Despite gray skies, a small army of local residents yesterday helped make Franklin and Medway green in honor of Earth Day.
In Franklin, about 100 students, residents, and even non-residents donned rain jackets and boots as they picked up trash and planted flowers at Beaver Pond.
Hi All:
Thank you for your work and support on this event!
Because the ECDC may not have families available we will meet at the Franklin Senior Center at 9 AM.
Please note this is a CHANGE. The pre-built raised bed should be brought here.
All those involved in the building (as lead point people) should arrive at 9 AM to review the build structure, ask questions, gain necessary information to lead your volunteers and team in their build at the alternate sites.
All other sites should instruct their volunteers to meet at their designated sites at 10 AM.
We are lucky to have great sponsors who are dropping off our supplies and soil/fill at EACH site!
The build, fill and possible planting will take ~ 1 hour/1.5 or so.
Please consider joining us after at the Franklin Rail Trail site on Grove Street for a trail clean up (in support of Franklin's Earth Day Clean up)!
Thanks again for all your support and hard work. See you all Saturday (for now Rain or Shine) unless you hear otherwise!
Please pass this along to anyone who may not have made the list.
Lauren
‘Tis the season for gift giving and with it comes large amounts that can be recycled before it goes in the trash. Remember the trash limit is 3 bags; so recycling makes even more sense. More than 60% of trash can be recycled so if you are putting more trash out than recycling, there is more you can do.
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The Franklin Area Climate Team (FACT) is a locally organized group committed to fighting the climate crisis by promoting carbon-reducing practices in our homes and communities. We are an ever-expanding group of citizens from Bellingham, Foxborough, Franklin, Norfolk, Plainville, Wrentham, and other area towns.
Dodging puddles and raindrops yesterday morning, crowds of students took to the streets in the state's third annual Walk to School Day.
Rather than driving down Oak Street yesterday morning, Alexandra Thomas walked her children, Cameron and Lily, to Oak Elementary School.
"It was a little chilly, but we did it, it was a team effort," Thomas said.
The young students seemed to grasp the mission of the event.
"It's good exercise and I wanted to help the Earth," said Cameron, a fifth-grader.
The event is put on by MassRIDES, the state's travel options service under the Executive Office of Transportation, as part of the state's Safe Routes to School program. It emphasizes the importance of increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, traffic congestion and concern for the environment.
Read the full article about this walk to school day in the Milford Daily News here
40% of urban travel is for trips 2 miles or less. 90% of those trips are by car. Consider taking Clif Bar's Two Mile Challenge. Read about this effort to increase exercise and reduce pollution here
This group of four came back to refresh their supplies to clean up the Charles River Watershed during the special clean up today.
In green t-shirts left to right (If I have the order correctly) Michelle, Shawn, Alex, and Melisa. David Dobrzynski wore the yellow t-shirt and was coordinating the activities at the Whole Foods in Bellingham.
Thanks for the work you did today!
PS - If I have the order incorrect, please let me know and I can make the change.
Franklin's Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 18th, 2009
Beaver Pond
Starts at 9:00 AM
Franklin's Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 18th, 2009
Beaver Pond
Starts at 9:00 AM
This is an invitation to help build a movement--to take one day and use it to stop the climate crisis.
On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we'll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.
This movement has just begun, and it needs your help.
Here's the plan: we're asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in your community on October 24.There are no limits here--imagine bike rides, rallies, concerts, hikes, festivals, tree-plantings, protests, and more. Imagine your action linking up with thousands of others around the globe. Imagine the world waking up.
If we can pull it off, we'll send a powerful message on October 24: the world needs the climate solutions that science and justice demand.
It's often said that the only thing preventing us from tackling the climate crisis quickly and equitably is a lack of political will. Well, the only thing that can create that political will is a unified global movement--and no one is going to build that movement for us. It's up to regular people all over the world. That's you.
So register an event in your community for October 24, and then enlist the help of your friends. Get together with your co-workers or your local environmental group or human rights campaign, your church or synagogue or mosque or temple; enlist bike riders and local farmers and young people. All over the planet we'll start to organize ourselves.
With your help, there will be an event at every iconic place on the planet on October 24-from America's Great Lakes to Australia's Great Barrier Reef--and also in all the places that matter to you in your daily lives: a beach or park or village green or town hall.
If there was ever a time for you to get involved, it's right now.There are two reasons this year is so crucial.
The first reason is that the science of climate change is getting darker by the day. The Arctic is melting away with astonishing speed, decades ahead of schedule. Everything on the planet seems to be melting or burning, rising or parched.
