Why I run to represent Rindge and Fitzwilliam as a House member in Concord

 

Imagine that I've just knocked on your door and I'll imagine that despite all odds, Sunday football games, and fear of Covid-19 transmission, you answer the knock.  

I'm running for one of the two seats representing Rindge and Fitzwilliam in the New Hampshire State Legislature.  This is my third time running for a Cheshire 11 seat.   

I hope you're well and that you haven't lost a job or income to the pandemic?  I hope you've got health insurance and that you're able to access preventative care in these challenging times?  What are your thoughts about education in NH and the schools where we send our children?   Are you still paying off college debt?   I hope you'll take time to respond to these questions by commenting on this post or you can email me at pmartin2894@yahoo.com or call me at 899-2894.  Let's talk about what would make life better for people in Rindge and Fitzwilliam.

If you haven't lost patience with me by now, I tell you the main reason that I keep running.  

The West Coast is on fire, much like the wildfires that devastated Australia last year.  The air quality in Portland Oregon is the worst in the world and equivalent to smoking hundreds of cigarettes each day.  There are five hurricanes spinning off the Gulf Coast while Hurricane Sally drenches it in over 30 inches of rain.  

New Hampshire itself is under drought conditions and at risk for wildfires too.  

It is simply not true that these wildfires are a matter of improper forest management or arsonists.  

We need a World War level effort to transform our economy to run on clean energy and make it affordable for all.   Otherwise, our environment will continue to degrade until we can't depend on a livable planet for our children and grandchildren.  It's even possible that widespread wildfires will bring us to environmental collapse much sooner than anyone has predicted.  Will we suffocate on the smoke from these fires?  Will the ash cover the remaining snow packs and accelerate the melting of glaciers and release of methane in a feedback loop that results in a planet that resembles hell on earth? 

I've been involved with energy policy and the push for a clean energy future since my student days at UNH in the 1970s.  Since I retired 9 years ago, it's been the focus of my life.  In the last 4 years, I've been arrested twice for civil disobedience while protesting fossil fuel expansion.  Mostly, I've been involved in constructive activities to promote clean energy on a local level for the past 11 years as a member of the Rindge Energy Commission, the Monadnock Sustainability Hub, the Franklin Pierce Institute for Climate Action, and Sierra Club Ready for 100% initiatives in Keene and Peterborough.  

As a retired engineer, I'm convinced that we have the solutions and the technology we need TODAY to begin a rapid and just transition to a clean energy economy.  What we lack is the political will.  This is where you come in.

Whether or not I'm elected, I'll continue doing my best to fight the #ClimateCrisis.  The question is, what are you going to do?   I don't ask in order to shame or burden you.  I ask because I need to depend on you as much as you need to depend on me and others to save the future for our children.

Please vote for #ClimateChampions up and down the ballot.  Vote for me and Gene Andersen for the Cheshire 11 seats and Andrew Maneval for the Cheshire 14 seat.   The power to help New Hampshire change course on the #ClimateCrisis is in your hands.