The group Northampton Abolition Now organizes to move money from the police department into programs that make the community safe. On February 13 and 14, the group held a rally in Northampton. Dozens of people attended. A contact person for the group, Mary Jones, can be reached at (512) 413-5592 and mary.m.jones12@gmail.com.

She told the Valley Post, “We hope Mayor Narkewicz will shift the resources we now pour into policing, directly into community initiatives whose core aims are helping, healing, and sustaining people, rather than controlling them.”

The group has a web page at:

www.facebook.com/NohoAbolitionNow

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Thanks to the work of activists, Greenfield and nearby towns will have bus service on weekends. For years the buses have only run on weekdays.

“It is critically important that people in rural areas have access to transport,” Marty Nathan told the Valley Post. She is part of the Pioneer Valley-based group Climate Action Now. “If an on-demand service can be instituted to grow into a comprehensive, easily-accessible and inexpensive rural transit program that cuts fossil fuel use, that is the ideal model for fighting for climate justice.”

John MacDougall of the group 350 Massachusetts told the Valley Post, "This is an excellent program that meets an important unmet need. I urge the regional transit authority to continue it on a permanent basis."

Info about the new bus service is at:

http://frta.org/getting-around/frta-access-program

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On February 12, 2021 the daily newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts published an article about a new development in a case of sexual assault on children by a Catholic priest in Springfield.

The Catholic church forbids birth control. Overpopulation is the number one cause of climate change, which the world's leading scientists say is a major threat to earth's ability to support human life.

About 9 million people die of starvation every year. Droughts and floods caused by climate change make it harder for farmers to grow food. About 2 million people have died of Covid worldwide since the disease was first widely reported about a year ago. Starvation is preventable by raising taxes on billionaires and using the money to feed poor people.

In general, globally, the poorest people have the most kids. Reducing poverty reduces overpopulation. On average, the more education people have, the fewer kids they have.

Last month in Northampton, 21 or so people attended a pro-democracy rally. It was organized by Northampton resident Michael Klare. He's a professor at Smith College. One of his books says the USA uses its military to steal oil and other resources from poor nations in Africa. With 4 percent of the world's population, the USA spends as much money on war as the rest of the world combined.

The Center for Biological Diversity works nationally and employs dozens of lawyers. Stephanie Feldstein is the group's population and sustainability director. Last year she told the Valley Post, “We can’t ignore the reality that global population has more than doubled in the past 50 years and continues to rise. If we don’t address population growth through reproductive freedom and gender equity, our efforts to fight climate change will always be an uphill battle. And this isn’t just a problem in other countries – the average American has a carbon footprint 700 percent larger than the average person in most African countries, yet nearly half of all U.S. pregnancies are unplanned.”

She continued, “The climate crisis demands action on all fronts. We must simultaneously shift to clean, just renewable energy, hold polluting corporations accountable, transform our food system, and expand human rights to stabilize our population. When we avoid talking about population, we’re not only leaving out a critical piece of the puzzle to reduce emissions and advance reproductive rights, but we miss an opportunity to confront xenophobia and inequality as perspectives that have no place in the environmental movement and that interfere with real solutions.”

According to

https://ourworldindata.org/per-capita-co2

“In just 2.3 days the average American or Australian emits as much (carbon dioxide) as the average Malian or Nigerien in a year.”

While the chances of stopping climate change may seem small, in 1989, the chances of Nelson Mandela -- who was then seven years into a life sentence in prison -- becoming president of South Africa were also small. In 1994, Mandela was elected president and one of the world’s most brutal and racist governments was overthrown. This happened because millions of people took to the streets in protest.