The pandemic has forced many people in New England into a dire economic situation. But there is at least one potential silver lining: the opportunity for climate action. It’s likely the federal government will approve stimulus money again to try to boost the economy, and many environmentalists propose we intentionally direct some of those funds toward “green” recovery.
WBUR‘s Bruce Gellerman talked to NEXT about a recent reporting project that involved asking environmental thinkers in Massachusetts how they would invest those funds. He got 16 proposals. The ideas ranged from increasing composting to nuclear energy.
Patricia Spence, president of the Urban Farming Institute in Boston, proposed investing in land for local farming.
“Since the pandemic hit, we’ve been growing more food and seedlings for our folks experiencing higher rates of food insecurity. The pandemic has exposed how badly our food chain needs repairing. The solutions we’re coming up with in this crisis should be continued. With increased recovery funding, we can acquire more land and train more urban farmers so we can do our part to meet the other rapidly approaching crisis: climate change. More farms, more food in the city means lower global warming emissions and a decrease in rising temperatures.”