This commentary is by Kristian Connolly, a resident of Montpelier.

Respectfully, if any person reading this believes that any of the candidates on the ballot are truly going to make a difference for the environment and climate, then you are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go close my windows on another hot summer day because, in my little residential neighborhood:

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Is this an exaggeration? Yes, but only slightly. All these things — and much more, including the winter version that exchanges some of the above for street plows, sidewalk plows, snowblowers, fossil-fuel burning furnaces, etc. — have happened, are happening, and will continue to happen all over this city, state, continent and planet many times over every day — and I haven't even mentioned what happens in order to make and distribute all the products used in the above.

So long as everyone believes that anything other than an anti-growth, anti-capitalism, anti-plastic, anti-machine, and pro-human-and-nature-powered hyperlocal future can attempt to save the planet and every living organism and being that would like to live on it, nothing will change for the better.

Are any of the candidates "bold" enough to fit the above description? Or are they using all the right buzzwords to campaign on a platform of supposedly caring about climate change, the environment, the future health of the planet, and our present and future collective health, just to keep things moving "forward" and gain elected office and a measure of power and celebrity for that individual?

I guess that's your call.

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