Over three years we learned a lot - from our own processes of trial and error and from other people and organizations in the region. In the spirit of sharing, we offer our lessons learned and tips for other communities launching efforts to engage residents in thinking about and responding to the climate change crisis.
The following ABCD elements were critical to our success:
Lessons learned:
The ABCD program was a phenomenal learning experience for us! We each look forward to finding new ways to contribute now that ABCD has come to an end.
Sarah, Misty, and Brenda
]]>In the autumn of 2020, the Belfast Free Library was awarded an Accelerating Promising Practices for Small and Rural Libraries: Community Memory Project grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The two-year grant to create the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues (ABCD) project, which we extended to three years, enabled our small team of Brenda Harrington (Adult Programming Librarian), Sarah Kirn (community engagement consultant), and Misty Mallar (communications consultant) to plan, produce, record, and share a series of events and learning materials related to climate change.
Over three years we learned a lot - from our own processes of trial and error and from other people and organizations in the region. In the spirit of sharing, we offer our lessons learned and tips for other communities launching efforts to engage residents in thinking about and responding to the climate change crisis.
The following ABCD elements were critical to our success:
Lessons learned:
The ABCD program was a phenomenal learning experience for us! We each look forward to finding new ways to contribute now that ABCD has come to an end.
Sarah, Misty, and Brenda
Watch the event recording.
The evening’s slide presentation is included above (PDF file), along with the accompanying speaker notes (below, in the text, and also a PDF above).
In 2020, the Belfast Free Library won a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues, a Community Memory project. The grant was to develop educational programs and facilitate conversations among a broad cross-section of the Belfast community about climate change. Part of the grant was to create an archive of Belfast area residents’ observations, concerns and hopes about climate change impacts in our region at this critical time.
To accomplish this the ABCD project designed informative web pages and hosted a series of educational programs on climate change. From 2020-2023, ABCD held over 40 educational programs & community climate conversations. You can find these on our YouTube ABCD playlist, our event summaries, and highlighted in the ABCD archive. A tour of all of the archived resources on the website was also included in the presentation.
Although the funding for the ABCD grant has ended as of August 31, 2023, the Library will continue offering educational programs on the climate crisis and serve as a resource for climate change topics and issues.
Slide 1 & 2 - (Brenda) Title + Agenda
Hello! And Welcome to the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues Capstone Presentation. Thank you all for coming.
I am BH program librarian here at the BFL and the manager of the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues grant funded project. I am joined tonight by my ABCD colleagues: Sarah Kirn and Misty Mallar. Together we will share with you the story of our accomplishments with the ABCD project.
[Review agenda]
3 - (Brenda) Genesis of ABCD idea
4 - (Brenda) Katharine Hayhoe
5 - (Brenda) Why talk about climate change? (Yale quote)
6 - (Brenda) Grant
6 - (Sarah) Goals
7 - Getting started (Sarah)
8 - Project evolution (Sarah)
9 - (Misty) Engage
10 - (Misty) Engage (newsletters)
11 - (Brenda) Engage (art exhibit)
12 - (Brenda) Engage (art exhibit 2)
13 - (Misty) Engage (photo contest)
14 - (Sarah) Engage (Symposium)
15 - (Brenda) Educate (books)
16 - (Sarah) Educate (website)
17 - (Brenda) Educate (programs)
18 - (Misty) Talk About It (farmer panel)
19 - (Sarah) Talk About It - Community Climate Conversations
20 - (Sarah) Talk About It - Transportation
21 - (Brenda) Talk About It - CAP Presentation August 8th
22 - (Brenda) Talk About It - Sustainable Communities Day
23 - (Misty) Archive (Youtube + ABCD Collection)
24 - (Misty) Archive (ABCD item examples)
25 - (Misty) Archive (ABCD 8 collections)
26 - (Brenda) Updated ABCD pages on the Belfast Library website
Brenda - Project takeaways- 5 - introduction
27 - (Brenda) Project takeaways (1) (“We don’t just want to talk about it…what can we do?”)
28 - (Brenda) Project takeaways (2) (Many local orgs were already working on climate change) - “we aren’t alone!”
29 - (Misty) Project takeaways (3) (Don’t reinvent the wheel)
30 - (Sarah) Project takeaways (4) (Local AND national action needed)
31 - (Sarah) (5) Project takeaways (Use your power)
Those are our 5 takeaways and I’m going to pass the mic to talk about what we hope will happen next.
We’ve had the enormous privilege for the last 3 years thanks to IMLS:
32 - (Sarah) What We Hope Will Happen Next
(Municipal decision-making that integrates climate change impacts & resiliency)
33 - (Sarah) What We Hope Will Happen Next (Take advantage of funding)
34 - (Brenda) What We Hope Will Happen Next (Community driven climate action for Belfast) People- do something join other people inaction
35 + 36 - (Brenda) What We Hope Will Happen Next (Join others in action!)
37 - Personal Reflections
38 - (Brenda) Project Partners
39 - (Brenda) Conclusion
40 - (Brenda) Thank you
On Tuesday August 29th, 2023, the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues (ABCD) team, Sarah Kirn, Misty Mallar and librarian Brenda Harrington highlighted their efforts of the past three years to engage the community in conversations about climate resiliency. The event took place in the Abbott Room of the Belfast Free Library with refreshments and cake.
Nearly 60 people were in attendance for this celebratory evening. Attendee Ernie Cooper commented after the event:
"Wow! I just got home from the ABCD meeting at the Library, and I wanted to let you know how impressed I am with what you and your co-conspirators have been able to do over the last three years. It's clear that you didn't just get people talking about climate change, but you were able to bring people together and do the important work of building community. Congratulations to you and everyone involved."
We, the ABCD team, extend our thanks to everyone who has been involved and supported this project; and we hope that this community energy for addressing the climate crisis will continue. Check out the recorded presentation, notes and slides for our takeaways from this project, and what we hope will happen next.
