 years, keeping fossil fuels in the ground instead of the atmosphere. We can help everyone get there, but the time for kicking the can down the road and vaguely promising a distant future “net zero” is long past.
We need our heating and energy to be clean and green, in residential spaces and large buildings, and we need to electrify and build out our transportation infrastructure. We need to stop building brand-new fossil fuel infrastructure. We need regulatory reform on the approvals process for responsible renewable energy sites. And so much more! But we as a society have most of the answers already and just need to act.
To meet the challenge of sufficient climate change mitigation action in the coming years, Massachusetts should consider declaring a Climate State of Emergency and establishing a Climate Emergency Commission, staffed by a mix of climate scientists, environmental attorneys, former lawmakers, and former regulators with no affiliation to the energy industry. Such a Commission's purpose would be setting executable emergency regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, energy production, and emergency resource and response management for climate-related disasters, as well as developing critical climate action legislation for the legislature to adopt quickly.
The climate crisis is likely to transform the Massachusetts economic structure and society, regardless of our choices now. It is our responsibility to ensure this transformation is a positive one that benefits our entire Commonwealth and the people who live in it.
PS: I wish everyone who celebrates a good Passover!