A regional resource for Cape & Islands climate advocates
November 23, 2021
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November 23, 2021
Dear Reader,
As Thanksgiving 2021 approaches, I want to thank you for your engagement, work, and support of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative.
As our stakeholders, you are young activists and concerned citizens, business and civic leaders, environmentalists, faith community members, clean energy professionals and policy makers, public officials, planners. and so much more.
Please know that your time, attention and effort are indispensable to our region's ability to turn the tide on climate change. And, as individuals, communities and organizations working together, we are making all the difference!
An all-volunteer organization, the Climate Collaborative invites you to join us in our work — locally, within your community, or with our volunteer team in a variety of capacities. Please click here to learn how you might get involved.
I would also like to extend a heartfelt thanks to our many sponsors and donors whose generosity has enabled us to grow and thrive, continue signature programming like the Net Zero conference, and energetically advance the mission of the organization this past year.
Your continued support is much appreciated and urgently needed. If you would like to make a one-time or recurring donation, today, or on Giving Tuesday, please click here.
On behalf of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative, I wish you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Sincerely,
Richard Delaney
President, Board of Directors
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ClimateXChange introduces State Climate Policy Dashboard
A curated, interactive information hub with state-by-state information on climate policy across sectors
What does it mean to pass adaptation and resilience policy? What does decarbonizing the transportation sector entail? And where can one see where the strongest climate policies have been implemented across the country? The ClimateXChange's brand new State Climate Policy Dashboard (The Dashboard) answers these questions and more, serving as a one-stop shop for all things state climate policy.
The Dashboard has two main components: 1) the State Climate Policy Tracker, which tracks 51 climate policies across all 50 states, and 2) the State Climate Policy Resource Hub, which serves as an educational counterpart to the tracker, providing explanations, resource links, and model state examples for each policy area. This information hub tracks 51 policies across seven different topic areas, across all 50 states including: Climate Governance and Equity; Adaptation and Resilience; Electricity; Buildings and Efficiency; Transportation; Agriculture; Industry, Materials, and Waste Management. Read more.
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Climate Action Center at Wellfleet Bay
Local organization is a leader in climate education and action
As a way to address the challenges of climate change in Massachusetts, Mass Audubon has designated Wellfleet Bay as a Climate Action Center. By bringing a big global problem to a local and more manageable scale, we can gain insight on the effects of climate change in our community.
The Wellfleet Bay Climate Action Center leads our community in the fight against climate change by working with scientists to protect wildlife and their habitats in a rapidly changing world. We also provide educational programs to help people of all ages understand both the challenges and solutions of climate change. And we advocate for policies that make our towns and cities better places to live while helping people take action to protect nature. Read more.
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Where women lead, a healthier world follows
Wu must set climate path for others to follow
By Barry White, CommonWealth Magazine, November 20, 2021
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MICHELLE WU is the first woman and first person of color elected to lead Boston and this, among other things, is a major victory for climate justice. She acknowledges the public health threats that pollution poses in the most marginalized communities, and she has committed to confronting them head-on. Wu’s commitment to clean water and air, sustainable buildings and transit, decarbonization, and green jobs and spaces, laid out in her Boston Green New Deal, is a roadmap that leaders of other cities and countries can adapt and follow.
Wu is just one of the many women leaders pushing a progressive climate agenda, and we need more climate feminists like her to help drive climate solutions. Read more.
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With first official ordinance, Mayor Wu divests Boston from fossil fuels
By Sabrina Shankman, The Boston Globe, November 22, 2021
Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston signed a measure to divest city funds from the fossil fuel industry on Monday, adding Boston to the small number of major US cities that have taken the step to combat the climate crisis.
After running on a Green New Deal for Boston — and advocating for divestment during her time as city councilor — it is perhaps fitting that this law is the first that Wu has signed since being sworn in as mayor last week.
At the signing on Monday, Wu said the ordinance was “making history for the city of Boston, and really setting the tone for the rest of the country.” Read more.
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Tracking the whole world's carbon emissions -- with satellites and AI
A TED talk with high-tech environmental activist Gavin McCormick
What we know today about global greenhouse gas emissions is mostly self-reported by countries, and those numbers (sometimes tallied manually on paper!) are often inaccurate and prone to manipulation. If we really want to get serious about fighting climate change, we need a way to track carbon pollution in real-time and identify the worst culprits, says high-tech environmental activist Gavin McCormick. Enter Climate TRACE: a coalition of scientists, activists and tech companies using satellite imagery, big data and AI to monitor and transparently report on all of the world's emissions as they happen -- and speed up meaningful climate action. A powerful, free, global tool to match the scale of a civilization-threatening crisis. Watch the video.