Watch the event recording.
The evening’s slide presentation is included above (PDF file), along with the accompanying speaker notes (below, in the text, and also a PDF above).
In 2020, the Belfast Free Library won a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues, a Community Memory project. The grant was to develop educational programs and facilitate conversations among a broad cross-section of the Belfast community about climate change. Part of the grant was to create an archive of Belfast area residents’ observations, concerns and hopes about climate change impacts in our region at this critical time.
To accomplish this the ABCD project designed informative web pages and hosted a series of educational programs on climate change. From 2020-2023, ABCD held over 40 educational programs & community climate conversations. You can find these on our YouTube ABCD playlist, our event summaries, and highlighted in the ABCD archive. A tour of all of the archived resources on the website was also included in the presentation.
Although the funding for the ABCD grant has ended as of August 31, 2023, the Library will continue offering educational programs on the climate crisis and serve as a resource for climate change topics and issues.
Slide 1 & 2 - (Brenda) Title + Agenda
Hello! And Welcome to the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues Capstone Presentation. Thank you all for coming.
I am BH program librarian here at the BFL and the manager of the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues grant funded project. I am joined tonight by my ABCD colleagues: Sarah Kirn and Misty Mallar. Together we will share with you the story of our accomplishments with the ABCD project.
[Review agenda]
3 - (Brenda) Genesis of ABCD idea
4 - (Brenda) Katharine Hayhoe
5 - (Brenda) Why talk about climate change? (Yale quote)
6 - (Brenda) Grant
6 - (Sarah) Goals
7 - Getting started (Sarah)
8 - Project evolution (Sarah)
9 - (Misty) Engage
10 - (Misty) Engage (newsletters)
11 - (Brenda) Engage (art exhibit)
12 - (Brenda) Engage (art exhibit 2)
13 - (Misty) Engage (photo contest)
14 - (Sarah) Engage (Symposium)
15 - (Brenda) Educate (books)
16 - (Sarah) Educate (website)
17 - (Brenda) Educate (programs)
18 - (Misty) Talk About It (farmer panel)
19 - (Sarah) Talk About It - Community Climate Conversations
20 - (Sarah) Talk About It - Transportation
21 - (Brenda) Talk About It - CAP Presentation August 8th
22 - (Brenda) Talk About It - Sustainable Communities Day
23 - (Misty) Archive (Youtube + ABCD Collection)
24 - (Misty) Archive (ABCD item examples)
25 - (Misty) Archive (ABCD 8 collections)
26 - (Brenda) Updated ABCD pages on the Belfast Library website
Brenda - Project takeaways- 5 - introduction
27 - (Brenda) Project takeaways (1) (“We don’t just want to talk about it…what can we do?”)
28 - (Brenda) Project takeaways (2) (Many local orgs were already working on climate change) - “we aren’t alone!”
29 - (Misty) Project takeaways (3) (Don’t reinvent the wheel)
30 - (Sarah) Project takeaways (4) (Local AND national action needed)
31 - (Sarah) (5) Project takeaways (Use your power)
Those are our 5 takeaways and I’m going to pass the mic to talk about what we hope will happen next.
We’ve had the enormous privilege for the last 3 years thanks to IMLS:
32 - (Sarah) What We Hope Will Happen Next
(Municipal decision-making that integrates climate change impacts & resiliency)
33 - (Sarah) What We Hope Will Happen Next (Take advantage of funding)
34 - (Brenda) What We Hope Will Happen Next (Community driven climate action for Belfast) People- do something join other people inaction
35 + 36 - (Brenda) What We Hope Will Happen Next (Join others in action!)
37 - Personal Reflections
38 - (Brenda) Project Partners
39 - (Brenda) Conclusion
40 - (Brenda) Thank you
BELFAST — Tuesday, Aug. 29, join the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues (ABCD) team, Sarah Kirn, Misty Mallar and librarian Brenda Harrington, as they highlight their efforts of the past three years to engage the community in conversations about climate resiliency. The event will take place in Abbott Room of the Belfast Free Library; 5 - 5:45 p.m. reception with light refreshments; 5:45 - 7 p.m. presentation followed by time for conversation.
In 2020, the Belfast Free Library won a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues, a Community Memory project. The grant was to develop educational programs and facilitate conversations among a broad cross-section of the Belfast community about climate change. Part of the grant was to create an archive of Belfast area residents’ observations, concerns and hopes about climate change impacts in our region at this critical time.
To accomplish this the ABCD project designed informative web pages and hosted a series of educational programs on climate change. From 2020-2023, ABCD has held over 40 educational programs and community climate conversations. You can find these on the YouTube ABCD playlist, the event summaries, and highlighted in the ABCD archive. A tour of all of the archived resources on the website will be included in the presentation.
Although the funding for the ABCD grant is ending in August 2023, the Library will continue offering educational programs on the climate crisis and serve as a resource for climate change topics and issues.
“Please join us to reflect and celebrate, and to recognize the many local organizations we have partnered with on education and climate action,” said ABCD, in a news release.
For more information please visit https://belfastlibrary.org/abcd-events/ or contact Brenda Harrington at bharrington@belfastlibrary.org.
]]>BELFAST — Tuesday, Aug. 29, join the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues (ABCD) team, Sarah Kirn, Misty Mallar and librarian Brenda Harrington, as they highlight their efforts of the past three years to engage the community in conversations about climate resiliency. The event will take place in Abbott Room of the Belfast Free Library; 5 - 5:45 p.m. reception with light refreshments; 5:45 - 7 p.m. presentation followed by time for conversation.
In 2020, the Belfast Free Library won a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues, a Community Memory project. The grant was to develop educational programs and facilitate conversations among a broad cross-section of the Belfast community about climate change. Part of the grant was to create an archive of Belfast area residents’ observations, concerns and hopes about climate change impacts in our region at this critical time.
