SEED, and Newburyport’s Local Environment
June 26th, 2008I’ve watched the emergence of Newburyport’s Seacoast Energy & Environmental Design Coalition, (SEED) with great interest.
SEED has, wittingly or not wittingly, been very politically savvy. It also helps that the timing is “on the money.” It is finally politically correct to be “green.” And it doesn’t hurt either that our very own Al Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize for building awareness about man made climate change. And even President Bush’s awareness on the “green” issue is sort of evolving.
While Al Decie and all the folks who worked with him in CEB (see previous posts), was ahead of his (and their ) time. And folks like David Hall was ahead of his time. The SEED folks have hit the timing just right (and as a btw, it appears that folks like David Hall [see many previous posts] are extremely pleased, as well as now being involved in the organization).
The organization also took an inclusive, pro-business, pro-Newburyport Chamber, non-adversarial, non-political approach, and it’s worked really, really well.
It is not an “Us vs Them” approach, the way so many of the activist groups in Newburyport have navigated for so many years. This new dichotomy appears to possibly be a new model for getting things done. It seems to be possible, in part, because of the new folks that have moved into town. But it is also embraced by new folks and folks who have been around for “a while.”
And basically, the cement, which is great activist cement, is that being “green” is economically good for everyone. And one of the things that I’ve learned as an activist, is that it’s much more effective to get things done, when the majority of folks are united, rather than at each other’s throats.
So although SEED is in so many ways non-political, and I don’t see anything on their website about this, and I can’t find (I could keep looking) anything on the web, it would be great if SEED could help Newburyport, MA out, by being very proactive in regards to the Newburyport Landfill. It would certainly tie in with their goal of protecting the environment. And I don’t know of anyone in Newburyport, MA who does not want to see the Landfill capped as soon as possible. So it would tie in with their approach of a unifying theme.