October 18, 2016

“U.S. Concern about Global Warming at Eight-Year High,” blared a March 16 headline on the Gallup polling organization’s website. With the biblical scale of rainstorms, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes in recent years, the headline doesn’t come as a huge surprise. What’s more surprising is that more than one-third of Americans still worry “only a little or not at all” about man-made climate change. According to a recent documentary film, much of the credit, or blame, for such complacency goes to a richly funded campaign by lobbyists, public relations people, talk show hosts, fake experts, and public officeholders to shed doubt on the existence of climate change or—a fallback position—admit the climate is changing but deny that human activities have anything to do with it. The 2014 film, “Merchants of Doubt,” will screen on October 18 at 7 p.m. at the main branch of the Thomas Crane Public Library, 40 Washington Street, Quincy. Admission is free. Continue reading →

July 7, 2017

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/20160701/quincy-on-pace-to-exceed-another-green-energy-goal

June 20, 2016

Does Massachusetts need more natural gas capacity, including controversial projects like the Access Northeast Pipeline and the Fore River compressor station? Or are there safer, cleaner ways to fill our energy needs? At 7 pm on Monday June 20, Nathan Phillips, a Boston University environmental scientist, and Tyler Soleau, energy and climate outreach director of the Acadia Center, which does energy research and advocacy, will tackle these questions in a lecture at the main branch of the Thomas Crane Public Library, 40 Washington Street in Quincy Center. Continue reading →

January 15, 2016

[Links to videos of the lecture: Video 1 | Video 2 | Video 3]

Opposition by residents and officeholders to the proposed Fore River compressor station stems largely from the idea that emissions from the facility would harm the health of Quincy and Weymouth residents. In a lecture to be held at 7 p.m. at the Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy Center, on Tuesday January 26, Curtis Nordgaard, M.D., a pediatrician who practices in Dorchester, will back up that idea with some hard numbers.

Spectra Energy, the company proposing the compressor station, has downplayed any health effects that the facility might cause. “Spectra claims that pollution from the compressor station will be insignificant,” said Susan Harden, a board member of Fore River Residents Against Compressor Station, a cosponsor of the lecture. “The lecture will give people a chance to hear that claim debunked by an unbiased researcher with great credentials.” Continue reading →

November 3, 2015

Using technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars, the world can get all its energy from renewable sources–not at some point in the future but today. So says Mara Prentiss, a Harvard physics professor who will be speaking on the topic at the Thomas Crane Public Library, 40 Washington Street, at 7:00 p.m. on November 18.

In her talk, cosponsored by the library and Quincy Climate Action Network, Prentiss, the author of the new book Energy Revolution, will argue that the transition to renewables is not only technically feasible but also economically advantageous. For example, she says, “the price of solar panels has dropped enormously.… Bloomberg has reported that in 36 states it will be cheaper next year to produce your own solar electricity than get your power from the grid.” Meanwhile, she says, midwestern US states are already using wind turbines to supply a big chunk of their electric power, with Iowa getting more than 40% of their power from wind in peak months. Continue reading →

http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20151007/NEWS/151006942

On Wednesday, October 7, 2015, Quincy Climate Action Network will sponsor a workshop on a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts: leaks from underground natural gas pipes. In Quincy alone, 613 leaks have been reported. The two-hour workshop, for both municipal workers and the general public, will start at 9:30 a.m. at the main branch of the Thomas Crane Public Library, 300 Washington Street in Quincy Center.

Speakers will include Nathan Phillips, a Boston University professor of earth and environment, who will talk about his ground-breaking research on gas leaks. Also speaking will be state Senator Jamie Eldridge, from Acton, who will discuss legislation he has filed on Beacon Hill to encourage gas utilities to repair leaks more promptly. Continue reading →