Sustainable Concord Coffee
Opportunities for Sustainability
at Town Meeting 2022
Tuesday, April 19, 8-9am
Concord’s Annual Town Meeting is right around the corner on Sunday May 1st. At our March coffee, we discussed two articles relating to the Reformatory Branch Trail. The April Coffee will be a preview and conversation about three other important sustainability-related Articles coming before the Town.
Does Concord need to generate more solar power to meet its decarbonization goals? Should we extend the moratorium on artificial turf on Town land? Should we enact a grocery bag charge to encourage people to bring their re-usable shopping bags? Petitioners Dean Banfield, Bev Ridpath Bryant and Joseph Stein will present their Articles on these topics, and we’ll also offer a brief summary of two other sustainability-related proposals: the Assabet River Bluff Preservation Project and the Scenic Roads General Bylaw.
To register click this link.
The virtual coffee will be BYO but an interesting and informative discussion is guaranteed.
Concord Town Meeting 2022
Sunday, May 1, 1pm
(+ subsequent days as needed)
Concord-Carlisle High School
At the 2022 Concord Town Meeting, voters will decide on a number of articles related to sustainability and local governance. The full description of all articles for Town Meeting is listed in the Town Meeting Warrant. This is your chance to participate in the Town’s decision making, and we encourage all registered voters to read the warrant and preview presentations, attend the meeting and choose wisely.
ConcordCAN recommends a Yes Vote on these petitions:
Article 16 – Citizen Petition: Five-Year Moratorium on the Installation of Synthetic Turf on Town Land.
This renews the 3-year moratorium that was twice voted in favor at Town Meeting. It is slightly updated to include infills other than crumb rubber.
Article 25 – Assabet River Bluff Preservation Project.
Preserves open space on a scenic bluff that is unbuildable anyway.
Article 37 – Citizen Petition: Authorize Select Board to Petition to Impose a Checkout Bag Charge.
Authorizes the Select Board to petition the MA legislature to adopt legislation to incentivize consumers to reuse checkout bags reducing use of plastic and paper and decreasing litter.
Article 38 – Citizen Petition: Development Plan for Municipal Solar Generation.
Urges Concord Municipal Light Plant to plan and schedule installation of solar arrays to meet Concord’s decarbonization goals in a timely manner.
ConcordCAN has not taken a position on the following
Article 30 – Scenic Roads General Bylaw
Article 46 – Citizen Petition: Reformatory Branch Trail Feasibility Study
Appropriates $75,000 to conduct public forums and a feasibility study relating to drainage and grading of the Reformatory Branch Trail.
Article 47 – Citizen Petition: Preserve Concord’s Reformatory Branch Trail
Maintain the Reformatory Branch Trail in an unpaved natural condition and whatever changes are made to the trail should be done in a way that preserves trees to the extent possible.
Cooler Concord
Sustainability Series
April 27-June 4
We are very excited to announce the upcoming Cooler Concord Sustainability Series starting in April. This will be an opportunity for us to get together again and to increase awareness of the issue of climate change, while inspiring Concord residents to act on mitigating climate change. The series of seven events will be hosted by Concord’s Comprehensive Sustainability & Energy Committee (CSEC) together with the Concord Municipal Utilities, Concord Sustainability Division and a number of other organizations including ConcordCAN, Mothers Out Front and the CCHS Sunrise Hub and Green Team.
The kick-off event will be a presentation on April 27 by Professor Kerry Emanuel, a distinguished climate scientist who has focused his research on hurricane physics and was the first to investigate how long-term climate change might affect hurricane activity. He is co-director of MIT’s Lorenz Center, a climate think tank devoted to basic, curiosity-driven climate research. This will be a hybrid event with Professor Emanuel presenting live over Zoom to an audience in the Harvey Wheeler auditorium as well as a Zoom audience.
