Maine Summers--Saving What We Love
And Maine Climate Individuals Who Shine
Maine summers shimmer and shine, then fade. We’re okay with that. The planet spins and a new day, a new season, comes our way. Yet we can’t just go along. As we navigate the climate crisis, we Mainers need to articulate what we love, and work to save what we love about life here. Is it the wide sky over the shimmering, sparkling ocean? Is it the cool, crisp fall in the spruce forest? The tide pools teeming with sea life?
Here at Third Act Maine we’ve got a lot coming your way this fall, including our Climate Teach-In—designed to help us find ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change—in less than one week, on Thursday, September 7. See the poster at the bottom of the newsletter. Last chance to sign up here!
Annie Ropiek
In this newsletter, we’re proud to present Annie Ropiek, one of our speakers at the upcoming 9/7/23 Teach-In. She’s been a political reporter in NH—listen/read this article from NPR to get a taste of how she started on the climate beat. Here is her more recent piece linking heating oil in homes with the need for affordable housing in Maine. We’re looking forward to her take on climate reporting over the last few years.
Other Maine Climate News
Pine Tree Power Ballot Initiative November 7—The information wars are heating up. We at Third Act Maine ask you to research this important ballot choice. While we enthusiastically endorse the move to a consumer-owned utility (for the cost savings to households and because we believe our energy grid should be in the hands of consumers, not a foreign corporation), we understand each of us has to get comfortable with this concept.
What will not change with a YES vote is the worker in the truck who reattaches your power line. If the ballot initiative passes, CMP and Versant line workers will keep their jobs. It’s the corporate management structure that will change. Find out more at Pine Tree Power—the grassroots organization that is battling Versant’s and CMP’s $27 million dollar marketing campaign. Don’t you wish those funds went into our power grid and lowering our bills instead of misinformation?
MPERS—Maine Public Employees Retirement System. Third Act Maine—and Maine Youth for Climate Justice, Maine Climate Action Now, Sierra Club, and Public Citizen—have been working to get those who oversee these funds for Maine state workers to divest of fossil fuels, as required by a 2021 law. Read more about it here.
Fossil Fuel Finance Act—The TAM Legislative Committee is seeking TAM constituents of Jared Golden to sign a virtual petition asking him to support and co-sponsor the FFFA. The signatures will be presented to Golden’s staff, Erik Kanter, at our zoom meeting with him on 9/21. Contact Chuck Spanger for more information.
Third Act Maine Member Profile—Marcia Taylor
How long have you been a member of Third Act Maine (TAM)? I joined in January ‘23. I’m a new Mainer, having moved here in May ’22. It was exciting to jump in and help organize Third Act’s rally in Portland this past March.
What prompted you to join? In Rhode Island I was active with 350.org, another climate advocacy group founded by Bill McKibben. Third Act is his brainchild, too, so it seemed a natural fit. Plus, TAM is my demographic: older folks concerned about the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few; folks wanting to preserve an intact biosphere for people, plants, and critters. If we don’t step up and step out, we’re leaving our survival in the hands of the uber-privileged.
How long have you been concerned about the environment? For my final 10th grade art project, I made silk-screened t-shirts in rainbow colors that read “Recycling Is Sexy.” As a twenty-something, I joined the Clamshell Alliance, occupying the Seabrook nuclear power plant. That plant did get built, yet activists nationwide succeeded in stopping the construction of other new nuclear power plants. My lifelong musical career has been intimately connected with environmental activism. [After the Seabrook demonstration Marcia formed a topical/folk cabaret called Bright Morning Star that toured nationally in support of progressive grassroots organizations. She’s shared stages with Pete Seeger, Odetta, Bonnie Raitt, Richie Havens, and others committed to supporting positive activism with music.]
What do you most hope for as an outcome of your climate activism? I work for an explosion of peaceful ‘citizen activism.’ My favorite climate song resounds: “The tide is rising—and so are we.” I’m an optimist about democracy. It takes ongoing engagement on the part of regular people—it always has. We can take responsibility for our country, or let the wealthy handle it for us.
[If you would like to be profiled—or if there is a member you’d recommend we interview—we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.]
Concluding Thoughts
There are at least five TAM members trekking to NYC on September 17 to join the March for Fossil Fuels. We commend them and can’t wait to hear more about it. We’d like to hear from you if you went, too!
Thanks for reading. We are so excited to meet you on September 7. (RSVP here if you haven’t already!) Until then, enjoy these late summer days.