Feeling pretty good!

Today has been a pretty good day.

I walked from Newton Centre to Waban trying to facilitate the plastic bag ban in Newton. While I only got two businesses to sign on, several individuals who were working said that they personally supported the ban. I told them to go ahead and email their alderman and tell him that they wanted the ban. So overall, that went really well!

When I got back to Winter St., I had my end of internship review. They've been impressed with my work, and offered me a summer internship. It's more of a position as an internal organizer within Environment Massachusetts instead of as a policy intern, but I'm not sure if I'm going to take them up on the offer. I did tell them that I had several friends who might be interested, so if you're reading this and think you might like a summer internship in Boston, hit me up and I'll give you the connect! My adviser told me that anyone I send in will get an interview, which is nice because they don't even reply to a lot of the people vying for an internship.

After my review, I was going through and trying to figure how many LTEs I've spawned out into the world. I was really confused when some newspaper I'd never heard of before came up when I Googled myself. Come to find out, they ripped my first printed letter out of the Salem newspaper and printed it in their own!

As I type, I'm working on research for Environment Maine. The Land and Water Conservation Fund expires on March 27th. I spent a few hours yesterday phone banking on this issue. We are asking concerned members to call their senator to tell them that they want full funding for this issue, however it's getting a little scary because a lot of big corporations are lobbying against it. Part of the Fund allows for private chunks of land around a national park to be bought so that they can't be developed... you can imagine that a lot of corporations are less than pleased with it.

Tomorrow, I'm finishing up my final projects at Environment Massachusetts. 

The email that I hope will change the mind of the President of Aldermen in Newton.

Alderman Lennon,

My name is Morgan Dean, I'm a policy intern at Environment Massachusetts. I am also a citizen who wants our rivers and ocean to stay pristine. Everyone in Massachusetts wants a more beautiful state and healthier waters, and I am writing to tell you that a ban on plastic bags is needed.

Retailers spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually to provide single-use bags to customers. Supermarkets can spend up to $6,000 a month just to provide single-use bags to their customers at checkout. Even major retailers such as Target and CVS are realizing this significant cost burden. Stores typically pay 2 to 5 cents per plastic bag, and these costs are then passed on to consumers.

As a member of Environment Massachusetts and a citizen of our world, I am also concerned with the environmental impacts of plastic bag pollution. Plastic bags are one of the leading components of plastic pollution in our waterways, threatening our marine environment. Plastic bags clog drains and gutters before they make their way into our streams and rivers, eventually entering the ocean. Wildlife, like turtles, birds or whales, can choke or starve to death with a full stomach when they ingest plastic bags. The bags do not biodegrade; rather, they break down into tiny toxic pieces of plastic that circulate through the marine food chain- which includes us.

Our state depends on the ocean for everything from fishing to tourism. Protecting our water is vital to our way of life.

Nothing we use for just five minutes should fill our waterways with trash for thousands of years. Newton can be a leader for the environment and set a precedent for the rest of Massachusetts to follow by getting rid of plastic bags.


Please, help save our environment by supporting a ban on plastic bags.


Thank you,

Morgan Dean
Policy Intern, Environment Massachusetts
www.environmentmassachusetts.com

The Meaning of Life (or at least as it pertains to this internship).

I've been trying to think about the big life meaning of this internship. I don't really think I want a job like this- to me, it seems like I just bug people and they sign things to make me go away. I'm not sure if people are really understanding the key issues. I believe that the advocacy I am doing is actually missing a key step... Education. I'm not exactly sure how this could be carried out, but we need to really make people understand the faults of something before they can be convinced to make changes.

Sometimes, I feel that a lot of the reasons given for the ban don't barely scratch the surface of the problem. Plastic bags and the problems that they are causing for our environment represent a much deeper problem within our society. We relish in the notion of existing in a disposable world. Americans, who base a lot of their worth on materialism, are constantly giving up the old in order to get the new, whether the old was fully used up or not. It's frustrating to not just see this, but be part of this. It's frustrating that I'm aware of it, but have little power to stop it. Plastic bags show how humans abuse convenience, taking something that was meant to improve the world and using it until the opportunity cost is outrageous. This type of consumerism creates a vicious cycle; the more we get, the more we want. How can we ever be happy?

