2020 Action

Nicaragua Hit By 2 Major Hurricanes in 2 Weeks

December 2020 - We know that hotter ocean temperatures produce more violent hurricanes. We also know that the gasoline we burn in our cars, and the oil, coal, natural gas, and jet fuel that we pay for and use, is not paid for entirely when we pay for it. There is what economists call the "external cost", the cost we don't pay for. That's the cost of the damages we cause others for using that fuel. These damages are not paid for by us, but rather are paid, for example, by people in Nicaragua, whose houses are washed away in those hurricanes, often with many deaths of fathers, mothers, and children.

We owe the Nicaraguans for the damages we've caused them. How big is the external cost, the part that we are not paying for?  The Obama administration used $40 per ton of CO2 emitted in its calculations of external costs. The average US family of four puts out 70 tons of CO2 per year—that’s $2,800. 

TAKE ACTION:

With those numbers in mind, contact Save The Children (US branch). They are highly rated and have ongoing programs to help in Nicaragua. What they need is additional funds to help people in their hour of direst need. This is great at this holiday time, but remember that this is just what we owe them.

CONTACT:

Save the Children—Click on their Donate button, or send them a check.

Website page on Nicaragua:
 https://www.savethechildren.org/us/charity-stories/hurricane-iota-how-to-help-facts-faq

Mail: 501 Kings Highway East, Suite 400, Fairfield, CT 06825
Tel:  203 221 4000

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Extend the New START Treaty

November 2020 - The New START Treaty of 2011, between Russia and the US, is set to expire on Feb. 5, 2021, unless it is extended. This treaty caps the number of deployed nuclear warheads at 1,550 each, with intrusive inspections to prevent cheating. This produces a measure of the all-important nuclear stability, which reduces the threat of an arms race spiraling ever higher, with increased complexity and danger of unintended nuclear war. Extending the treaty for 5 years requires only the signatures of the two presidents. There is no congressional nor parliamentary involvement needed.

We congratulate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their history-changing victory. We send him our appreciation of his statement:  "I'll pursue an extension of the New START Treaty, an anchor of strategic stability between the United States and Russia."

TAKE ACTION:

Contact President-Elect Joe Biden, and send him your congratulations and your support and encouragement to work immediately to extend the New START Treaty. 

CONTACT:   President-Elect Joe Biden

Website to leave a message: go.joebiden.com/page/s/contact-us

Mail:     918 Pennsylvania Avenue S.E., Wash. DC 20003

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Our Best Chance to Renew America

October 2020 - The election this fall offers the most significant opportunity in our lifetime to advance the environmental and peace values we hold dear. The next few weeks offer us the very last chance to impact this election at every level. 

Vote: If you have any questions about voting in your state concerning  absentee, early, or regular voting, votesaveamerica.com will answer them. This site also offers an instant way to make sure that you are indeed registered to vote. This site will be useful as well if you want to support friends in registering and voting.  

Volunteer: If you want to do more than vote, votesaveamerica.com provides excellent suggestions for volunteering in your state and for volunteer activities aimed at swing states.

TAKE ACTION:

Finalize your plan of exactly how and when you are going to vote. Redouble your election-related volunteer activities; volunteer to be a poll worker, or find engaging new ways to volunteer at votesaveamerica.com

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Make a Difference in the Fall Elections

September 2020 - Impacting fall elections is far and away the most powerful way to advance peace and environmental concerns this year. Choose one of these two proven ways to do your part.

Contribute to and volunteer for critical House and Senate races. The Council for a Livable World (CLW) has decades of experience in identifying key races in the House and Senate where candidates that support peace issues need support to win. Contributing and volunteering to candidates backed by CLW will insure that your money and time is strategically spent to advance peace issues. Contact each candidate’s website or local office to volunteer. 

Write personalized letters to key voters in swing districts. Writing letters through VoteForward is an engaging way to reach out to potential progressive voters in swing states. No matter where you live you can reach out to individual voters in the twelve swing states that will affect the outcome of the Presidential race, enable flipping the Senate, and impact redistricting for the next decade. VoteForward has a step-by-step process that enables you to write and mail personalized letters to a list of progressive voters who need encouragement. This is an easy, rewarding and effective way to make a difference in the fall elections.

CONTACT:

Council for a Livable World:                                

Web:   https://livableworld.org/meet-the-candidates/

Tel:     202-543-4100

Mail:   20 1st Street NE, Suite LL-180, Washington, DC 20003                                 

VoteForward: Register at the site, request a letter writing kit, and after a brief waiting period you will receive letters to personalize, addresses and instructions.  

