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<p>Thank you for sending this to us all.</p>
<p>I find it easier as a Planning Board member than as a planner to
address issues about planning for a climate emergency. I am also
Vice Chair of our local Climate Resiliency Committee, which has
been successful in moving the town toward a Zero Carbon Resolution
by 2040. The Planning Board in Ipswich has added provisions to our
SP regulations and SPR requirements to present feasibility
information on solar installations on site, have required EV
hook-ups, and have encouraged every applicant for SP and SPR to
consider fully electric buildings. We are having some success
here. Having an active Electric Light Department helps. Perhaps it
is easier also when the roads to both our beaches regularly flood
at king tides.<br>
</p>
<p>If the content of this listserve is any indicator, the "planning
community" has taken no position on the proposed changes to the
building code (including a "net zero stretch code"), nor taken a
position on or discussion of the energy bill currently in the
final stages of its legislative consideration (or death throes?).
This bill includes the option for only 10 communities to proceed
to prohibiting fossil fuel hook-ups in new construction and major
rehabilitation projects. The 10 communities are those that have
already passed home rule petitions on the matter. Builders and
developers have been actively working against it, seeing even 10
communities as a big problem. Those aware of the deep hole we are
in originally pushed for a fully net zero building code that was
required for all.</p>
<p>Please let me know if I am incorrect on the lack of planner
involvement. I would also like to know what position other
planners have been taking on the matters. I have participated as
an advocate, and not as a professional planner.</p>
<p>I, like Mark and Christopher, look forward to a thought-provoking
and lively discussion of the role of planners in reducing GHG
emissions. I look forward to your considered replies.</p>
<p>Carolyn Britt, AICP</p>
<p>Ipswich Planning Board</p>
<p>PO Box 235, Ipswich MA 01938</p>
<p>978-356-9881<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/19/2022 9:48 AM, Mark Archambault
via MassPlanners wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:106%">To Massplanners,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:106%">The letter to the
editor I post below, which I sent to the Boston Globe
recently, was prompted by my realization, recently
reinforced by the Supreme Court decision gutting the EPA’s
authority to regulate power plant emissions - that nothing
will be done about climate change in time to prevent the
worst-case scenarios as modeled by climate scientists. I
believe it’s pertinent because it has a bearing on what we
as Planners do every day. If the economic growth we promote
leads to warming that contributes to societal collapse and
ecological meltdown in several decades, shouldn’t we be
doing more to sound the alarm and perhaps even, gasp, get
political to a degree? Shouldn’t we be advocating for a
steady-state economy? It doesn’t seem to me that we can
decouple economic growth from intensive reliance on fossil
fuels, without a World War II type global mobilization to
change the way our economy is structured. These thoughts
prompted me to write the following. I sent it as a private
citizen and didn’t mention my profession.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%"><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:106%">Let’s Face It</span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:106%">:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:106%">Let’s face it, the
United States isn’t going to address the causes of climate
change in a timeframe that will matter. Between the Supreme
Court, all Senate Republicans and Senator Joe Manchin, the
USA has lost the last best opportunities to transition its
economy from over-reliance on fossil fuels (Build Back
Better, the EPA Clean Power Plan). If the United States
doesn’t take the lead on seriously cutting its emissions,
can we expect other countries to do better? Consider that
the extreme heat waves, wildfires, superstorms and flooding
we’re now seeing are with an increase of only 1.2 C in
global average temperatures over the pre-industrial climate.
What will conditions be like in two to three decades when
the world hits the ominous 2.0 C degree threshold, with an
increase of at least 3.0 C being likely by the end of the
century? Warming past 2.5 - 3 C will likely feed on itself
no matter the level of human emissions. The World Bank has
stated that warming of 4.0 C is ‘incompatible with global
civilization’. Will humanity rise to the challenge or keep
on with a business as usual that will bring civilization and
Nature to its knees?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:106%">Mark Archambault<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Ayer Town Planner <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Town Hall, One Main Street <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ayer, MA 01432)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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