Taking on Pensions and Plastics
Things we can do alone and together
Spring Caucus on April 25: Register by April 10!
Before we explore the actions we can take around pensions and plastics, we wanted to make sure every Third Act Mainer is warmly invited to our Spring Caucus on April 25.
At this gathering in Portland, you’ll hear about the latest Third Act nationwide campaigns: ‘Spring Spark’ and ‘Summer of Heat.’ No matter what your level of engagement, there will be ways for you to get involved. We will premiere a new presentation about climate changed geared to engage elders in senior living facilities across the state—and gather your feedback to make it even stronger. We will sing together, break bread, and deepen our network. We’ll write postcards to Costco and L.L. Bean leadership about their ongoing partnership with Citibank, one of the worst banks for its ties to fossil fuel investments. We’ll share noteworthy books and resources about climate emergency and generally boost one and all to continue the good and challenging work of turning this fossil-dependent place to a more sustainable world.
What: Spring Caucus When: April 25, 11 am - 2 pm Where: Portland Friends Meeting House, 1837 Forest Avenue, Portland
Taking on Pensions and Plastics
We at Third Act Maine sometimes feel like David facing the Goliath of climate crisis, armed with nothing but a puny slingshot. We know that large-scale, systemic and institutional action is the best way to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, but as individuals we are not powerless. This issue focuses on two areas where you can take action and make a difference: pensions and plastics.
In Our Pensions: Stop Corporate Polluters
46 trillion dollars. According to Climate Safe Pensions, that’s how much pension funds worldwide have invested in fossil fuel. It amounts to about 30% of all fossil fuel investment. There are two things you can do:
Examine your own retirement investments and consider investing in “socially responsible” funds, often referred to as ESG’s. This article from NPR is a good introduction to this approach.
Join our continuing effort to put pressure on Maine PERS to follow the law and divest from fossil fuel investments! Third Act Maine will be standing out again on April 11. See details below.
Statewide Call to Action
Alone: Sign Stop the Money Pipeline’s petition urging public pensions to divest from fossil fuels. Click here to sign.
Together (more fun): Join us in Augusta on April 11 to urge Maine PERS board members to divest from fossil fuels!
What: Maine PERS standout urging divestment from fossil fuels
Where: Maine PERS parking lot, 39 Capitol Street, Augusta
When: April 11, 7:30 am until 9 am
What Can We Do About Plastic?
In 1971, the Who released “We Won’t Get Fooled Again,” a song that became the anthem for a generation. We thought we were so savvy, but we got fooled. We let ourselves be lulled by the promise of recycling even as plastic piled up in landfills and clogged rivers. The plastics industry tricked us. They gave us something positive and almost noble to do—recycling— and we felt like we were solving the problem because “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Tom Mikulka, cofounder of Third Act Maine, explains how this all went down in his mini-essay here.
From Tom Mikulka: For all of us who surfed the oil wave to prosperity, we also remember the quote from the classic film, The Graduate: “There’s a great future in plastic.”
That “great future” has resulted in a plastics inundation in our oceans—with predictions that in 25 years the mass of plastics in the planet’s oceans will exceed the mass of all living creatures in the ocean. Rain and snow now contains microplastics. So does 90 percent of all of the salt we consume. You and I carry microplastics in our body tissue.
Unfortunately, all of this plastic is really bad for our health. Toxicological studies on microplastics are increasing rapidly. Exposure to microplastics induces a variety of toxic effects, from oxidative stress, metabolic disorder, immune response, and neurotoxicity, to reproductive and developmental toxicity. Whoa!
The Center for Climate Integrity recently presented the grim case against the plastic industry in a session hosted by Maine Conservation Voters, The Fraud of Plastic Recycling. The history of the industry is one of deception and lies and closely follows the path of the fossil fuel industry. To no one’s surprise, many of the plastic producers are subsidiaries of fossil fuel companies.
Their initial deception was that disposable plastics would make life easier. Then, when landfills began to overflow, they told us that plastics could be recycled. Clever marketers created the recycling symbol with its number in the center (1-7). Most of us bought into the myth that we could be good environmental citizens by recycling. Recently disclosed insider documents show that the industry knew all along that recycling would never work. This recent graph from the EPA illustrates the big lie and the depressing reality that, nationally, the recycling rate remains below 10 per cent while our consumption of plastic continues to increase.
The newest lie is “advanced recycling,” defined as the ability to convert waste plastic back into petroleum. While it is technically feasible, it results in most of the plastic being converted to toxic air pollution with a small yield of petroleum at an energy cost that makes the process an economic loser.
Maine is one of the few states that actually makes an effort to recycle plastic. EcoMaine claims to actually make a profit by sorting and baling plastics 1 through 7. However, in truth, only numbers 1 and 2 can be truly recycled. Plastics 3-7 do not yield a pure product suitable for easy recycling.
DO continue to feel good about your plastic recycling efforts. But along with the experts, we’re recommending that the best solution is to reduce our use of plastics. It’s time to get creative! For example:
Choose food in paper, glass or aluminum containers.
Buy in bulk and use your own paper or glass container or even a plastic one.
Finally, be skeptical of claims made by the fossil fuel and plastics industries!
We Have Webpages on the Third Act Website!
We are excited to announce the launch of new webpages for Third Act Maine. Check them out here. Bookmark us and be one click away from all things Third Act:
information about upcoming events
articles from our recent newsletter and an archive of newsletter articles
links to follow us on social media.
Hearty thanks to our social media director, Deb Fahy, for creating this professional and engaging site. Speaking of social media, we could use your help!
Webpage help needed! Approx. 2-5 hours per month. Experience with WordPress a plus, but not required. Email ThirdActMaine@gmail.com if you're interested in joining the Communications Team and helping us out.
Greater Portland Hub
Undeterred by wind, several hearty members of the Greater Portland Hub stood out in Westbrook last weekend to protest Chase Bank’s funding of fossil fuel investment. If weather permits, there will be another standout at Chase Bank in Westbrook on Saturday, April 6 at 10 am.
Goodbye, Coal-Fired Plants in New England
The last two coal-fired plants in New England are slated to close within the next three years. Both plants are in New Hampshire, one in Portsmouth and the other in Merrimack. The closings come as a result of a five-year effort by the Sierra Club and the Conservation Law Foundation. The effective strategy used by these groups, is explored in this article in The New York Times. Granite Shore Power, the new owner of the plants, intends to convert the plants to solar farms and battery units to store electricity from offshore wind turbines along the Atlantic Coast.
Let’s celebrate an end to coal in New England! And let’s keep going, resolving to make our entire energy system free of all fossil-fuels. Maine’s state legislature is taking up LD 2077 which addresses the use of fracked gas in Maine. Although this bill has been watered down, it remains an important step in continuing the conversation about our fracked “natural” gas use.
Call to Action: Contact your state legislators and encourage them to support LD 2077.
Art: Spring in Acadia