I keep thinking of the Simpson's movie, where the lake is so polluted and Lisa keeps trying to tell them. When the lake is so polluted that one more piece of trash will cause it to be an absolute hazard, the town finally takes action. But Homer, who doesn't have room in his head for anything besides what he wants, screws it all up.

Friday! (one week left)

Today, I worked mostly on LTE's. It's really interesting to me how many times I can edit 200 words and still not be content with it.

My current plan with LTE's is to target the university newspapers that are close to Boston. Tufts, Harvard and MIT have school newspapers and they'll all received an LTE from me about plastic bags. Additionally, schools along the coast and in the cape are targets of plastic bags LTE's. I'm choosing college students because I think that this is the age where you have the least amount of limiting responsibilities while simultaneously having enough naivety and gumption to actually act and get results.

This weekend, I'm headed out to Amherst again. On Sunday, I only have a week left until I'm back to Virginia!

A New Mission.

I got orders from my boss all the way in Africa to abandon my attempts at the bag ban in Cambridge and transition our forces to Newton. Newton is currently considering putting a ban on plastic bags, however the outcome isn't starting to look so hot for our side of the efforts. So we're sending in back-up. Hopefully, I'll be able to get about a dozen businesses signed on, maybe do a little petitioning, and pull the bulk of the people back onto our side. It'll definitely be better than traipsing around Cambridge to the nth time....

My new job starts Monday. And I'm going to be laying out the plan of attack today and tomorrow.

NEWTON

Call Backs.

Basically, call backs are my least favorite part of this.

Sometimes, people seem hesitant but willing to sign on to my letter about a plastic bag ban. In this case, I leave a copy of the letter as well as contact information. However, they rarely contact you back. And that's when I have to go back and continue to pester them...

I haven't gotten any signatures from a call-back yet.


Other than call backs, I worked on some LTEs. I'm thinking I'm going to start sending an LTE or two on fracking to Western Massachusetts (can't remember if I told you that earlier or not).

Check out some raunchy facts about plastic bags. 

Back to the Streets.

When they handed over the campaign on banning plastic bags to me, I was feeling a little overwhelmed because of simply how big this thing was. I don't know if there was much preparation they could give to me, other than to have me research. But slowly, I'm taking Cambridge in bites.

I like maps. So I try to use them. Right of the bat, I was checking Google Maps. I decided that I would take Massachusetts Ave first. I spent one day reaching all the businesses between tube stations. So the first day, I did Harvard Square alone. The second, I walked from Harvard Square down to Central. The third day, I walked from Central to MIT, at Kendall. I moved farther north on the fourth day, today, covering the area from Porter to Harvard. So far, I've talked to a lot of businesses, but have only gotten a total of 12 businesses that agreed to support a plastic bag ban in Cambridge. 

Tomorrow, I'm going to do a few call backs and try to figure out where my next plan of action will unfold.

RESEARCH.

Even more research.

My boss is trying to recruit at Mt. Holyoke. I looked up a list of professors who might teach classes that pertain to what Environment Massachusetts does.

Other than that, I wrote another LTE (I'm going to start writing some about fracking soon). I think the most interesting thing about the LTEs is devising the strategy of where you want to send them. So a fracking LTE would be more useful in a Western Massachusetts newspaper, where as a plastic bag ban would be more useful near the coast.

Excited for the long weekend!

Just another Thursday.

Today, I got my third LTE published in an actual newspaper! =D

Basically, I researched again all day. I made a list of Councilors in Western Massachusetts so we can approach them about fracking. There's a big shale deposit that runs from the coal mines of Virginia and West Virginia, up to New York and Massachusetts. Called the Hartford Shale, it's not the most prosperous area to get natural gas. To be honest, I think that gas companies are targeting these areas because the won't be able to put up resistance. Firstly, about 6 states would have to pass anti-fracking legislation to completely knock this idea out. Secondly, except for Massachusetts, really, none of these states have really made an outstanding environmental ban that hurts the economy. What I mean to say here is that in these states, making money is still the main objective, not extending the longevity of the planet.

