Town meeting season became all-turbine as Scituate and Falmouth both took up wind turbine related articles this week, while Washington was focused on the nomination hearings for Ernst Moniz and Gina McCarthy for Secretary of Energy and EPA Administrator, respectively. We've noticed it's Arctic Ice Maximum time, and Ted has a bit to say about carbon taxes, and not "go[ing] all wobbly," in the words of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who passed away this week at the age of 87....
Town meeting season became all-turbine as Scituate and Falmouth both took up wind turbine related articles this week, while Washington was focused on the nomination hearings for Ernst Moniz and Gina McCarthy for Secretary of Energy and EPA Administrator, respectively. We've noticed it's Arctic Ice Maximum time, and Ted has a bit to say about carbon taxes, and not "go[ing] all wobbly," in the words of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who passed away this week at the age of 87. So grab a cuppa' and hit that orange arrow up there to enjoy this week's Climate Minute.
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On Monday evening Falmouth voters declined to appropriate upwards of $14 million to take down the two town-owned turbines at the wastewater treatment plant. While a majority of town meeting did approve of the article (which would have been funded through a debt exclusion override at town election in May), the article did not garner the 2/3rd support required.
The Selectmen offered another proposal the following evening, asking for $100,000 to study the true cost of dismantling the turbines. That request passed after the Board of Selectmen indicated it would be contingent upon the town voting to remove the turbines at the May election. Last night the board placed a debt exclusion vote on the May 21st ballot, so Falmouth voters will have the opportunity to vote whether or not to tax themselves to remove the turbines.
In Scituate, town meeting narrowly rejected an article that would have directed the town to rescind the permits necessary for the turbine to run. In addition to noise, flicker has been cited as a prime concern of abutters to the Scituate turbine.
With the end of winter comes the Arctic Ice Maximum -- the fullest extent of the arctic ice pack. NOAA calculates that the arctic melt began March 15, and will proceed until we hit arctic minimum sometime this September or October. Arctic cover heavily affects albedo, or the reflectivity of the Earth. More ice cover means more solar radiation being bounced back out to space, less ice cover means the planet accepts more heat, worsening climate change. It's all part of the cycle.
The political cycle is on display in Washington, as hearings on President Obama's second term cabinet officials continued. This week the Presdient's choices for Energy Secretary and EPA administrator, Ernst Moniz and Gina McCarthy, were vetted by the Energy and Natural Resources committee and Environment and Public Works committee, respectively.
Dr. Moniz's hearing focused on the secretary-designee's thoughts on natural gas exploration, development and export. The natural gas boom in the United States is certainly a game-changer, although from a climate standpoint gas is inferior to dramatically upscaling clean renewables. (Though much, much superior to coal.)
Gina McCarthy's hearing focused on other weighty and timely topics like.... phoney email addresses? Senators took their precious time with the nominee to inquire about the use of email aliases or EPA instant messaging policies. Well. Yup. There you go. Senator Sanders did try to and refocus the hearing about climate change or other environmental policies, but really all his colleagues wanted to talk about was these super-secret emails, which obviously held clues to the vast international conspiracy of climate change... Ye Gods.
(My opinion is that given the fairly bipartisan support of Gina, and her sterling history of working with regulated communities to ensure government regulations were effective, fair, and sensible, left disgruntled Republicans little of substance to talk about so they had to talk about emails...)
(Full disclosure, I had the pleasure of working in two separate state offices with/for Gina, and I found her to be among the finest public servants I've ever worked with. If she had a partisan political opinion I never heard it, she was just about getting the job done and getting as many people as possible on-board with the decision. Plus she's simultaneously the most fun and most no-bull[crap] person I worked with in state government.)
Ted's thoughts about carbon taxes hit a chord with many. You'll have to listen to the podcast to get the full argument, but this piece in the Globe about reframing how we think about taxes echoes many of the points Ted makes.
In international news, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed away this week and left behind an impressive legacy. One of the lesser-known aspects of her public career was her work to raise awareness and take action against climate change. Befitting her background in science (she was trained as a research chemist) Thatcher argued that the cautious (and thus conservative) path was to address the problem rather than take chances that it could be much worse in the future.
“It may be cheaper or more cost-effective to take action now,” she said, “than to wait and find we have to pay much more later.” Global warming was, she argued, “real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices, so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.”
Of course in her later years she moderated her stance and took a more traditional "right wing" position, but her example of faith in science and particularly her recognition that we are merely co-tenants on this planet with our children, grandchildren, and all future generations -- those are solidly "conservative" principles that have been forgotten by her ideological successors.
In other "conservative" news, Gallup's latest poll on opinions about climate change show an increase in the number of Republicans who believe that climate change is occuring, up to 52% from 39% in 2011. While that's great news, the number of R's who believe the change has a man-made cause is only 39%. Expect poll-watching Republicans to jump on the sunspot bandwagon next election season...
Finally, thank you for listening. By listening you're a part of the climate change movement, and we need every hand on deck to ensure a healthy and happy future for our kids, and their kids, and so on and so on. Bill McKibben's latest Rolling Stone piece terms this movement as the Fossil Fuel Resistance, and in true 21st century fashion it's a dispersed and it's de-centralized. You're a part of it and you resist with everything you do to cut fossil fuels and move to a more sustainable future.
As always, it's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you. You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here. Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.
You can donate and support the Climate Minute and all of MCAN's other climate change fighting activities by hitting that "donate now" button, or going to www.massclimateaction.net/donate. Much thanks to Nancy from Pittsfield who helped support us this week! Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar. You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon. See you next week.
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