Governor Deval Patrick, speaking to University of Massachusetts Amherst graduating class of 2014 on May 9th, outlined his goals for how Massachusetts could and should contribute to trying to reduce the massive man-made global climate change that has been identified in countless scientific reports for decades, and recently in the National Climate Assessment of the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program. An article summarizing the results of the National Climate Assessment clarifies the results of inaction. One can also read the overview of the National Climate Assessment itself online, as well as the entire report.
The Governor said that "Massachusetts should finally end all reliance on conventional coal generation" in four years, and called for "a future free of fossil fuels." He also mentioned steps that Massachusetts has taken in recent decades to cut carbon emissions, invest in clean energy, and adapt to climate change.
Appealing to the optimism and energy of his youthful audience, as against the paralysis of the overwhelmed, or the increasingly unrealistic denials of the evidence by science deniers, the Governor said: "We don't have to wait for disaster: the Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stone, but because humankind imagined a better way and then reached for it. Our clean energy future won't happen overnight, because it can't. But it will happen, because it must. And it will be up to you."
You can read the Massachusetts Climate Change Adaptation Report, and other materials about climate change and clean energy on the Climate Change webpage of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
