Remarks were prepared for delivery at a rally at the Danversport Bridge on September 27, 2022, by Jerry Halberstadt, Coordinator of CleanPowerCoalition.org and a member of Breathe Clean North Shore. Photo of Kirk Israel playing tuba while sitting on Danversport Bridge overlooking site of peaker plants during "die-in" demonstration. Courtesy photo of Halberstadt © 2022 Marilyn Humphries
Clean power for health, life, & planet
How can we stop burning fossil fuels for transportation and electricity, burning that creates pollution? We need community engagement.
If we are to stop pollution, we must inform and empower everyone to identify pollution as a source of their pain. I announce here a coordinated effort to expand our movement for clean air, health, life, and the planet that will focus on broad community engagement and empowering local leaders.
What we don’t understand can hurt us. Pollution travels through the air: invisible, harmful, deadly. Fossil-caused pollution includes tiny particles called PM2.5 that easily enter our lungs and blood. They make us sick and can kill us. Fossil-caused pollution contributes to global warming that threatens our planet.
Together with Breathe Clean, we’re going to organize a clean air revolution on the North Shore.
Peabody is a leader in pollution-caused death
Peabody stands out in excess deaths from pollution. That’s what we learned from a report by Phil Landrigan ( Environ Health 21,70 (2022)), a leader in public health, about pollution and disease in Massachusetts. 70% of our pollution comes from all transportation, 30% from stationary industrial sources including generating power.
In Peabody, we get one to two years of pollution every month!! The North Shore is under a cloud of pollution with up to 20 times the particulate pollution every year than the World Health Organization sets as “safe.”
Pollution is often highest in Environmental Justice communities. In Peabody, we have up to 25% of Black, Hispanic, immigrant, and poor residents. Mass Community Action Network and Kathryn Rodgers have begun to map the pollution-related disease in the area 1.2 miles from the new peaker plant.
And these problems affect everyone on the North Shore.
Imagine if all the people demanded clean air and clean energy!
Pollution & Health
Dr. Adrienne Allen told us that her patients say, "I am short of breath, I can't walk."
I know that feeling. I have asthma. That’s why I carry an inhaler for asthma with me wherever I go.
The elderly are at risk for respiratory diseases, lung infections, heart disease, diabetes, and premature death, all caused or made worse by pollution.
What about the children with asthma? What about the lifelong harm to their health and intelligence?
Does anyone else here have asthma, or have a child or parent with asthma, heart disease, diabetes, or COPD?? [Many hands were raised in response]
How can we protect ourselves?
Sudi and Ron Smoller and Breathe Clean North Shore collaborated with Sharon Cameron, the Director of the Peabody Health Department, Mayor Ted Bettencourt, and with help from many others to install air quality monitors that will tell us how much pollution we have in each part of Peabody.
NASA has just celebrated a first, pushing an asteroid as preparation for saving the earth from a future asteroid threat. It cost millions.
Breathe Clean also wants to save the earth and the health of people. And today, I am glad to announce that with only the assistance of a small grant from the Department of Environmental Affairs, and the use of much patience and persistence, the first three of seven air quality monitors across Peabody, Massachusetts have come online at PurpleAir.com. Let’s all thank Sudi and Ron, Sharon Cameron, Mayor Ted Bettencourt, and all who assisted in implementing this tool to monitor air quality in Peabody. [Cheers & applause]
Together with Breathe Clean, we’re going to build a Clean Power Coalition to use medical and public health science and community organization to create and organize a clean air revolution on the North Shore.
We’re going to listen to people and empower them to organize to mitigate and protect from the present danger.
And then, the people can determine to demand clean air and clean power: clean, renewable, reliable power.
Imagine if all the people demanded clean air and clean energy!
What do we want?
What do we want? To breathe clean air.
How can we get it? With clean, renewable power.
When do we want it? Now!
The die-in
Other reports on the "die-in"
Enos, Caroline, Research shows neighborhoods near new plant face high rates of health issues, The Salem News, September 21, 2022
Enos, Caroline, 'Our line in the sand:' Protesters 'die' on the bridge to protest peaker plant, The Salem News, September 28, 2022
Lamson, Jon, "Protesters Take Aim at Fossil Fuel Infrastructure in Peabody," New England Climate Dispatch, September 29, 2022.
Sokol, David, photos of "die-in, " Wicked Local, September 29, 2022
Waters, Wendall, "Protesters hold 'die-in' at Peabody Peaker plant site, here's why they oppose the plant," Wicked Local, September 29, 2022
Related resources
Landrigan, Philip J. and David Bellinger, "Air pollution is responsible for premature deaths in every Massachusetts city and town," BostonGlobe.com, August 8, 2022
Landrigan, P.J., Fisher, S., Kenny, M.E., et al. A replicable strategy for mapping air pollution’s community-level health impacts and catalyzing prevention. Environ Health 21,70 (2022).
Mass Clean Air, Health Effect of Air Pollution in your Town (Map)
Mass Clean Air, Spreadsheet of town data
Mass Clean Air, Contacting Policy-Makers, The first step toward a Clean Air Massachusetts Provides a list of policies and actions that can reduce pollution; advocacy at the local and state levels.
The Air Quality Sensor Grant was awarded by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to the Peabody Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with Breathe Clean North Shore (BCNS). Report by BCNS