Merry Christmas

 

                                                           Roscommon/Crawford Chapter

Merry Christmas

 

As winter begins to again cover our fields and forests with a white blanket, your friends at the Roscommon/Crawford Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby want to wish you a Merry Christmas. We are anxiously awaiting 2021 and its promise of newness: a vaccine for COVID for everyone, a new administration for our federal government, and the near certainty of more effective treatments for the ills created by increasing air pollution from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

We think now is the time for an outpouring of ideas for local action to dovetail with expected federal programs that will slow down continued air pollution and set the stage for eventually cleaning our atmosphere to return it to its more pristine state. The overall map for action is clear; we need to reduce the stranglehold that the fossil fuel industry has on our transportation and power generation sectors. While we are at the business of making big changes, we should also return to those practices that worked for our parents and theirs – avoiding waste by recycling, repairing, re-using, and re-purposing those things that we have already purchased. By such actions we can substantially reduce our energy needs and avoid air and water pollution associated with those unsustainable practices that we have fallen into via single or limited use of goods that end up in our oceans and landfills where we pretend not to understand the long-term effect of such waste.

One of the keys to a new reality for us should be acting locally to reduce the demands on our infrastructure for the extraordinarily large energy required for transportation of goods and services. We need to answer a simple question: why shouldn’t we use our local fields and forests, wind and water, and importantly, local artisans and skilled workers to help manage what we want and need. Our wind and water can produce energy, our fields and forests food and recreation, our workers the needed skills to keep the engine of capitalism working.

The coming changes produce more questions. Why shouldn’t we purchase locally grown vegetables at our farmers markets, use the wind and sun as we need it for energy and recreation, and hire workers who live down the street from us who have been trained at our schools?

Why shouldn’t we develop pedestrian and bicycle friendly trails everywhere? Why shouldn’t we use the newest technology for capturing the sun and wind’s power especially for those government entities that can manage the capital expenses needed? Why shouldn’t homeowners have compost piles in their backyards, recycling bins in their garages, and our local treasure of trees and shrubs in the front gardens instead of imported grass that requires fuel for mowing, fertilizing, and raking?

There are these and a lot more thoughts, some of which you may not agree with. That’ s good. We need a wide range of ideas for discussion to sort out the wheat from the chafe and implement only the best ideas as we succeed out fathers and mothers in making the world a better place. We look forward to having you join us as we work for a better future with fewer forest fires, fewer hurricanes, fewer droughts and flooding, cleaner air, and less heat in the hot areas and cold in the coldest areas.

It’s a long ride – come join us.

Roscommon/Crawford Citizens Climate Lobby