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| The City of Newton and Green Newton have been observing Rachel Carson Day annually since 1997. Ellie Goldberg, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller. |
On May 23 at Newton City
Hall, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller honored the legacy of scientist Rachel Carson by
proclaiming her birthday, May 27, as City of Newton Rachel Carson Day.*
Carson‘s birthday is an
urgent call to action for the policies and safeguards that protect us from
threats such as climate change, pollution, and waste.
In 1962, Carson’s best known
book, Silent Spring, alerted the world to the hazards of
pesticides. It generated a worldwide awareness and sense of urgency about the
quality of the environment.
Carson inspired such a
groundswell of political engagement that it led to the creation of the U.S.
EPA, the U.S. ban on DDT, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
Even earlier, in 1951,
in The Sea Around Us, Carson warned, “…Now in our own lifetime we
are witnessing a startling alteration of climate.”
Today, as we witness our
health and environmental protections being destroyed by an anti-science agenda,
we need to make clean energy, clean water and clean air a priority. We need to
work for candidates that share our values, to vote and bring our friends and
families with us to the polls.
Indeed, in 2018, we are
literally voting for our lives.
So we are grateful to our
Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, our Newton legislators Senator Cynthia Creem,
Representatives Kay Khan and Ruth Balser. We can always count on them to be
champions for policies that promote energy efficiency, renewable energy,
pollution prevention and conservation of natural resources.
We are grateful to our City
Councilors who promote aggressive emissions reduction, fixing gas pipeline
leaks, more durable and energy efficient buildings, green and open space,
enhanced recycling, eliminating single use plastic bags and polystyrene, and
Newton Power Choice to increase renewable energy in Newton’s electricity
supply.
Front: Ellie Goldberg, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller. Back row: Jim Purdy,
Rosemarie Mullin, Amy Tai, Brita Lundberg, Rachel Adler-Golden, Cory
Alperstein, Karen Bray, Sharon Cushing, Marcia Cooper, Pat Berdick, Bev Droz,
and Peter Barrer.
We are grateful to our fellow
citizens who spend countless hours as volunteers on boards, commissions and
committees, and members of organizations such as Green Newton, Mothers Out
Front, 350 Newton, Bike Newton, Newton Energy Commission, the Coalition for
Climate Action, Newton Conservators and many many others.
Mothers Out Front (MOF) under the leadership of Rachel Adler-Golden, is
dedicated to mobilizing for a livable climate by advocating for clean energy
and energy efficiency.
Mothers Out Front (MOF)
Newton has organized two gas leak tagging events to increase awareness of the
need to fix Newton’s 600 gas pipeline leaks and educational programs about the
hazards of fracked gas.
MOF members also actively
support state legislation to raise the Renewable Portfolio Standard, to stop
new fossil fuel infrastructure, to expand solar energy, to stop attempts to
impose a pipeline tax, to stop utilities from charging consumers for lost gas
and to speak out for climate justice.
Green Newton, under the leadership of
Marcia Cooper, has facilitated hundreds of Home Energy Assessments and
weatherization upgrades with its programs Newton Goes Solar and Newton Energy
$avers. The Green Newton Schools Connections Group is conducting a survey to
assess waste, recycling and composting in Newton Schools to get data to improve
the sustainability of our schools.
Green Newton member Karen
Bray is the leader of Newton CALM (Clean Alternatives to Lawn Maintenance) for
leaf blower guidelines that decrease air and noise pollution. Green Newton
member Cory Alperstein is a leader in both 350 Newton and the Newton Coalition
for Climate Action that advocates for a high level of renewables in the new
aggregate electricity plan.
Green Newton member Brita E.
Lundberg, M.D. is a leader in Health Professionals for Clean Energy and most
recently testified for a bill to restrict the pesticides that decimate bee
populations, essential for our food security and our economy.
Green Newton member Peter
Smith has been Co-Chair of the Environment Committee of the Newton Needham
Chamber of Commerce since 2007 initiating their Green Business Awards Breakfast
and “Green Solutions EXPO” and coordinating outreach for the Newton Business
Energy Savers.
Newton’s annual Proclamation
of Rachel Carson Day calls on us all to honor Carson by promoting an ethic of
community health and sustainability and a culture of political engagement that
mobilizes every family member, friend and neighbor.
* Rachel
Carson Day in the City of Newton — A Proclamation
Whereas, Rachel Carson’s
birthday, May 27, serves as an annual opportunity to remember and celebrate the
life and legacy of a woman who loved nature and unabashedly felt an
extraordinary sense of responsibility to protect it
Whereas, Rachel Carson, as a
biologist, author, and conservationist taught us that our health is intimately
connected to the health of our environment;
Whereas, Rachel Carson,
warned us in her prescient 1951 book, The Sea Around Us” that, “…Now in our own
lifetime we are witnessing a startling alteration of climate;”
Whereas, Rachel Carson, faced
significant illness and adversity, as well as an orchestrated campaign to
discredit her, and yet she bravely wrote and spoke out about the hazards of
pesticides and chemicals until her untimely death at age fifty-six;
Therefore, with deep gratitude
for the work and legacy of this fine ecologist who launched the modern
environmental movement in 1962 with her book “Silent Spring,” I, Ruthanne
Fuller, on behalf of the residents of Newton, proclaim May 27, 2018, to be:
Rachel Carson Day in the City
of Newton
And urge all residents to
honor Rachel Carson’s life by working together to strengthen the protections or
our health our environment, our water and air, and the sustainability of our
City.
Given this twenty-seventh day
of May, in the year of Two Thousand and Eighteen.
Ruthanne Fuller
Mayor, City of Newton
