Dear Neighbors,
Some of you may know me through my house, JP Green House. My family and I built one of the first “carbon neutral” houses in Jamaica Plain—rehabbing a hundred-year-old corner store in the Woodbourne neighborhood. With the addition of solar panels this year, we are now “energy positive”—the house creates more energy than it uses. We also grow all our own produce in our backyard organic garden. (You’re welcome to get the whole story on our website at JPGH.org.)
I created this project as a demonstration of how it could be possible to live on less, because I’m a climate activist, and I know that’s where we’re heading. It’s been wonderful to see how many people around us have taken up the challenge of using less energy in their lives. There are people who live without cars, using bikes as transportation; there are solar arrays turning up on roofs all around; people are committing to local food and to our vibrant local JP economy.
But we now know that personal measures alone don’t add up to a safe climate.
Our species could die off in the next few centuries as a result of climate change, if we don’t change the course that we're on. If we do not cease burning fossil fuels in the next few decades, we will see 4-6C of warming within the lifetimes of our children. That drastic and rapid a change in temperature is a recipe for mass extinction, and several august scientific bodies have declared that human civilization cannot survive it.
Here's my challenge to our town: Take a day, September 21, and get on a bus to NYC to join the largest climate march in history. The People’s Climate March is happening a day before a major UN convening on climate change, it is the most important moment yet for us to turn out in force and show our support for a carbon-free economy.
You’ll be in good company. Hundreds of people from Jamaica Plain and local neighborhoods have already bought their bus tickets to NYC for Sept 21.
Details are here below, including the link for cheap buses leaving right from JP.
Your neighbor,
Andrée Zalesk
JP Green House
Buses: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/massachusetts-buses-to-the-peoples-climate-march-tickets-12131418399
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