Concord Sustainable Coffee
We wish you a relaxing summer!
We will resume:
Tuesday, October 18,
7:30 – 9 AM
Harvey Wheeler Community
Center, West Concord
1276 Main St., Concord
Please Donate to ConcordCAN!
By operating on a very small budget, ConcordCAN keeps the local conversation going on environmental issues and engages in action and collaboration throughout the community. We sponsor or co-sponsor, for example, the Climate Solutions Speaker Series, the Farm and Garden Fair, the monthly coffees, website updates and newsletter. This year ConcordCAN! also covered the costs for this presentation by Sharon Gensler from NOFA at the Cooler Concord Sustainable Landscaping Fair in May.
If you appreciate what ConcordCAN! is doing for our community, please consider making a $25 donation that will help us continue in the coming year. We appreciate any contributions you can give, which can be made through our website at the bottom of each page. Thank you!
Movie night hosted by First Parish Environmental Team & ConcordCAN!
Movie: Burned – Are Trees the New Coal?
Tuesday, July 16, 7:00 PM
First Parish in Concord
20 Lexington Road, Concord
Billed as “a film for anyone who cares about forests”, this documentary film produced by Alan Dater and Lisa Merton shows the growth of the wood chip biomass industry. The biomass industry presents itself as environmentally benign and a low-carbon-emissions electricity source; but, as the film shows, it is anything but. Using faulty accounting, regulators in the UK have designated wood chips to be a renewable power source, even though they must be imported in large quantities from the US, resulting in the accelerating destruction of forests in the southeastern states. In their own words, the film “interweaves the science of climate change, the escalating energy-policy disputes, the dynamics of forest ecology, the biomass industry practices, the conflict between jobs and trees, and the actions of activists and citizens who are working to protect their own health, their communities, the forest, and the planet’s climate”.
The subject of wood-chip biomass is currently of high relevance in Massachusetts, where the Baker Administration is attempting to add this fuel to the Renewable Portfolio Standard, essentially copying the logic of the UK regulators. This move may make reaching climate goals seem easier though it is a step in the opposite direction, since biomass emits more CO2 for the energy it delivers than coal. Thankfully, the Concord Municipal Light Plant Board decided not to purchase biomass power from the proposed but controversial Palmer Biomass Plant, joining several other communities. But we are not ‘out of the woods’ yet…
How You Can Make A Difference
Following the film, there will be refreshments and a time together to provide comments via post-cards or online. Please note: if you can’t make it to the film showing, you can still provide comments directly using the instructions on this website. The comment period lasts until July 26th, after which the final decision will be made.
350 MetroWest Node Meeting
Movie: Anote’s ARK
Monday, July 15, 7 – 9 PM
First Parish in Framingham’s
Scott Hall
24 Vernon Street, Framingham
What if your country was swallowed by the sea? Find out at the annual 350Mass MetroWest Node Climate Film Night. We will be showing Anote’s Ark which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2018. Watch the story of the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati as they face imminent annihilation from sea-level rise. View the trailer. We welcome donations for the film. There will be plenty of pizza and delicious homemade baked goods for sale to benefit the Node. Meet other concerned MetroWest folks, and learn what we are doing to address the climate crisis. You will come away not only with inspiration, but also with ideas for next steps.
Concord's Climate Action Advisory Board
CAAB Meetings:
July & August
Wednesday, July 17,
Wednesday, August 21
7:00 – 9:00 PM
Town House, Select Board Room,
22 Monument Square, Concord
Concord’s new Climate Action Advisory Board (CAAB) recently began to work on a Climate Action Plan for Concord. The CAAB was appointed by the Select Board in 2018 to translate into action ambitious climate mitigation and resilience goals approved at the 2017 Town Meeting. Click here for additional details on Concord’s sustainability and climate goals. The Board will advise and provide strategic direction to the Sustainability Director, Kate Hanley. The final committee charge, as approved by the Select Board in June 2018 can be found here.
Citizen attendance at the Board’s meetings is being encouraged by the new CAAB Chair, Brian Foulds. There will be two Board meetings during the summer, both on the third Wednesday evenings of the month. Each meeting will offer time for public comments.
Current members of the CAAB Board include: Pam Hill, Warren Leon, John Bolduc, Ruth Bennett, Peter Nichol, Jake Swenson, Brian Foulds (Chair), Courtney Eaton, Michael McAteer, Brian Crounse, and Jane Hotchkiss (Select Board Liaison). To contact the board, please email CAABchair@concordma.gov.
SAVE THE DATE
The Sunrise Movement Campaign to Change the Debate
Wednesday & Thursday –
July 30 & 31
Detroit, Michigan
On two July evenings, 20 Democratic candidates for President will walk on the debate stage in Detroit for the second of twelve presidential debates. Nearby, the Sunrise Movement plans to gather by the thousands. They will set up a “People’s Stage” near the official debate location and challenge the candidates to come speak on their terms. They are demanding that all candidates reject fossil fuel money, support “a climate debate,” and make the Green New Deal a Day 1 priority.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC), which is managing the debates, has resisted calls from Sunrise and others to sponsor a climate debate. They have been unwilling to acknowledge that action on climate, unlike all other issues, is critical for the survival of life on our planet. They have even threatened that presidential candidates who agree to participate in an independently organized climate debate will be banned from further participation in the debates sponsored by the Democratic Party.
How You Can Make A Difference
Sunrise has forcefully led a growing demand for a DNC climate debate and has recently achieved a concession from the DNC that they will have a national vote of the party in August, involving representatives from all U.S. states. Between now and then, Sunrise is calling upon all of us to do several things:
1) Sign an online petition calling for the debate;
2) Advocate with local and statewide Democratic committees;
3) Write personal letters to the editors of local and state newspapers stating why we believe having such a debate is important;
4) If possible, come to Detroit in July and be part of the big rally.
Click on this link to visit Sunrise Movement’s website to find out how you can support or participate in this activism.