Modify your Habits: Ease the Climate Crisis

April 1, 2023 by Christine Brown

The latest UN Climate report gives humans about a dozen years to avert the worst climate destruction.  As activists, we walk a thin line between stating the dangers and creating a fatalistic “end times” paralysis.  There are so many individuals, so many corporations, so many nations it can be overwhelming to think about the changes we need to make.  But what we know for sure is that change has to come and we have power over our own choices.  The key is to choose small but powerful steps towards change.  Choose one, and then when you are ready, add another!

We need climate optimists who understand the stakes but don’t become overwhelmed into inaction.  So here’s some ideas to enact and share with family, friends and neighbors.

Bathroom
Garden
Kitchen
More Ideas!

Your Bathroom:  Did you know that most toilet paper is made from virgin timber?  Yes, they are cutting down Boreal Forests for toilet paper.  Often bamboo is not much better- they cut down forests to plant it or destroy Panda Bear habitat.  The best bet is post-consumer recycled paper. You can easily find a new brand here.  I can vouch for Trader Joe’s Recycled paper as soft, easy to get, and moderately priced. Curious how your regular brand fares?  More report cards here.

The Garden: There are so many options here! If you haven’t modified your landscaping/gardening yet, here are the steps that will immediately make a difference.

  1. April– Don’t do your spring clean up.  It’s all about our pollinators who are in dire straits.  They still need the shelter of dried leaves and stems. So branches only!
  2. May– Don’t Mow. Don’t mow this month to benefit our pollinators.  They need the early blooms of dandelions and violets to nourish themselves.
    1. Tell your neighbors what you are doing and why!  Mow the edges, put up a sign.  Ask them to join!  
  3. Late Spring through Summer
    1. Break up With your Lawn.
      1. NO pesticide.  Those poisons they apply to your lawn kill beneficial insects too.  It’s one reason fireflies are scarce now.
      2. NO fertilizer.  Fertilizer is produced by fossil fuels.  Then after application it can bleed into local water and cause trouble.  Use clover as a natural nitrogen fixer.
      3. Did you know all lawns were 50% clover in the 1950s?  Overseed with clover in spots where the grass died from last year’s drought.
      4. Take back control with an electric mower.  (Buy this with the money you save from eliminating pesticides and fertilizers!) These battery powered motors are lightweight, silent, easy to start, and very efficient.  No fumes.  No gasoline. No noise.  Also no landscapers mowing over your natives because they don’t know their value.    
      5. Choose areas to eliminate grass in favor of native plants.  Can you eliminate 30%- that would be an awesome start!
    2. Buying topsoil?
      1. I love to plant showy non-native annuals in pots.  But I try extra hard to buy soil without peat moss.  Did you know peat moss is “mined” by stripping bogs, which destroys these super carbon absorbers?
      2. Make sure your nursery knows why you are asking for soil without peat moss added.
    3. Plant Natives!
      1. Anytime you plant something new, make sure it is native.  These are the plants that feed our local fauna.  Aim to have at least 30% natives (including trees) on your property.
      2. Everytime you go to a nursery, ask them where their natives are.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t buy, let them know you expect them to carry natives!  Best to worst plants:
        1. Natives
        2. Nativars (natives bred for certain characteristics which may or may not be beneficial for fauna)
        3. Cultivars/Foreign
        4. Invasive (kill on sight!)
      3. Plant a pollinator garden to replace an area of lawn- a double benefit! Here you can flip the 30% rule – have 70% natives!
      4. Tip- get a free plant app to use while you are weeding or shopping.  You will find out that you have some fun plants in your yard already!  I use Picture This, but there are other good ones too. 
    4. Kill Invasives!
      1. Bittersweet.  This invasive vine will kill your trees and requires constant vigilance.  Cut them off at the base of trees and try to pull as much as you can out.  Pull up the roots and KILL THEM BEFORE COMPOSTING.  I leave them out on the hot driveway.
      2. Glossy Buckthorn.  This invasive tree is everywhere because birds seed them when they eat their berries. Kill it.  
      3. Garlic Mustard.  An invasive weed that crowds out natives, this is easy to pull in the spring- towns are organizing pulls now in April.  
      4. Burning Bush.  A favorite of developers, it will spread into your yard even if you don’t plant it.  If you still have it, it’s time to take it out of your landscaping. 