Web:   https://votefwd.org/indivisible
Mail:   611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #192, Washington, DC 20004

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Let’s Get Non-Voting Environmentalists to Vote

August 2020 - A distressingly large number of people who are seriously concerned about the environment turn out not to register and not to vote. The Environmental Voter Project aims to significantly change this. It works to first identify non-voting environmentalists and then turn them into consistent activists and voters. To date, they have personally contacted over 4 million US environmentalists who are potential new voters.

The problem is politicians listen to voters, and if environmental issues are a low priority for voters, they will be a low priority for policy makers. Yet, polls show that tens of millions of Americans strongly prioritize progressive environmental policies—the real problem is that too many of them do not vote. Indeed, even in recent nation-wide elections, over 15 million identifiable environmentalists have stayed at home on Election Day. 

The key to getting powerful environmental policies in place might not be to persuade more Americans to be environmentalists; it may be as simple as getting more of our existing environmentalists to vote. The Environmental Voter Project is a new, powerful concept that (1) uses analytics to identify inactive environmentalists, and (2), applies targeted cutting-edge technology to turn them into registered voters.

TAKE ACTION: Across the country, the Environmental Voter Project is running sophisticated Get-Out-The-Vote campaigns with canvassers, phone-banks, text-banks, and direct mail. Their messages are specifically designed to get non-registered environmentalists to register and then to vote—specifically to vote for candidates who will protect the environment. We encourage you to become part of and support their efforts.

CONTACT: The Environmental Voter Project

• Web: org  - Scroll way down the page and click, “Get Involved”
• Tel: (952) 992-9393

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June 2020

 

June 2020 - The oil industry, deep in debt due to reckless drilling expansion, is lobbying federal allies to put them in the front of the line for more Covid-19 assistance funds, squeezing out struggling Americans who are desperate for help to feed their families. 

These companies are also putting pressure on the Bureau of Land Management to create a fire sale on oil and gas leases and an increase of drilling permits, and to open up drilling on thousands of acres in Montana near Yellowstone National Park and vast new areas of public land in Colorado and Wyoming. In Utah, new leases are proposed right outside Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and Bears Ears National Monument.

A group of over 40 environmentally minded lawmakers is backing the ‘Resources for Workforce Investments, Not Drilling (ReWIND) Act’. This bill aims to prevent fossil fuel companies from receiving funds provided for under previous coronavirus aid packages, halt the sale of new fossil fuel leases, and prevent the Trump administration from enriching fossil fuel companies in a number of other ways.

Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), co-sponsor of the legislation, said: “The CARES Act passed to help Americans struggling to make it through the COVID-19 public health crisis—not to make it easier for fossil fuel companies to drive us closer to climate catastrophe,”

ACTION: Contact your Representative and Senators and urge them to co-sponsor the ReWIND Bill (House Bill H.R. 6707 and Senate Bill S. 3611).  

CONTACT: Your Representative & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
or
  S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Good News: The US Energy Information Administration projects that this year, for the first time, there will be more electricity generated by renewables than by coal. Renewables are just cheaper!

Methane - The Badly Overlooked Greenhouse Gas (GHG)

April - While we've been reducing, insulating, changing windows and light bulbs to reduce our CO2 footprints, we have ignored the 18% contribution that methane makes to global warming. Recent research shows that natural seepage of methane into the air, as from melting permafrost, contributes only about 1/2 %, while methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, and from meat production, each contribute about 8%.

If we ate half as much meat and switched to poultry, we could save 6%. If we tightened the rules on methane venting, flaring, and leaking, we could save another 6%. Compared to the disappointing 1% the US has reduced since the 1992 Kyoto Protocol, these numbers are HUGE! 

While the Trump administration is seeking to weaken even the too-weak existing regulations, House Bill HR 2711 addresses these drilling issues. It would forbid intentionally venting methane into the air, drastically reduce flaring, and require measuring and reporting the amounts vented, flared, and leaked. 

TAKE ACTION: Encourage your Representative to co-sponsor HR 2711, and urge your Senators to file a companion bill. COVID-19 has shown us that we cannot successfully bully Mother Nature, neither in this virus, nor in global warming!!!

CONTACT: Your Representative & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
  or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

P.S. The anti-nuclear weapons march and conference in NYC on April 24-26 is canceled due to the virus.

P.P.S.  Some Great News: Proposals for 95% of new electrical capacity construction in New England are from wind (68%), solar (15%), and grid-scale storage (11%), with only 5% from natural gas. Because renewables electricity is intrinsically cheaper than fossil or nuclear!!!

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Stop Trump's Dangerous Proposal to Gut the National Environmental Protection Act

February - An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has been required for every major federally funded project since the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the "Magna Carta" of environmental protection laws, was signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon. EISs have become our most important defense against proposals which would harm the environment, public health, and the climate.

Now, President Trump wants to substantially undermine this law. Since taking office, he has proposed over 90 rollbacks of environmental laws; this one is the most significant yet. According to his Interior Secretary, “The proposal affects virtually every significant decision by the federal government that affects the environment.” His critics agree. This proposal would remove a key obstacle to heavily polluting projects and to unfettered fossil fuel development.

