The first labor rally in the Valley since the virus began – not including car rallies -- happened May 7 in Springfield. The below photo shows the rally. To enlarge the photo, click on it, then scroll down and click “view full size image.” Then you can click on the photo to zoom in more. The photo is by an employee of the union that has a web site at www.MassNurses.org and that organized the rally.

According to that web site, Trinity Health Corporation “has failed to properly protect staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, has not respected and supported staff during this challenging time, and has charged ahead with plans to close 74 child and adult psychiatric beds ... in Holyoke.”

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On May 10, the Kestrel land trust announced that it's working to save 120 acres of forest in Whately, Massachusetts. Whately is on the Connecticut river between Greenfield and Northampton.

According to this federal government web page:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-resolution/372/text?...

"From 2001 to 2017, a quantity of natural areas equal to the size of a football field disappeared to development every 30 seconds in the United States, constituting more than 1,500,000 acres per year."

On May 14, 2020 the Center for Biological Diversity -- an environmental group that employs dozens of lawyers and has offices around the nation -- posted a petition on its Facebook page asking for support for a bill in Congress to protect 30 percent of the USA from development.

Here's a map of protected open space in the Pioneer Valley and the Brattleboro and Keene area as of 2015:

http://valleypost.org/content/2015-map

According to the Center for Biological Diversity's web page at

www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/climate

"The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. People around the world are beginning to address the problem by reducing their carbon footprint through less consumption and better technology. But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we not only need smaller footprints, but fewer feet."

In 2019, Time magazine – which has almost twice as many readers as the New Yorker magazine – published an article headlined, "Why I Have Zero Regrets About My Childless Life." The article is at:

https://time.com/5492622/stephanie-zacharek-childless-life