A Going Away Present for Heartland?

In a little less than a month one billboard has practically taken down the Heartland Institute.  In a stunningly bad miscalculation Heartland tried to associate understanding of climate change with psychopathic murderers.  They only got one billboard up of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski while planning a whole gamut of billboard “stars” from Osama Bin Laden to Charles Manson and Fidel Castro.

Now that’s one effective billboard…  Less than a month later Heartland is in shambles, seeing their mainstream corporate sponsors on the run and their individual donations drying up.  In fact, Heartland’s President took the podium at the end of their recent “International Conference on Climate Change” and told the 300 or so in attendance that Heartland needed their financial assistance to stay afloat.

Well, not to be too schadenfreude about the whole thing, but… finally!  Heartland overplayed its hand and the American public responded.   And now that they’re on the run,  how about giving Heartland a little going away message– by donating to MCAN!

We’ve kept on mission, and with your help in the past have been able to continue to offer guidance and assistance to the seventy plus MCAN communities in Massachusetts.  We’ve made your presence felt on Beacon Hill and advocated for passage of nation-leading climate legislation, and we’re there making sure the state is following through on its promises.

But the state’s plans aren’t enough.  Over the next twelve months MCAN is working on a number of new initiatives, including:

•  A “lessons learned” guide for communities trying to adopt the Stretch Code and become green communities.
• A learning network of town officials so that they can exchange ideas and learn about new opportunities to make their towns more sustainable.
• Easy-to-replicate activities for local climate action groups to do in their towns to help fight climate change.
• And more training for local activists to help them be effective, overcome obstacles, and make the difference in their home towns.

MCAN is the only statewide organization dedicated to building local, grassroots power to bring to the climate change battle.  It is for that reason crucially important that you support us now.  Can you help us with a $100, $500, or $1000 donation?

We are a lean operation; no professional fundraisers, no lavish offices, and certainly no large salaries for our board and staff!  Your donation will go directly to benefit local climate action, be it supporting the Wolfe-Rita local climate action grant program which provides funding directly to our chapters for their work, or supporting our Chapter Education meetings which bring speakers and programs to our chapters, or our work developing materials the chapters can use to have successful initiatives in their home towns.

So can you help MCAN?  Let’s show Heartland that we’ll be here long after they’re gone, fighting climate change and making a difference in our homes, communities, state and nation.

Thank you so much,

Rob Garrity – Executive Director, MCAN

Letter from Carbon Acres

Things here at Carbon Acres are going fine, with a few minor mishaps.

Over the last couple of years I’ve figured out how to use the rainbarrel. At first I thought a soaker hose, with little pinpricks in a regular hose connected to the rainbarrel, would relieve me of all watering worries. Unfortunately, the rainbarrel is only about 2 feet above the acres and so there is not enough head pressure to drive the water out of the hose.  Instead I’ve adopted a cistern approach, with an old plastic garbage can holding the excess from the rainbarrel. From there, I fill a watering can and water the acres. Unfortunately, during the last storm, someone (me!) left the feed into the cistern open so all the new rainwater that would have been stored in the rainbarrel was lost.  Two thousand years ago this would have been a problem, but today I will simply go to my outside faucet.  Just imagine if someone at Mesa Verde had forgotten to capture the rainwater! Thank goodness we live when we do.

Due to the limited acreage at Carbon Acres, it has always been important to find ways to increase production. This year, we are experimenting with the third dimension: up. It turns out that Snap Peas, Slicing Cucumbers and Eggplants will crawl up a trellis and make FOOD! Today, we went to the local farm supply (Agway)  and  a hardware (Aubuchon) to buy a trellis for  the Snap Peas.. What was available was a plastic mesh, similar to the onion bag we are all familiar with. The problem is that I can no longer ignore long term consequences of the the plastic mesh bags for oranges, onions and garden trellis’. I could buy a plastic trellis, with a two inch by two inch grid that is sure to outlast me by about a thousand years. The image of Robin William’s character “Chilly Willy”, in the movie “Happy Feet”, with a beer six-pack plastic wrapped around his neck stays with me. The impact of plastics is enormous, because it lasts thousands of years and has many bad consequences. Therefore, I wanted a trellis that can degrade. I ended up with a trellis of my own design made with twine, hung on some wooden stakes from Agway. It looks a little bit like the Zakim Bridge.  I’m not sure if what I do matters, but is feels better to grow my tomatoes with some perspective, to think about what I am doing. I’m sure you do the same.