The Kitchen: Did you know food waste is a huge cause of climate change?  Food takes a lot of fossil fuels to grow, preserve, and distribute.  (Fertilizer and energy to refrigerate and transport).  Then if it isn’t used and thrown in the landfill, it creates methane as it decomposes.

  1. Compost your food scraps:  If you don’t have space for a composter on your property, or just don’t want to deal with it, there are pick up services now. More details are here.
  2. Buy less, use more.  (Saves money too!) Soups and stir frys are your friend here.  Play Chopped Kitchen and have some fun!
  3. Buy local whenever possible.  Support our local farmers and food lower transportation costs.
  4. Buy organic if you can.  Reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
  5. Reduce your meat consumption. You can make a huge difference with small changes.
    1. Start with quantity:  less each meal, then start cutting out meals. 
    2. Try Lentils!  More protein than steak, and better for both you and the planet
    3. Use this handy guide to make climate healthy choices.  

Spread the News: It’s time to engage everyone you know on these issues.

  1. Join our Native Gardening Club on Facebook
  2. See more ideas at Energize Acton
  3. Check out Homegrown National Park
  4. Write to your State Rep and State Senator about climate bills
  5. Get your neighbors to compost!
  6. Share recipes and spread the word!

Take Action Forum: Tending the Flame of Democracy through Massachusetts Legislation

by Christine Brown

Indivisible Acton Area and IndivisibleLAB cohosted our first Take Action Forum of 2023, Tending the Flame of Democracy:  Massachusetts Legislation.  After all, the reason we work so hard on elections is to elect people who will reflect our values and make them into law.  Not only can we make life better here in Massachusetts, we can take a page out of David Pepper’s playbook and provide a strong democratic model for other blue states.  

Our guest speaker was Jonathan Cohn, Policy Director of Progressive Mass.  He gave us a snapshot of some of the important legislation PM is advocating for.  Find their whole list here.  What really captivated us was strategies to advocate for these bills- and our Coffee and Conversations initiative is a crucial part.  We’re also adding a Massachusetts section to Turn Purple 2 Blue, our easy-to-use TAKE ACTION website!

Slideshow
  • Progressive Mass at minute 5 
  • Coffee and Conversations: Why, How, and Who at minute 53
  • IndivisibleLAB: Meet a New Group at minute 101 
  • Indivisible Acton Area:  2022 Successes and 2023 Goals at minute 107
  • www.TurnPurple2Blue.org:  2022 Successes and New for 2023 at minute 114
  • Hyper Local Activism: How to Make a Difference at minute 127

Thank you to our cosponsors:

  • Concord Indivisible
  • Indivisible Westford Area, a Progressive Mass chapter
  • Three Rivers Progressive Mass
  • Democratic Town Committees of Billerica, Bolton, Boxborough, Concord, Harvard, Hudson, Lincoln, Littleton, Shirley, Stow, Sudbury, Wayland

2/14/24 update: What does 2024 hold for PA?  Biden won this purple, electoral vote-rich state in 2020 by a slim 1.2% margin, and the state will certainly be needed for victory in 2024. 

Primaries – Presidential and state primaries in PA are both on 4/23/24.

Senate – Incumbent Senator Bob Casey Jr. is running for his 4th term. At present, he is considered a narrow favorite (“Lean D”), due to the “purpleness” of PA, but his seat cannot be taken for granted.

House – Three of the most vulnerable Democratic US House seats are currently held by Susan Wild (PA-07), Matt Cartwright (PA-08), and Chris Deluzio (PA-17). Wild is in a Republican district (R+2), though she has won her seat three times before. Cartwright is in a R+4 district won by Trump in 2020. Deluzio is in a swingy district (even) that Biden took by 6%. We worked on all three campaigns in 2020, when grassroots work helped pushed these candidates over the finish line. 

In 2024, their seats have been targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee. All three elections will be hard-fought, and again, our grassroots muscle can be expected to have a substantial impact on the outcomes.

5/17/23 Update: Heather Boyd won the special election yesterday, leaving Dems with a narrow majority in the PA State House. This is a win for abortion rights, mitigating gun violence, and election law legislation.

