ABOUT US

The Sustainable Shrewsbury Citizens Network is an Affinity Network that aims to bring together a strong community of Shrewsbury like-minded citizens to support common ideals associated with sustainability.

Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs; conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion or destruction of natural resources.

The Network is a means of fostering and maintaining a continued relationship and dialog between citizens regarding sustainability issues faced by ourselves, our families, and communities.

Our network’s mission is to advocate for a healthy environment for the people living, studying, and working in the Shrewsbury community.

This mission will be accomplished by promoting the right to breathe fresh air, drink clean water, and eat healthy food thru the protection of the air, water, soil, and biological diversity in the Town of Shrewsbury.  Our network considers the health of our children and of future generations pre-eminently when deciding on strategic priorities. We also advocate for a just and sustainable future for all. We are all in this together and are dedicated to justice for everyone.

This network provides citizens a unique way to connect back to the town regardless of their field of study as everyone is impacted by sustainability issues in their daily lives today. If you simply want to know where your food comes from or if you are concerned about climate change, this network is a good place to connect with others with the same questions and concerns. New ideas and new people go hand in hand, and all ideas are thoughtfully considered and evaluated. Please reach out to us to learn, share, and take action with others that care about the same things you do.

This network is unique in that it is a very grassroots decentralized way of organizing and advocating for change.  The network is not a group, doesn’t have members, and does not have spokespersons that represent those involved.  Rather, each individual advocates and speaks for themselves only.   The network is just a way to connect, discuss, and learn these topics together and then each person decides to get involved as much or as little as they want.

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THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL

Human activities are destroying nature at an unacceptable rate, threatening the well-being of current and future generations. Only by addressing both ecosystems and climate do we stand a chance of safeguarding a stable planet for humanity’s future on Earth. This is actually now jeopardizing the future of people.   Nature is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is our life-support system.  We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it.  Protecting nature is also about protecting people.  Nature is of incalculable importance to our health, wealth, and security.

Sea Levels may rise 9 feet by 2050

In a study now called the “Oh my God” study, data collected by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) indicates sea levels could rise by roughly 3 meters or 9 feet by 2050-2060, far higher and quicker than current projections. Until now most projections have warned of seal level rise of up to 4 feet by 2100.

Coral reefs worldwide could collapse as early as 2050

Coral reefs worldwide could collapse as early as 2050 due to ocean warming and increasing ocean acidification that occurs as a result of higher CO2 concentration

Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048

Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048 due to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change

Insect extinction in the next few decades

Insects will go extinct in the next few decades if patterns of intensive agriculture, in particular pesticide use, continue

Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970

Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilization.

The Arctic is likely to be ice-free in summer before mid-century

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THE QUEST FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability was defined in 1987 by the United Nations as a way of being that “provides for all people alive today without jeopardizing future generations.” It was further described as working toward a balance among the three interdependent objectives of:

1. economic vitality
2. environmental quality, and
3. social equity (or justice)

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OUR INSPIRATION

Sustainable UMass (Amherst)

• STARS Campus Sustainability Index
  • 2018 – Ranked 9th
  • 2015 – Ranked 29th
• Princeton Review – Top 50 Green Colleges
  • 2018 – Ranked 27th
  • 2017 – Ranked 42nd
  • 2016 – Ranked 41st
  • 2015 – Ranked 21st
• Sierra Club Magazine – Top 20 Cool Schools
  • 2018 – Ranked 7th
  • 2017 – Ranked 58th

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QUOTES

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
-Martin Luther King Jr.

“There are no task to great when shared by all.”
– Hawaiian Ancestral Knowledge

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
-Galileo

“Have no fear, when you speak the truth.”
-Wolverine, Secwepemc Nation

“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”
– William Wilberforce

“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
-Rosa Parks

“Until you wake up, we will continue fighting for you.”
-unknown

“The only people that are mad at you for speaking the truth are the people living a lie.  Keep speaking the truth.”
-unknown

“You know the First Nations story of the hummingbird flying through the forest?  The forest is on fire, and the hummingbird keeps getting a drop of water from the pond to put on the flames. The other animals ask him, ‘What are you doing? You’re crazy. That’s not going to stop the fire.  The hummingbird says, ‘I’m doing all that I can.'”
– David Suzuki, award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
– Nelson Mandela

“Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.”
– Helen Keller

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
– Samuel Beckett

“No matter how long you have traveled in the wrong direction, you can always turn around.”
-Native American proverb

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.”
– Tribe Unknown

When a man moves away from nature his heart becomes hard.
– Lakota

“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
-Mahatma Gandhi

“The truth isn’t even hidden anymore. People are hiding from the truth.”
-Unknown

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up!”
-Babe Ruth

“We live in a time of multiple, complex crises. There are no easy answers.  Working to uphold the health and diversity of our living planet is always rewarding, but we think you’ll agree it can sometimes feel like swimming against the stream. And yet like salmon we leap, and more often than you might expect, we make it.”
-Gaia Foundation

“The fundamental value to sustain a new economy should be that no economic interest, under no circumstance, can be above the reverence of life.”
–Manfred Max-Neef, visionary Chilean economist

“Natural laws are not negotiable. They require our compliance, for our own benefit.”
–Dave Courchene (Nii Gaani Aki Inini – Leading Earth Man)

“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed by the masses.”
– Plato

“Fight-or-Flight OR [shine your Spiritual] Light!”
-M K Merlice, social, civic, and political activist

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil,
but by those who watch them without doing anything”
-Albert Einstein

“The biggest way people give up power is by not knowing we have it to start with.”
-Alice Walker

“A person that falls into the river is saved by a man.  Then that man sees another person and saves that one too.  And then another.   Finally, he decides he would be better to go upstream and find out why people are falling into the river.”
– Unknown

“When the Earth is Ravaged and the animals are dying, A new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, creeds, and classes, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They shall be known as the warriors of the rainbow.”
– Hopi Prophecy

“The Lakota believe that all things in creation have a spirit and are relatives. The stories that have been passed down for generations instruct that the land, water, and living things that depend on them are all entitled to respect.”
-Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

“The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?”
-Bob Marley

“Live for yourself and you will live in vain.  Live for others, and you will live again.”
-Bob Marley

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito.”
-African Proverb

“A tyrant relies on his ability to rewrite reality.  That’s why the truth itself must be fought for.  Sometimes, that may mean sheltering a spark in your own hands, because no matter what happens, you cannot allow the truth to be extinguished.”
-Kelly Hayes

“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
– Voltaire

“Truthful Data Destroys the False Narrative”
-JB Handley

“Stand for what is right. Even if it means standing alone.”
-anonymous