During the Sustainability Festival in Amherst a while back, our Amherst350 group (principally Dylan Klempner the videographer and editor) filmed several people, including Alan, M.A., Leila, and Shel, responding to questions about the environment.  Some segments of the responses are on today’s editorial page in the section “Voice of the Valley,” and Dylan’s video is available on the Gazette’s website at
http://gazettenet.com/2010/05/28/voices-valley-environmental-challenges
and also on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paf8uapaYoc&feature=player_embedded

Our thanks to Dylan for this fine piece of work!

Read the REPORT of our trip! On March 14th, 2010, six members of the Amherst 350 group went to Washington D.C. where we spent Monday lobbying with staffers of our senators and Representative John Olver. We are the second group headed up to D.C. in partnership with  Pioneer Valley Climate’s 350 Campaign. We promoted ‘cap-and-dividend’, (a more climate friendly version of cap-and-trade), and encouraged them to support legislation that will move us closer to our goal of 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere.

The Leadership Campaign is calling on Governor Patrick and the legislature to put Massachusetts on the road to 350 by committing to 100% Clean Electricity in the next 10 years.  Leila Quinn of the Campaign spoke about it at our Jan 18 meeting, and we signed its Community Letter of Support, as an organization.  You can download the letter (.doc or .pdf version) , and encourage another organization to sign it.

You can get on the Leadership Campaign’s email list by going to their website and signing up on the panel which says, “I am ready for Massachusetts to lead the country and the world with science-based climate policy. I call on Governor Patrick and the legislature to put Massachusetts on the road to 350 by committing to 100% Clean Electricity in the next 10 years.”

And after that, watch The Story of Cap and Trade on YouTube!

On December 2, 2009, The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org took an historic step in the desperate fight against climate catastrophe:  They petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a national pollution cap for greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.  They put out a call for organizations to join them, and we, the Amherst 350 Coalition, did.  You can read the letter to the EPA, and the list of organizations signing on – including ours – here.  There were 117 organizations as of Dec 28.