Tomorrow is more research then Amherst for the weekend!

In which my boss leaves for Africa and I meet a Greek man.

I woke up to snow. Lots of snow. The kind of snow that put kids in Virginia out of school for a few days. I'm borrowing a car... and the loaner had some doubts about someone not from New England driving their vehicle. I waited until the roads were plowed before I left and even then, I slid very unceremoniously into the flow of traffic at the main road. Fret not- I am only a slightly bad driver.

I walked from Central Station to Harvard Square soliciting businesses for their support on the plastic bag campaign. By that time, the snow had turned into rain, so I spent most of the day with wet feet. I don't think I'll get sick though, so it's not really that big of a deal. So far, I've gotten 11 businesses to sign their support for a plastic bag ban in Cambridge. Slowly, but surely, we will stop this detriment to the environment.

When I got back to the office from business sign on's and petitioning, I had my 2 week review from my boss.  She complimented me on my ability to talk to people, and said that my biggest area of improvement has been my letters to the editor (the one I got published in the Salem newspaper was the pinnacle). Now, she's leaving for Kenya. She's going to have a great time, and I'm really glad that I got to work with her for these few weeks. I'm now going to be working with one of the fellows and picking up what some of my boss is leaving off when she flies out. Hopefully, I'll keep the momentum on the plastic bag campaign while also working on an anti-fracking movement centered in Western Massachusetts. At the end of the month, I'll pass this torch to another fellow who will make sure it lasts until my boss returns from Africa.

While petitioning in Harvard Square, I met a Greek guy named Dimos. We talked about the Civil War, Keynes and Smith, and I told him the few Greek words I know (obviously, he was amused). He ended up taking me to this underground bar near the site of Newtowne, which was the first settlement that eventually turned into Cambridge. He has a very European way of thinking, which was really refreshing because I'm used to being with people who won't really argue with me for the sake of better understanding. Talking to him made me remember somethings that initially came to me while I was taking Conservation Biology. Humans have taken control the earth, but we're only a very small percentage of the entire world's population. I'm talking bugs, animals, fish and birds. And we usually only understand life in our terms, and not for the entire ecosystem. Relating it to my internship- in order to truly protect the environment, we need to stop looking through our human lens. But it's hard to do when a lot of our society and economy is largely based off of utilizing this planet that we have absolutely dominated. Just another push I might have needed to make it through this internship- I've decided that I need to get a job that does not put me in the front lines of dealing with a sometimes under-educated public (A.K.A. stupid people get on my nerves).

The War on Plastic Bags Continues...

Today was a day of walking. A lot of walking. I'm slowly learning the layout of Cambridge pretty well...

I got off the T at Central Station, a little groggy because I had stayed up late reading the Hunger Games the night before (yes, READING). Some might say I was hopeful as I peaked into my first store, secretly wishing that the owners and managers within would hear my pleas and support our campaign for a world free from plastic bags.

No. Such. Luck.

At first, a few people toyed with me. I had one man talk to me for 15 minutes about how bad plastic bags were. Then he told me he doesn't sign things... Believe it or not, this paranoid old hippy was a pretty good representative of the people I spoke with today. They were willing to listen to what I had to say- some even went as far as to state that they absolutely disagreed with the use of these single use bags. BUT! They refused to put their name on paper to say so.



I think what I mostly learned today was that you can disagree with something, but just running your mouth about it to people in your life isn't actually going to change it. Whether it's putting your ink on paper to officially support a movement or seeking out a new audience to run your mouth to, you have to do something out of your ordinary to really help. I guess I just heard a lot of empty words today.

