Category Archives: environment

Oct 12 NO comments
environment, politics

Can Belmont be a lab for green innovation?

Now that the Board of Selectmen has endorsed (by a 2-1 vote) Sustainable Belmont’s proposal for a Climate Action Plan (CAP), the big question is: what next? The resolution approved by the BOS on Oct. 5  would require the BOS to create and appoint an Energy Committee to coordinate town-wide efforts  to reduce Belmont’s carbon output by 80% by 2050. There will be a resolution on fall Town Meeting warrant seeking approval of this. The CAP  would then be used as a reference guide by the Energy Committee. As it stands, the CAP has recommendations (around 75 in all) for every segment of town to reduce Belmont’s environmental footprint –that includes residential users, town government, businesses, our public utilities. (You can read the entire CAP on Sustainable Belmont’s Web page.)

What types of programs might be considered? A recent article in the New York Times (thanks to the Belmont Yahoo Group for the heads up)  highlights the steps that other suburbs are taking to curb carbon emissions and to encourage. They include town-financed home energy improvements and zoning changes to allow businesses to generate their own electricity with wind turbines, solar and other green energy sources.

The big test of the next three to five years is whether Belmont will be able to move from planning and committees to actual implementation of some of the great recommendations and ideas in the CAP, and whether Belmont residents and businesses will get a helpful hand in making their homes and businesses greener — or continue to try to do the right thing in the face of a stiff headwind.

Sep 28 NO comments
Belmont, Belmont World Film, Habitat, One Book One Belmont, composting, environment, events, farmers market

One Book, One Belmont: Wrapping up an exciting year

On September 9, 2009, the Belmont Public Library launched the second year of the One Book, One Belmont program with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, written by best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver, husband Steven L. Hopp, and daughter Camille Kingsolver. The book chronicles the family’s move to a farm in rural Virginia and the succeeding year in which they committed to eating only food grown on their farm or bought locally. The One Book, One Belmont program began last year with Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time. The program’s success included 800 people attending an author event at Belmont High School.

Beginning in Seattle in 1998, One Book, One Read programs seek to connect readers across entire communities by reading the same book. Since then One Book, One Read programs have stretched across the United States, from Alabama through Wyoming. Different communities can also read the same book, and this year just in Massachusetts, Groton, Northampton, and Williamstown have also selected Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

The One Book, One Belmont program follows the goals of other One Book, One Read programs to build community and to promote reading. In 2009, the One Book, One Belmont program also celebrates the town’s 150th anniversary with a book reflecting Belmont’s agricultural history. “From 1859 to the mid-twentieth century,” the Belmont Public Library writes, “Belmont was a town of farms, dotted with greenhouses full of flowers, fields bursting with fruits and vegetables, and pastures grazed by the first Holstein cattle imported to the United States.”

Continuing until October 8th, One Book, One Belmont has featured an array of events with more to come:  a composting workshop on Sept. 30 at the Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary at 3:00, 3:45 and 4:30 (ages 5 and up), a screening of  HomeGrown, a documentary presented by Belmont World Film on October 5, and a One Book One Belmont Day at the Farmer’s Market on October 8 with guest chef appearances at 2:00 PM, 3:00PM and 4:00PM.  More details about One Book, One Belmont—including event details—are available on the One Book, One Belmont Web site.

When the blue Belmont Public Library One Book, One Belmont banners come down around town after October 8th, you will know that the planning committee will soon be meeting again once a month to review titles for next year’s book.