Gloucester's climate change journey, one podcast at a time - Gloucester Daily Times

Gloucester's climate change journey, one podcast at a time | Local News | gloucestertimes.com

All the coastal beauty that makes Cape Ann so singular also makes it singularly more vulnerable to climate change, which would explain why Cape Anners were ahead of the curve in galvanizing efforts to seriously address the threats of climate change.

“In Gloucester, we’re very lucky to have a very active group of citizens who are climate aware and have been for decades,” said Candace Wheeler, chairman of Gloucester’s Clean Energy Commission. Wheeler was speaking on “Nature Wins,” a newly launched audio and video podcast hosted by Maureen Aylward, director of TownGreen Inc., which produces the monthly podcast.

There are many facets to climate change on Cape Ann — sea rise, increasingly destructive storms, pollution, waste, to name but a few — and a myriad of activists groups and organizations have been created to address them. This can be very confusing to the average person. Aylward says she hopes with her podcast series to “connect the dots” to help people understand how they all “mesh” to work together.

The series’ debut episode aims to trace the steps of Cape Ann’s “climate adaptation story.” Aylward and Wheeler were joined at a table at Gloucester’s Streamography Studios by TownGreen’s chairman, Dick Prouty, to discuss “De-Carb Gloucester,” and how the city came to be “recognized as a regional climate leader” — one of the first communities in the state to achieve the Green Community designation.

Gloucester offsets a little more than 70% of its municipal electricity demand with renewable energy from two local wind turbines at Blackburn Industrial Park and has — since the Clean Energy Commission was founded in 2009 — invested more than $1 million into energy efficiency and electrification retrofits at municipal facilities. How Gloucester got there, is where this podcast series begins.

Prouty, long an environmental trailblazer, founded TownGreen as a homegrown, nonprofit green initiative in 2015. A program of the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation, it’s headquartered at Gloucester’s Unitarian Universalist Church on Middle Street. The foundation has continued to play a central role in Cape Ann’s climate change initiatives.

Decarbonization was its first and very ambitious project, and solarized energy was a solution that TownGreen pursued with the “Gloucester Solar Challenge” — a plan that would see not just local rooftops, but fields converted to clean, green solar powerhouses. Educational outreach was next, and TownGreen initiated an ongoing series of programing, webinars and events, including colorful family-friendly Clean Energy Fairs that welcomed kids as “21st century citizens” whose future depends on “mitigating” or “changing climate change.”

Among the many achievements of Gloucester’s Clean Energy Commission, Wheeler, who’s been with the commission since 2010, discussed how its advocacy for the city to adopt a renewable energy plan would not just mitigate carbon, but provide cheaper energy at a time when the cost of energy was soaring for consumers.

Aylward describes her podcast as an educative tool that’s accessible to anyone, anywhere, any time. Syndicated on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and YouTube, it features local experts such as Prouty and Wheeler, as well as national and community leaders, and residents who’ll discuss everything from sea rise to Gloucester’s journey to breaking ground on a new, totally green Sawyer Free Library.

“This is Cape Ann’s climate story, “ said Aylward, and as creator/producer of Gloucester Writer’s Center’s popular “Fish Tales”, she knows a thing or two about telling a story. Her record as a creative broadcast media presence here on Cape Ann includes an award-winning podcast series with the local LGBTQ community.

If the progress made over the years is inspiring, Aylward says she’s even more inspired by what the future holds. Which brings us to Episode 2 of the podcast, a one-on-one interview with Gemma Wilkens, the city of Gloucester ‘s newly installed sustainability coordinator.

As what Prouty would call “a 21st century citizen,” Wilkens — who has worked for the city for two-plus years, has included in her plans the implementation of “a youth internship program to more effectively engage young people in climate planning.” She has also assisted in proposing zoning ordinance changes to support floodplain protection and climate technologies and managed a robust community outreach campaign to connect residents with incentives through MassSaves.

Wilkens, like Aylward, acknowledges how confusing the multitude of “committees and acronyms” can be to the average citizens, but dissects them one-by-one and “connects the dots” in ‘plain speak’ the average citizen can understand.

“The effects of climate change are real and getting more serious,” Prouty said. So too, are Gloucester’s plans to combat it. TownGreen, which Aylward describes as “a visionary and action-oriented climate organization” aims to tell you how.

To access Episode 1 and 2 of the “Nature Wins” series, sponsored by the Common Crow market, go to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.