The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
One woman’s response to greatest crisis on Earth
Sea levels are rising faster than anticipated. Glaciers are melting as the planet warms. Destructive storms are more frequent. Last year highly regarded scientists around the world warned we — the inhabitants of planet Earth — have 12 years to reverse catastrophic climate changes.
Last week, teenagers beseeched world leaders at the United Nations’ SecretaryGeneral’s Climate Action Summit in New York to act. “How dare you?” 16yearold Swedish activist Greta Thunberg scolded. “We will be watching,” others promised.
Days earlier, on Sept. 20, hundreds rallied in Hartford, Stamford and Westport and hundreds of thousands more around the world in a call to action on climate change.
And then — it was as though someone pulled the plug and turned off the lights.
Passion to save the environment did not wane. The movement did not end. What happened is that the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump, with daily — even hourly — intrigue, consumed the news and public interest.
There’s no ignoring it. (I confess I signed up for a New York Times impeachment newsletter with daily briefings to stay informed on the fastmoving affair.)
But how can environmentalists get the focus back on averting catastrophic climate change? In the scheme of things, nothing is more important.
‘Start doing’
“It is like the trunk of a tree,” explained Vanessa Villamil of Newtown. All issues emanate like branches from the trunk; for example, rising sea levels affect immigration when coastal places become less inhabitable and food scarce. Take care of the trunk, take action on climate change.
Vanessa personifies the saying, “think globally, act locally.”
Not long ago she cofounded the grassroots group Newtown Environmental Action Team, which became instrumental in the town passing a singleuse plastic bag ban and 10cent charge for paper bags — stricter than the state plastic bag ban. The Newtown ban starts on Oct. 28.
What motivated this mother of four to go from composting kitchen scraps to influencing every shopper in her community? I am fascinated with what moves people out of their comfort zone and into activism.
Vanessa and I chatted this week as she sipped tea from her reusable cup.
“As long as I can remember I cared about the environment,” she said. She drives a hybrid car, doesn’t use paper towels (rags for cleaning, cloth napkins for meals), has composting worms in the kitchen and tends a vegetable garden, chickens and bees. This is a woman who even makes sure her dental floss is biodegradable.
But she decided she needed more information to win arguments with family members and friends. So in 2015 she gathered the top 12 books on the environment and climate change to educate herself.
“By the time I got through the third book, I had to stop reading and start doing,” she recalled.
Looking back, the 2016 election will be seen as a pivotal moment, I believe, when “ordinary” people felt they had to do something. In Newtown, likeminded people gathered to talk and ended up forming Newtown Forward.
Vanessa connected with two other women who were equally passionate about the environment — Lynn Hungaski and Bindu Subramanian — and they splintered off to create the Newtown Environmental Action Team , which they wanted to be bipartisan.
One of the first activities the group did was show the Leonardo DiCaprio climate change documentary “Before the Flood,” which examined our addiction to fossil fuel. People came, they got involved. Now NEAT is nearly 50 strong and several members held signs in the Westport version of the international climate change rally on Sept. 20.
They did their homework and discovered paper bags are not the answer to plastic bags — they also are harmful to the environment with 14 million trees clearcut every year for paper, she said. It took two years to overcome the opposition, but that’s why Newtown’s ordinance is more comprehensive than the state’s twoyear phaseout of single use plastic bags.
Recently NEAT took action, locally, that didn’t require legislative approval. Members visited every restaurant in town and asked management to provide straws only when requested, not automatically.
“Nearly all said yes, no problem,” Vanessa said. Look for Skip the Straws signs the group provided the restaurants.
This a good idea that could easily be duplicated in other towns. Some places, such as Westport and Stonington, have banned plastic straws and groups such as Skip the Plastic in Norwalk are active. On the state level a ban on plastic straws, though drawing strong support from individuals and groups such as the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, failed to get through the General Assembly. (Advocates for those with disabilities said a ban would present a hardship.)
Change begins with awareness. Plastic straws don’t have to be automatic with every glass of water.
It starts in your home
The accelerated rate of climate change is alarming. This is no longer an issue of global warming, yes or no — the scientific evidence is real and incontrovertible. That makes it all the more frustrating when national leaders try to pull out of the Paris Accord, roll back emission standards and loosen Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
It is easy to get discouraged and overwhelmed. But do not lose heart.
Progress was made at the U.N. Climate Action Summit last week. Sixtyfive “countries and major subnational economies such as California committed to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while 70 countries announced they will either boost their national action plans by 2020 or have started the process of doing so,” the summary report on Sept. 23 stated. “Over 100 business leaders delivered concrete actions to align with the Paris Agreement targets, and speed up the transition from the grey to green economy, including assetowners holding over $2 trillion in assets and leading companies with combined value also over $2 trillion.”
Germany committed to carbon neutrality by 2050. France announced it would not enter into any trade agreement with countries that have policies counter to the Paris Agreement. Russia — yes, Russia — said it would ratify the Paris Agreement, bringing the total number of countries to 187.
Al Gore, in a Sept. 20 oped in The New York Times, wrote that “horrors long predicted by scientists are becoming realities.” But we have the technology to reduce global warming pollution. “And in 10 years, solar and wind electricity will be cheaper nearly everywhere than the electricity that existing fossil fuel plants will be able to provide,” wrote Gore, who won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“The people, in their true function as the sovereign power, are quickly understanding the truth of this crisis, and they are the ones who must act,” he said, noting the efforts of Greta Thunberg and youthled movements such as Sunrise Movement, the Extinction Rebellion, and Zero Hour.
Climate change is the greatest crisis of our time. Don’t lose momentum or hope. Act locally, beginning in your own home. Vanessa can tell you that small steps add up.