Recently a contributor suggested that the only significant climate action would have to come from the federal government and that other actions were essentially meaningless (“Commentary: Mainers are missing the climate change target,” Feb. 25). I agree with the urgent need for further federal climate legislation but do not share the writer’s views about state, municipal and individual efforts to rein in greenhouse gases.

Maine’s climate action plan is truly significant. Governors and legislators watch what their colleagues are doing in other states, and routinely copy or draw from those actions in drafting their own climate action plans. Maine’s climate efforts are being shared nationwide. Cities, too, like South Portland and Burlington, Vermont, set important precedents.

As for individual actions, no one is going to argue that they offset much carbon, but they do have a multiplier effect. After we installed solar panels in 2010, a half-dozen friends and neighbors followed suit. So, too, with electric cars and heat pumps; the former, unfortunately, are scarce, but thanks to Efficiency Maine, purchases of the latter are surging.

Individual action, whether it is avoiding single use plastic bags or composting home wastes, helps to replace despair with hopefulness, and hopefulness is what sustains us. Furthermore, groups of individuals acting together bolster that hopefulness. That is why I participated in Tuesday’s Third Act demonstration against the banks that are financing the fossil fuel industry. I doubt I’m the only participant to return home with renewed inspiration to keep fighting for a habitable planet.

Joe Hardy
Wells

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