4/27/23 update: There are two special elections May 16, 2023. Democrats must win one to maintain their majority in the state house of representatives. Republicans must win both to flip control.

2/21/23 update – Flash news from Special Election 2023 –  Good news! Immediately after flipping the PA House after the midterms, the situation was clouded by the unexpected vacancies of three Democratic House seats. These vacancies cost PA Democrats their newly-won majority. A special election was called for 2/7/23 to fill the three vacant seats. Fortunately, the election results were good and all three seats went to the Democrats. The new Democratic majority marks their first House majority in a dozen years and promises sweeping changes in PA.

11/21/22 UPDATE – Flash news from Election 2022 — PA is now a blue state! Numerous high-profile races all broke in favor of Democrats as PA voters resoundingly rejected Republican extremism. In the most expensive Senate race in the country, John Fetterman defeated Mehmet Oz, a Trump nominee. In addition, Matt Cartwright, Susan Wild, and Chris DeLuzio defended their hotly contested seats. For governor, John Shapiro handily defeated uber-extremist Doug Mastriano, one of Trump’s top picks. Shapiro’s win is a Democratic two-fer since in PA, the governor also appoints the Secretary of the Commonwealth. And finally, the radically conservative PA legislature flipped for the Democrats. We worked hard for PA, and victory is sweet!

Early Money Revisited – Where Your Donations are Needed Right NOW.

By Barbara Head.

In previous posts, we talked about a candidate’s special need for “early money,”  see But did you know that grassroots organizations typically follow a similar cycle? After a major election, their coffers are depleted. Their infrastructures need to be rebuilt early – trained staff, mailing lists, budgets for their work, and fundraising to carry them through the year as they work on high-priority tasks like voter registration and voter education.

Grassroots funding also can pay salaries – if we want young people and minorities to organize, we need to provide them with salaries to support their activist work. Not all volunteers are retirees! Mobilizing and facilitating younger and minority volunteer populations are essential for our progressive groups to grow and flourish.  In our view, this is one of the best reasons to provide funding to grassroots organizations.

And the good news is that, unlike donations for candidates, many grassroots organizations are organized as 501(c)(3) nonprofit charities. Donations to these charities typically are tax deductible. Check with the charity to be sure, if tax deductions are very important to you. 

New Virginia Majority

New Virginia Majority (NVM) works to create a powerful multi-issue, multi-racial movement to transform Virginia through large scale civic engagement, issue advocacy, and strategic communications and community organizing.

Working class communities of color have been shut out, silenced and ignored in Virginia, fueling widespread injustice in the state. NVM builds the power of marginalized communities to change the political systems that aren’t working for us.

NVM organizes within Latinx, African American, Asian American Pacific Islander and youth communities, centering the leadership and demands of working class women of color. Together, they vote, mobilize and engage to end mass incarceration, build just economic policies, protect immigrants and preserve the environment.

New Virginia Majority is a leader in the movement for transformative change. Since 2015, they have registered more than 200,000 Virginia voters and knocked on over 1 million doors. Last year, NVM brought in a more representative legislature, which helped us to finally expand Medicaid to nearly 400,000 people. And in 2016, they succeeded in restoring voting rights to thousands of formerly incarcerated people in Virginia.

Donate to New Virginia Majority

Wisconsin

Update 1/24/25: The next big election will take place on April 1. Judge Susan Crawford will face MAGA candidate Brad Schimel for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Their race will determine whether Wisconsin Democrats can retain the pro-democracy court majority that produced the state’s first fair elections since 2010.

After we elected Judge Janet Protasiewicz in 2023, Wisconsin was able to create fair maps for state elections. Now we need to do the same for their congressional elections (US House of Representatives.) This process could gain us 2 seats in the US House if completed in time for the 2026 elections.

Update 2/19/24: Wisconsin has new fair maps for state legislative districts. Another court battle is needed for Congressional districts.

Update 2/15/24: What does 2024 hold for WI? The critical election will be the US Senate race; none of the eight US House Republicans are on the Democratic vulnerable representatives list.

