One Civic Act

The Candidates Climate Forum that the Climate Coalition of Somerville is planning is in just six days. Today, we had another meeting with the moderator, Julia Taliesin of the Somerville Journal , to walk through the run of show. Feels like we’re in pretty good shape if we could just lock down the last few questions.

Two years ago, I donated to a Florida attorney, Margaret Good, running for that state’s congress against a real estate developer. Well, she won. And now she’s running for Congress — against that same developer’s father. You can’t make that up. Today, I made donation to Good’s campaign for Congress.

Today, I snuck in my second 30-second shift photographing pollinators in one block of Somerville, as part of a citizen science project. The bees are definitely still out, although the number of flowers for them to visit is down now that it’s fall. Here’s a bumblebee at work. I also spotted a monarch butterfly on a flower for the first time. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Today, Conscious Capitalism Boston agreed to partner with the Boston Area Sustainability Group to co-sponsor their next event, on coop businesses . Actually, the event is on Tuesday, so I had to scramble a bit to get the event up on our website and schedule a couple of email blasts.

Today I attended a hearing held by the Somerville Planning Board to get updates from the City of Somerville’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development on the Davis Square Neighborhood Plan . It’s been a six-year development process. There are certainly some things that need to be better explained to the public, but the planners have been responsive to date and have some interesting ideas.

The Brattle Theatre screened The Anthropocene this evening, an eerily beautiful but ominous movie about human impact on the planet. Today, I not only saw the film, but also volunteered at the Brattle to help market its membership program.

Today, I joined one other climate advocate in presenting about climate change to the Somerville Rotary Club. This was a great opportunity to talk about climate with new groups and perhaps spur them into service opportunities related to climate.

Today, I had another meeting with the two other key organizers of the Climate Coalition of Somerville’s Candidates Climate Forum. We’re getting close so we wanted to get our town hall questions in line.

Today, the Climate Coalition of Somerville held a climate social. We held it at the wonderful Somerville Growing Center and had a presentation from Claire O’Neill of Earthwise Aware . We probably had 40-50 attendees, which is a great turnout.

We have a Climate Social tomorrow, to bring a number of community members together and enjoy one another’s company. Today, I joined in the prep work by assembling a 30″x40″ poster that discusses the health impacts of climate change.

Today, I joined with 7,000 others in Boston to strike for the climate. Some estimates put the worldwide turnout at 4 million! We had a rally at Boston City Hall and then we marched to the State House.

Today, I attended another (hopefully the last) strategy retreat for the Conscious Capitalism Boston chapter. We accomplished a lot today, making important choices in our target market and key activities.

The City of Somerville has been working on a zoning code update for years. And version four of the update has just been released. Today, I met with a few other advocates and our City Council president to talk about the sustainability aspects of the new zoning code. There’s a lot to work with, a lot to unpick and a lot to propose.

Today, I went to the East Somerville Foodie Crawl , an opportunity to participate in the festival in a different neighborhood and sample local businesses. It’s also a fundraiser for East Somerville Main Streets , which is doing great work in that part of the city.

The Climate Coalition of Somerville is organizing a Candidates Forum on October 5, to allow our city council and Mayoral candidates to discuss their climate priorities in the city. We’ve recruited a local reporter, Julia Taliesin of the Somerville Journal , to be moderator. Today, I met with Julia, along with two other organizers, to iron out the format for the forum.

Remember ‘zines from the 80s and 90s? I sure do. And I’m appreciative of efforts to catalog their vast history as part of the counterculture. Today, I made a donation to the Papercut Zine Library , one local archive of the zine scene.

Yesterday, I went to a fundraiser from the Massachusetts Climate Action Network . Today, I made an actual donation to MCAN.

Today, I went to a fundraiser for the Massachusetts Climate Action Network . The Climate Coalition of Somerville is an MCAN chapter so it was good to represent and meet some advocates from neighboring towns.

Today, I presented to City Council on the Green New Deal for Somerville. I was brief, but I gave a primer on climate action and explained how the Green New Deal placed equity on equal footing with climate action. The Council approved the Green New Deal for Somerville resolution unanimously.

Today, I participated in the monthly Somerville Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change meeting (which I’ve been nominated to serve on). It was my turn to chair the meeting and it was a packed agenda but we got it done on time.

Today, I voted. This is a preliminary Somerville election, in which three Mayoral candidates will be reduced to two. (Plus a School Committee race for a different ward.) So not the most monumental election, but it’s still important to fulfill a civic duty.

Starting life over is hard for individuals emerging from homelessness, recovery or prison. Those factors are very limiting in terms of employment and other social supports. Today, I donated on Kickstarter to Phoenix Woodworking , which is an artisan shop in Lawrence, Kansas that specifically employs people with those kinds of obstacles to employment. It’s a benefit corporation that couples workforce training and employment, with life skills and a supportive community.

Today, I donated blood to the American Red Cross . I’m paying the price, however, as I’m experiencing some nerve irritation. Let’s hope it calms down soon.

Today, I participated on a leadership team call for the Climate Reality Project’s Boston Metro chapter. I also had a call with the New York chapter lead to get some suggestions from her and to possibly connect with her on the Least Developed Countries Fund bill .

Today, I re-drafted a resolution on the Green New Deal for Somerville. It’s largely built around a similar resolution passed in Seattle last month. There’s interest from Somerville’s City Council to do something similar.

Today, with the Climate Reality Project Boston Metro chapter, I hosted a watch party for the Democratic Candidates Climate Town Hall on CNN. Before the watch party, we had a presentation boot camp, so trained climate reality leaders could get some tips and tricks on finding presentation opportunities and giving the climate reality presentation.

Today, I made another pass at photographing pollinators on flowers along the one block I was assigned for the Pollinators of Somerville citizen science project. While there generally were fewer pollinators around, there were a few plants that were still buzzing with activity. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The Sierra Club has been around since John Muir gathered a group of friends in 1892 to advocate for the environment in California. Today, I renewed my membership to the Sierra Club so they can keep the grassroots group of 3.5 million members going.

Every September, it seems like half the Boston area moves out of one apartment and into another. And with August 31 falling on a Saturday, this has been a very busy move-out/move-in weekend indeed. That falls hard on the Buy Nothing Somerville that I’m co-admin of. We’ve had an unusually large number of posts and dozens of people requesting member every day. Today, I spent a lot of time processing member requests and policing behavior on the site. Hopefully activity calms down a bit soon.