Wiscasset climate team plans workshops - Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset climate team plans workshops | Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset climate team plans workshops
In a move to prepare for the impacts of climate change, Wiscasset established the Wiscasset Climate Action Team (WCAT) in May. This marks the start of an effort to plan and implement climate action projects, led by WCAT and supported by Maine’s Community Resilience Partnership, a state program that helps communities reduce emissions and prepare for the effects of climate change through direct support and grants of up to $50,000.
The primary objective of WCAT is to help our community plan for the many impacts of climate change, like increasingly extreme weather, rising sea levels, and public health issues. WCAT will also help advise the town to execute projects aimed at adapting to these changes and reducing our contribution to climate change.
The creation of WCAT was led by SelectmanHeather Jones, who was motivated by insights shared by young voices in Wiscasset during a selectboard meeting. Shri Verrill of Sunrise Ecologic, a service provider endorsed by the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation, and the Future, played a pivotal role in initiating WCAT by introducing the Maine State Community Resilience Partnership program. Cassaundra Rose, Wiscasset resident and former coordinator of the Maine Climate Council, is the current chair of WCAT in partnership with a group of six enthusiastic community members.
The members of WCAT are deeply committed to the community and are actively creating avenues for more people to participate in climate action. They are dedicated to ensuring that every voice is valued in the decision-making process concerning actions to combat climate change.
Stay tuned for more information about WCAT’s first of two public climate workshops. It will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 25 at Wiscasset Community Center. This important meeting will help guide Wiscasset’s application to the Community Resilience Partnership. WCAT invites you to share your climate change concerns and priorities ahead of the meeting by taking its short survey: https://tinyurl.com/wiscassetclimatesurvey
For more information about WCAT and its initiatives, please contact Rose at WiscassetClimate@gmail.com< mailto:WiscassetClimate@gmail.com>, or visit https://tinyurl.com/WiscassetClimate
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”