And we now now have a number to express our peril: 350.
NASA's James Hansen and a team of other scientists recently published a series of papers showing that we need to cut the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from its current 387 parts per million to below 350 if we wish to "maintain a planet similar to that on which civilization developed."
No one knew that number a year ago-but now it's clear that 350 might well be the most important number for the future of the planet, a north star to guide our efforts as we remake the world. If we can swiftly get the planet on track to get back below 350, we can still avert the worst effects of climate change.
The second reason 2009 is so important is that the political opportunity to influence our governments has never been greater. The world's leaders will meet in Copenhagen this December to craft a new global treaty on cutting carbon emissions.
If that meeting were held now, it would produce a treaty would be woefully inadequate. In fact, it would lock us into a future where we'd never get back to 350 parts per million-where the rise of the sea would accelerate, where rainfall patterns would start to shift and deserts to grow. A future where first the poorest people, and then all of us, and then all the people that come after us, would find the only planet we have damaged and degraded.
October 24 comes six weeks before those crucial UN meetings in Copenhagen. If we all do our job, every nation will know the question they'll be asked when they put forth a plan: will this get the planet back on the path below 350?
This will only work with the help of a global movement-and it's starting to bubble up everywhere. Farmers in Cameroon, students in China, even World Cup skiers have already helped spread the word about 350. Churches have rung their bells 350 times; Buddhist monks have formed a huge 350 with their bodies against the backdrop of Himalayas. 350 translates across every boundary of language and culture. It's clear and direct, cutting through the static and it lays down a firm scientific line.
On October 24, we'll all stand behind 350--a universal symbol of climate safety and of the world we need to create. And at the end of the day, we'll all upload photos from our events to the 350.org website and send these pictures around the world. This cascade of images will drive climate change into the public debate--and hold our leaders accountable to a unified global citizenry.
We need your help-the world is a big place and our team is small. Our crew at 350.org will do everything we can to support you, providing templates for banners and press releases, resources to spread the word, and tools to help you build a strong local climate action group. And our core team is always just a phone call or e-mail away if you need some support.
This is like a final exam for human beings. Can we muster the courage, the commitment, and the creativity to set this earth on a steady course before it's too late? October 24 will be the joyful, powerful day when we prove it's possible.
Please join us and register your local event today.
Onwards,
Bill McKibben - Author and Activist- USA
Vandana Shiva - Physicist, Activist, Author - India
David Suzuki - Scientist, Author, Activist - Canada
Bianca Jagger - Chair of the World Future Council - UK
Tim Flannery - Scientist, Author, Explorer -Australia
Bittu Sahgal - Co-convener, Climate Challenge India - India
Andrew Simmons - Environmental Advocate, St. Vincent & The Grenadines
Christine Loh - Environmental Advocate and Legislator - Hong Kong
This is the full text of the letter received via email from Bill McKibben.
Franklin's Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 18th, 2009
Beaver Pond
Starts at 9:00 AM
Armed with an open-ended 55-gallon drum and a used boat propeller from eBay, Northborough inventor Richard Burton plans to bring hydroelectric power to the masses, no dam required.
"Anywhere you get flow you can throw it in," the 67-year-old said of his Hydrokinetic Cogenerator prototype. The device is designed for an alternative energy market he predicts will surge when fuel prices rocket back up. "People are going to be screaming for green power."
While the majority of hydroelectric power in the country comes from dams, critics contend that the structures harm rivers and wildlife, with new applications facing numerous regulatory hurdles.
In contrast, Burton said, his device is not only easily removed, but also low-impact: Simply toss the Cogenerator into an average river and plug it into the grid.
Read more about this interesting concept to create hydropower in the Milford Daily News here
Franklin's Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 18th, 2009
Beaver Pond
Starts at 9:00 AM
Franklin's Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 18th, 2009
Beaver Pond
Starts at 9:00 AM
Agudas Achim
Crystal Spring Center
Simply Keep It Local
Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary
Citizens for a Sustainable Local Economy
Murray Unitarian Universalist Church
Green Committee of First Universalist Society of Franklin
New Dawn Earth Center
Oake Knoll Ayrshires
Franklin Area Climate Team
White Barn Farm
St Mark's Episcopal Church-Foxboro
Agudas Achim
Crystal Spring Center
Simply Keep It Local
Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary
Citizens for a Sustainable Local Economy
Murray Unitarian Universalist Church
Green Committee of First Universalist Society of Franklin
New Dawn Earth Center
Oake Knoll Ayrshires
Franklin Area Climate Team
White Barn Farm
St Mark's Episcopal Church-Foxboro
