Boston Green Action members frequently author articles on a range of issues pertaining to climate action. We proudly present some of our notable perspectives, along with research findings that we champion.
An excellent, Pulitzer Prize-winning source of online information, both on climate change and climate action, is the weekly newsletter published by the non-profit news organization, Inside Climate News. Here’s their website, where you can sign up for the newsletter at no cost (donations not required but welcomed). Options include receiving the newsletter daily, bi-weekly, or each Saturday.
Part of a large and growing group of environmental organizations that includes Acadia, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental League of Mass., Gas Transition Allies, HEET, MAPC, PLAN, and Zero Carbon MA, the Green Energy Consumers Alliance has presented state lawmakers with a specific list of recommendations on how Massachusetts can cost-effectively and equitably reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. The resulting recommendation is the Mass Clean Heat Platform, detailed in a letter to legislative leaders in late October, 2023.
A September 13th report by Alison F. Takemura (published in Canary Media) presents evidence of the superior performance of heat pumps in cold weather. A recent study by the nonprofit Regulatory Assistance Project debunks the message gas utilities are promoting that it is a good idea—even if you install heat pumps—to keep your gas connection as a backup for the coldest of days and nights.
By Martyn Roetter
The first step in solving a problem is to identify what it is and then ascertain its scope and the underlying causes. One of the (but not the only) impacts of business activities on climate is the consequence of their greenhouse gas emissions. Until now, public firms have not been obliged to disclose these emissions, or at least not in an independently verifiable manner. Disclosure would allow us to compare them within and across market sectors, as we do with traditional financial measures of performance such as EBITDA (earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization).
National Grid is a major gas and electric utility in Massachusetts. One might expect such a large and important business to want to align its business plans with the directions the Commonwealth has outlined as future energy policy, but that’s not been the case. Over the past few years the actions, plans and announced intentions of National Grid have been in flagrant violation of the Commonwealth’s policies and laws aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
A new research study by Yannai S. Kashtan, Metta Nicholson, Colin Finnegan, Zutao Ouyang, Eric D. Lebel, Drew R. Michanowicz, Seth B.C. Shonkoff and Robert B. Jackson (published by American Chemical Society, June 15, 2023) is, according to Boston Green Action co-founder Martyn Roetter, uniquely alarming. The study extends our understanding of the extent of harms that stoves can cause to human health, especially in lower income households with smaller home sizes and less effective ventilation.
The originality of this work goes beyond the well documented impact of the greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide and methane) of gas stoves on climate warming and of nitrogen oxides on respiratory diseases, notably childhood asthma. Significant new results are presented on these stoves’ emissions of benzene, a toxic chemical and Group 1 known human carcinogen. The authors demonstrate that concentrations of this carcinogen—for which no safe level has been established—exceed various indoor exposure benchmarks set by international and US and state agencies.
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