Climate Sleep-Out in Boston pays off

Green PRCs Picture of Boston Common by Ian Maclellan for The Leadership Campaign For the past seven weeks, college students from around the region have been camping out on Boston Common on Sunday nights calling for Massachusetts to run entirely on clean energy by 2020. After a final, snowy sleep-out last Sunday, the demands of The Leadership Campaign were answered, sort of.

On December 7, state officials introduced a bill to create a task force charged with proposing ways to get Massachusetts to 100% clean electricity by 2020.

The resolution seems like a nice way of saying we’ve heard you, now bugger off, but then again Massachusetts relies on coal for only 25 percent of its electric power (about half the national average) and has set a goal of 20 percent renewable electricity production by 2020.

I wonder what it would take for the state to get to 100 percent “clean electricity”—the Leadership Campaign seems to include fossil fuel plants that use waste heat capture and recycling in its definition of clean—by 2020.

Image Credit: Ian Maclellan for The Leadership Campaign

Opening the talks

Burke lecture panorma by Colm MacCárthaighWhile we still have great expectations of the upcoming talks in Copenhagen are all fine and dandy, it’s a rather elite event about a topic that touches us all. There have been efforts to democratize the discussion, such as the Museum of Science’s, “World Views on Global Warming,” but participation is still limited to those who can be physically present. Of course, you have another chance to do so at a follow-up session tomorrow (12/5) morning. MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence has also launched a new project, the Climate Collaboratorium, to allow people to share, vote on and discuss ideas about reducing emissions on a large scale.

Sustainable (sea)food

Food waste

New Scientist has an interesting article on the “Five eco-crimes we commit everyday.” Most are not very surprising, but the details are interesting, such as the fact that the western world wastes one third of its food!

Egregious as this waste is, the means used to produce and procure much of our food is more important. To this end, Slash Food has a brief post highlighting some better seafood choices including local award-winning business Aqua Australis.

Also released this past week, a study of food sustainability revealing that, surprise of surprises, the devil is in the details and “food miles” are an over-simplification.

Sizing up the senatorial candidates

Ballot box dude
In case you had to work yesterday, and were unable to make the Environmental League of Massachusetts‘ Democratic Senate candidate forum1 at BU, we’ve managed to scrounge up some coverage of the debate. Although a live webcast was available, an archived stream does not seem to be however, NECN has a few minutes of video along with their summary. WBUR also has a brief, if blasé write-up, whereas the Globe’s article at Boston.com includes some colorful quotes.

The Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters—not to be confused with ELM above, but co-sponsors of yesterday’s debats—has compiled a set of resources which you may find useful in evaluating which candidate to vote for.

P.S. If you’re not yet registered to vote, applications must be postmarked today in order to vote in the primary; if you register as a member of a party holding one.

1. ELM is working to arrange a similar session with Republican candidates.

Gore to bring Climate Challenge to Cambridge

AlGoreNobel Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore has published a new book Our Choice:  A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.  Newsweek sets out a review of the book interspersed with quotes from Gore including his assertion that, “laying out the facts is not enough”.  Mr. Gore sees a future where an international climate bill is passed this year and the world finds out that changes in energy use were not only inexpensive but profitable. It is unclear if his vision of an international climate treaty being passed this year will come to fruition, as many leaders now see decisions not being made until 2010.

Al Gore is of course not without controversy, with his home in Tennessee consuming more than 20 times the amount of energy of a typical home, even with compact fluorescent light bulbs and energy efficient measures.  Never the less, Al Gore has played a crucial role in bringing climate change into the public’s awareness with his groundbreaking Inconvenient Truth.

Local residents will have an opportunity to hear Al Gore speak at the First Parish Church this Saturday, November 7.

Local companies learning how to green their business

greenwardThe Cambridge Energy Alliance and the Sustainable Business Leadership Program hosted a Green Your Business Affair on November 9th to help local commercial entities learn about energy efficiency and sustainability programs. Over forty businesses came out and mingled with other interested green leaders.  The event brought together representatives from the efficiency, renewable energy, nonprofit, design, and retail sectors. The Cambridge Energy Alliance, the Sustainable Leadership Program, Prism Consulting, and Mass Energy Consumers Alliance shared information on ways businesses can become more sustainable and save money at the same time.

The event was held at Greenward , a small, locally-owned eco-boutique in Cambridge, MA, run by the husband-and-wife team of Scott Walker and Simone Alpen. Locally brewed beer was be provided by the Cambridge Brewing Company, pizza was donated by Stone Hearth Pizza, and organic fair-trade chocolate from Theo. Nothing went to waste, as Vegware donated all the cups, plates, napkins, and cutlery. The Sustainable Business Leadership Program also offered free, “The Busy Business Owner’s Guide to Sustainable Business Practices” publications at the event.

The Cambridge Energy Alliance and the Sustainable Leadership Program aims to host similar events in the future. Suggestions for future locations or venues are welcome. What better way to get your business in shape, than trimming the energy and resource waste in your company—so get connected today!

Cambridge residents cut carbon as part of International Day of Climate Action

Area 4 Light Bulb Exchange

Area 4 Light Bulb Exchange

On October 24th, volunteers worked with the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) and the Cambridge Energy Alliance to weatherize Cambridge buildings and provide efficient light bulbs and resources to Area 4 residents as part of the International Day of Climate Action.  This local grassroots effort was part of 4,000 world-wide groups that demonstrated their commitment to fighting climate change by rallying in big cities and engaging in creative community actions. The International Day of Climate Action is called on world leaders to commit to bringing carbon emissions down from its current 387ppm to a safe level of 350 or less.

