One Civic Act

Today, I attended the first meeting for Somerville Climate Forward’s Community & Economic Development working group. It was an engaged group and we had more questions for the city than we had new ideas for them. But I think it stimulated a lot good thinking on how Somerville might approach economic development differently. And we put a lot of emphasis on equity, the impact of Somerville’s climate action plan on vulnerable populations. [ Edit: Sorry, this posted one day late. ]

The New York Times published some interesting news today. See if you can follow: Google provides a lot of funding ($21 million) to the New America Foundation , a well-regarded think tank that does thoughtful work. One of its projects is the Open Markets initiative, which legitimately examines the market dominance of telecom and tech giants. The Open Markets initiative published commentary supporting the EU’s $2.7 billion fine against Google for monopolistic behavior. Google chair Eric Schmidt complains to New America, so New America lets its entire Open Markets team go. (New America explains that they let the team go not because of a single commentary, but rather because of its leaders “repeated refusal to adhere to New America’s standards of openness and institutional collegiality.” Whatever.) This seems pretty straightforward. If I funded an organization, I’d be miffed if that same organization were critical of me and I would probably threaten not to fund it ...

The Climate Reality Project is looking to start local chapters around the country, to catalyze more action at the local and state levels. Today, I joined a conference call with two other local Climate Reality Leaders and national campaign leadership to talk about a Greater Boston chapter. Spoiler alert: It’s going to happen.

Hurricane Harvey is now being described as a 1-in-800-years event. I made a small donation to the American Red Cross on Friday. Today, I doubled it. Recovery is expected to cost more than that from Hurricane Katrina. My contribution might be insignificant but it’s not meaningless.

The thawing Arctic was once thought to represent a proverbial gold mine for oil drillers, with an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil reserves yet to be tapped. That’s 16% of the world’s undiscovered reserves. But the oil industry has backed away from the region, principally due to the economics of operating in the region. That, and of course, US sanctions on working with Russia on joint ventures in the region. Even Exxon, whose former CEO is Secretary of State, was denied a waiver from those sanctions. But Norway continues its oil exploration in the Arctic, in defiance of the country’s green reputation as defenders of the environment. Today, I signed a Greenpeace petition , which it will submit to the country’s Supreme Court as further evidence that Norway’s drilling would be in contrivance of its own environmental pledges.

If you’re willing and able to serve our country’s military, do it. There are high standards both physically and mentally. If you can pass them, then I honor your service. That’s way I don’t really understand the recent ban on transgender individuals serving in the military. It’s not as if there have been any problems, at least that I’m aware. Today, I signed an ACLU petition opposing the action.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Hurricane Harvey changed from tropical depression to tropical storm to Category 4 hurricane. And it’s due to make landfall today in Southeastern Texas as the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental US in over decade. Some meteorologists estimate 35″+ of rain for some areas, because the storm is expected to stall along the coast. While the wind will be powerful and will probably spawn tornados, the flooding could ultimately cause more damage. Today, I donated to the Red Cross of Central and South Texas . They’re going to need every bit of help they can get. [ Edit: This apparently did not post properly on Friday, August 25. Sorry about that. ]