A panel of local environmental leaders met in Cabot Auditorium last night to discuss Massachusetts' role in the fight against climate change.
Panelists focused on the S.1225 bill, which, if passed, would require the state to divest from fossil fuel companies within five years. Massachusetts State Senator Ben Downing (GSAS '08), who proposed the bill in January, sat on the panel along with State Representatives Carl Sciortino (LA '00) and Denise Provost as well as President of Green Century Capital Management Leslie Samuelrich.
Tufts Divest For Our Future member Anna Lello-Smith began the event, speaking about the ways that climate change affects everyone and about the strength which activists will need to make a difference.
"We're putting pressure on the system to change the way it operates," Lello-Smith, a senior, said.
The panelists proceeded to address the moral, political and financial issues surrounding the climate crisis.
Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Julian Agyeman introduced Sen. Downing, explaining that he had helped mentor the senator during his time at Tufts. Downing, the youngest member of the Massachusetts Senate, spoke on why he filed the bill and why total divestment from fossil fuels is so important.
"I found myself, while we had done a great deal, talking about what we ought to be doing," he said. "We weren't doing enough about how to stop the bad we were already doing."
Divestment, Downing said, is most effective when it is a two-fold process.
"We need to at the very least not have our heart split partially to clean energy and partially to fossil fuels," he said.
According to Downing, caring about climate change means putting an end to investment in, reliance on and support of fossil fuels. He added that ending this relationship will be a generational responsibility.
"Thank you," Downing said to the audience. "Thanks for being here. Thanks for caring about this. Most importantly, don't give up. We are right. We're right on science. We're right on math."
Shana Gallagher, a freshman member of Tufts Divest, next introduced Dale Bryan, assistant director of the Peace and Justice Studies program, who provided the introductions for Provost, Sciortino and Samuelrich.
Provost, a sponsor of the S.1225 bill, spoke about the importance of taking a holistic approach - while paying special attention to history and context of the industry - to issues regarding fossil fuels. As a leader in environmentally friendly bills, Massachusetts already has an incentive to get the bill passed, she said.
"We need to have an awareness that is expansive enough to look at what's going on generally in the fossil fuel economy and respond to other initiatives to curb the use of fossil fuels that have gotten us to the point we're at now," Provost said.
She added that activists must keep an eye on projects involving fracking and tar sands oil extraction as they emerge as new technological threats to clean air. Many who denounce climate change as a threat use American energy independence and employment rates as justification for dirty energy tactics, she said, and activists must be ready to combat that point of view.
Sciortino, who graduated from Tufts with a biology degree, discussed the urgency of the climate situation, saying that action must come now.
"Every time I hear someone put the climate crisis in terms of how we save the planet for future generations, I want to scream," he said.
Sciortino explained that virtually nothing has been done on the national and global scale in terms of environmental action in the last thirty years. All the while, these issues have only become more and more dire.
"If we keep paying [Exxon Mobile Corp.] with our public dollars, we are not doing ourselves justice," he said. If you think you're tired of working on something, keep up the fight because you are apart of the national movement."
Samuelrich spoke about the financial risks connected with continuing to invest in fossil fuels. She explained that, when the major national move against carbon finally happens, assets held in fossil fuel companies may become devalued. Investing in alternative energies is therefore a good option right now, she said.
"As the economy changes and we look for new cleaner sources, it is very likely those [clean energy] companies will grow," she said.
Samuelrich also said that divestment is a lot simpler than opponents have made it out to be. Portfolio managers make decisions all the time about what they should and should not include in their client's investments.
"[Managers] should be serving their client - period," she said. "It is incredibly feasible. The resources are there to do this."
The panel opened up to a question and answer period where members from local environmental activist groups Fossil Free Somerville and 350 Massachusetts voiced their opinions and discussed their progress on these issues.
Downing emphasized that climate action is the right thing for the environment and for the economy.
"We've started to see the worst case scenario," he said. "All of the predications about climate change are true."