Something else I've picked up on was how social and economic demographics of a place affect my petitioning in them. When I was in Harvard Square, businesses were all over this. But down close to Central Cambridge, I was struggling to get some people to even hear me out. But, I also noticed that Central wasn't as clean as Harvard Square. I'm not sure how the taxing works here, but I'm thinking that even though the two areas are in Cambridge, one part obviously has more money than the other. As well, there seemed to be  more houses than businesses near Central and not to be rude, but the businesses and houses near Harvard Square were of a higher quality in both up-keep, products, and employees. It's funny, the small culture shocks that I receive in New England- the way that people talk to each other is one that has consistently given me a jolt! Going back to my original point, I think that the best people to talk to about a plastic bag ban are rich people. Cambridge itself still has the potential for a lot of gentrification, but this is could affect how well the ban goes over.

First published LTE.

My first published LTE.


I googled Massachusetts plastic bags and this was the 6th hit. =D 

Still more research.

Today, I researched. And researched. Then ate. And researched some more. I'm done with the list of towns and cities that are being considered an option for a ban on plastic bags. I finished up the media list, which is all of the media outlets we call when we have a press release or something like this. I'm going to start working on a flyer that we can hand out with information about plastic bags and why they need to be banned. And I sent out 3 letter to the editors! Still waiting to get published though.

On Monday, I will go back to Winter Street where I'll probably spend a lot of time petitioning and working on some busy work kind of things. Later in the week, I'm heading to Cambridge to do some calls backs and then probably moving to another square to work on getting businesses to sign onto our letter. Might not be the most interesting, but the days aren't passing slowly.

Ireland... again.

http://nyti.ms/12TNUsJ

Here's a video showcasing how Ireland is using it's environmental taxes to boost it's economy. The European Debt Crisis hit this island nation hard, and it's pretty cool that they're doing something to better their environment and their economy at the same time. While some reports have stated that not all use of plastics has gone down significantly, liter rates have decreased greatly.

In other news, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY.

Business Sign-Ons

Today, I adventured into Cambridge to gather support for the plastic bag ban. Cambridge is one of the cities that Environment Massachusetts has listed as likely to support and pass a ban on plastic bags, mostly because a high percentage of the population has a more liberal standing. As well, it's proximity to the Charles River stands as a precursor. With the likes of Harvard and the intellectual tourism that goes with it, Cambridge could be a key places in which to pass a plastic bag ban. Going around to the different establishments around Harvard Square, I asked about 30 businesses for their support of a ban on plastic bags. Independently, I signed 8 businesses to the ban with the promise of about 10 more. To be honest, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. =p

For the rest of this week, I'm switching my focus to a lot more research and writing/editing letters to the editor. Today, I hope to churn out a decent list of businesses in the Cambridge area so that we can lay out a game plan for getting more support in the area. I'm looking at the Chamber of Commerce as well as just using Google Maps. I hope that by being a bit more organized going in, we'll be able to be more efficient and in that, more effective.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm wearing at a mountain with a broom. The people I work with get so excited when I come in after an hour with 20 signatures. But it is bothersome that to get those 20 signatures, I had to ask over 200. And sometimes people aren't so nice just to say no thank you. I can imagine that this is frustrating for a lot of people. I'm trying to take it as a lesson that just because I think something is the right thing to do, others might think the right thing is the exact opposite. And it's not necessarily that they are uneducated or ignorant, they just have different values than I do. Today, I went into a woman's shop to ask her to sign the plastic bag ban. Even though she was a bit rude in telling me no, I have to consider that she has a business to run. If plastic bags are banned, then how can she hand her customers their purchases? She would have to re-order new stock and it's likely that these alternatives would be more expensive.

Slowly, I'm learning that there are a lot of sides to every issue. Ignorance is bliss though... And sometimes I'm envious of the people who only see their side.

Plastic Bag Bans on an International Scale

Check me out. I'm real cool.

Here's a pretty nifty interactive map that displays all of the places around the world who have or have attempted to have a plastic bag ban. Look for some similar characteristics between all these places. Proximity to water? Economic standards? Common values?

