I have written several times about MCE, and the opportunity to sign up for Deep Green. 

I want to talk about just a bit more. 

As you can see, MCE has just released its Impact Report. (you can read it by clicking HERE). When you scan through it, you will see most of the reason that our Town has been able to be so successful so far in reducing our Greenhouse Gas Emissions. This is especially so for those who participate in Deep Green. 

Sometimes, I have been asked whether it is a good thing to ask people to sign up for Deep Green. MCE is actually on the path to making its basic service offering 100% renewable in a couple of years. 

We, on the Climate Action Committee, think is critical that as many of us as possible do sign up. Here are some reason why:

1. The little bit extra you pay each month (about $5 per month per household) goes to help MCE to develop its storage and other facilities which will help us all to do better over time, including those who can't afford the extra $5. SO, if you CAN afford it, please do this as a step towards social justice. 

2. Everything we can do now makes the climate hill a bit less steep to climb in the future. 

3. The more of us who sign up, the more we send a signal to the supply market that we want renewable energy to protect the health of our community. We are tired of paying for harmful emissions. Tell them we care. 

4. It can help to inspire you to do more. Habits begin with a first step. Taking this first critical step can help motivate us to find the next small step, and then the next and then the next. 

5. This is power in community. In the aggregate, we can make a substantial difference. We have something like 2500 households in Fairfax (this is off the top of my head, and not very precise, so forgive me if my number is a bit wrong). If all of us make this change, we will make a substantial difference. 

6. San Anselmo has challenged us to a competition. They are out there trying to sign up for Anselmians than we can sign up Farifaxians. We can't allow them to beat us. 

So, thank you to MCE. 

Sign up for Deep Green. Let us know if you need help doing it. 

Sign up your friends to Deep Green. 

Join us for our first Climate Emergency Conversation on October 12, at 6:30 pm. 

And, most of all, thank you for being part of this community. 

As I posted earlier, a dedicated team of volunteers is working hard to create our Climate Action Plan, to get us to net zero emissions by 2030. A couple more thoughts. 

1. We have created a survey to help us bring together the great ideas from all of you. Please be part of building our strategy in ways that work for you. Click HERE to be part of the conversation. 

2. One of the things we are thinking about is social equity. Climate Action is inherently social action, as the people least able to defend themselves against climate disaster are the poor. Our Climate Action Plan is trying to think about this, and include ways to help ALL of us to be part of the solution, but we need creative ideas. Also, while our policies are already trying to take resources into account, and while reducing our impact is inherently a socially just effort, we have not specifically addressed any particular communities in our current thinking, and we are very interested to hear great ideas from all of you. 

And, as always, put October 12, 6:30 - 7:30 on your calendar to help craft our vision; sign up for this blog; pass this on to your friends; sign up to join us; sign up for MCE Deep Green, and have enjoy our wondrous community, nestled in these trees. 

Thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for caring. 

We are all now, starting to maybe breathe just a little bit better, as the smoke dissipates. 

But we are only now at the beginning of this year's wildfire season, and the trends, the science, are clear. 

Fortunately, we do NOT have to give up. Fortunately, the Fairfax Town Council passed a Climate Emergency Resolution a year ago, making us the first town in Marin to set the intention that we will do what we must to not only weather the future fires, but also work to stop the conditions that fuel them. 

There are things that each of us can do right now to make a difference. 

1. Please join the Town of Fairfax Climate Action Committee. You can join the committee itself, you can join one of our subcommittees, you can just come to our meetings and be part of the conversation. This is not an exclusive group, this is a team of volunteers working together to help us all towards the better future we all want. If you can't join, encourage your friends. We are volunteer members of this community, and we need help!

2. Please sign up for Marin Clean Energy Deep Green. At present, less than 10% of us here are buying Deep Green. Deep Green is 100% renewable electricity, and if we all did this, it would make a HUGE difference in our collective greenhouse gas emissions, as well as sending a powerful message to the world about who the people of this town are. Doing this is just about the easiest, and certainly one of the most impactful things any individual can do immediately. Don't complain that you don't have tens of thousands of dollars to buy solar panels; just turn on Deep Green. (and, turn off your light switches and appliances when not using!)

3. The CAC is starting a series of public workshops to talk about our Climate Action Plan. A committed team of volunteers has been working this year to craft our CAP. At some point, we will submit it to the Town Council for their approval and implementation. As I wrote previously, we do not want any plan that does not represent the community. So, we will host a series of 4 or 5 workshops to review our current state, and to think about how we can work together to overcome our collective challenge. It is critical that we come together to build our collective vision, and then, to get to work. Our first meeting will be October 12, from 6:30 - 7:30 pm. We will post a Zoom link on this website imminently. Everyone is welcome; everyone is needed. 

4. Please sign up to receive our blog posts. We post every week, on events and opportunities in the community, focused on bending the climate curve. 

Maybe most important, we must not give up hope. It is easy to be overwhelmed by all of the bad news these days, and to shut down. I heard someone say recently that despair is worse that denial, and, in this Pyrocene Age in which we increasingly live, the truth of that is ever more manifest. 

Let's do this.

We can.

​We must.