Good afternoon,

My name is Rosemary Mosco. I’m a volunteer with 350 Mass, and I live in Cambridge. I’m writing in support of H.872 and S. 481 An Act Establishing a Climate Change Superfund and Promoting Polluter Responsibility Bill.

I’m a dual citizen of Canada and the US. My elderly parents live up in Ottawa, Canada. Today, the air in Massachusetts is bad—but the air in Ottawa is worse. Ottawa’s skies are thick with smoke from wildfires burning in several Canadian provinces, stoked by unusually hot and dry conditions. Canada’s official air quality index typically measures air quality from 1 (good) to 10 (bad). Today, Ottawa’s air broke the scale. It exceeded 10. My dad has asthma, and mom is a cancer survivor. I texted my parents and told them to stay inside, and I helped them choose a home air purifier. This has never happened before. Now, it’s going to happen again and again.

We know from abundant, publicly available documents that the fossil fuel expected knew this was going to happen. They did their best to mislead us about the impacts of climate change and to block any progress. Today, my stomach’s in knots because I’m scared for my family and friends, and the fossil fuel companies planned for this because they knew they’d rake in profits and they considered my parents’ health to be an acceptable cost.

These impacts are only going to get worse. That’s why it’s imperative that we make the fossil fuel companies pay for the damage they’ve caused. H.872 and S. 481 will help us prevent and treat the health impacts of climate change. We’ll be able to provide support for the most vulnerable among us because the impacts of climate change don’t hurt us all equally.

The vast majority of Americans think that fossil fuel companies should be held accountable. Those corporations have thrived off of our pain for long enough. On behalf of my vulnerable loved ones and everyone in my community, it’s time for justice.

Thank you,

Rosemary Mosco