I received an email last winter from Grady McGonagill, inviting me to join him and others for a meeting of ECA. My friend, Rajesh Kasturirangan, had talked to me about it earlier. I was out of the country at that time, so I wrote back to Grady, that once I am back, I would love to join them.
I have been part of our South Asia Center for many years and for last couple of years, we decided to raise awareness about climate justice amongst the South Asian community in the Greater Boston area, so the mission of ECA was in sync with what we have been doing for some time. South Asia is one of the most adversely affected regions of the world due to climate change. For instance, it has been reported that 80% of the ground water has been depleted there.
So I joined ECA in the spring and attended my first meeting at Judy Weiss’s house in Brookline. I found everyone very friendly, pleasant and deeply concerned about the state of affairs and what world we were going to leave behind for our children and grandchildren. I felt a serious commitment by the group to climate justice.
During the last few months, ECA has joined several other groups in many initiatives regarding the Energy Bill in the Mass. Legislature and protests to Stop the Pipeline, as well as other activities. ECA members have been very active in lobbying with their representatives and senators about this bill.
For my wife and me, who also came to couple of meetings, ECA is a very healthy space for climate justice and can only grow. My wife pointed out that we need more women in the group, as at present we have mostly men.