To accomplish this the ABCD project designed informative web pages and hosted a series of educational programs on climate change. From 2020-2023, ABCD has held over 40 educational programs and community climate conversations. You can find these on the YouTube ABCD playlist, the event summaries, and highlighted in the ABCD archive. A tour of all of the archived resources on the website will be included in the presentation.
Although the funding for the ABCD grant is ending in August 2023, the Library will continue offering educational programs on the climate crisis and serve as a resource for climate change topics and issues.
“Please join us to reflect and celebrate, and to recognize the many local organizations we have partnered with on education and climate action,” said ABCD, in a news release.
For more information please visit https://belfastlibrary.org/abcd-events/ or contact Brenda Harrington at bharrington@belfastlibrary.org.
“The presenters, past members of the CCC (Fred Bowers and Barbara Bell), and present members of the CEUC (Jerry Brand, Jon Beal and Bernie Baker), focused on the challenges to the city of Belfast posed by climate change, and initiatives for adaptation of our critical infrastructure to enable Belfast to be resilient with equity for all residents. [...] In addition to critical infrastructure, the [Climate Action Plan] includes initiatives that can be taken by property owners, such as rain gardens to reduce flooding and installation of heat pumps in homes to reduce energy costs.”
The Climate Action Plan was presented to Belfast City Council on June 4 and is awaiting adoption. Some of the recommended actions are already underway, and a search for funding for others is occurring.
Attendees expressed an interest in participating in some form of a climate action advocacy organization to become further involved.
Read the full article at the Republican Journal or in the PDF file above.
View the Belfast Climate Action Plan document.
]]>On August 14, the Republican Journal reported on the “standing room only” presentation of the City Of Belfast Climate Action Plan by the Belfast Climate Crisis Committee (now the Climate, Energy and Utilities Committee / CEUC).
“The presenters, past members of the CCC (Fred Bowers and Barbara Bell), and present members of the CEUC (Jerry Brand, Jon Beal and Bernie Baker), focused on the challenges to the city of Belfast posed by climate change, and initiatives for adaptation of our critical infrastructure to enable Belfast to be resilient with equity for all residents. [...] In addition to critical infrastructure, the [Climate Action Plan] includes initiatives that can be taken by property owners, such as rain gardens to reduce flooding and installation of heat pumps in homes to reduce energy costs.”
The Climate Action Plan was presented to Belfast City Council on June 4 and is awaiting adoption. Some of the recommended actions are already underway, and a search for funding for others is occurring.
Attendees expressed an interest in participating in some form of a climate action advocacy organization to become further involved.
Read the full article at the Republican Journal or in the PDF file above.
View the Belfast Climate Action Plan document.
View the recording of this program
Beginning in June 2022, ABCD hosted four Community Climate Conversations on topics to be considered in a climate action plan. The public had the opportunity to share their ideas and visions to create a resilient Belfast. Members of the CCC were present at each meeting and considered the community concerns in their final plan.View the recording of this program
Beginning in June 2022, ABCD hosted four Community Climate Conversations on topics to be considered in a climate action plan. The public had the opportunity to share their ideas and visions to create a resilient Belfast. Members of the CCC were present at each meeting and considered the community concerns in their final plan.Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge presented a draft Community Resilience Self-Evaluation & List of Community Actions (part of the CRP application). The CCC provided the Council with a short summary of 6 suggested priority actions for Belfast (see above), derived from the final draft of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) which was submitted to the Council on June 5, 2023.
The CAP and the above short list of recommendations come directly from the CCC’s community outreach, including a series of “Community Climate Conversations” held by All of Belfast Climate Dialogues & the CCC to vet priorities and collect public feedback & ideas.
In next steps following the June 6th meeting, each Council member was asked to select their top 2 recommended priority actions or issues to focus on. With this direction, Kittredge is drafting a resolution of commitment for the Council to discuss and adopt at the June 20th City Council Meeting. This resolution provides the final step allowing Belfast to complete its application to the CRP.
Once the City’s application has been accepted, the prioritized action areas will become the focus for developing implementation grant applications for the next 1-3 years.
Here are some examples of what other Maine communities are doing with their grants.
ABCD would like to congratulate and thank the CCC members for their outstanding efforts in completing the CAP and for volunteering their expertise and time. Thank you to City staff and the City Council for moving this process forward to enroll Belfast in the Community Resilience Partnership. Thank you to all community members who have contributed their ideas.
]]>
On June 6, 2023 the Belfast City Council and Climate Crisis Committee (CCC) held a ‘Community Resilience Partnership’ Public Workshop to review the components of the application for enrolling in Maine’s Community Resilience Partnership. With acceptance into the CRP program, Belfast would be eligible for State grant awards (up to $50,000 twice a year) to help reduce carbon emissions, transition to clean energy, and become more resilient to climate change effects.
Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge presented a draft Community Resilience Self-Evaluation & List of Community Actions (part of the CRP application). The CCC provided the Council with a short summary of 6 suggested priority actions for Belfast (see above), derived from the final draft of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) which was submitted to the Council on June 5, 2023.
The CAP and the above short list of recommendations come directly from the CCC’s community outreach, including a series of “Community Climate Conversations” held by All of Belfast Climate Dialogues & the CCC to vet priorities and collect public feedback & ideas.
In next steps following the June 6th meeting, each Council member was asked to select their top 2 recommended priority actions or issues to focus on. With this direction, Kittredge is drafting a resolution of commitment for the Council to discuss and adopt at the June 20th City Council Meeting. This resolution provides the final step allowing Belfast to complete its application to the CRP.
Once the City’s application has been accepted, the prioritized action areas will become the focus for developing implementation grant applications for the next 1-3 years.
Here are some examples of what other Maine communities are doing with their grants.