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7 DAYS LEFT!
Visit the Net Zero 2021 Virtual Conference
Click here to l ogin or register for the first time through November 30 to view the full conference and recorded sessions at your leisure!
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QUOTES OF NOTE
“Every one of us is or will be affected by the impact of climate change. We’re not just looking at coastal flooding in this plan.
We’re looking at the big picture.”
— Martha's Vineyard Commission Climate Change Planner Liz Durkee
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What got decided at COP26? Here are 5 takeaways from climate scientists
By Simon Lewis PhD, Mark Maslin PhD, ideas.ted.com, November 16, 2021
The COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow have finally finished, and the gavel has come down on the Glasgow Climate Pact, which was agreed to by all 197 countries.
If the 2015 Paris Agreement provided a framework for countries to tackle climate change, then Glasgow has been the first major test of that high-water mark of global diplomacy. So what have we learned from two weeks of world leaders’ statements, massive protests and side deals on coal, stopping fossil fuel finance and deforestation, as well as the final signed Glasgow Climate Pact? From phasing out coal to carbon market loopholes, here’s what you need to know. Read more.
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The 3 a.m. negotiations and an affogato: Inside John Kerry’s deal making at the Glasgow climate conference
By Jess Bidgood, The Boston Globe, November 20, 2021
GLASGOW — John Kerry was in a passenger van, hurtling under bridges and past the clock towers of this gloomy Scottish city, waiting for Washington to wake up.
The night before, President Biden’s top international climate envoy had been up until 3 a.m. negotiating with Chinese diplomats in a hotel conference room, parsing technical words and grinding down the differences between two countries that are almost always at odds. A climate deal with the US’s most geopolitically significant adversary was finally coming into focus, and he wanted to make sure officials back home understood the details. Read more.
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The Region & Commonwealth |
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MVC (Martha's Vineyard Commission) plans to tackle climate change
Preparations for a locally based, long-term plan to fight climate change are underway.
By Eunki Seonwoo, MV Times, October 25, 2021
There are many active climate change advocates on the Island. However, there are also many in the general public who are not informed about the local impact of climate change, what they can do to fight it, and some may even “fear” it. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission aims to change that.
Members and staff of the MVC met with The Times via Zoom recently to discuss the commission’s efforts to create a climate action plan. According to MVC climate change planner Liz Durkee, the action plan is a 20-year strategy to address the impact of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. She said the action plan has a “strong implementation plan,” so it doesn’t just sit on a shelf. Funding for the action plan comes from the state’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grant. Read more.
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This Colorado 'solar garden' is literally a farm under solar panels
Kirk Siegler, NPR, November 14, 2021
When Byron Kominek returned home after the Peace Corps and later working as a diplomat in Africa, his family's 24-acre farm near Boulder, Colo., was struggling to turn a profit.
"Our farm has mainly been hay producing for fifty years," Kominek said, on a recent chilly morning, the sun illuminating a dusting of snow on the foothills to his West. "This is a big change on one of our three pastures."
That big change is certainly an eye opener: 3,200 solar panels mounted on posts eight feet high above what used to be an alfalfa field on this patch of rolling farmland at the doorstep of the Rocky Mountains. Read more.
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What is Regenerative Agriculture?
GreenAmerica.org
Global climate change is a huge issue facing our planet. This problem has been caused in large part by humans interfering with the carbon cycle. For years, scientists have pointed out how the burning of fossil fuels has released an excess of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse gas effect and warming the earth. One component of the carbon cycle which is now gaining attention as a prospect for improving the crisis is soil. Here's the rundown on how regenerative agriculture and carbon farming could be our salvation. Read more.
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Energy & The Built Environment |
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Radical changes and big incentives as Mass Save becomes a climate fighting tool — but is it enough?
By Sabrina Shankman, The Boston Globe, November 8, 2021
A state-supervised program is proposing sweeping changes meant to dramatically speed the pace of converting a million Massachusetts homes to electric heat by the end of the decade, a critical climate deadline.
The nearly $4 billion plan, which covers 2022 to 2024, dramatically expands an initial proposal in April and includes $800 million for the electrification of homes. In one major departure from the earlier plan, the new version offers incentives for buildings using natural gas to purchase heat pumps. Those buildings were previously ineligible.Read more.
