Next Wednesday evening, the Southborough Library is hosting a special forum “Planning for Climate Change: State and Federal Issues”.
Speakers will address “What’s Being Done to Preserve & Sustain our Environment – and How It Affects Us”.
Organizers pitch it as:
a great opportunity to learn how activists, legislators and local environmental groups are addressing the environmental issues that affect us all.
The keynote speaker is the President of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, George Bachrach (a former state senator).
The Environmental League of Massachusetts is a nonprofit committed to protecting Massachusetts land, water, and public health and combating climate change.
Also expect to hear from participating State Senator Jamie Eldridge and Representative Carolyn Dykema on what they are doing to help efforts. Eldridge sits on the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change and Dykema is on the House Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture.
The Southborough forum will also feature brief presentations from SOLF (Southborough Open Land Foundation) and Southborough’s Stewardship Committee, Open Space Preservation Commission, and Trails Committee. Following the presentation is a chance for questions, discussion and enjoying refreshments.
The forum is scheduled for Wednesday, September 28, from &:00 – 8:15 pm in the upper main level of the library.
The event is hosted by the Southborough Democratic Town Committee. If you have questions, you can contact one of three organizers: Rose Mauro @ rddmauro@gmail.com, Dan Frank @ d.frank@mindspring.com, or Robert Ross @ rjsross@clarku.edu.
Good chance for those who don’t want a solar farm in your back lawn to speak your piece. I’ll be at home planning where to put new trees and a new lawn to offset the CO2 emitted by this meeting and wondering if we will see a local forum on Charter Schools from the local Democrats – No I will not hold my breath.
HAHAHAHaah! Good one, Frank!
Holding your breath would reduce CO2 emissions. But you’d turn blue, and your autonomic nervous system would start you breathing again, so it’s not a good long-term solution.
Trees would help. Lawn? Not so much, due to all the mowing. Unless you’re using an old fashioned rotary blade mower. That’s some good exercise, too.
If you want a charter schools forum, you’re a citizen. Organize one. I won’t hold my breath.
I hope Beth does post on the charter school referendum so we can hear what people think. Or maybe we can take over one of her “open threads” to discuss it.
Frank, the charter school issue is not as partisan as you might think! The Democratic State Committee has voted for keeping the cap, but local committees are not bound by that. There is a diversity of opinion on this ballot question among the Southboro DTC. However, according to the Massachusetts Teachers Association, both the Southborough and the Northborough-Southborough school committees have voted to keep the cap. And there is at least one registered Republican on those committees! It is an issue that crosses party lines to some extent.
I hope all who are interested in environmental issues have a chance to attend the forum. Especially for new residents, it will give you a chance to meet some of our local activists and our representatives on Beacon Hill. All of these people have been doing great work! I expect Mr. Bachrach’s presentation to be quire informative as well.
Frank, I will be there to ask Bachrach why his groups salaries are so high as well as why fully 60% of all donation go to paying board members and staff in their so-called “non-profit” . Why is financial accountability so lacking with these leftist democratic groups. Its like they have their own, shall we say, “foundations” ;/
Last night’s forum on climate change was very informative. If you think it was only about solar panels you missed a discussion that ranged from the impact of infrastructure investment (like replacing aging water service lines or leaking gas pipelines), to water resources, water retention, hydroelectric power, wind farms, the benefits of better home insulation, suburban planning, conservation and a lot of work that’s being done that would save us all money in the long run. Whatever you think of the term climate change, and where to place responsibility for the changes in our weather, it’s a subject worthy of serious discussion. Too bad Mike didn’t show up to ask his questions.
Swell. Excelsior.
Did last night’s forum on climate change also cover the impact to U.S.taxpayers of subsidizing the artificial market for the solar industry and wind turbines, where electricity is produced at 25.5 cents per kwh, as opposed to traditional coal and nuclear generation at about 5 cents per kwh??
I’m guessing *THAT* wasn’t discussed at the Forum . . .
How much longer do you and climate change zealots feel that Americans will tolerate the gross escalation in their monthly electric bills, before they figure out they’re footing the bill for a government-mandated and special-interest inspired diseconomy???
I am so very grateful that the vast majority of Americans are “zealots” rather than deniers. Your extra 20 cents per kwh savings will be cold comfort indeed when parts of this planet become inhabitable for human life in the coming decades.
Well, Rebecca, the climate change hoax is yet another fine example of the incredible morass and fake economies created by government intrusion, mandate, and special interest favoritism. Perhaps I should be thankful that through skyrocketing electric rates, the “vast majority” of U.S.taxpayers are unknowingly subsidizing solar panels that are made in China . . . tee-hee-hee!!!
We don’t need to look far for other examples of psychotic, bureaucratic, and inefficient centrist over-each. By the way, how is Obamacare working out for you? My premiums have doubled over the last *2 years*, and the quality of care has declined from the world’s finest, to the dynamics of a rationed, PEZ-dispenser of hurry-up-and-wait medical care.
Then, there is government intrusion into the housing market . . though I guess we all know how that ended up in 2008.
I also love how the Obama Administration and the Fed has whored-out U.S. currency to near zero-interest rates for the last 8 years, with the dispatch of a pimp on the Las Vegas strip. Please reconcile this with senior citizens and prudent savers who could realize a whopping $500 or so a year from, say, a $1 million savings balance.
I’d love to discuss this more with you Rebecca, but I’m going to go out in the backyard, and grill a succulent Ribeye, courtesy of some lone steer, who produced how many pounds of CO2 through cow flatulence (???). I’m sure that will soon be mandated to appear on the food label . . .