ABCD would like to congratulate and thank the CCC members for their outstanding efforts in completing the CAP and for volunteering their expertise and time. Thank you to City staff and the City Council for moving this process forward to enroll Belfast in the Community Resilience Partnership. Thank you to all community members who have contributed their ideas.
The event took place at the Belfast Boathouse, with an afternoon of presentations and local businesses and nonprofits exhibiting around the room. It was inspiring to see the many organizations that are offering solutions to help us reduce our carbon footprint and green our economy.
Brenda Harrington (from ABCD) was invited to give an overview of the Community Climate Conversations series hosted by the Library's ABCD program and co-sponsored by the Climate Crisis Committee. She shared some of the ideas suggested by attendees at the programs as well as some of our key takeaways.
At each of the four conversations we heard the need for education about available resources and leadership. In particular, there was a clear call for an organization or alliance to connect the groups already working towards sustainability and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.
Following the presentations on June 1st, the panel discussion was a chance for the audience to ask questions and make suggestions as to what they see as next steps. These included:
What would it take for Belfast to be a sustainable city?
Suggestion to encourage the City of Belfast to implement policies that require “Sustainability tied to economic development.”
What are the next steps to forming a coalition of climate action groups? Who or what organization might fill this role?
Suggestion to start by joining an existing effort – volunteer with one of the groups in the room.
Slide 1 Introduction
Thank you all for your interest and for coming today. Intro self,
I am here to share some takeaways from the
Community Climate Conversations that the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues co-sponsored with the Climate Crisis Committee.
But first I will give a brief background:
In 2020, the Belfast Free Library won a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to facilitate conversations among a broad cross-section of the Belfast community about climate change to ensure that all voices and views are heard.
Part of this grant is to collect and save Belfast area residents’ observations, concerns and hopes about climate change impacts in our region at this critical time. This collection is meant to increase awareness of each other’s experiences, and serve as a benchmark for future reference - and hopefully as a catalyst for taking action now.
Slide 2 Inspiration from climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe
Inspirations and background of grant:
In 2019 when we applied for the grant, no one was talking about climate change. My grant partner, Sarah Kirn approached me with project idea - inspired by climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. Talking about it is one of the most important things we can do to support climate action.
“The most important thing we can do about climate change is talk about it- talk about why it matters, and how we can fix it- and use our voices to advocate for change within in our spheres of influence”
Slide 3 Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
We were also influenced and encouraged by the reports from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication that their studies have found … Read quote.
Slide 4 ABCD Project Goals
Slide 5 Engage
The ABCD project began in the fall of 2020, mere months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Our plans for facilitating cozy conversations among Belfast residents to help each other learn how to be comfortable sharing and listening to others’ perspectives, priorities, and observations of climate change and its impacts were no longer safe to do. We had to come up with another plan.
Engage via:
Slide 6 Educate
When we started the project in fall of 2020 we did what we could to start the conversation by adding with educational resources to the library’s collection and website:
> We began adding books to the library collection.
> We created new webpages with information about climate change and the value of talking about climate change.
> Resources about Climate Action Planning and Climate Action Leadership.
> And we offered a series of educational programs often with partner organizations.
Slide 7 Discuss / Talk About
Earlier in 2022 With the CCC we also hosted the Waldo County Climate Symposium. The goal of the symposium was to foster collaboration and coordination among the active organizations.
Zoom panel discussions like this panel of Local Farmers was a heartfelt connection and dialogue between local farmers
Slide 8 Community Climate Conversations
In June of 2022, we teamed up with Belfast’s Climate Crisis Committee to host a series of Community Climate Conversations on topics to be included in a Belfast Climate Action Plan. These conversations were designed to inform residents about the topics covered in the plan and solicit ideas for the Climate Action Plan being drafted by the CCC.
***
Now I would like to share some of the ideas people suggested and some of our broader takeaways from each of our 4 Community Climate Conversations which took place June 2022 to February 2023.
Slide 9 June 14, 2022
Our First conversation was a broad / open conversation with the community. Moderated by ABCD’s Sarah Kirn, we began with a visioning exercise where audience members shared ideas to “paint a picture of a future we all want to live.”
As you can see on the flip chart image:
Visioning exercise / Daydream:
walkable/bikeable community
Next we had an important discussion about power - who has it, where it is exercised and what power will the Climate Action Plan have (answer - its primary purpose is to advise and guide the City Council, who will need to adopt it). Need for clarity.
An audience member reminded us that we as citizens have right to stay engaged and involved in local gov’t and advocate for change.
Slide 10 The Three Buckets
In the next three conversations: we brainstormed ideas through a framework of actions individuals can do, actions we can do as a community together and the actions that could be accomplished with more funding and municipal leadership.
*** All of the notes, recordings and full reports are available on our ABCD collection site linked to from the ABCD dropdown menu.
The topics of the next three conversations were decided in the first session and from the topics from Maine’s climate action plan “Maine Won’t Wait”
Slide 11 Building Resilience for Storms and Flooding
This conversation had two goals: offer an opportunity for residents to discuss and to learn about how to handle predicted impacts of climate change, and generate ideas for shaping the Climate Action Plan (CAP).
After presentations about predicted changes to precipitation and the subsequent runoff, the audience had a big question: Who’s responsible for stormwater runoff? Who makes the planning decisions? Who pays to fix the existing problems?
The attendees offered a number of creative ideas for things that people can do now, from placing rain barrels or replacing impervious surfaces like paved driveways with permeable ones.
The idea that generated the most excitement was creating a rain garden in a public location and using it for education.
Individuals and Together: Bullets on slide:
Slide 12 Modernizing Our Homes and Buildings
This event focused on the topic of modernizing our homes & buildings for energy efficiency for immediate cost savings and to reduce carbon pollution.
To frame our discussion, we heard from two experts:
Ross Anthony, the Buildings and Energy Efficiency Analyst for the Maine Governor’s Energy Office, provided a Maine-wide overview on the building efficiency and the guidelines from Maine Won’t Wait, Maine’s four year climate action plan.