- Ted McIntyre

A Rite of Spring

A Rite of Spring

This past weekend I performed a ritual that, despite changing from year to year, has a consistency that has become important to me. The ritual is the annual ‘planting of the tomatoes.’ I doubt I’m the only one who marks this moment in time.

The Green Zebra is in the rear bed.

All winter long, I compost my coffee grounds and potato peels in preparation to ‘amend the soil’ and in the spring reconnect the rainbarrel  in the expectation of April showers. Then in mid-May when the weather is beautiful, I go to White Barn Farm for their special weekend sale to buy tomato seedlings. The rest of the weekend is dedicated to planning and planting.

The heirloom tomato seedling names are wonderful: the “Mortgage Lifter” speaks to hopes of a good harvest, “Rose of Berne” an exotic European connection while the “Martha Washington” and “Brandywine” suggests study American values. The “Early Girl” and “Big Beef” show the finger of mankind in selecting the best seeds. But my favorites are the rainbow names, and are they ever romantic!  I planted an “Indigo Rose”, a “Pink Beauty”, a “Green Zebra”, an  “Orange Blossom” and a “Pruden’s Purple”. If that doesn’t either spark your imagination or excite your taste buds, it’s too bad.

We have all heard about food miles, not to mention the emissions related to meat production. Michael Pollan talks about anonymous food- the idea that we often have no idea where our food is coming from. It comforts me to know that my tomatoes come from my front yard, fertilized with compost from my table and watered with run-off from my roof. So what’s this all this got to do with Climate Change? Call me crazy, but it seems that planting tomatoes is a statement of self-reliance and a determination to eat a little more sustainably. I’m not sure how much carbon I will save by growing and eating my own tomatoes, but I am sure they will be delicious.

- Ted McIntyre

The latest scoop on the Updated Bottle Bill

Yesterday Senator Pacheco offered the Updated Bottle Bill as an amendment to the Senate budget.  As you know, the Updated Bottle Bill would expand Massachusetts’ current 5 cent deposit law to water, juice, iced tea and other uncovered single serve containers.  The original bottle bill, covering carbonated beverages, was created in 1983 and has been credited with a dramatic drop in litter and increase in recycling of covered beverage containers.

Senator Pacheco’s amendment was redrafted to create a “study” after a good deal of floor debate.  The study called for is apparently a “real” study, as opposed to the usual legislative “study” which is Beacon Hill-ese for “this bill is going nowhere but we don’t want to actually vote ‘no’ on it….”

While the “real” study language passed, that doesn’t really mean anything in the short term, as the budget still has to be reconciled between House and Senate versions, and won’t get to the Governor until late June or early July (if the legislature is slacking).

The action on the actual bottle bill expansion is still in the Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy (TUE) committee where the bill is “bottled up” (har har I kill me) until June 15th.

So, if you want to see your legislator actually have to take a vote on the bottle bill, you should write the TUE committee members and ask them to report the bottle bill (H. 890 / S. 1650) favorably so the entire legislature may decide the future of the expanded bottle bill.  The link in this paragraph will bring you to the TUE committee list.  Even if one of your legislators are on the committee it would still be helpful to contacts the chairs of the committee, Senator Ben Downing and Representative John Kennan and remind them that 77% of the public supports the expanded bottle bill, as well as over 200 municipalities.

The Expanded Bottle Bill is an excellent opportunity to show that the will of the people should be prioritized over special interests.  Let’s pass this in 2012!

