Report from a Breakout Group at the Boothbay Region Climate Action Team Conference
As reports flow in from the the U.N. COP28 climate summit in Dubia, the message is clear, we are in a new era!
First an Update on the inaccessibility of public testimonials on Maine Bill Search.
I recently became aware that there are two Maine Bill Search Websites.
When searching Google I selected the first on the list and did not look further as I did not consider the possibility of two websites serving the same function.
The two websites are:
State of Maine Legislature Bill Status Search
Bill Tracking and Text Search - Maine Legislature
The testimonials are accessible through the second link, in the right-hand panel but are not accessible through the top link or in the menu on the left side of either website.
The first link behaves very erratically and will not necessarily bring up LD 2003- HP 1489 and is not consistent in the view that it brings up. The Maine Legislative Librarian pointed out that the testimonies can be accessed through the Chamber status link. Once you click that link things change, erratically, but you can gain access to the testimonies using the first link once you know you have to click on the Chamber status link, but the second link provides a more direct and less erratic path.
Back to post….
Recently I attended two community meetings. One was organized by a foundation. The other was organized by the state.
The first meeting was about all aspects of the community including climate change, and the second meeting was focused on climate change. The first meeting was on Zoom. It was a welcome surprise that it was organized coastally rather than regionally with participants from a spectrum of southern and northern Maine. The second meeting was locally focused on the Boothbay Peninsula.
While both of these meetings offered an opportunity to engage with others at a proactive grassroots level, I expected a follow-up email but it did not arrive, so my first advice to anyone wanting to organize around a community cause is to attend organized meetings but do your own networking. Exchange email addresses and other information and encourage forming a grassroots organization that operates independently because the overview from above often does not see what is taking place on the ground as well as it is seen from a grassroots perspective.
Incorporating what we know and what we don’t know
As a coastal dweller, I am particularly concerned about rising seas. From following the science, my understanding is that sea levels are rising faster than anticipated and no one knows with certainty how extreme it will be and when it will happen or if it will be a relatively incremental change or something that will occur suddenly and dramatically.
Both meetings were organized around “breakouts” wherein the group is divided into smaller groups and each group engages in discussion. In my climate change group, there was a solar energy entrepreneur, a master electrician, and others who did not identify their field but were also well-informed and everybody had something to say. There were no direct reports delivered by the breakout groups to the larger group.
This is my breakout group report.
Design for the future
One of the first concerns to be raised was bringing climate change deniers into the fold. Climate change deniers respond to prevailing science by quoting from another scientific source, usually unreferenced, that debunks climate change. A climate denier will not accept the reality of climate change until it sweeps them off their feet, although the constant refrain that climate change is not caused by humans and therefore, nothing we can do will change it, recognizes climate change. Whatever the cause, if one accepts that the climate is changing, one can talk about preparing for it. When targeting climate change deniers keep in mind that what they deny is often not climate change but that humans have anything to do with causing it, and frame your talking points accordingly.
Public awareness accepts climate change at different levels. It is easiest to address climate change at the lowest estimate of sea level rise, which is three feet, an outdated projection by the global community issued in the 2018 Paris Agreement.
Things have changed radically since then, Something remarkable is unfolding in Dubai, as I write. World leaders are battling out whether to declare a goal to end the use of fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia and Russia are calling to restrict the goal to decreasing carbon emissions but 80 countries, including the USA are demanding that a COP28 deal call clearly for an eventual end to fossil fuel use.
The Marshall Islands, which faces inundation from climate-driven sea level rise, currently chairs the High Ambition Coalition group of nations pushing for stronger emissions-cutting targets and policies.
To meet the global goal of holding climate warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures, the coalition "is pushing for a phase out of fossil fuels, which are at the root of this crisis," she said. "1.5 is not negotiable, and that means an end to fossil fuels." source
The time to reach an agreement is closing in. It seems unlikely that a unilateral agreement to end the use of fossil fuels will happen during this conference but the fact that ending the use of fossil fuels is now part of the conversation is an important first step. Considering that planes and ships carrying global merchandise run on fossil fuels, it says that the world is ready to accept whatever changes are needed to save the planet for habitability. That is where we are at.
The seas may rise much higher than three feet and much more rapidly than previously predicted but gathering public support requires strategy. Once there is acceptance that something needs to be done the long-term perspectives can be introduced. In designing a bridge, a perspective of a hundred years forward is reasonable and that is where we are looking at a forty-foot sea rise according to estimates, though there is no certainty that it will take a hundred years to get to that level. A starting point is to identify communities that can withstand a forty-foot sea rise and speak in terms of a 100-year plan. If a community cannot withstand a forty-foot sea rise, then it needs a different plan.
I came to the meeting with a desire to find a topographical map that visualizes what an area looks like if the sea rises to different levels. After the meeting, I discovered that there is such a map, that can zoom into a local community with an adjustable sea-level indicator. It is found at costalclimatecenter.org
The local meeting was hosted by Sunrise Ecologic, commencing on the day that the meeting in Dubai commenced. The host of the meeting began by displaying a checklist of what they had to fulfill. The last on the checklist was holding a public meeting and we were it.
The public meetings are organized by the state through its grant-giving capacity serving the purpose of bringing together the inhabitants of a municipality. This is a positive role for central management but if the goal is to encourage local action at a certain point central management should give way to grassroots organization. Typically the signs were there that centalization was disinclined to allow localization to take over. While attending the event, it felt like the beginning of something, an introductory meeting, but afterward, it felt like a one-time event with no plans for continuing. The organizers collected the emails of the participants but did not share them or encourage the participants to make connections among themselves and there was no follow-up communication.