This event will be followed by an Arbor Day Celebration and Seedling Giveaway on 29 April, where you have an opportunity to pick up your own native tree seedling (pin oak or Washington hawthorn) at the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail parking lot on Commonwealth Ave. And, on 30 April, the Cooler Concord Climate Festival will be held on the lawn by the main branch of the Concord Public Library. This will be an opportunity to join neighbors and friends for a day of fun, education, and entertainment, featuring art, food, information, and activities for children, youth, and adults – a celebration to show how each of us has the power to help stop climate change.
The entire Cooler Concord Sustainability Series is listed here, together with links to sign up for the events:
• April 27 – Climate Change Risk & Opportunities by MIT Climate Scientist Dr. Kerry Emanuel
• April 29 – Arbor Day Celebration and Seedling Giveaway – Bruce Freeman Rail Trail
• April 30 – Cooler Concord Climate Festival – Concord Free Public Library, Main Branch
• May 11 – Heating and Cooling with Heat Pumps Forum – Harvey Wheeler Community Center
• May 25 – Your Sustainable Home Now! Workshop – Harvey Wheeler Community Center
• June 4 – EV Display and Charging Tips Open House – Harvey Wheeler Community Center
Learn, connect, celebrate and take action! Gather inspiration for practical climate actions you can incorporate into your everyday life, and connect with groups working collectively to build a healthier, safer, more sustainable community. The time for action is now!
Book Launch Event:
Paradise Falls
by Keith O’Brien
Tuesday April 12, 7 PM
The Sanctuary,
82 Main St, Maynard
Local author Keith O’Brien has written a new book that is being published at Pantheon Books on April 12. It’s called Paradise Falls and it tells the true story of one of the landmark environmental crises of the 20th century. The story of Love Canal—a forgotten chemical landfill in a working-class neighborhood of Niagara Falls.
The narrative focuses on the human story here—the ordinary mothers who organized around their kitchen tables to save their families and escape their own homes. In the span of just two years, they went from being ignored by local officials to having the ear of the EPA, the White House, and even President Jimmy Carter himself. It is a story of resistance in the face of impossible odds and a story that remains all too relevant today. You can learn more at www.KeithOB.com or by watching the book’s video trailer here.
The launch is being hosted by Acton’s great bookstore, Silver Unicorn Books, at the Sanctuary in Maynard. The author will be discussing the book that night with Boston Globe environmental reporter David Abel and also signing books and taking questions from the crowd.
First Parish Environmental Team film:
YOUTH v GOV
Monday April 25 &
Thursday April 28
at 7:00 pM
Online Screening
The First Parish of Concord Environmental Team invites the community to a screening of the film YOUTH v GOV, which follows 21 young Americans suing the world’s most powerful government to protect their constitutional rights to a stable climate. If they win, they will change the future.
YOUTH v GOV is the story of America’s youth taking on the world’s most powerful government. Armed with a wealth of evidence, twenty-one courageous leaders file a ground-breaking lawsuit against the U.S. government, asserting it has willfully acted over six decades to create the climate crisis, thus endangering their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. If these young people are successful, they will not only make history, they will change the future.
Register for the community screening Thursday April 28th at 7:00 pm by sending an email to FPEnvironTeam@gmail.com. Mention “community screening” and you will receive the link once it is available. The link from the producers and sponsors will be available April 11th or later.
Concord Sunrise Hubs
Active at CCHS and CA
By Sydney Haddad
As the Sunrise Movement Website states, “The Sunrise Movement is a youth movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. We’re building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.” There are two Sunrise hubs in Concord, at Concord Academy and Concord Carlisle High School.
Before Covid, we had a Sunrise Hub in Concord that helped with the climate strike, and we’ve come back this year as a CCHS club. We started this club to promote climate action at CCHS. There are many environmental groups in our school, however CCHS Sunrise is unique in focusing on governmental level change. So far we have raised awareness for climate action by using spray chalk on the sidewalks to display our message and held a bake sale to raise money for our club’s future actions.