For immediate release:
Contact: Camila Gallardo Camila.Galllardo@mothersoutfront.org
May 12, 2021
MOTHERS OUT FRONT DECRIES GAS INDUSTRY EFFORTS TO MARKET DEADLY PRODUCTS TO CHILDREN AT CAMBRIDGE, MA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
BOSTON, MA– This week Tobin Elementary School school students in Cambridge, Massachusetts were provided with pro-gas propaganda materials, disguised as activity booklets, extolling the virtues of natural gas, even calling it ‘a friend’ to kids. The booklets were produced by Eversource, the region’s largest gas provider. While the school district has issued a statement saying the distribution of the materials was an error, the issue goes beyond this singular act.
It’s part of a pervasive and disturbing strategy by the gas industry to sell ‘natural gas’ to the public, even children still in elementary school, as a safe alternative (it is not). We know that the extraction and transportation of so-called ‘natural gas’ leads to the emission of large amounts of CO2 and methane (the most deadly greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere. Recent studies have shown that methane emissions have in fact spiked globally since 2002 due to the boom in natural gas extraction.
Gas spewing into our air outside is bad but it’s also in many homes in the form of gas stoves or gas heating, polluting our indoor air and causing adverse health effects like asthma and other pulmonary conditions in children.
“As a mom who is trying so hard to stop the damage being done to our planet through the use and extraction of fossil fuels, I am outraged that Eversource continues to publish and distribute this garbage to the kids whose lives are going to be most affected as the climate gets worse and worse instead of working to switch their production to renewable energy,” said Kristine Jelstrup, Mothers Out Front Massachusetts.
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Mothers Out Front is a national movement that brings together mothers to take action on climate change and work towards a just transition away from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy on a local and state level. Proud recipient of the 2019 United Nations Global Climate Action Award and the 12th annual John P. McNulty Prize. Named PEOPLE Magazine “Every Day Heroes Fighting Climate Change.”