by Ellen Sachs Leicher ·
Friday, November 22, 2024
My quilts are becoming redder.
I am working on my third temperature quilt, plotting the temperature highs in Harvard for each day of the year. The hotter the temperature, the redder. The colder, the bluer. It is the increasing presence of red in these quilts that makes me want to stop our planet from heating up, to work tirelessly on addressing the issues of climate, and persuade others to do so, too.
Many of you are aware of the work of the Harvard Climate Initiative Committee (HCIC). You may not be aware of the Bromfield Green Team, students in grades 6 to 12, who are worried about the future of our planet. Together we are trying to educate and instill a sense of urgency in our fellow town residents to take actions to mitigate the climate impacts we are already seeing and feeling. It is for the future of these students, my family, and all the families that I, HCIC, and the Green Team are committed because we don’t want to look back on our lives and think we hadn’t tried or done enough.
The goal of HCIC is to engage you to take action. We provide many opportunities to do just that. We try to make it fun to keep our spirits high. We are not the “climate police” but educators, enablers, and advocates. We work on preventive approaches rather than late-stage reactions. We seek a climate focus on town policies and expenditures so that what we do now won’t cost us more later.
Please support our efforts. Come to an event. Take action: There are over 20 things you can do right now by checking out our new website, harvardma climateinitiative.org. Get a “Going Green” flag to celebrate your actions and show support for our work. Advocate at all levels of government and business for policies that consider climate impacts. Help us reduce the threats of climate change. Hug your family members, particularly the young ones, and tell them that you care about them and all animals, plants, and oceans that are part of our planet. Go to bed believing you did all you could do.
Ellen Sachs Leicher
Warren Avenue