The news is bad. Very bad. Global warming is advancing much faster than scientists have predicted. Scientific analyses are sounding more alarm bells every week. The Greenland ice cap is exhibiting unexpected signs of breaking up. If this happens it will create flooding that would be worse than 23 Hurricane Katrinas. British scientists just reported that massive cracks have appeared in the Artic ice cap. An article in Science presents evidence that we have passed critical tipping points, and we need to reverse carbon dioxide build-up, not just slow it down. On top of all this, the global economy is beginning to unravel as dwindling oil reserves drive up fuel costs for an oil-addicted world.

But the most alarming thing of all is that the media and elected officials are still ignoring the need to get busy implementing the global warming solutions that we have in hand. They continue to talk as if we can postpone decisive action until mid-century. Even weak initial steps are being delayed month after month, year after year. You know that this isn't right. You know we need to act now, before it is too late.

ON THE BALLOT THIS NOVEMBER

This November, voters in many places in Massachusetts will have a chance to tell their legislators to reject the go-slow approach and start building the future. They will have a chance to vote for a Secure Green Future (SGF) public policy question. The SGF asks for legislation that sets a goal of 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It also asks for economic transformation to turn away from an energy-intensive economy and to build a green economy based on conservation, renewable energy, and recycling. Of course, we view this as much more than just a one-time vote. It represents the entry into the public dialogue of concerned local people who are tired of waiting for climate action and are going to raise critical issues in ways that cannot be ignored.

THIS COULD BE A PROJECT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

If you have a local group that is interested in this question, they could form a "District Action Group" for Secure Green Future. Their immediate goal would be to collect 200 signatures of registered voters prior to put this on the ballot in a local House district. As November approaches, they could use the question to raise awareness in the district of the need for more decisive action on global warming and green jobs.

If any individual members want to get involved they can join up with existing District Action Groups. This is a good way to find concerned people in the community and perhaps get them involved in ongoing activities after the election.

Finally, we do want to get organizational endorsements of the question. This isn't as time critical as the signature collection (because the signatures have to be turned in by July 9).

A major training session for volunteers will take place at 7:30 pm on June 13 in Lexington. It is critically important that you alert people to the effort as soon as possible.

More information on SGF, including the full text of the question, explanatory fliers, and other information can be obtained on our website, http://masschc.org/Secure_Green_Future.php .

Please return the form below to let us know what you can do.

Many thanks for all you are doing to bring us closer to the secure green future we all deserve!

Sincerely,

John Andrews, Chair
Committee for a Secure Green Future
securegreenfuture@masschc.org
http://masschc.org/Secure_Green_Future.php

[Note: The Committee for a Secure Green Future is a nonpartisan ballot committee formed to promote the Secure Green Future question. The SGF question was developed by the Green-Rainbow Party's Advisory Ballot Working Group. Early organizing support is being provided by the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities.]

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SGF RESPONSE FORM FROM ___________________(organization)

___ We will spread the word about SGF informally (with personal contacts not coming officially from the organization).

___ We will contact our members to encourage them to help put SGF on the ballot (either by forming a district action group or volunteering as individuals).

___ We will bring the SFG up for consideration of an endorsement and will let you know as soon as the endorsement is approved.

___ Please call us to discuss our involvement

Other comments:

Person who should be the SGF contact within our organization:

Name:
Address:
Telephone:
Email:

Return to: sgf-info@masschc.org

An ecological vision for our society is quite a difficult one to advance, since the direction we're headed and the accelerating pace directly contradict such a vision. Over the years, we have become increasingly dependent upon systems that are not ecological in their design. Our food system provides one clear example. This unsustainable mess is subsidized by our federal tax dollars, at the same time our municipal and state policies have favored the over-development of land... leading us to this scary point in time where not only will the food from California be too expensive to haul over, but we won't have the skills or the land to grow enough food to feed ourselves.

When I say that our system is a contradiction to ecological vision, I don't mean the environmental footprint of our lifestyle or the sustainability of natural resources. I mean the idea that we are part of a complex web of life, with interconnectedness that we cannot begin to understand or model. Our actions -- on a personal and collective level -- have consequences, often unpredictable ones. Political issues are inextricably linked to each other even when our political framework keeps them separated. The fact that most people don't know how to garden, let alone farm or save seeds, has profound connections to issues that dominate the headlines and even the political discourse, and yet those connections are never articulated. False webs of understanding are spun for us. Preying on our distrust of Big Oil, the gas crisis is skillfully blamed on manipulation, and the unsustainability of our society is not questioned. The "war on terror" is another such distraction. Serving clearly those whose livelihood is weapons manufacturing, as well as those who need access to remaining oil reserves, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are part of something as sinister as any imperial conquest on this planet.

The extortion of money from the American taxpayer in order to fund these endeavors, including whatever debt we will owe to China for the borrowed cash, means that programs that do help people will never get adequately funded. Indeed, the unsustainability of our economic system is another nightmare currently unfolding. The massive debt at the federal, state, municipal, household, and personal levels is astounding. At some point it has to be paid back, but I haven't quite heard that plan. And we are at a stage where we need massive investment in transitioning ourselves to a more sustainable lifestyle. How much more debt can we take on? And we are borrowing too from our future, sucking up fossil fuels and putting carbon into the atmosphere at increasing rates. How can we even save the cities we've got? How can we protect them from rising seas, how can we power them, how can we feed them?

We need to go back to basics here. Where the Democrats and Republicans are both fully committed to a system of perpetual economic growth, and are happy to talk about technological solutions to any of these crises, always off in the future, the Greens cut to the chase. There is no technological solution to the converging crises of peak oil, climate change, and an unraveling economy. We need to reorganize our lives, redefine wealth, and look more holistically at the web of life that sustains us. We need to find happiness in steady state, local economies that meet people's needs. We need to take a dramatic stand against the idea that we can power our SUVs with other people's food, or subsidize an agribusiness industry that is destroying the world's agriculture, destroying our health, and destroying our planet. We need to take back what's ours and work cooperatively to build viable alternatives to the madness that dominates our airwaves and newspapers and screens.

One of those alternatives is a political party that has an ecological view of the world and is independent of the corrupting influences of money, especially corporate money. That political party exists, and represents a global movement with a vision for a different kind of politics, a different kind of economics, and a different kind of society. But that political party is struggling, just as we all are, trying to go against the strong currents of uninformed, reactionary endeavor. That political party is committed to participatory democracy, and that means you. Please join us.