For much more information check out the website of the Updated Bottle Bill coalition here.

Festing at Earthfest

A beautiful day at the non-profit end of WBOS’ Earthfest, tabling with the likes of Clean Water Action, CLF, and the Boston Bicyclists Union — who incidentally displayed an awesome urban bike capable of hauling several hundred pounds of stuff in addition to a rider.  It actually  hauled another bike BCU was raffling off!

 

Loie Hayes of BCAN helped set up and our booth was staffed by Loie, MCAN Board members DeAnne Dupont from Sustainable Arlington and Ted McIntyre from Franklin Area Climate Team.  In additional to providing information about energy savings and community climate change projects, MCAN was signing people up for home energy audits and solar assessments, and collecting postcards calling on the legislature to move on several pieces of legislation still pending on Beacon Hill.
Fred Schlicher finished up the day (after spending an eternity trying to get through the Tufts and BU graduations on his way there!).  Several thousand rock fans later, we were happy to break down the table and go home, content that we had talked to hundred of engaged and concerned people; assisted a bunch access energy efficiency help for their homes, and found a bunch of new activsts!

 

See you next year, Earthfest!

 

 

Fox does rare story complementary of renewable energy but buries the lede, and Arlington goes Solarize!

Fox 25, usually not the most hospitable outlet for climate change or renewable energy stories, just had a segment about residential solar on their morning news.

The piece, hosted by meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbons, laid out some benefits and downsides of buying an array or leasing through a PPA, and Patrick Cloney of MassCEC was interviewed talking about the Commonwealth’s efforts to spur solar through various benefit programs.

What didn’t get mentioned, or was left on the cutting room floor, was any discussion of the Mass SREC (Solar renewable energy certificates), the most significant state program which has been largely responsible for solar’s impressive growth in the last five years.  SREC’s, when combined with existing rebates and tax incentives, put outright purchase within the grasp of many.

Of course, for most of us, the no-cash-down model which guarantees modest savings, and can allow a hedge against future utlity power cost increases is the best bet.

Pause for commercial break:

MCAN actually partners with Next Step Living and Sun Run to provide a solar lease PPA option for local climate activists.  You can sign up for your free no-cost, no-commitment assessment here.

End commercial break.

In other solar news, 17 towns have been chosen for the second round of the SolarizeMass program.  SolarMass helps residents and business owners adopt solar photovoltaic (PV) technology through discounted pricing which is offered by a state-approved PV installer, with the discount increasing as more homes and businesses sign up to go solar.  Arlington is one of those communities.

Arlington has a goal of 100 residences signed up by the end of September, and they’re kicking off their program with a “Solar 101″ meeting at Arlington Town Hall on Thursday, May 31, at 7:00pm.  For more information check out our calendar listing here.

Battling Billboards

The New York Times Green Blog has a post today about the continuing Heartland Institute billboard kerfuffle.  Apparently a group called Forecast the Facts tried to rent the same billboard Heartland put up their infamous Ted Kaczynski message.  The billboard would have had a similar layout to the Heartland billboard, but with Pfizer’s logo and the tagline “We Still Support Climate Deniers, Do You?”.

Clear Channel rejected the ad over concerns about the use of Pfizer’s logo, ostensibly without the company’s consent.  Well, I guess no argument there.  Did Heartland get Kaczynski’s consent though?  Okay, okay.  Just kidding.

Anyway, let’s give Forecast the Facts a little help.  Here’s their proposed billboard:

There is a happy ending to the story though, as The Climate Reality Project has rented the billboard space to put up their own anti-Heartland billboard.

Good enough.  Although Grist’s Psychotronic Billboard Generator still makes the best ads, if you ask me.

Click here to go to the generator and get your own dose of daily psycho wisdom.  Thanks to climate news animal D. R. Tucker for noting this story.  And here’s the link to the Times’ original blog post.  Heartland: No Links for You!