Climate Matters: Let’s keep working to reduce greenhouse gasses

The recently published Town Energy Committee’s report for 2024 shows that town operations are heading in the wrong direction, with a 16% increase in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2023.

Letter to the editor: Legal rights protect us all

With respect to the Vermont detentions of legal U.S. residents Mohsen Mahdawi and Rümeysa Öztürk — without criminal charges or opportunity for due process: You don’t have to agree with their politics at all to be dismayed at how our federal government is … (read more)

Climate Matters: While CO2 reduction effort progresses, more work is needed

While conservation and efficiency are important components of an overall strategy to get to our GHG reduction goal, we can’t get to an 80% reduction by conservation and efficiency alone.

Climate Matters: It’s time to prepare for climate migration… now

I fear that, in some important ways, we Vermonters have our heads in the sand about climate change and its likely impacts. 

Letter to the editor: No dispute on climate policy

Mostly I agree with Chris Olsen on efforts to battle climate change, but I must explain the CEAC report.

Climate Matters: What can I do about climate change?

If you Google “What can I do about climate change,” you will get millions of hits, with plentiful lists and sets of recommendations. The focus most often is on individual rather than collective action. 

Letter to the editor: Affordable Heat Act deserves support in Vt. House

I want to focus on just one aspect of the bill: the assignment of clean heat credits to various measures that are proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heating buildings. 

Climate Matters: An ounce of prevention…

I don’t know if it’s just us Americans, or if it is a universal human trait, but we seem to prefer medical treatment over prevention.

Letter to the editor: Our schools need to be part of the climate solution

All three of our school districts in Addison County, and the Hannaford Career Center, have many substantial buildings that need heat (and air conditioning) and are currently major consumers of fossil fuels.

Climate Matters: Too late for business as usual

Do you remember when Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” came out? I saw it in a crowded movie theater almost 20 years ago. Recently I wondered how our local climate data in Vermont look now compared to then. Quick answer: things have gotten worse. 

Climate Matters: Traveling Vermont and beyond by train and bus

With a little advance planning, it is quite feasible to do the things you want to do in Vermont by public transit, and thus decrease your carbon footprint substantially compared to driving a fossil-fueled vehicle by yourself. 

Climate Matters: How to start an anti-carbon campaign

What can we learn from public health campaigns that will help us make progress on climate-change prevention?

Letter to the editor: Clean heat bill merits support

It is not perfect but should be passed by the Senate pretty much as already approved in the House.

Climate Matters: No free lunch for energy production

All methods of producing and distributing energy have costs, or downsides. We need to be clear-eyed about what these are, and to incorporate costs that are hard to quantify in dollar terms into our public discourse about our energy future.

Community forum: County climate group sees progress

This past summer, the Climate Economy Action Center of Addison County (CEAC) completed over 40 interviews with diverse community members.

12