One Civic Act

I spent the last four days in London, enjoying a few days off and flying back today. Today, I bought carbon offsets from Terrapass to offset my air travel, adding up to 3,174 pounds of carbon.

For the past half century, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has protected community spaces in nearly every county in the U.S., making it one of the most successful and accessible parks programs in America. It does this without using any taxpayer dollars – it is funded with revenues paid to the government from offshore oil and gas drilling. It’s set to expire tomorrow. Today, I joined with the Environmental League of Massachusetts in urging members of Congress to permanently reauthorize the LWCF.

There were some breathless news stories last year about how 2018 was going to be the year of the climate voter. With the mid-terms now about five weeks away, I’m not so sure. But it’s a litmus test issue for me. Today, I took a pledge for the YEARS Project that I will be a climate voter .

Monthly voting for the Shared Nation crowdsourcing platform closes today, with the finals for democracy related projects. Today, I voted for Faith in Florida . Here’s what they do: The program will activate and align 175 churches in a high commitment level of voter engagement participation practices (church in-reach + community outreach), and engage another 150 churches in a low commitment level of voter engagement participation practices (church in-reach). Through the participation of these churches a minimum of150,000 conversations with (mostly) Black voters will be conducted about the importance of voting and the possibility to restore voting rights for 1.5 million Floridians.

I’m not just active in Somerville’s climate change efforts. Today, I met with the Chair of the City of Boston’s Chair of Environment & Sustainability Committee, alongside one of my Climate Reality Project collaborators. We wanted to hear straight from the source particularly about efforts to improve Boston’s tree canopy, in response to the Boston Globe’s reporting on the underwhelming results against former Mayor Menino’s pledge to plant 100,000 trees by 2020. (They’ve planted on net something like 5,000 trees.) And we came with possible solutions, including bringing some important partners to the table. The City’s new mayoral administration is starting over, planning a new tree census, rather than pushing forward against a seven-year old target that never had a plan behind it.

The Victoria & Albert Museum consistently has consistently distinct exhibitions that stand apart from the many world class museums in London. With a focus on decorative arts and design, the V&A loves to bring its take to telling the story of modern artists, whose possessions and fashions tell the story of their lives. The David Bowie exhibit several years ago was a great example. And a Frieda Kahlo exhibit is running right now. Today, I became a member of the V&A Museum, even though I live 4,000 miles away, so I can support its curatorial approach.

Rather boring update, but I’m involved in a number of organizations for which I’ve committed to care and feed. Today, I had a prep meeting for the Climate Coalition of Somerville’s upcoming presentation to the Somerville Board of Alderman. I won’t be at the presentation, but I helped frame some of the content. Today, I also had a speaker briefing for the Conscious Capitalism Boston chapter’s upcoming event on October 1. The event is coming together too slowly and very late, but it’s happening. Today, I capped off my day with back to back calls with the Climate Reality Project, first to prep for a Wednesday meeting with a Boston City Councilor and then to hear the latest from the Business Working Group.