http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/mar/22/why-global-warming-skeptics-are-wrong/

Please go here and read. Take your time. It is worth it to know the truth.

If you want to know more about climate change and how it is affecting our lives on a daily basis, WGBH radio has also been running an amazing blog (with audio pieces). Check it out:
http://climatide.wgbh.org/

There seems to  be some confusion in town that Sustainable Duxbury and the town's Alternative Energy Committee are one and the same. They are not. Sustainable Duxbury was begun over 5 years ago by a group of individuals in town who were like minded and interested in environmental issues. This group has never been affiliated with the town of Duxbury. We support our own initiatives and projects that we think might help everyone live a "greener" more sustainable life like installing hydration stations in the schools so the kids don't have to buy plastic water bottles. Like raising money and installing solar panels at the Chandler school so the kids can learn about solar energy. Like establishing a community garden in town for everyone to enjoy together. We are volunteers that show up at a monthly meetings to discuss local and national issues that interest us. Some of the work of the AEC over the last 2 years interested us. The members of the AEC are volunteers but are town appointed. They were and are working on ways to save the town money by helping the town become more energy efficient. This topic interested us so we went to meetings to find out what their plans were. We supported some of their initiatives just like a parent supports his kid's soccer team. We went to their meetings occasionally because they are open to everyone in town and it is the best way to gather information and find out what is going on in town. We liked their wind turbine initiative as we support green energy and becoming energy independent. So we supported their ideas. We are citizens that support the town when the town is involved in something we support.

The article to amend the town's wind turbine bylaw may be indefinitely postponed. There will be a committee formed to study the bylaw through the year before next year's town meeting.

Vote YES on the Article on Green Communities participation: “To see if the town will vote to adopt a new Chapter 13 to the General Bylaws to be known as the Stretch Energy Code.”
Adoption the Stretch Energy Code will allow Duxbury to qualify to be recognized by the state of Massachusetts as a Green Community under the Green Communities Act. Eighty-six cities and towns from all regions of the state, ranging in population from 393 to 617,594 residents, are now designated as Commonwealth "Green Communities." Once recognized as a Green Community Duxbury becomes eligible for many state grants used for energy efficiency improvements in town buildings. Since becoming a green community the town of Kingston has received approximately $180,000 that has been used to make energy saving improvements that save the town over $100,000 annually. The Stretch Code will yield significant cost savings for local residents and businesses by making buildings and homes more energy efficient and will increase design and construction firm competitiveness in the growing green building marketplace.
After adoption of the stretch code construction costs are estimated to rise approximately $3,000 for a typical single family home and by 1-3% for commercial buildings; however, when purchasing a home built to the stretch codes, the owner would typically see savings due to reduced energy usage.
Sustainable Duxbury whole heartedly endorses passage of this article.
For more information go to www.mass.gov/energy/greencommunities

Vote NO on  Article 44 which would Eliminate Wind Turbines in Duxbury
 
Article 44 Amend Wind Turbine Bylaw
 
This article contains amendments to Duxbury’s current wind turbine bylaw. A small group of citizens are seeking through Article 44 to overturn the wind bylaw that was passed unanimously at Town Meeting 2 years ago. The amendments would render the bylaw obsolete. For example, the amendments would change the distance required between a community size wind turbine and the nearest property line to become 15 times the height of the turbine. Current setback is 1.2 times. There is no lot in Duxbury large enough to meet a 15x requirement. The amendments would also change the maximum height of a turbine from the current 250 to 225 feet. Any turbine below 250 would not take advantage of the best wind higher up and thus would not be economically feasible. The Mass. Department of Energy Resources reviewed this article saying that the amendment “appears to not provide any opportunity for wind development to occur.” Neither the Board of Selectmen nor the Planning Board voted to support the article. In fact, the town lawyer thinks it may not be legal and is likely to be overturned by the Mass. Attorney General if approved.
 
Duxbury is signing 10 and 20 year contracts for solar power so there are no plans for a community wind turbine at this time. The Alternative Energy Committee is against this article and recommends waiting until a wind turbine is again under consideration to update the bylaw. At that time, it will make sense to review the bylaw in light of advances in technology and experience in siting community size turbines.
 
If Duxbury votes to eliminate the possibility of wind turbines, it will be making a clear anti-environment, anti-wind statement. Is that the message we want to send our neighbors and our youth?
 

Last February Sustainable Duxbury with financial help from Island Creek Oysters presented the students at Duxbury High School with an alternative to shelling out good money for questionable quality bottled water. As most people now know bottled water does not have the same high quality requirements as town water and each bottle uses about 5oz of oil to produce and transport. With the instillation of a hydration station at DHS students could now get filtered Duxbury Water for free anytime they wanted. It became very successful very fast! Soon the senior class was planning to give the school a second Hydration Station as their graduation gift to the school.

This fall Steve Fiskio owner of Fiskio Incorporated and parent of two Duxbury students contacted Sustainable Duxbury and offered to make a third hydration Station available to middle school students. Sustainable Duxbury contacted principle Dalton who thought it was a great Idea. The PTO agreed to pay for the installation and this third station is now installed.

When the new school is built all three of these stations will join several others and there will not be a bottled water machine in sight. So your middle school student might be asking you to get them a reusable water bottle. Please do so and encourage them to use it. You will know that they have given up bottled water that costs hundreds of times what you pay for water from the tap at home and they are saving a little bit of the environment they will grow up in.