April 2021 Environmental Policy News: Divestment, New Urban Economics, and More
Photo by Jacek Dylag
Here’s the best of what we’ve read over the last month.
“The new law, "An Act Creating a Next Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy," represents the most significant update to climate policy in the Commonwealth since the landmark 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act. And with hundreds of statutory updates and changes, it tackles a lot — everything from solar panels and offshore wind to new building codes and regulatory priorities for state agencies. Climate and energy policy can be confusing and full of jargon, but here—in simple English—is what you need to know about what’s in the new law.”
— What You Need To Know About The New Mass. Climate Law (WBUR Earthwhile)
“In short, the financial debate about divestment is as settled as the ethical one—you shouldn’t try to profit off the end of the world and, in any event, you won’t.”
— The Powerful New Financial Argument for Fossil-Fuel Divestment (The New Yorker)
“Portland joined Philadelphia and Amsterdam as the first cities to pilot the Thriving Cities Initiative. The Initiative is a collaboration between C40, the Amsterdam-based Circle Economy, which seeks to create zero-waste urban economies that support their residents, and the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, an organization mostly comprising volunteers working to implement systemic, society-wide economic change.”
— Three Cities Switching To Life-Affirming Economies (YES! Magazine)
“The first problem with our current climate crisis, then, is not its nature but its pace: in evolutionary terms, it is a Mt. Everest that has arisen overnight. In the next sixty years, the range of one songbird, the scarlet tanager, will likely move north almost a thousand miles, into central Canada. All on its own, the bird could make that adjustment fairly swiftly—but there is no such thing in nature as a species all on its own. The tanager thrives in mature hardwood forests, and those cannot simply pick up their roots and walk to cooler climates. Compounding this problem of pace is a problem of space. Over the past few centuries, we have confined wild animals to ever-smaller remnants of wilderness, surrounded by farmland or suburbs or cities. When those remnants cease to provide what the animals need, they will have nowhere left to go.”
— Why Animals Don’t Get Lost (The New Yorker)