While a particularly mild winter in Boston has many wondering about the real effects of global warming, the city of Somerville has announced several plans to locally reduce pollution and promote energy conservation.
Denise Provost, who represents the 27th Middlesex District in the Massachusetts General Court, has worked on passing two bills which address the effects of air pollution in Somerville and surrounding towns.
In addition to Provost's efforts, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and newly-elected President of the Somerville Board of Alderman Robert Trane have created a Special Committee on Energy and Environment that will begin the city's local efforts to slow global warming.
Trane told the Daily that he has always wanted to form a special committee for the environment, and could finally do so when he became president of the Board of Aldermen this year.
"I want to be at the forefront of the movement for environmental change," he said. "I think a lot of cities have been doing more for the environment on a local level recently. Cities like Hull, Mass. have made windmill energy work really well for them, and L.A. has an entire fleet of garbage trucks running on biofuel. And these cities have actually saved money," he said.
The committee's first meeting will be tomorrow and will feature a Webcast organized by the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals.
The Webcast "will offer a panel discussion on strategies and best practices for local governments to combat climate change and promote energy efficiency," according to a press release issued by Curtatone's office.
Representative Provost is taking a different approach, working to pass two bills that would improve the air quality in Somerville.
"The first bill is to fund a study by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that would review the correlation between high levels of particulates in polluted air to high traffic areas around the state," Provost told the Daily.
"High levels of particulates from car exhaust, particularly the fine and ultra-fine particulates that can pass through filters, have been associated with higher incidences of asthma, the failure of lungs in young people to develop, higher cancer rates and even cardiac disease," she said.
The second bill would put in place measures to attempt to reduce the effects that particulates can have on Somerville's residents.
Provost began to wonder about air pollution decades ago after seeing a 1970s Swiss study showing a higher rate of cancer among individuals who lived near roadways, and an "asthma map" from the 1980s that showed more incidences of asthma along roadways.
Provost said she is also working on a piece of legislation "to create a committee to look at the water quality of the Mystic River."
Trane supports these initiatives. "Representative Provost is doing a great job and I heartily support her efforts - the highways are a major issue because of the high levels of commuter traffic, not just the traffic generated by residents."
Ann Rappaport, a lecturer in the Tufts Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning said that these changes can come at very small costs and can even save money in some cases.
"Many things require capital at first, like changing insulation or heating systems, but they often begin to save money in the first five years after installation. Every time heating costs go up, they save," she added.
Trane agreed. "You can be green and save green," he said.
But is Somerville doing enough? Rappaport said that "no one is doing enough," but is encouraged that Somerville is taking a new initiative.
She said that Tufts, on the other hand, is truly a leader in environmentally conscious construction.
The Tufts Climate Initiative, which in 1999 committed the university to meeting or exceeding the greenhouse gas emissions goals of Kyoto Protocol, has sparked a variety of environmentally conscious projects.
Both Trane and Rappaport stressed the importance of doing the "little things." Trane criticized the amount of time that people let their cars run idle. Rappaport said that students in the Tufts community can work to "shut their computers off for at least six hours a day, question whether everyone needs their own microfridge, eat local food, and walk or bike to class."
