SOUTH HADLEY — The transition from working life to retirement seems to be completely different for everybody. Some dabble with family tree or taking part in of their backyard, whereas others lastly embark on that journey they by no means managed to find time for. For many, retirement is a time for relaxation as they depart the workforce.
That, nevertheless, shouldn’t be the case for Sue Donaldson.
Since retiring from a profession in psychiatry in 2014, Donaldson has develop into a full-time local weather activist. A self-described “quiet introvert,” Donaldson, who moved to Northampton from Cambridge final 12 months, has discovered herself yelling by means of a bullhorn in Harvard Sq. and has even been arrested numerous instances for civil disobedience. And most not too long ago, she added a starvation strike to her listing of latest life experiences.
On Saturday, Day 5 of the starvation strike, she joined practically 30 others from everywhere in the state in entrance of the First Congregational Church in South Hadley to protest the neighborhood’s contract with the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electrical Co. as a part of a proposed pure gasoline plant in Peabody.
“We can’t preserve making new methods to burn fossil fuels by means of fossil gas infrastructure,” stated Donaldson as rain began to sprinkle on her and her fellow protesters Saturday morning.
Donaldson is one in every of six activists of the local weather group 350 Massachusetts who’re partaking in a starvation strike for no new fossil gas infrastructure and overview of the Peabody “peaker” plant, which is designed to run throughout instances of peak demand all year long.
South Hadley has contracted for about 10% of the vitality from the plant as a part of a 30-year contract, becoming a member of greater than a dozen different municipal gentle departments. Holyoke, which had initially contracted with the proposed plant, has since requested that its shares be transferred elsewhere. In a earlier interview with the Gazette, Holyoke Fuel & Electrical Supervisor James Lavelle stated that Holyoke now not requires the vitality from the plant.
Donaldson and fellow starvation striker Judith Black of Marblehead stated they hope that the opposite communities which have a contract with the plant like South Hadley will see the pressing want to depart fossil fuels within the floor and to progress from conservation to renewable vitality to battery services, and to decide on safer methods to satisfy vitality wants — and discover a approach out of the contract.
Their hope is that if others take part asking to exit the venture, there might be a bigger impact and a extra collective effort. Moreover, they hope to alert the general public and invite others to affix their motion.
Whereas some have questioned the choice to embark on a starvation strike and even known as the act “harmful,” Black asserted that the planet is dying.
“We needed as an example the urgency,” stated Black. “Our species is getting ready to destroying the livability of our planet. We’re on a strike to deliver consideration to that fact by means of this particular venture, and demand its finish.”
To finish the starvation strike, the six activists are demanding that municipal electrical boards rescind their contracts with the venture, and that Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electrical Co. CEO Ronald DeCurzio cancel the venture and re-apply for the 100 MW Westover Vitality Storage Heart battery venture.
The activists are additionally demanding that Gov. Charlie Baker and Vitality Secretary Kathleen A. Theoharides conduct neighborhood well being and environmental influence critiques, and that Sen. Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, order an investigative listening to into the electrical firm’s contracts for the Peabody plant in addition to the Westover Vitality Storage Heart.
Creem is chairwoman of the Senate Committee on World Warming and Local weather Change.
“We’re hoping our calls for might be met quickly,” stated Donaldson.
With indicators advocating for clear vitality, protesters proceeded from the facet of the highway to the gazebo throughout the road the place they started chanting and sharing protest songs.
This isn’t the primary time that the development of the Peabody plant has been scrutinized. In December, the venture drew protests in entrance of Peabody District Courtroom, the place demonstrators held indicators calling the funding in non-renewable vitality “peak stupidity.”
In November, protesters in Holyoke, whose electrical firm is now not invested within the venture, held a rally in entrance of the area’s wholesale energy operator, ISO New England, becoming a member of organizers in Peabody in calling on the operator to maneuver {the electrical} grid away from fossil fuels.
The six activists are encouraging anybody to affix in a symbolic quick of any size to specific help for his or her targets.
As a result of fasting shouldn’t be for everybody, Black additionally instructed that those that are concerned with supporting their efforts might as an alternative “quick from fossil fuels” for the same interval, by not driving or turning down the warmth, as a lot as attainable.
contributors are inspired to e-mail climatecourageusa@gmail.com.
Emily Thurlow could be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.