Naomi Albert, Project Manager of the “Comprehensive Building Solutions Program” at A Climate To Thrive (ACTT) on Mount Desert Island offered an example of what community-led work could look like.
We learned:
Buildings are responsible for about 30% of Maine’s carbon emissions, and, according to the recently released report on Greenhouse Gas emissions in Belfast, residential and commercial energy combined account for 50% of emissions in Belfast.
Big takeaways:
Slide 13 Buildings con't
Good brainstorming session!
Things we can do together (from the flip chart)
Things the audience suggested the City to do
This is a big topic…we barely scratched the surface…we all agreed that there is much more to do.
Slide 14 The Future of Transportation in Waldo County
Transportation accounts for 49% of carbon emissions, both in Belfast and statewide. Reducing carbon pollution from transportation here in Belfast and Waldo County will certainly require a variety of approaches.
We invited the Belfast Pedestrian, Biking & Hiking Committee to frame our conversation and Cara Harshman from the committee shared their vision for mobility options. They’ve done so much work on this and Cara’s presentation about the Creation of an Active Transit Plan for Belfast, directed the conversation that followed.
Slide 15 -Transportation con't
Slide 16 Archive
Slide 17 Turning conversations into actions, together
As the ABCD project is about to wrap up in August, our team wants to make sure the momentum / energy around climate conversations and actions keeps going.
The ABCD Project was about normalizing talking about climate change and archiving those conversations - but grew into so much more - we saw the desire for action; the wish for connecting more and more people and orgs in our community; searching for ways we can collectively take action so we don’t feel as overwhelmed and alone. The antidote to feeling overwhelmed is to join together.
Join an existing effort - there are so many!
Slide 18: Partial List of local organizations
Slide 19: Thank you with contact information
]]>The event took place at the Belfast Boathouse, with an afternoon of presentations and local businesses and nonprofits exhibiting around the room. It was inspiring to see the many organizations that are offering solutions to help us reduce our carbon footprint and green our economy.
Brenda Harrington (from ABCD) was invited to give an overview of the Community Climate Conversations series hosted by the Library's ABCD program and co-sponsored by the Climate Crisis Committee. She shared some of the ideas suggested by attendees at the programs as well as some of our key takeaways.
At each of the four conversations we heard the need for education about available resources and leadership. In particular, there was a clear call for an organization or alliance to connect the groups already working towards sustainability and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.
Following the presentations on June 1st, the panel discussion was a chance for the audience to ask questions and make suggestions as to what they see as next steps. These included:
What would it take for Belfast to be a sustainable city?
Suggestion to encourage the City of Belfast to implement policies that require “Sustainability tied to economic development.”
What are the next steps to forming a coalition of climate action groups? Who or what organization might fill this role?
Suggestion to start by joining an existing effort – volunteer with one of the groups in the room.
Slide 1 Introduction
Thank you all for your interest and for coming today. Intro self,
I am here to share some takeaways from the
Community Climate Conversations that the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues co-sponsored with the Climate Crisis Committee.
But first I will give a brief background:
In 2020, the Belfast Free Library won a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to facilitate conversations among a broad cross-section of the Belfast community about climate change to ensure that all voices and views are heard.
Part of this grant is to collect and save Belfast area residents’ observations, concerns and hopes about climate change impacts in our region at this critical time. This collection is meant to increase awareness of each other’s experiences, and serve as a benchmark for future reference - and hopefully as a catalyst for taking action now.
Slide 2 Inspiration from climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe
Inspirations and background of grant:
In 2019 when we applied for the grant, no one was talking about climate change. My grant partner, Sarah Kirn approached me with project idea - inspired by climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. Talking about it is one of the most important things we can do to support climate action.
“The most important thing we can do about climate change is talk about it- talk about why it matters, and how we can fix it- and use our voices to advocate for change within in our spheres of influence”
Slide 3 Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
We were also influenced and encouraged by the reports from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication that their studies have found … Read quote.
Slide 4 ABCD Project Goals
Slide 5 Engage
The ABCD project began in the fall of 2020, mere months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Our plans for facilitating cozy conversations among Belfast residents to help each other learn how to be comfortable sharing and listening to others’ perspectives, priorities, and observations of climate change and its impacts were no longer safe to do. We had to come up with another plan.
Engage via:
Slide 6 Educate
When we started the project in fall of 2020 we did what we could to start the conversation by adding with educational resources to the library’s collection and website:
> We began adding books to the library collection.
> We created new webpages with information about climate change and the value of talking about climate change.
> Resources about Climate Action Planning and Climate Action Leadership.
> And we offered a series of educational programs often with partner organizations.
Slide 7 Discuss / Talk About
Earlier in 2022 With the CCC we also hosted the Waldo County Climate Symposium. The goal of the symposium was to foster collaboration and coordination among the active organizations.
Zoom panel discussions like this panel of Local Farmers was a heartfelt connection and dialogue between local farmers
Slide 8 Community Climate Conversations
In June of 2022, we teamed up with Belfast’s Climate Crisis Committee to host a series of Community Climate Conversations on topics to be included in a Belfast Climate Action Plan. These conversations were designed to inform residents about the topics covered in the plan and solicit ideas for the Climate Action Plan being drafted by the CCC.
***
Now I would like to share some of the ideas people suggested and some of our broader takeaways from each of our 4 Community Climate Conversations which took place June 2022 to February 2023.
Slide 9 June 14, 2022
Our First conversation was a broad / open conversation with the community. Moderated by ABCD’s Sarah Kirn, we began with a visioning exercise where audience members shared ideas to “paint a picture of a future we all want to live.”
As you can see on the flip chart image:
Visioning exercise / Daydream:
walkable/bikeable community
Next we had an important discussion about power - who has it, where it is exercised and what power will the Climate Action Plan have (answer - its primary purpose is to advise and guide the City Council, who will need to adopt it). Need for clarity.
