Please contact Governor Baker and urge him to sign the Next-Gen Climate Roadmap Bill that was presented to him today. This bill has been in the works for a long time and would provide a very needed update to the 2008 GWSA. Critically, in addition to setting a path to net zero emissions by 2050 it also contains a number of provisions relating to environmental justice and if signed would represent the first time EJ has made it into MA law.

You can read more about SB2995 'An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy' here. Here is a breakdown from WBUR as well.

MAKE A PHONE CALL: (617) 725-4005
SEND AN EMAIL: [email protected]
[email protected]
https://www.mass.gov/forms/email-the-governors-office
TWEET AT THE GOVERNOR: @MassGovernor  https://twitter.com/MassGovernor
SAMPLE SCRIPT: Here are sample scripts from MCAN if needed.
AUTO GENERATED EMAIL: Here is a premade email from Mass Audobon if needed.

It's me again, today writing to you as your resident AGU Voices for Science policy fellow. There are several environmental justice and climate bills in the MA House and Senate that need support before the legislative session ends tomorrow.


Here is a short factsheet the environmental justice bills, and some additional background put out by the Conservation Law Foundation as well. To see if your rep is already supporting these you can check here for Senate, and here for House. The bills are both pending before the respective Ways and Means Committees so please email the committee chairs to ask them to report favorably. Their emails are: [email protected] and [email protected] 


And here is info on the House version of the climate bill which was released last night. It is being debated this afternoon so this is all very last minute. For ease of use here is an action guide put out by Climate Action Now. However you may have other climate priorities that differ from theirs so here is the full list of amendments as well in case you want to ask your rep to co-sponsor additional items.
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Please contact your legislators if you get the chance!

I am now a collaborator with the science education website Time Scavengers run by Adriane Lam and Jen Bauer. My first official post as a collaborator was a recap of my trip to Capitol Hill to meet with legislators. It is aimed at early career scientists who are interested in learning more about how to get training on communicating research to policy makers and what it is like to conduct congressional meetings.

Check it out here!

This past semester I taught a class in which I gave a lecture called This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. I sought to lay out why climate action is not happening by teaching about lobbying, fossil fuel subsidies, the revolving door between government and industry, and industry funded denialism put out by conservative think tanks. This December has been a whirlwind of climate related news and a lot of it has been particularly excellent, and appalling, examples of these topics. This is what we are up against if we want a stable climate in the future....


Read the rest here!

This post is re-shared from the original post written on Facebook in April 2017.

Here we are- nearing the end of April 2017. The atmospheric CO2 concentration measured at Mauna Loa observatory is currently at over 410 ppm- the first time that has happened in millions of years, the Great Barrier reef is undergoing the second consecutive year of mass bleaching, 2016 was the hottest year on record- a record that has now been broken three years in a row. All around us, if we choose to look, we can see the signs of our climate changing. These changes are happening at what is, geologically speaking, break-neck speed. Storms are becoming more intense and more frequent, sea levels are rising, extinction rates are increasing, we are experiencing more severe heat waves all over the world, all of which are signs of anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change at work. Last year saw temperatures over 129 degree F in Kuwait. July 2016 was the hottest month in recorded history... and then August tied it. India experienced heat waves so bad the roads began to melt.

I work as a climate researcher and it is easy to get overwhelmed by the state of the climate system and by our responses, or lack of responses, to it. I often need to step back and remember all of the beautiful things in the world and in our universe, all of the wonderful things that exist in nature that led me to want to become a scientist. I remind myself that I am upset by the bad things because I love the good things so much. I love that scientists discovered a butterfly that is the blackest black ever seen, I love that we found an exoplanetary solar system with 7 earth sized planets, and that we can detect gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes. I love that we have submersible vehicles exploring the oceans that allow people to watch the dives from home so that they can take part in the exploration as well.

So this is why I march. I march because I love science. Scientific discovery informs us about out place in the world and how we shape the world around us. I march because I want science to be open, inclusive, and welcoming, so that we can all work together in using evidence based research to make the world a better place for all of us.

#sciencemarch #earthday #marchforscience

Shaina Rogstad
PhD Candidate
Climate System Research Center
Department of Geosciences
UMass Amherst