Since marine life is primarily affected by plastic bag pollution, it makes sense that places near the water would want a plastic bag ban. As well, places with more liberal views and a certain standard of living and revenue are more likely to go for it. While working here at Env. Mass., I've started researching potential cities in Massachusetts that could be susceptible to a plastic bag ban. These are the types of factors we are looking for. By getting these places on our side, we hope that we'll be able to persuade the ones that are less likely to support this ban. There's power in numbers, you see. :)

Ireland's Plastic Bag Tax

When I was but a wee traveler, I remember thinking it was so weird that the grocery store down the road from Kilmurry Village was charging me 5 cents for a plastic bag. It was so off putting! The sheer audacity of the Irish, charging for a plastic bag? What cheap skates. However, I do remember my physical action- next time I went to the grocery store, I brought my backpack because I was not going to buy a plastic bag.

When Ireland instated the plastic bag ban in 2002, that was the point of the operation. They wanted to cut down on the use of plastic bags and it worked. There was a 94% reduction of plastic bags within a short period after the tax was instated. It also gave revenue to the government. However, there was an increase in other types of bags bought- trash bags, for example. While the litter in the Emerald Isle has dropped, the consumption of plastic has not. And the thicker bags that the Irish are buying in replacement are actually a lot harder to recycle. In terms of litter and grocery bag usage, this ban was a success. In terms of using plastics, not so much.


Here in lies where there is the need for a ban and not a tax or other form of compromise. By allowing plastic bags of any sort to still exist in societies that are based on one-time-use convenience, we will continue to pollute our environment with a market substitute. Whether it be plastic, paper or a reusable bag, there are downfalls to each.

What I'm left wondering if why can't we just use burlap sacks, glass jars, woven baskets and backpacks?

Here's a nice link from a UK economics site about the pros and cons of the Irish ban.

Petitioning at it's finest.

My first day of work, Anika asked me if I minded talking to people I didn't know to which I responded, "I'm from the South, I talk to everyone I don't know."

And hence started my work as a petitioner for Environment Massachusetts.


First, bundling up is necessary. As any true northerner will tell you, layers is the key to successful warmth. I know I look kind of like a Michelin man, but the streets of Boston are writhe with a terribly cold wind that I can't seem to get use to. After that, you just have to stay chipper. The first few hours of me petitioning, I thought that karma was coming back at me with a hard force for years of me ignoring all those people sitting so diligently on street corners, asking me to give them a few minutes of my time for a cause that I deemed unimportant. However, I'm thinking that it's less karma and more that people are busy... or just jerks.

The first petitioning I did this week was on Thursday when I stood beside a Macy's not far down from a homeless man asking the citizens of Boston to sign a petition that would stop the use of coal in Massachusetts. The goal of this petition is to tell Governor Deval Patrick that many in Massachusetts want him to enforce legislature to have all clean energy by 2020. Coal has been proven to cause asthma in humans, in addition to the ill effects that the burning and mining of coal has on the environment. As a non-renewable resource, in the long run, coal will be rendered an obsolete technology anyway simply because we  won't have anymore. The first day, I got 11 signatures in an hour.

The second day, I was again petitioning against coal. I picked a position located between a food court, Downtown Crossing T Stop and a big building that had a few department stores in it. After an hour, I had gotten 25 signatures. Slowly, I'm getting the hang of picking out people who are more willing to sign the petitions. A lot of business people on their lunch breaks will be unwilling, however people who appear to be shopping will be more willing. If I have someone that has slowed down when I speak, I proceed to encourage them with facts about asthma and the potential that Massachusetts has to be dependent on clean, renewable energy.

Friday night, I got a change of pace. The movie "Promise Land," a film which explores the dangers of fracking in a way that only Hollywood can, was premiering at the local theater. Before and after the main showing of the night, we "door canvassed" which so far has proven to be the most difficult way of petitioning yet. It's really hard to get enough information out for people to bother signing, and a lot of people are late for their movies to begin with. Also, I've noticed that boys act a lot meaner when they're with their friends. When I asked a boy who I'd seen on the street earlier in the day who had been very kind while signing my coal petition to sign my fracking petition, he yelled back over his shoulder, "I LOVE FRACKING!" and all of his cohorts thought it was hilarious. But there are also a lot of good people too- a lot of people are concerned about the implications that this horizontal form of oil and natural gas drilling can do for water tables, rural areas of forest and earthquakes. To me, fracking is a sign that oil, a substance meant to make humanity better and more efficient, is being put above those it is meant to help.