An audience member reminded us that we as citizens have right to stay engaged and involved in local gov’t and advocate for change.
Slide 10 The Three Buckets
In the next three conversations: we brainstormed ideas through a framework of actions individuals can do, actions we can do as a community together and the actions that could be accomplished with more funding and municipal leadership.
*** All of the notes, recordings and full reports are available on our ABCD collection site linked to from the ABCD dropdown menu.
The topics of the next three conversations were decided in the first session and from the topics from Maine’s climate action plan “Maine Won’t Wait”
Slide 11 Building Resilience for Storms and Flooding
This conversation had two goals: offer an opportunity for residents to discuss and to learn about how to handle predicted impacts of climate change, and generate ideas for shaping the Climate Action Plan (CAP).
After presentations about predicted changes to precipitation and the subsequent runoff, the audience had a big question: Who’s responsible for stormwater runoff? Who makes the planning decisions? Who pays to fix the existing problems?
The attendees offered a number of creative ideas for things that people can do now, from placing rain barrels or replacing impervious surfaces like paved driveways with permeable ones.
The idea that generated the most excitement was creating a rain garden in a public location and using it for education.
Individuals and Together: Bullets on slide:
Slide 12 Modernizing Our Homes and Buildings
This event focused on the topic of modernizing our homes & buildings for energy efficiency for immediate cost savings and to reduce carbon pollution.
To frame our discussion, we heard from two experts:
Ross Anthony, the Buildings and Energy Efficiency Analyst for the Maine Governor’s Energy Office, provided a Maine-wide overview on the building efficiency and the guidelines from Maine Won’t Wait, Maine’s four year climate action plan.
Naomi Albert, Project Manager of the “Comprehensive Building Solutions Program” at A Climate To Thrive (ACTT) on Mount Desert Island offered an example of what community-led work could look like.
We learned:
Buildings are responsible for about 30% of Maine’s carbon emissions, and, according to the recently released report on Greenhouse Gas emissions in Belfast, residential and commercial energy combined account for 50% of emissions in Belfast.
Big takeaways:
Slide 13 Buildings con't
Good brainstorming session!
Things we can do together (from the flip chart)
Things the audience suggested the City to do
This is a big topic…we barely scratched the surface…we all agreed that there is much more to do.
Slide 14 The Future of Transportation in Waldo County
Transportation accounts for 49% of carbon emissions, both in Belfast and statewide. Reducing carbon pollution from transportation here in Belfast and Waldo County will certainly require a variety of approaches.
We invited the Belfast Pedestrian, Biking & Hiking Committee to frame our conversation and Cara Harshman from the committee shared their vision for mobility options. They’ve done so much work on this and Cara’s presentation about the Creation of an Active Transit Plan for Belfast, directed the conversation that followed.
Slide 15 -Transportation con't
Slide 16 Archive
Slide 17 Turning conversations into actions, together
As the ABCD project is about to wrap up in August, our team wants to make sure the momentum / energy around climate conversations and actions keeps going.
The ABCD Project was about normalizing talking about climate change and archiving those conversations - but grew into so much more - we saw the desire for action; the wish for connecting more and more people and orgs in our community; searching for ways we can collectively take action so we don’t feel as overwhelmed and alone. The antidote to feeling overwhelmed is to join together.
Join an existing effort - there are so many!
Slide 18: Partial List of local organizations
Slide 19: Thank you with contact information
Speakers for the course include ABCD, Georges River Land Trust, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, and the Waldo County Soil & Water Conservation District. Moderated by Fred Bowers, former soil and water scientist and the Chair of the Belfast Climate Crisis Committee.
As part of the first class on March 30th, Brenda Harrington (Adult Programming Librarian and ABCD Project Lead at Belfast Free Library), presented a visual overview of the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues (ABCD) project. Her slides and notes are included above.
Class participants (30 total in attendance) had a conversation after the presentation about the possibility of forming a climate action group. Many attendees were from towns surrounding Belfast: Montville, Jackson, Northport and more - and they wanted a climate action planning coalition that would include the whole of Waldo County.
The group learned more from Brenda about A Climate To Thrive (ACTT), a grassroots-based community-driven climate action group encompassing all the towns of Mount Desert Island. ACTT is a potential model for Waldo County to follow for community-based climate action.
What’s next? Brenda shared that ABCD is planning to have another community discussion soon on climate action planning. Although the ABCD project’s grant funding ends in August 2023, the ABCD team is hopeful that others in the community will benefit from the progress that has been made in talking about climate change - and that there will be leadership and continued momentum toward action.
Talking points to go with presentation:
Slide 1- Title
I am here to tell you about the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues project of the BFL
In 2020, the Belfast Free Library won a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to facilitate conversations among broad cross-section of the Belfast community about climate change to ensure that all voices and views are heard.
Part of this grant is to collect and save Belfast area residents’ observations, concerns and hopes about climate change impacts in our region at this critical time. This collection is meant to increase awareness of each other’s experiences, and serve as a benchmark for future reference - and hopefully as a catalyst for taking action now.
Slide 2. Katharine Hayhoe
Inspirations and background of grant:
In 2019 when we applied for the grant, no one was talking about climate change. My grant partner, Sarah approached me with project idea - inspired by climate scientist Katharine Heyhoe. Talking about it is one of the most important things we can do to support climate action.
“The most important thing we can do about climate change is talk about it- talk about why it matters, and how we can fix it- and use our voices to advocate for change within in our spheres of influence”
Additional Comment:
It sounds simplistic but Dr. Hayhoe has dedicated the last 15 years of her career on encouraging people to talk about climate change. “Talking about climate change and helping others connect climate change to the things they care about can lead to advocacy and action.”