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2021 Green Building Showcase winners announced!
Built Environment Plus awards winners in general, residential, carbon, equity, and other categories
By Built Environment Plus, October 22, 2021
After two long years apart, the Built Environment Plus community was able to reunite for the 2021 Green Building Showcase. This community works so hard to advance sustainable and regenerative design, construction, and operation of the built environment throughout the year, and we are so grateful to have been able to celebrate industry success and innovation.
At GBS 2021, community members celebrated the best efforts, designs, and products in the Commonwealth. 100+ people celebrated 50+ projects that all embraced the spirit of sustainable design. Attendees included architects, engineers, contractors, developers, owners, facility managers, building users, lenders, suppliers – everyone who plays a role in designing, operating, and constructing the built environment. We here at Built Environment Plus are so appreciative to the green building community for coming out and celebrating with us.
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Carbon & Energy Roundtable
Built Environment Plus discussion to focus on school building design
Thursday, December 16
9:00AM - 10:00 AM
Join the BE+ Carbon and Energy Roundtable, a venue for architects, designers, construction managers, and sustainability professionals to discuss issues related to carbon and energy in buildings. This next discussion will focus on school building design.
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*Roundtables are free for Built Environment Plus Members. Join as a Newcomer, and come visit up to 3 times for FREE. After that, consider becoming a BE+ Member, or purchase general admission to return you like.
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Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days
The response, to our most urgent threat requires new forms of creativity and human imagination
By Ben Okri, The Guardian, November 12, 2021
Faced with the state of the world and the depth of denial, faced with the data that keeps falling on us, faced with the sense that we are on a ship heading towards an abyss while the party on board gets louder and louder, I have found it necessary to develop an attitude and a mode of writing that I refer to as existential creativity. This is the creativity at the end of time.
It is not given to many people to sense the end of time approaching. Maybe some Atlanteans sensed it. Maybe the sages of Pompeii, if there were any, felt it in advance. Maybe those ancient civilisations whose societies were about to be wrecked by invaders from the sea felt it. But I can’t think of any who had the data that it was coming, who had the facts pouring at them every day, and yet who carried on as if everything were normal. Read more.
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COP26 finally framed climate change as a public health issue, experts say
By Maxine Joselow, The Washington Post,
November 22, 2021
As the dust settles on the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, health professionals are finally feeling acknowledged by the global climate community.
More than 100 doctors and nurses traveled to Glasgow earlier this month with a message for world leaders: Global warming is a leading threat to public health. And curbing planet-warming emissions is a prescription. Read more.
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Anxiety and grief comes with climate change
The environmental movement is doing more to address the psychological toll on activists and volunteers, encouraging resilience and self-care to counteract anxiety and grief over planetary damage.
By Alex Smith, NPR, November 20, 2021
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's become clear that climate change is already damaging our planet, and for many people, the anxiety and grief over that change can become overwhelming. Read more/listen.
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Apple Accelerates Work on Car Project, Aiming for Fully Autonomous Vehicle
By Mark Gurman, Bloomberg News, November 18, 2021
Pause
Apple Inc. is pushing to accelerate development of its electric car and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to solve a technical challenge that has bedeviled the auto industry.
For the past several years, Apple’s car team had explored two simultaneous paths: creating a model with limited self-driving capabilities focused on steering and acceleration -- similar to many current cars -- or a version with full self-driving ability that doesn’t require human intervention. Read more.
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Complete Streets on Cape Cod: A Primer
Eight Cape Cod towns adopt MassDOT Complete Streets policy
Cape Cod Commission, September 29, 2021
A Complete Street is one that provides safe and accessible options for all travel modes – walking, biking, transit, and motorized vehicles – for people of all ages and abilities.
Broadly speaking, Complete Streets promote more livable communities. They improve safety, health, economic viability, and quality of life in a community by improving the pedestrian and vehicular environments and providing safer, more accessible, and comfortable means of travel between home, school, work, recreation, and retail destinations. Read more.
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We are an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to reach carbon neutrality — or net zero — on Cape Cod and the Islands of Massachusetts by enhancing communication, collaboration, and activism among organizations, programs, and individuals committed to mitigating the climate crisis. We depend upon the generosity of our stakeholders to conduct our work. All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.
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The Climate Action Alerts newsletter is curated and crafted by Fran Schofield. If you've got a climate story from your home, school, workplace, town or organization, please be in touch! And don't forget to share this action alert with your friends and suggest they subscribe here.
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