Climate Matter: as year’s end approaches, it’s time for reflection

As this year nears its end, it’s a good time to reflect on the articles about climate change that have been published during the past year in this Climate Matters column. The Westfield News began to publish this monthly column a year ago to give a voice to local citizens who care about climate change. The column has provided an invaluable service to area readers opening opportunities in our area to discuss one of the most challenging issues the world faces today. The guest columnists have raised our awareness of the historical background of this problem, suggested ways to address it, described legislation designed to mitigate its affects, and shown us how to sharpen our personal awareness and connection with our environment.

Dr. Carsten Braun (October 2024), Gary Rucinski (November 2024), and Ed Llamoureaux (September 2025) each described the evolution of our understanding about this phenomenon that we know as climate change. Braun from Westfield State University assured us, “It’s real. It’s us. It’s bad. Scientists agree. There’s hope.” Rucinski a physicist and part of the Citizens Climate Lobby, told how his knowledge about climate change grew from when he first heard the term “global warming” in 2000. He noted that most folks have difficulty telling “the difference between the weather we grew up with and today’s weather.” However, those who have experienced extreme weather events causing devastating flooding (Asheville, North Carolina, in 2024 or southern Vermont in 2000) understand their changing weather problems.

In his article, state Sen. Paul Mark (December 2024) provided information concerning legislation being discussed on Beacon Hill last year as well as in Washington, D.C. He described the green bank bills that have been discussed in several of our state legislative sessions as a way to finance the decarbonization of buildings and housing. Currently, our legislators are discussing a Climate Bank bill (S.786/H3937) in a time when Federal funding for clean energy has been rescinded and action on this state bill is needed and should happen this month. Mark told of Sen. Markey’s efforts last fall to secure “$27 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act for climate bank activities around the nation.”

Columnist Russ Vernon-Jones (January 2025), from Amherst and a member of the Steering Committee of Climate Action Now— Western Mass discussed reasons to be hopeful as we face the challenges of climate change. He outlined the ways that global transition to renewable energy makes financial sense. In keeping with Vernon-Jones’ financial perspective, just this month Mark Gongloff writing for Bloomberg Opinion indicated the current stock market shows that green tech and other clean energy are outpacing the broader stock market, even in this time of economic upheaval and uncertainty. Tom Rawson (October 2025) a retired science teacher and climate activist, also wrote about a financial aspect of the issue describing ways that we could “align our money with our values.” Additionally, Tom Flaherty (May 2025) from Western Gas & Electric, wrote about the investments the utility was making in renewable energy and modernizing grids to reduce carbon and methane emissions.

In his February article, Dr. Raymond Bradley from the University of Massachusetts touched on an area of climate change that most folks know about, the shrinking world of polar bears. Bradley explained in detail how our frozen world is changing. “Sea-ice, ice sheets, lake and river ice and permafrost collectively make up the cryosphere.” Globally we are all being affected as those areas thaw and melt. Sea levels are rising and sources of water from shrinking glaciers is disappearing.

Linda Thompson (February 2025), president of WSU, discussed the book she co-edited “in 2023, along with Dr. Rajini Srikanth, dean of faculty and professor of English at University of Massachusetts Boston.” The essays in their book, “Climate Justice and Public Health: Realities, Responses and Re-Imaginings for a Better Future,” explore the link between climate justice and health disparities.

Paula Sharon (April 2025) from Tolland wrote about a different public intersection with climate change. She discussed the efforts her town is making to support their recently established “Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan.” As she put it “there’s a shared sense of responsibility to care for the environment and protect it for future generations.” Colleen Mollica (August 2025), an interfaith campus minister, certified mindfulness instructor, and adjunct faculty member at WSU, provided contrast to Sharon’s townwide level of addressing climate change challenges with a more personal and individual level of action. She offered advice about ecological conversion inviting us to Reflect, Be Mindful, Connect, and Transform. Finally, junior high student, Logan Melloni (June 2025) told of his observations about the sport of trout fishing he had come to enjoy. This favorite outdoor activity of his was changing as he saw the native brook trout being replaced by the invasive brown trout, all because of how climate change was affecting the rivers and brooks where he fished.

My own sense of connection to the earth around me here in Southwick, has led me to notice the changes in our gardening, the changing habits of the woodland animals and birds on our property, and the oddness of lilac bushes and crocuses here and at my brother’s place in Agawam flowering twice this year. We wonder if they will be able to blossom again next spring. Meanwhile our neighbor’s large vegetable garden seemed to fare well at the beginning of the season. Then the haze of the Canadian wildfires (another result of this changing climate) crept into our hilltop sky stunting the growth of the plants. My sister and I noticed that the tobacco fields in the valley below us seemed to yield much smaller plants as well and were being harvested earlier this year than we remembered from previous years.

Whenever she is asked what a single person can do about this problem, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, a leading climate scientist from Texas, replies that we must just start talking about it. As our conversations about an issue as large as climate change broaden and spread, actions begin to be taken, solutions begin to be found, and innovations begin to be developed. We know this is true because of the changes we have undertaken in similar cases. In 1992 NASA satellite images indicated that the ozone layer above Antarctica had developed a hole. The world community began to study the problem and developed the solution promoted by the Montreal Project, an international agreement to phase out ozone depleting chemicals, specifically chlorofluorocarbon chemicals. In 2024 that hole was beginning to get smaller. In 2008, we reduced the amount of driving we did in this country because gas prices increased so much. In our own area, the price of gas was over $4 a gallon. That reduction in driving reduced our carbon emissions noticeably. In 2020 when the world shut down for the COVID -19 pandemic, the satellite pictures before and after this next massive reduction in driving showed almost complete elimination of the smog we were so accustomed to in our large urban areas. We had cut our carbon emissions once again. Now we must work together to cut our emissions forever.

Susan Brown is a resident of Southwick, a member of a local climate change focused action group, Voices for Climate, and an adjunct faculty member of Bay Path University and Cambridge College.