Slide 3.Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
In writing our grant we were also influenced and encouraged by the reports from the Yale Program on Climate Change Commincation that their studies have found … Read quote.
We found out that we got the grant in June 2020 to begin in September 2020.
Slide 4. ABCD Project Team Introduction
Sarah- a Consultant with experience in processes for public engagement, education, worked at GMRI and currently at NASA leading Citizen Science initiatives.
Misty- Our communication specialist - this project is essentially a communication challenge!
Brenda -Librarian, experienced with community engagement
Together we focused on developing and carrying out the project goals:
Slide 5 ABCD Project Goals
Next Slides about Engage:
The ABCD project began in the fall of 2020, mere months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Our plans for facilitating cozy conversations among Belfast residents to help each other learn how to be comfortable sharing and listening to others’ perspectives, priorities, and observations of climate change and its impacts were no longer safe to do. We had to come up with another plan.
Slide 6 Outreach at community events was one way ….
Surveys were another way example here of the heat survey, which had 60+ responses from many community places- soup kitchen, high school…
Slide 7 -
Engage the community about climate change through art and poetry:
Call for Art- In late 2021 we put out a call for art about Climate Change for an exhibit called “The Art of ReClimation” The curated collection represented over 30 artists and some poets and was on display in the Library’s Kramer Gallery and Abbott Room April- May 2022.
The Exhibit is also available as a digital exhibit on our webpage.
Slide 8
ABCD's summer 2022 photo contest, "Celebrating Belfast: Places & Play!"
We asked for submissions about what you love about our area, what you care about and would like to protect in the face of Climate Change Impacts. We received 35 great submissions! See thte winners and runners up at the top .
Slide 9- Tide Gauge:
ABCD was excited to take part in the Unveiling of Belfast's new tide gauges and high water mark signs in October 2021 : This project was the result of three years of work involving the Climate Crisis Committee, Students from BAHS, US Harbors, our Harbor Master and many more.
With the installation of these new gauges Belfast can gather local data to better understand what is happening right here with sea level rise and storm surges The data is sent to National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. Work continues on this project.
Slide 10- Outreach at Harbor Fest-
tabled with the CCC, demonstration of electric vehicles.
Slide 11-
Our Monthly Newsletter- outreach to the community- with news and events often with reports about our programs.
If you would like to sign up I have a sheet for you to do so.
Past issues on the website.
Slide 12- 14 Educate:
When we started the project in fall of 2020 we did what we could to start the conversation about climate change by adding educational resources to the library’s collection and website:
>We began adding books to the library collection.
>We created new webpages with information about climate change and the value of talking about climate change.
> Resources about Climate Action Planning and Climate Action Leadership.
Slide 15 -Maine Won’t Wait:
In December of 2020 the Maine Climate Council and the Governor's Office of Policy and Innovation for the Future released Maine Won’t Wait: A Four Year Plan for Climate Action.
Four Goals : 1.To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions,
2.Avoid the Impacts and Costs of Inaction, 3. Foster Economic Opportunity and Prosperity,and 4. Advance Equity through Maine’s Climate Response.
The plan has 8 topic areas with recommendations for action. It’s a Very Comprehensive plan.
Its release informed and influenced the direction of our programming as we touched on the topics:
Slide 16 & 17
We hosted programs to explain the goals and implementation of the plan like this one with Dr. Rose from GOPIF
and Dr. Fernandez from Umaine on the role of carbon management...a topic also addressed in Maine won’t wait.
Slide 18 & 19
Another Covid pivot was to host zoom programs for community organizations
The Library was able to use zoom to create an event series co-sponsored with Belfast organizations such as the Garden Club and BBWC,
we agreed to have the topics in the series be about climate change.
(there are a lot of them!). We have a lot of really smart people in our state!
Did any of you attend one of our zoom programs?
BTW- All of these programs were recorded and can be found on the Belfast Free Library’s YouTube Channel.
Slide 20
Maine Won’t Wait two year progress report last December is an encouraging report that outlines statewide successes in the reduction in GHG as well as the growing number of communities participating in the Community Resilience Partnership- a state program to help with climate planning and funding to implement projects to mitigate or adapt to climate disruption. Lots to talk about.
DISCUSS or TALK ABOUT IT
Slide 21- June 14th:
So…. Here in Belfast, we were inspired by MWW and the need for planning for climate change impacts.
In June of 2022, we teamed up with Belfast’s Climate Crisis Committee to host a series of Community Climate Conversations on topics to be included in a Belfast Climate Action Plan. This first conversation was broad, seeking suggestions from the audience.
Slide 22
Since June of 2022 we have hosted 3 more Community Climate Conversations: one on Building Resilience for Big Storms and Flooding,
one on Modernizing our Homes and Buildings, and this one in February being most recent and inspirational on the Future of Transportation in Belfast and Waldo County.
In each of these conversations : we brainstormed ideas through a framework of actions individuals can do, actions we can do as a community together and the things we recommend the municipality can do. We called these the “three buckets”
All of the notes, recordings and full reports are available on our ABCD collection site linked to from the ABCD Drop down menu.
Slide 23
Earlier in 2022 With the CCC we also hosted the Waldo County Climate Symposium on zoom. The goal of the symposium was to foster collaboration and coordination among the active organizations.
Fifteen Waldo County organizations with climate change-related activities attended the symposium. Each gave a 5-minute presentation about who they are, their present activities related to climate change, and their future plans. A summary of each presentation is available in the symposium report in the ABCD Collection. The symposium ended with an enthusiastic call for continued conversation.
Slide 24
Zoom community panel discussions like this panel of Local Farmers….
Poignant discussion about their first had experiences dealing with unpredictable weather in every season making it challenging to grow our food! Thank a Farmer.
(You will be viewing this recording later in the course, I show this to put it in context for you)
Each of these programs and discussions are archived on the ABCD collection site (Omeka URL), and the recordings are on our YouTube Channel.