Women's Center Barnraising

Women's Center Barnraising

Over seventy volunteers came together to weatherize both the Women’s Center and the Wendell Street coop through air sealing improvements to the windows, doors, and gaps in the basement, plus other efficiency measures like installing compact fluorescent light bulbs.  The communities of Reading, Boston, Waltham, Arlington, and Maynard will continue the spirit of the International Day of Action with weatherization barnraisings scheduled for the next 30 days. The buildings included homes for mentally disabled adults and a church.

The HEET team also collaborated with the Cambridge Energy Alliance to help Area 4 residents save energy and cut carbon by exchanging incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents.  The light bulb exchange was a huge success; saving Area 4 residents over 29,000 pounds of carbon per year by replacing 346 incandescent light bulbs.  In addition, the Cambridge Energy Alliance completed its fall canvass in other Cambridge neighborhoods that day by exchanging 579 cfl lightbulbs, saving an additional 341,378 lbs of carbon. These outreach activities also provided energy effiency resources to help families start saving money, plus connect them to energy effiency programs for their homes or businesses.

Many of the Cambridge volunteers ended the day by joining the Boston 350 Under Water Festival.  Hundreds of citizens gathered en masse in downtown Boston’s Christopher Columbus Park and engaged in positive attention-getting and imagination-catching activities.  The Boston 350 event used the iconic image of sea level rise to draw attention to the threat of global climate change.

The International Day of Action reflected the famed mantra “Think global and act local”!  There are a number of ways to get involved in sustainability, energy, and climate activities which can be found on the Cambridge Energy Alliance calendar.  To get involved in the Home Energy Efficency barnraising events visit there website at heetma.com/.

Scientists Speak out on the Climate Emergency

Warningco2 Dr. Melanie Fitzpatrick, Climate Scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, shared sobering data with concerned citizens at a Cambridge City Council special meeting on September 24th, as part of the city’s efforts to better understand the climate change emergency and respond at a scale proportionate to the emergency and consistent with the city’s own Climate Protection goals for 2010.  Dr. Fitzpatrick emphasized that climate change is now occurring faster than the worst predictions of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) models and cited evidence including that the melt season is lasting 1 week longer in the arctic, a 9% reduction per year in arctic sea ice, winters warming 4 degrees in the northern hemisphere, and record global sea temperatures for the last three months.  Scientists are now estimating that some of the feared tipping points are decades away rather than centuries.  If we were to stop emitting greenhouse gasses today, there is at least another 1 degree of warming in the pipeline and we could potentially see an additional 4-7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century without major emission reductions.

While tipping point scenarios are still in the future, Dr. Jill Stein with the Physicians for Social Responsibility testified that there are already 300,000 deaths annually attributed to climate change due to record flooding, droughts, increased storm severity and occurrence, spread of infectious disease, and impacts to food and water supplies.  For example, major flood events have increased four-fold in North America and six-fold in China compared to the century average.  On a positive note, Dr. Stein related that by addressing climate change we will improve health and quality of life indices.  The United States spends $2 trillion per year on medical expenses in which 75% goes to preventable chronic diseases.  Investing in more walkable communities with local healthy food sources would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve our collective health. Fighting climate change would require our economic and social systems to take a long term view when planning for today.

Just consider that the majority of home owners purchase fire insurance, even though your risk of fire loss is very low– less than 1 percent or 1 fire in every 250 years.  Under our current greenhouse gas emission rates, the chance of a catastrophic tipping point occurring like Amazonian desertification, Greenland Ice sheet melt, or the disruption of the Indian Monsoon now has a fifty percent chance of happening which would have devastating effects on the economic and social welfare of millions of people.  Dr. Ackerman, Environmental Economist with the Stockholm Environmental Institute at Tufts University pointed out that to delay action would have disastrous socio-economic consequences for civilization.  Dr Ackerman  summarized four key ways to view long term economic questions:

  • Your grandchildren are Important! Current economic analysis has a high discount rate for future generations.  This would be equivalent to saying that your prodigy is more important than your grand or great grandchildren.
  • If you insure your home and car for relatively low risk harm, we should invest in higher level risk like climate change.
  • Some things do not have dollar values.  What is the value of a life or an ecosystem?  Under the Clinton administration a human life was valued at $6,000 and the Bush administration lowered it to $4,000.
  • It is better to spend your money on prevention rather than treatment.  Climate prevention could be spent on creating green jobs, developing new technology and industry.

Dr. John Sterman, an economist with the Sloan School of Management at MIT concluded that we should not wait to see the major impacts from Climate Change, as the stakes are too high and we  will have likely triggered major tipping points.  Dr. Sterman and the other panelists agreed that climate change can not be fought primarily with high tech solutions, but must include social participation that finds creative solutions both at the national and local level.  Dr. Sterman in collaboration with Sustainability Institute, Ventana Systems, and MIT has developed a climate simulation to help you use a scientifically rigorous model to set a goal for CO2 in the atmosphere, explore what it will take to reach that goal and to empower you to share those insights with others via graphs and explanation in order to make such actions happen.  Discover Climate Interactive, their online community that creates, shares, and uses credible models, accessible simulations, and related media in order to improve the way leaders and citizens around the world think about the climate.

Free tickets for the Museum of Science

Museum of Science CEA has received a number of tickets for free general admission to the Museum of Science, and is making them available to interested parties. They will be available for pick-up from CEA’s offices beginning at noon on Friday 9/25, which should be staffed until 7PM on that date. Note: The tickets expire Wednesday 9/30.

Alas, this windfall comes a little late for you to catch Manufactured landscapes, and too early for Running the Numbers: Portraits of Mass Consumption. However, the museum has a number of other interesting exhibits—including several related to energy—as well as a special showing of the new film Food, Inc. on Wednesday at 2; advanced registration required.

The tickets were donated by The WhizKids Foundation, a Cambridge-based non-profit that works with local schools to improve STEM education.