BY ANDREW KALLOCH
Craig S. Altemose ’10 has been awarded a $10,000 grant from Brita’s College FilterForGood Eco-Challenge. As co-coordinator of Massachusetts Power Shift (MAPS), a student-powered climate change network that represents more than 20 college campuses across Massachusetts, Altemose works to educate Bay Staters about climate change. Altemose sat down with the Record to answer a few questions about the winning proposal.
HLR: How did you learn of the grant?
CSA: I learned about the grant through a friend in the climate movement, a community organizer we work with who lives on the Cape by the name of Jay O’Hara. Jay has stepped up to be the Coordinator of Mass Climate Summer, and will be the guy on the ground implementing the program.
HLR: What is your program?
CSA: Our program will have about 5 teams of 8-10 students bicycle around Massachusetts over a period of 2 months this summer. These students will work with local community groups to help spread awareness about their work, while also distributing information about ways citizens can save energy (and stop global warming), and passing out compact fluorescent bulbs. We will also be spreading awareness about Al Gore’s call to RePower America with 100% Clean Electricity in 10 Years, a goal we have eagerly rallied around.
HLR: How did you get involved with Mass Power Shift?
CSA: I have been involved in the climate movement since I entered Harvard three years ago. [Altemose is a JD/MPP candidate]. In January 2007 and in the summer of 2007 I interned with the Energy Action Coalition, which is a national organization that mobilizes youth around climate change. Through that experience, I met other students from Massachusetts, and a small number of us decided to plan a large conference last spring called Massachusetts Power Shift, a 4-day conference which brought hundreds of students and community members, as well as Senator John Kerry, Representative Ed Markey, and former Central Intelligence Director Jim Woolsey to Boston to rally around the Massachusetts state climate bill called the Global Warming Solutions Act. That bill set an economy-wide cap for Massachusetts that requires the Commonwealth to reduce its emissions up to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. From that conference planning team, we decided to launch the state network that has adopted the name of the conference.
HLR: How can people get involved?
CSA: People can get involved by e-mailing me at craig@masspowershift.org, or signing up on our website, at masspowershift.org.