This is a good site to learn about the hazards of fracking in an interactive way.

On a more personal note, I moved out of the room I had rented. It was an interesting week living on Cross Street in Medford to say the least, but I'm now crashing with some friends over in Bedford. Heather Wood is a fabulous redhead who I met when I was studying abroad in Limerick. She's been living around the Boston area her whole life and she's so kindly offered to house me until I go home in February. It's an excellent thing- the stories I have from just a week of living in a project house are enough to entertain you for a good hour. And you won't be laughing with me, either. Oh no, you'll probably be laughing at me in this interesting, to say the least, situation. 

My first Letter to the Editor.

A big part of what I'm going to be doing here is writing letters to the editors of newspapers. Some big papers, some small papers, but the point of this is to get word out in the public about the importance of a ban on plastic bags. Each one needs to be right around 200 words long (which for anyone who knows me, being concise is not a strong suit of mine), and they are typically in response to an article which a paper previously published. My first one, however, was in response to a number of articles that I came across in researching opinions on plastic bags. Hopefully, people will read these, think I have some good points, and will come over to the light side of the plastic bag debate.

Check out my first one. =]

Every year, Americans use upwards of 1 billion plastic bags, making about 300,000 tons of landfill waste yearly. With our population quickly growing, land and resources are becoming more and more important. The truth about plastic bags is they are much more dangerous than we previously thought. What many consumers do not realize is that plastic bags will be here longer than any of us- in the water, they last 450 years and on land, a millennium.

If we do not change our usage of plastic bags, in ten years Americans will have used 10 billion plastic bags. At this rate, there would be 1 trillion bags in American landfills before even one finished degrading. The hazards of plastic bags go beyond the landfills though. A lot of litter in cities is strictly one time use plastic bags. These bags make their ways into our waterways, collecting toxins along the way, and are frequently eaten by marine animals, eventually winding their way up the food chain to us.

A ban on plastic bags is the only way to make sure the problems they cause are completely stopped. Massachusetts can only gain from a statewide ban which would make sure we will not suffer because of our need for convenience. 

First Day

Walking into the building that contains Environment Massachusetts, it's hard not to feel intimidated. I'm a policy intern with Anika James as my supervisor; talk about intimidating, this woman is about as cool as Jeanette Barbieri. Within the first 15 minutes of me being in the building, she informed me that I was going to be working mostly on the organization's campaign for a state-wide ban on plastic bags with a secondary focus on fracking. The hope is that by 2016, Massachusetts will join Hawaii in leading the nation on a ban on plastic bags.

If you're like me, you'll initially wonder, "plastic bags? Seriously? You're devoting HOW much time to something THIS simple?" But I'm slowly learning that plastic bags, and items made from this petroleum derivative, are dangerous not only to marine and terrestrial environments but to humans themselves. 267 species have knowing been affected from plastic bags. And they last forever- one bag lasts for 1000 years on land and 450 years in water. They're porous as well; they will collect toxins like PCP as they slowly photo-degrade (the sun basically just wears them down into smaller and smaller pieces). If they are in the ocean, many marine animals are tempted to eat these bags. Because plastic is not a source of nutrients, these creatures slowly die of starvation with a full stomach.

But I'm a Humanist. I grew up on a farm designed to slaughter cattle, I eat all the animals. A lot of people take that line of thought too. Why should I care about these far off creatures? Population control. Survival of the fittest. But what a lot of humans don't consider is that the animals they eat have probably ingested a bit of plastic bag with toxins in it. The plastic bags that make our lives so convenient wind their way back up the food chain, and are affecting our health as well. Since Massachusetts alone has a $5billion a year fishing industry, a lot of people from the Bay State are becoming unknowing victims of these plastic bags.

Today, I mostly researched plastic bags, from bans to counter-arguments to lengths that other areas have gone to control these bags. Since every area of my academic study seems to revolve around Ireland, I spent a lot of my time reading about the bag tax they placed in 2002. I'll have an entire entry about that later, because of course, I think it's really interesting. =]