Will we act before it is too late?
Our oil-addicted economy is beginning to unravel under the pressure of increasing oil prices and depletion of petroleum reserves. American blood and dollars are being squandered in endless wars to protect oil supplies. Climate change is already causing major disasters, and appears to leading to an environmental catastrophe that will wreck the economy and destabilize human civilization. We can’t continue down this road much longer. If we do, our resources will be exhausted simply reacting to mounting problems, and we will be caught in an irreversible downward spiral. We need take a different path - a path away from oil addiction and toward a Secure Green Future.
The Secure Green Future public policy question will appear on the ballot in 11 House districts across the state. It calls for decisive action to break our oil addiction while simultaneously addressing the climate crisis. By voting for the SGF, people can speak out in favor of full mobilization of our society’s resources to arrest climate change and build local green economies that include sustainable regional food systems. A bright and healthy future is possible - if we act before it is too late.
Your voice needs to be heard. If you are in one of the SGF House districts, be sure to vote “Yes” on November 4. No matter where you live, you can sign
the SGF statewide petition. If you’d like to help spread the word on SGF, please respond to the
volunteer or
donation pages on this website. By speaking up, we let our elected officials know that there is public support for decisive action. With each person who takes a stand, the Secure Green Future comes a little closer.
The Secure Green Future Question
Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation that:
- reduces greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts by 80% by 2020, and
- phases out tax incentives for energy-intensive projects, while expanding job creation
programs for locally-owned businesses and cooperatives involved in renewable energy,
conservation, and sustainable agriculture?
Q&A of the day
Q: But wouldn’t it be expensive to do all this?
A: Lester Brown estimates that the spending
required for his Plan B approach would amount to
only one-sixth of what we are currently spending
on the military. It would take about 3 per cent of
the GNP. Furthermore, the cost savings we
achieve from breaking our oil addition should
more than pay for the outlays. We should think
of it as a wise investment, not as an expenditure.
On an individual level, it is estimated that using
wind-powered plug-in hybrid automobiles would
be equivalent to buying gasoline at $1 per gallon.
Think about it. The question is not whether we
can afford the Secure Green Future. The
question is how we could be so crazy as to think
we can afford the enormous costs of remaining
addicted to oil.
Congratulations to the volunteers who successfully placed SGF on the ballot in these 11 districts:
- 8th Bristol (Rodrigues - Fall River, Westport)
- 1st Hampshire (Kocot - Hatfield, Montgomery, Northampton, Southampton, Westhampton)
- 3rd Hampshire (Story - Amherst)
- 3rd Middlesex (Walrath - Bolton, Hudson, Maynard, Stow)
- 9th Middlesex (Stanley - Lexington, Waltham)
- 15th Middlesex (Kaufman - Arlington, Lexington, Woburn)
- 23rd Middlesex (Garballey - Alrington, Medford)
- 24th Middlesex (Brownsberger - Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge)
- 32nd Middlesex (Clark - Melrose, Wakefield)
- 15th Norfolk (Smizik - Brookline)
- 3rd Worcester (Dinatale - Fitchburg)
Write to sgf-info@masschc.org to be put in touch with a local coordinator!
To help us pass the Secure Green Future question in all 11 districts,
we need funding for printing, website expenses, and organizer time.
Please help by donating to the Committee for a Secure Green Future.
For More Information:
Relevant Links:
Acknowledgments: The Committee for a Secure Green Future (CSGF) is a nonpartisan committee formed to put the Secure Green Future question before voters. We thank the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities (MCHC) for hosting this website. The SGF question was originated by the Advisory Ballot Working Group of the Green-Rainbow Party.
