More than 100 people on Saturday afternoon marched—some wielding brass instruments and drums—from the aqueduct at the Hunnewell fields to Wellesley Town Hall lawn to encourage Town Meeting members to approve an article next week recognizing the “serious impact of climate change.” (See video below.)
Speakers, including local high school and college students, rallied the crowd to encourage the town to do better in keeping its promises regarding carbon emission reductions.
A mock funeral included pallbearers carrying a casket surrounded by mourners in black and red garb.
Many of Wellesley’s climate action advocates could be seen among the crowd as well, some traveling by bike in the spirit of sustainability. The rowdier participants urged those driving by in their gas guzzlers to honk for climate change.
The Wellesley Natural Resources Commission last year declared a Climate Emergency and now carves out a section of its meetings to address the topic.
What a wonderful and creative display. Wellesley has a right to take rapid and strong action to combat climate change. We don’t need to put “serious impacts of climate change” in quotes – the overwhelming scientific majority is clear here.
The serious impact of climate change.does not need the quotation marks you have used to imply that it is some kind of “so called” phenomenon. Please acknowledge that the climate emergency is real, is happening and will continue to impact Wellesley unless it is taken seriously. It is vital that the town meeting approve Article 12 on Monday
The words are in quotation marks because they are quoted directly from Article 12, as shown directly below that sentence.
Where were all these people when town officials voted for Hardy and completely disregarded the emissions piece of building at that site? A few weeks too late…
Charlotte:
Actually many of the organizations (Sustainable Wellesley, Wellesley Land Trust, NRC) spoke out in favor of choosing Hardy due to the significant carbon impact of removing trees at Upham.
The people you refer to were accurately concluding that the destruction of the carbon sink effect that wold be caused by removal of the forest at Upham would, long term, be more damaging to the climate. With the right leadership from the town (more school buses and bicycles, restrictions on gas guzzling vehicles,more charging stations fro electric vehicles) the emissions issue can be addressed in a shorter time span than it would take to re-grow sufficient trees.