NEPA requires that major projects with significant impacts be studied to understand the potential consequences before projects are approved. It gives the public a voice in projects that would impact their environment, and requires that alternatives be sought that would minimize harm. The proposed new rules would 1) narrow the types of projects that would require an EIS; 2) restrict the time and the number of pages allowed for the studies; 3) eliminate the need to consider indirect or cumulative impacts, including the climate change impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions; 4) limit public input: groups that fail to weigh in during the public comment period would forfeit any right to raise objections later in litigation. These proposals would open the way for continuing fossil fuel development and building highways in areas subject to flooding from rising seas, and would give administrations free rein to hide the impacts of dangerous projects. They would bring us closer to climate catastrophe. 

TAKE ACTION: Public comment period ends March 10. Be sure to submit your comment to our government in time. Oppose this dangerous and damaging proposal from this president.

CONTACT: Go to:  https://www.regulations.gov. Enter the docket number CEQ-2019-0003 in the search bar and click. Then look to right for ‘Comment Now’, click, and enter your comment.

Or Fax your comment to: 202-456-6546. Include the docket # and agency (Council for Environmental Quality) in your fax.

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100% Renewable Electricity is Available - Often at Cheaper Than Utility Prices

November 2019 - The secret is "municipal aggregation," also called ‘Power Choice,’ in which the municipality bargains for its residents jointly. This aggregated bargaining power lowers the price to the point where, often, 100% renewable energy is cheaper than the original utility price. In Newton, MA, for example, 100% renewable is about 10% cheaper than the regular utility price. To be clear, both the utility and the aggregated prices are subject to change, because both are bargained on the open market. 

If your town already has municipal aggregation, you can "opt up" to choose 100% renewable energy. When you are part of an aggregated plan, your current utility company would continue to handle your account, send you the bill, and handle repairs to the grid. You can sign on or quit anytime, at no charge.

This is HUGE, because current residential electricity emits about 15% of total US CO2 emissions. 

TAKE ACTION:

Call your town or city hall*, ask for the department or person related to your municipality’s electricity source, and then ask If your community is part of a municipal aggregation plan.

If ‘yes’, sign up and specifically ask to get 100% renewable energy for your home and/or business. Note that getting renewable energy produced in your area is better if your community offers this option. Locally produced renewable energy provides regional jobs, keeps the money in your area, and will encourage development of more local renewable energy production.

If your town or city isn’t part of a municipal aggregation plan, urge your local government to become part of this growing movement for locally produced renewable energy that may save you money.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

See:  https://www.sierraclub.org/massachusetts/community-choice-energy  for more information on the advantages of municipal aggregation over other "green" plans.

* Contact info varies from state to state and town to town. Here are a few contact numbers we are aware of re municipal aggregation for cities in Eastern MA:  In Newton, Cambridge, and Watertown, the supplier is Direct Energy at 866-968-8065. In Brookline and Somerville, MA, it's Dynegy at 866-220-5696. In Lexington, it's Constellation New Energy at 844-813-7876.

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An Actual Bipartisan Plan to Stop Greenhouse Gas Emissions!

May 2019 - The Bad News: In 2018, greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.5% in the US and 2.7% globally. While the politics has been difficult, the technological fix is clear: A complete change-over from fossil fuels and nuclear to electricity from renewables, even for heating and vehicles. Already, in many places, energy from wind and solar, backed up by large-scale battery storage, is cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels and nuclear sources. If we could raise the cost of fossil fuels and provide people with the money to make the change-over, that would do it.

The Good News: There is a simple way of doing that at zero cost to the government. It's called Carbon-Fee-Dividend. It consists of the government collecting a gradually rising carbon fee at all coal mines, oil and gas well-heads and ports, and distributing the collected fees as "dividends" to all residents, equally per person. As the carbon fee rises, it will increase the consumer prices for gasoline, oil, and natural gas. The rich will end up paying dearly to use their yachts and private jets. But the bottom 82% will see a net gain—especially the bottom 50%—who could then use their dividends to pay to switch to clean electric, and pocket the money from then on. The transition to renewable energy will also generate millions of jobs which will narrow the gap between rich and poor.

TAKE ACTION

House bill H.763, introduced by T. Deutch (D-FL) with 26 co-sponsors, incorporates this plan and needs publicity and support. Urge your Representative to co-sponsor and speak out in support of this bill. Many economists, both Democratic and Republican, say that this is the most effective and efficient way to go. We have no time to lose to save ourselves and the Earth from increasingly virulent fires, floods, droughts and rising oceans.

CONTACT: Your Representative in Congress

• Web: Find his or her name and link to their websites at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name) S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

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