Tag Archives: Global Warming

A Renewed Call for Local Environmental Activism

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Smoke stacks at the Cleveland-Cliffs Northshore Mining Company in Silver Bay, Minnesota. The facility’s pollutants and emissions include CO2, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ammonia, lead, and mercury. Under the EPA’s proposed new environmental policies, pollution from plants such as this may no longer be regulated by the EPA nor will other states be able to appeal to the EPA if their pollutants cross state boundaries. Photo by Tony Webster, Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license.

Like many Americans who care about the environment, we here at the Jonah Center are deeply concerned about recent proposed changes to America’s environmental laws by the new EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, which were announced earlier this month. These proposals appear to be part of a dramatic shift in the federal government’s approach to environmental regulation by reducing or eliminating regulations restricting pollutants in order to promote the greater use of fossil fuels and limiting the development of clean energy and anything else related to climate change mitigation. Unfortunately, these proposals may have a dramatic impact on our nation’s ability to maintain clean air and water and make it harder to address climate change or support clean energy.

In case you missed it, here are a few of the recent changes proposed by the administration:

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Slow Global Warming and Save Money – Make a Power Move in 2025

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Wild fire on Lamentation Mountain, Berlin Connecticut, summer 2024
Home solar panels installation. Photo by David Illig, Creative Commons License.

What does the clean energy transition have to do with you?

A lot more than you may think. We see “natural” disasters on the news more and more frequently. We know why it’s happening and many of us know the heartbreak of friends and relatives that have been impacted by extreme, sudden events. We all pay a heavy price for this accumulated damage.

The big picture:

  • Costs – “Burning fossil fuels cause[s] around $500 billion in losses every year– from property damage to government spending on recovery, construction-surge inflation, and power outages.”*
  • Solutions – Saving the planet is now more cost effective – “Every $1 invested in resilient infrastructure can yield $4 in benefits. Getting to net zero is a more than $12 trillion business.” *

The local picture:

These costs and solutions trickle down to each of us in our homes.

  • The costs impact our taxes, insurance premiums, and many goods and services.
  • The solutions can help us save money and time while doing what’s right for the planet. According to Energize CT, over 1,000 households in Middletown have participated in the Home Energy Solutions (HES) program (2001-Oct.2024), With over 20,000 households in Middletown and Portland, there is an enormous opportunity to use this program more fully.

While we can’t control what happens at a national level, each of us can make an impact by taking action in our lives for a healthier community.

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Middletown Common Council Adopts Declaration of Climate Emergency

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As you may have noticed, our national government has utterly failed to provide leadership in the face of the global climate crisis. Once we get through the Covid-19 pandemic — another area of failed leadership — we will still face this even more threatening, though slower moving, crisis. Regardless of what you hear on the evening news lately, climate change has not been put on pause. What are concerned, climate-conscious citizens to do? In addition to reducing our individual carbon footprints, we need to take political action at the local level. Continue reading →