F e at u r e d C l i m at e A c t i o n s
Wow, there’s lots of news and action this month related to Climate Change! Each month we present
suggestions for actions YOU can take to address climate change and increase resiliency in a changed
climate. We urgently need to act on many levels at once: personal, community, state/national/global,
and to keep ourselves informed and inspired. Would you pledge to yourself to carry out one or more of
these monthly actions? These featured actions are brought to you by the USNF’s Climate Action
Group. To learn more, contact Molly Hale at [email protected] or 585-0791. For an archive of
past monthly actions, please go to http://climateactionnowma.org/category/monthly-climate-actions/
1. Personal: Set a goal to eat less meat and dairy, especially from industrialized meat and dairy
production. Globally, “the livestock sector accounts for 9% of CO2 deriving from human-related
activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65% of
human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most
of this comes from manure. It accounts for respectively 37% of all human-induced methane (23 times as
warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants.” “Fossil fuels … are
also used to grow grain to feed to cattle, to make processed feed cake for cattle to eat, to pump water for
cattle to drink, to refrigerate meat, to transport refrigerated meat, and to sell meat in supermarkets in
open fridges and freezers.”
2. Community: This is a crucial time to focus on the Keystone Pipeline because Secretary of State
John Kerry will be issuing his National Interest Determination to President Obama soon, probably
within the next 60 days. Consider signing the Pledge of Resistance against the Keystone Pipeline, in
which you pledge to risk arrest or support others doing so if Kerry recommends the project go forward.
Then sign up here to attend the Civil Disobedience Training on March 15 in Springfield in preparation
for our local Pledge action. The training will prepare you for the protest likely to occur in late April or
early May in Springfield. For more info about the protest or training, contact Molly (see above).
3. State/National/Global: IMPORTANT: MARCH 7 DEADLINE. Call, email or send a postcard
to Secretary of State Kerry telling him to reject the Keystone Pipeline. General info about the pipeline
can be found here and the Final Environmental Impact Statement that Kerry must consider is here.
Just a brief note is all that is needed and your input is important! For email comments, use this link.
For text, you can copy and paste it to use in a letter or email click here:
U.S. Department of State
Bureau of Energy Resources, Room 4843
Attn: Keystone XL Public Comments
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
4. Inform yourself: Get involved with Climate Action Now MA, our grassroots, Pioneer Valley
climate action group. Receive their weekly newsletter, a clearinghouse for climate actions and info in
the valley, go to the website at www.climateactionnowMA and click on “How we communicate”.
The Pioneer 12