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See Falmouth Sustainability Timeline: https://www.falmouthme.org/sustainability/pages/climate-action
Conservation and the Environment
Climate Action
Conservation and the Environment
Climate Action
Preserving the Falmouth’s environment is clearly valued by its residents, and it is seen as a priority, and something to address with some urgency. Prioritizing a sustainable future will enable the Town to continue to support and maintain the Town’s natural landscape and efficiently plan for development growth.
For more information about the Town of Falmouth Vision and Values project, please contact:
David Beurle, CEO
Future iQ
Phone: (612) 757-9190
david@future-iq.com
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17 Comments
Falmouth has done good work in the last few years in reducing its carbon footprint; I would like to see continued efforts in that vein (such as continued exploration of solar power in town, increasing the town’s electric vehicle fleet, increasing energy efficiency at town facilities, etc.).
The town has also started the process of controlling the number/quantity of fertilizers and pesticides used in Falmouth, controlling the amount of potentially toxic chemicals put onto the ground and into our watershed, then our ocean is vital to the health of our planet.
The most effective, positive, and reliable means for controlling our carbon footprint and maintaining our environment is to minimize our growth and growth rate. More residents result in more carbon generated and more land made incapable of absorbing water due to asphalt, concrete, and roofing. How hypocritical is a town that on the one hand wants to impose a carbon tax while on the other wants to increase building permits for a given year?
MODERATOR COMMENT: This post is borderline regarding the guidelines of appropriateness. Please consider reframing your post and comments.
I do not think the town is hypocritical. As of the 2020 census, Falmouth has just under 12,500 residents. The town manager, town council, and town staff have one basic job: making the residents of Falmouth happy. I think it is unrealistic to believe any subset of town staff can make a managerial decision and have all the residents like that choice.
Supporting a carbon fee and dividend program (which by necessity would have to be administered, at a minimum on the state level, much more likely nationally) is not imposing a carbon tax on residents. We all pay a few cents a bottle for soda, beer, wine, or even water without question. When we return our glass and plastic bottles to a redemption center, we get out few cents back. The few cents we all input into the system helps to pay for the proper disposal or recycling of all those bottles. A similar fee for carbon production will reduce the carbon load on our planet by encouraging people to use less carbon and fund the necessary cleanup, planetary repairs, and more efficient technologies.
Borrowing a few building permits from next year will not forever increase the amount of development in Falmouth. It will help a few residents who may have been short-changed when developers grabbed all the available permits for the current year. The number of permits for next year will be less, the numbers for years after next will not change.
Has the town considered extending the availability of natural gas to more residents, not just primary roads and dense/new neighborhoods, to help reduce the carbon footprint from households that continue to burn oil?
We have moved into an era in which Science has been politicized. More and more it will be used to support policies that result in greater limitation of personal freedom. “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac is an American classic novel. The characters in the novel travel by car around the country, miles upon miles, free to go where they choose. In 1972, I and two friends took a trip across the country in a 1965 Ford Econoline van. It was wonderful adventure that I still think of. Would two or three young men like to make a “road trip” in the coming years? In an electric car? They won’t get very far, even if the Government grants them a intra-state “travel permit”. Our grandchildren will not know the freedom we have enjoyed. Ah… but they will be SAFE, kept safely in a locality by the nanny state regime.
MODERATOR COMMENT: This post is borderline regarding the guidelines of appropriateness and relevance to this Discussion Board. Please consider reframing your post and comments.
The entire “vision” process presupposes “change”. We are encouraged to accept that “change is inevitable” and that we should not resist change. Those who resist change are labeled as “reactionaries” as if all change is by its very nature “progress”. It is not.
Many of us have lived long enough to remember the “Coming Ice Age” of the 70s, which is now a forgotten idea. How about the “Population Explosion”? Declining population in Europe and the USA are now excuses for immigration. China’s “progressive” one child policy has now been reversed after obvious failure.
“Good ideas” like these constantly turn out to be false alarms. After it has done its harm, “Climate Change” will give way to some other scam in order to pick our pockets.
MODERATOR COMMENT: This post does not address the Discussion Board question, and is borderline regarding the guidelines of appropriateness. The question asked for solutions, goals and ideas regarding Falmouth. Please consider reframing your post and comments.