Always question the facts of the other side, Rebecca. They generally make them up or get them wrong.
So Matthew says his ribeye’s cow produced CO2, when the problem from cow flatulence is methane. But information cannot argue with a closed mind.
The forum was very successful. There are still thinking people here. Not enough of them, but that’s always been true.
By the way, I guess I must be one of the hoaxers. Where’s my check from the Chinese? Maybe I did software for the Harvard Atmospheric Research Project too early to get paid. True, we focused on ozone depletion (another fact you guys didn’t believe), so maybe that’s why the International Society of Chinese Hoaxes won’t pay me.
This hoax idea – from Donald Trump and Alex Jones – is completely absent any evidence. It’s just a comforting lie that fools people who really, really, really don’t want to have to change their habits, even if sea level rise threatens massive flooding by the end of the century. The heck with our grandkids!
Actually, we did hear about how gas pipeline companies want electric ratepayers to take on 30-year debt for their proposed pipelines.
Hi Dan, you’re correct, I did not “show up”, I had my daughter’s volleyball game and then I had an engagement at church. However, I did call Bachrach’s office (quasi democrat government 501(c)(3) ) and spoke to two people yesterday and they’re going to provide the nonprofit spending of the 501(c)(3) to verify what I mentioned ( high salaries and lack of disbursement to the cause -environmental sustainablity). To add to that so you don’t think I am anti-…., I work in the energy efficiency field with major hospitals, universities and colleges and typically what I do reduces their energy consumption by 30 to 50% with one very simple device. I have solar on my home (no brainer right, suns free) and I’m paying $.11 per kilowatt hour versus 18/kw/hr. I am also a LEED Certified Corporate Sustainabilty Manger and LEED GBDC certified (although my certs have lapsed). My problem is when you start to talk about global warming and climate change it’s non-scientific ( repeatable evidence ie 1+1=2 ) and we conservatives are not invited to the table any longer in these discussions at governments, colleges and universities. We believe you are working with a hypothesis ( Non-repeatable evidence, hypothesis, based on an assumption, or a feeling). What we have is climate variation with human pollution from chemicals and abuse of our natural resources primarily by big-Agra. When I follow the money trail throughout the Democratic Party ( and to be fair many Republicans, not conservatives), especially in the area of energy efficiency, there’s tremendous waste and corruption. So I have tremendous mistrust for people who speak about climate change when in true scientific analysis it is climate variations. And they don’t speak honestly about India, China, Russia, and other countries whose carbon footprint is 1000 times that of the US per capita. They want to do it all on the backs of “big bad racist rich America”. So I believe US leftists are levying a tremendous burden upon America (taxes) and they’re killing our country with taxes and the inability to now build “clean” factories for people who would be real happy to make a good living wage or $20-$40 per hour. I only ask for an even playing field honesty and a voice at the table. Sorry wasn’t there last night, I was at the last one, see you soon, Mike
This posting is so full of nonsense it’s hard to unpack it all.
1000 times per capita carbon footprint in China, India, and Russia? Bwahaha! Someone doesn’t know what “per capita” means. Or 1000!
The real science essentially all shows dramatic, human-caused warming. Saying the opposite is simply repeating the falsehoods of the petroleum and coal industries.
The warming we’re currently experiencing is not normal variation. It’s the result of gigatons of extra carbon added to the atmosphere by human activity – industry, agriculture, transportation, etc.
Oh my so very scary. Look around you look up to the sky look to the sun look to the trees look to the green look to the woods look to the 50 turkeys just crossed the street on Parkville, and I dont think everything’s going to be gone in a couple of centuries , people are too smart for that Rebecca . However if I present liters continue to allow radicals to secure nuclear weapons that’s something to worry about.
In addition you say the vast majority he of Americans agree with you, that’s simply not the case. people are brilliant Rebecca , they’re not mindless wonders. they know better and there tired of people like you saying the vast majority agree. Because they simply don’t. That’s how Hitler swayed Germany, by repeating that same phrase, that the vast majority agreed. They didn’t agree but they were afraid to go against the leaders.
Did you just compare Rebecca to Hitler?
Godwin’s Law! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law)
It’s always amusing when someone who’s bought into propaganda accuses someone who hasn’t of using propaganda techniques because she disagrees with propaganda.
If it wasn’t for climate change we would not have the Oceans and Great Lakes. A real immediate solution to both climate and our energy needs would be natural gas. But no one wants to build the infrastructure to get the product to market. The hypocrisy is also evident with Wind. Once again the hypocrites shrill cry not in my backyard (or in my ocean view).
So, Publius, you’re up for accelerating from changing the climate on a geological time scale to changing it in a few centuries.
Natural gas has a lower carbon footprint, but it’s methane, so leaks are a big problem. One of the things we learned at the forum is that environmentalists just held a mock 30th birthday for the oldest leak in Boston.
So, I agree, we need infrastructure – but repairs come first. There’s a way to do this: Don’t saddle ratepayers with the cost of leaks (yes, we pay for gas we don’t get), make the gas companies pay for it. Let that financial incentive work.
You got to say one thing about me , whether you like me or not , I do get the conversation going which is good, we all learn. Even though the Foley person seems sort of angry and know it all, and people jump in to protect others, she makes one point worth looking at to me – perhaps I’ve learned, will either say the same? It’s just we have to find a place to meet sort of in the middle and that’s the trouble or challenge in politics or an agenda. I thought I shared some balance and some background but the reply seemed to be vehement to me and that’s not productive.