In my view, The most significant need identified was to redo the culvert in East Boothbay. If it were washed out, it would cut off most of East Boothbay from the mainland. A community plan should focus first on community accessibility as even special teams dedicated to helping others will need access. Boats could be used, including ferry boats but boats are docked at wharves and along the coastline. A wharf does not always stay in place in extreme weather conditions.
We should be addressing that concern now, while it is still possible to do so since bridges are not built overnight and there is no certainty as to how much preparation time we have. Perhaps we already have a non-profit organization that could undertake the project of identifying vulnerable accessibility points in our communities.
It was also suggested that there should be an emergency service that checks in on people living alone, this could probably be incorporated into existing emergency service and extended to others in times when travel and communications are cut off, It would have to be done by an organization that has access to vehicles that can travel in severe conditions.
In the category of reducing carbon emissions, Mike Meyer expressed a great deal of knowledge about solar energy and its benefits, both in reducing carbon emissions and in saving energy costs. Alex, the electrician had expressed concern about how to get the message out. I suggested Mike could do a show on the local TV channel, He could also do YouTube videos, which he did not mention, but it seems natural.
I did not mention this newsletter which has gathered a lot of local readership. I was thinking there would be a time to do so later but so far later hasn’t come. I started writing because I experienced a one-sided public narrative. Now it is apparent that the narratives from the past have had their day. We need new ideas, voices, narratives, and leadership. Locally our election season is about a week giving the voter very little opportunity to get to know who they are electing. We need to make more use of our peninsula news sources. More people need to become actively involved and make it fun so that people will want to be involved. If you are interested in running for office start long in advance of election week and make use of our local media sources so we can get to know you- and let’s have debates!
The organizers of the meeting distributed a checklist of priorities, which was very detailed. It was not possible to give the list of priorities the deserved consideration while at the same time being engaged in the conversation around the table. I would rather have read the list afterward and emailed my responses but the way the event was run gives the impression that from the perspective of the organizers, the end goal of the meeting was to deliver a public consensus on priorities as identified on the checklist and colored dots placed on a bulletin board. My response was haphazard due to a lack of time to read and consider all the options.
Another way to gather a consensus is for each breakout group to submit a list of priorities based on their discussion. In my view, the most actionable priority for emergency preparation brought up at the meeting is to reconsider the East Boothbay culvert. This being a specifically local issue, it is not going to be on a list of priorities developed by central management in advance of the meetings. What is the point of local meetings if not to consider specifically local issues? The priorities in advance could include an option such as “identify communities at risk of losing bridges and culverts through rising seas”.I don’t know if the checklist included such an option because I didn’t have an opportunity to read the list with any degree of thoroughness before handing it in.
The other advantage of having the breakout groups create their list of priorities and tell the rest of the room what they discussed is the opportunity to get to know the other breakout groups. One of the most important services that such a community gathering can offer is the opportunity to get to know others in our communities, which can lead to further collaboration.
It was not until reflecting on the conversation afterward that it occurred to me that Sawyers Island has another bridge that should be elevated. There was nowhere to go with that except to comment about it in the Boothbay Register.
When the BoothbayRegister reported on the event, it did not mention the need to elevate our bridges and culverts.
“I think the greatest strength is that we're starting to come together and finding a process to prioritize," said Shri Verrill of Sunrise Ecologic, who serves as the project service provider. “And when we identify a next step, we can focus our positive energy there and feel like we're accomplishing something and bring people in because success breeds success.
…..She said participants from both towns also prioritized creating a climate change education plan for residents and businesses. Other top interests included increasing energy efficiency in school and public buildings, protecting utilities against severe weather, and implementing strategies to increase the use of public transit, biking and walking. “Boothbay Register article
Central management serves a purpose but genuine grassroots action is required. The lobsterman from East Boothbay brought up the issue of the culvert. Such crucial observations are most likely to come from someone living in the area.
There was talk about emergency preparation teams and about the possibility of hurricanes such as are common in the south and talk about protecting the power utilities.
Power utility repair crews need road access. Protecting road access is the first order of preparation. That means making sure bridges will not be washed away or culverts buried in the sea.
It also means reconsidering the distribution of state funding such as MaineDOT’s Business Partnership Initiative, which distributes Maine Department of Transportation funds on a first come first serve basis as a three-way split between Maine DOT, the municipality, and a private business entity, a policy that advantages wealthy communities over communities with less money but potentially greater needs.
Considering impending sea level rises and other climate change effects the DOT funds distribution policy needs to change. Protecting the state from potential disasters should take priority over economic development.
Other policies such as “conditional gifts” allow private donors to make changes to a community without the community having a say. In 1976 A goal was declared in the Report to the Governor (of Maine), “To eliminate municipal votes on public bonds”. The point of such a goal, written seven years after Maine became a Home Rule State, is to eliminate the local voice on public projects. The Maine conditional gifts statute achieves the goal differently. In terms of the environment, the local community should have a say. Conditional gifts are negotiated between town officials and the donor. If neither of the parties is committed to proactive climate action, then we get results like two large asphalt parking lots being installed on a hill above our endangered water supply followed by a summer of heavy rain. The Town planning board must have approved it and our water district would have had a chance to weigh in. What happened?