Happy New Year

January Climate Updates

Happy New Year - 2023

The New Year is a milestone we construct. It helps our brains organize and make sense of time. It also presents an opportunity. We have a sense of a fresh start. Failures can be discarded. We are afforded new energy and a particular openness to new directions.

And so we sit with this moment. An entire year just passed. How have we – as a planet, a country, an island community, as individuals – used the last twelve months to make a difference with regards to climate change? How will we use the months ahead, before we mark this milestone on the crest of 2024? It feels like just yesterday that ICAN sat to write the New Year's message for 2022. If nothing else, this is a powerful reminder of how time is precious. May we all use it in good health, good humor and by all means use it well to fight for the world we want to live in, that is healthy and supportive for all.

New Year, New Climate Resolutions

Last year ICAN asked you to make climate resolutions at the New Year. We wondered what habits you wanted to develop or discard in an effort to put your weight into climate action. We were inspired by Paul Hawken's book Regeneration and the "punch lists" of pledged individual and organization scale actions his effort was collecting on their website. Our compiled ICAN community list is below as a reminder. Food for thought as we think back and look ahead.

YOUR 2022 CLIMATE RESOLUTIONS!

-Eat more plant-based foods

- Replace paper towels with reusable cloths

- Add more solar panels to the system on my house

- Compost my food scraps

- Advocate for my town to adopt a bylaw change that would require all new construction to use all electric energy for heating, cooling and hot water

- Reduce the amount of red meat I eat

- Advocate for my town to require that all new building sites be wired to accommodate an electric vehicle charger

- Nudge everyone I know who has investments to divest from fossil fuel stocks

- Reduce my lawn footprint

- Get help making a plan that prioritizes the projects I can chip away at to make my house fossil fuel free

- Save seeds to plant for next year

- Buy fewer new things

- Use less plastic

- Stop using leaf blowers in my landscaping business

- Make sure to turn off lights when we leave the room

January Climate Cafe
Sea Level Rise

Sunday January 8th, 10-11:00 am at Rosewater Cafe, start your climate action this year by joining students from the MVRHS Protect Your Environment Club, the MV Charter School and the folks at MA Audubon Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary for their monthly climate discussion group. The theme of Sea Level Rise is maybe one of the most pressing for our island community. Please come learn more or share your experience! See the full Cafe schedule here.

Update on Local Solar

The Vineyard Gazette just wrote an article about progress and roadblocks to the Vineyard's solar transition. Despite some pieces that need improvement -- as is to be expected in a transition -- there are also high notes. The cost of solar equipment has dropped ninety percent in the last 10 years and the Vineyard is generating greater than 9% of its energy from solar. If you have not seen it already, you can read the article here. Even greater progress could come as the Healy administration takes the reins.

As always we end with our thanks for your care and action on climate issues. Please share this newsletter with friends and encourage others to join our mailing list.

There is much to be done.
"Climate change is the single biggest thing that humans have ever done on this planet. The one thing that needs to be bigger is our movement to stop it."
– Bill McKibben

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