The big story for November will be the re-election of US Senator Tammy Baldwin and… MEGA-money. Finances played a major role in the 2022 US Senate election in WI: Democrat Mandela Barnes, a popular former lieutenant-governor, initially led the race but was beaten by Republican incumbent Ron Johnson AFTER the Republicans poured more than $77M into Johnson’s coffers. Barnes, dangerously under-funded, lost to Johnson by only 1 point.  The challenge in 2024 will be to not let history repeat itself in WI, Tammy Baldwin’s opponent is likely to be multimillionare Republican businessman Eric Hovde, who has already lined up support from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. So we should expect another high-$$ race for Baldwin’s re-election. 

Update 10/16/23: Wisconsin Republicans retreat from threats to impeach Judge Janet. They vow to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Update 4/5/2023: Judge Janet Protasiewicz wins by 11 points! Indivisible summarizes the consequences:

Janet Protasiewicz’s victory tonight creates a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ahead of anticipated seismic cases on abortion access, voting rights, and fair maps. 

It puts an end to the judicial rubber stamp for the rigged legislature’s experiments in anti-majoritarian governance in a state that has become a testing ground for the GOP’s efforts to lock in minority rule across the country. 

This win will likely result in abortion rights being restored in the state. It could lead to the first fair elections in years for the state’s legislature and even result in newly competitive seats in the House of Representatives ahead of 2024. Repro rights, LGTBQ+ rights, academic freedom, blocking another Trump coup attempt — cases on all these issues could be decided by a liberal court instead of a MAGA activist majority thanks to this win. 

Update 2/21/23 – Tonight is the long-awaited Wisconsin judicial primary election, and liberal Janet Protasiewicz, who we are backing, has just won her primary! She will be running against conservative Daniel Kelly in the April 4 general election. Janet’s strong showing in the primary, where she got nearly twice as many votes as Kelly, makes her the one to beat in April. But we Dems cannot take anything for granted, and the stakes are very high. This election is expected to be the most expensive judicial race in our country’s history, the Republicans are pouring money into the race to defeat Janet. We must keep our momentum going with our postcards, phone calls, texts, and donations – and the full strength of our grassroots support!

January 30, 2023 – The most important race In Wisconsin is for the vacant seat on the State Supreme Court, which currently has a conservative majority. If a Democrat wins the vacant seat, the Court will flip blue. Analysts have called this the critical race of the year, affecting abortion rights, gerrymandering, and many other key issues. But perhaps the most critical action will be if the toxic state legislature tries to subvert the 2024 presidential elections, as they have threatened to do. With a liberal majority, Wisconsin’s highest court could protect the integrity of the federal election.

Update 1/8/25: Democrats won both special elections this month preserving their narrow majorities in the State Senate and House of Delegates. This will limit Republican Governor Glen Youngkin’s ability to pass his MAGA agenda. Governor Youngkin is term limited, and a new Governor will be chose in November.

Update 4/19/23:

The 2023 Virginia general election is critical; we must flip the House and expand the Senate majority to pass legislation on education, voting rights, and gun control and fight back against attacks on access to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. Democrats lost the House majority in 2021 by only 733 votes, and the Senate majority is vulnerable.

The million-dollar question in Virginia is – was Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s election in 2019 evidence of a growing red wave…  or a fluke? Youngkin’s election may have simply been a response to President Biden’s unpopularity and/or resentment over federal Covid policies. Or is Virginia truly a purple state now? This question will be put to the test by the important November 2023 legislative elections, which could easily flip the red Assembly chambers back to blue. And consequences are far-reaching: a blue General Assembly will impede or block Gov. Youngkin’s right-wing legislative agenda on abortion, education, and other key priorities. 

Update 2/21/23-

A reason for optimism as well as celebration –  A US House seat became available with the death of Rep. Don McEachin, and a special election was held in Feb 2023. It was won handily by Jennifer McClellan, who made history as the first Black woman from VA in Congress. And although the seat was already strongly Democratic, McClelland’s margin of victory (74% – almost 3x that of her Republican opponent) exceeded expectations. So despite VA’s Republican governor and red House of Delegates, Democrats in VA appear to be running stronger than ever. Could be more evidence of Democratic  “Midterm Magic” with voters rejecting Republican extremism.

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