We should all be stewards of the environment we live in but we need to return to the time when common sense ruled. Too many people are making emotional decisions about what should be done to “save the planet” when their recommendations are more harmful to the planet. The loss of electrical power for homeowners in California is increasing because policies were instituted which did not make common sense. Texas has proven that switching from the installation of gas powered electrical service for wind and solar can have devastating effects. You must have a proper balance of electricity from all generation sources. Solar power is only generated when the sun is shining and there are no economical “storage solutions” at this time. Wind power is more abundant during daylight hours. Electrical car charging would be a nighttime event when Solar and Wind are not available. Upgrading of electrical distribution in neighborhoods would be required if all residents had electrical cars. Charging an electrical car using a regular electrical outlet provides for 2 miles of use for an hour of charge. Charging using a 240 volt outlet results a charge of that varies based on the amps going into the home or the breaker capacity available in the home electrical box. The charge per hour for a Tesla varies between 17 and 44 miles charged per hour using a 240 volt outlet. Achieving the highest levels of charge may require that the home have a 400amp service. Home electrical installation costs can range from $500 to $5,000 depending upon the age of the home. Upgrading electrical distribution and transformers will cost billions! We need balanced electrical generation where the cost of generating electricity is the primary driver. And the most important point is we need to use common sense!
MODERATOR COMMENT: It is great to see these conversational threads evolve.
These Discussions Boards are being moderated to match the stated guidelines: “Comments made via this portal are public. We expect conversations to follow the rules of polite discourse. Messages containing inappropriate content or language will be removed at the discretion of Future iQ”. To date, we have had to exclude a number of comments that are critical about people or groups, or are obviously off-purpose (unrelated political commentary; for example). PLEASE remember, these are open community conversations, to which a wide range of people are contributing – including school students. These Discussion Boards are an opportunity for thoughtful, polite and convivial community discussion focused on exploring specific important issues. Please consider ‘tone and content’ before submitting, as we will draw a clear line – and exclude – inappropriate messages. Thank you.
I’d like to share my appreciation for everything the town has done to take climate change seriously, and other factors related to our environment in Falmouth. I support continuing these efforts in whatever ways we can collectively, as a community. Increasing options for travel (public trans, biking, walking, electric car charging), reducing carbon footprint at the municipal level, maintaining green spaces for habitat and other ecosystem services, increasing public awareness of issues such as sea level rise and how to cope with extreme weather events, are all actions I fully support. Cost may be a factor, but the financial cost of ignoring environmental threats will ultimately be much higher than taking preventative measures now.
I think if we (the town and its residents) are truly interested/commited to being environmental stewards, we should not allow developers to bulldoze large acreages of trees in their completion of new residential areas. I can think of a couple of developments where this is the case; one in particular is being built out right now. I find it upsetting to see such areas that have been clear cut in order to supposedly make building easier and faster. I don’t understand why we allow this to happen. Can’t there be tighter controls over what a developer can and cannot do to the land? I think about the habitats that are ruined by these actions and find it inconsistent with a purported interest in environmental sustainability and preservation.
Fully agree. People turn the other way when they see trees coming down. Trees are one of our, if not our greatest weapon against the climate crisis. But perhaps even more importantly for the purposes of these suburban planning discussions for the future – they have direct implications in communities for health and well-being, socio-economic propensity, safety and crime rates, educational performance, and so much more.
THANK YOU to everybody who participated in today’s focus group on the environment. I found the discussion incredibly interesting and learned a lot about ways Falmouth can develop a future vision that protects our environment.
I took part in the environmental focus group; these are my notes/homework from prior to the meeting.
1. What are the key things we are learning about this topic; from the surveys, background information, future trends, and Discussion Board comments?
Falmouth/residents care, 50 years of enviro stuff
2. What are the one or two most important potential future-splitting decisions or issues facing Falmouth, related to this topic?
Keeping the residents involved and interested
Controlling surface water and carried pollutants
Encourage green scaping (yard and hardscapes)
Encouraging green practices (recycling, e vehicles, new construction standards)
3. What are the implications and trade-offs of these different future directions?
If you lose the residents, you lose the will and votes and loose the battle
Climate change is a real scientifically verifiable problem facing the planet, at the risk of sounding trite “there is no planet B.”
4. With regards to this focus group topic, where is the future ‘sweet spot’ for Falmouth?
Continuing to build relationships with other entities (Friends of Casco Bay, Cumberland, Westbrook, Portland, Yarmouth, FLT, PRRLT, etc)
Carbon neutrality and/or carbon negativity (solar at transfer station, solar on roofs of all town buildings, solar shade structures at parking areas, increased multiple user/non-vehicle commute options, electric vehicle charger grants, wind power
Green Practices all around
Reliable and affordable electricity available 24 hours a day should be the overriding objective. Europe rushed into wind generation and now that the winds have calmed, electricity costs 7 times what it did before the enormous investments. The threat of eliminating fossil fuels has caused my oil contracts to increase 52% in one year. Be careful what you wish for!
Balance is needed in the sources of our energy generation so that we have reliable energy. Solar energy only gets created during the daytime. Charging electrical cars occurs at night. Winds are calmer during the night. What source of energy generation do people expect to use to charge their electric cars? Please – we need to use common sense!