Slides 25- 28: ARCHIVE:
Early on in the project we were able to create this online collection space where we invited Belfast area residents to post writings, letters, artwork, poems, pictures - anything that captures their observations, fears, hopes, or priorities about Climate Change. These are some examples….
While we have gotten some submissions – always seeking more.
The suggestions and ideas.This site serves as a digital archive of the ABCD project, with more in depth reports of the programs and discussions.
Thoughts/ Obersvations:
What we have learned/observed from all the programs and conversations is that there is a need for leadership for Community Driven Climate Action Planning.
Climate Change and all the issues around it can be overwhelming and lead to despair, I often hear people say, What can I do about it? or it’s too late…
But we have found that working together towards solutions can be uplifting and motivating. Like when we had the community climate conversations and people got excited about
Examples can be found in A Climate to Thrive (ACTT)
Slide 29 : Local Mentors and Models
ACTT: A community based Climate Action group from MDI.
They started small (2015) gathered at potlucks to develop a shared vision of solutions to climate change impacts. They are now a non-profit with paid staff, offering programs and support to help folks transition off fossil fuels. They are working towards energy independence for MDI by 2030. Lats year I began attending their Local Leads the Way meetings- this is a support group for communities engaged in community drivenm solutions focused climate action.
Other ACTT programs on slide- Building Solutions and Climate Ambassador Training.
Slide 30-Sierra Club
Helps commnities work together on climate advocacy to influence decision makers.
I recently met with Sierra Club’s grassroots Climate Action Organizer, Nyalat Biliew. She had lots of ideas and suggestions for us. We plan to invite hespeak to us sometime soon...
Slide 31- Final slide
What’s Next ?
What does our community need to move forward on Climate Action Planning?
Before I open it up to your comments I want to share this:
We envision the formation of a coordinating body to bring all the groups working on Climate related issues together. A network/ alliance/ umbrella group
> to be created by ? You and me.
The CCC is an advisory board to the city. They are doing a great job in this capacity. But they are not a Community Driven Climate Action Team.
We have observed that citizens want help and resources and support of all kinds to make the changes needed to get off the dependence on Fossil Fuels.
Municipalities can’t do this for individuals.
But we can.
In this 6-week course at Belfast Senior College (March 30 - May 4, 2023, in-person at the Hutchinson Center), attendees are hearing from local land and forest preservation groups who steward the beautiful lands and waters of mid-coast Maine. They will describe their programs, goals and challenges in the face of climate change. The course will initiate conversations on how we can protect and sustain these resources for future generations.
Speakers for the course include ABCD, Georges River Land Trust, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, and the Waldo County Soil & Water Conservation District. Moderated by Fred Bowers, former soil and water scientist and the Chair of the Belfast Climate Crisis Committee.
As part of the first class on March 30th, Brenda Harrington (Adult Programming Librarian and ABCD Project Lead at Belfast Free Library), presented a visual overview of the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues (ABCD) project. Her slides and notes are included above.
Class participants (30 total in attendance) had a conversation after the presentation about the possibility of forming a climate action group. Many attendees were from towns surrounding Belfast: Montville, Jackson, Northport and more - and they wanted a climate action planning coalition that would include the whole of Waldo County.
The group learned more from Brenda about A Climate To Thrive (ACTT), a grassroots-based community-driven climate action group encompassing all the towns of Mount Desert Island. ACTT is a potential model for Waldo County to follow for community-based climate action.
What’s next? Brenda shared that ABCD is planning to have another community discussion soon on climate action planning. Although the ABCD project’s grant funding ends in August 2023, the ABCD team is hopeful that others in the community will benefit from the progress that has been made in talking about climate change - and that there will be leadership and continued momentum toward action.
Talking points to go with presentation:
Slide 1- Title
I am here to tell you about the All of Belfast Climate Dialogues project of the BFL
In 2020, the Belfast Free Library won a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to facilitate conversations among broad cross-section of the Belfast community about climate change to ensure that all voices and views are heard.
Part of this grant is to collect and save Belfast area residents’ observations, concerns and hopes about climate change impacts in our region at this critical time. This collection is meant to increase awareness of each other’s experiences, and serve as a benchmark for future reference - and hopefully as a catalyst for taking action now.
Slide 2. Katharine Hayhoe
Inspirations and background of grant:
In 2019 when we applied for the grant, no one was talking about climate change. My grant partner, Sarah approached me with project idea - inspired by climate scientist Katharine Heyhoe. Talking about it is one of the most important things we can do to support climate action.
“The most important thing we can do about climate change is talk about it- talk about why it matters, and how we can fix it- and use our voices to advocate for change within in our spheres of influence”
Additional Comment:
It sounds simplistic but Dr. Hayhoe has dedicated the last 15 years of her career on encouraging people to talk about climate change. “Talking about climate change and helping others connect climate change to the things they care about can lead to advocacy and action.”
Slide 3.Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
In writing our grant we were also influenced and encouraged by the reports from the Yale Program on Climate Change Commincation that their studies have found … Read quote.
We found out that we got the grant in June 2020 to begin in September 2020.
Slide 4. ABCD Project Team Introduction
Sarah- a Consultant with experience in processes for public engagement, education, worked at GMRI and currently at NASA leading Citizen Science initiatives.
Misty- Our communication specialist - this project is essentially a communication challenge!
Brenda -Librarian, experienced with community engagement
Together we focused on developing and carrying out the project goals:
Slide 5 ABCD Project Goals
Next Slides about Engage:
The ABCD project began in the fall of 2020, mere months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Our plans for facilitating cozy conversations among Belfast residents to help each other learn how to be comfortable sharing and listening to others’ perspectives, priorities, and observations of climate change and its impacts were no longer safe to do. We had to come up with another plan.
Slide 6 Outreach at community events was one way ….
Surveys were another way example here of the heat survey, which had 60+ responses from many community places- soup kitchen, high school…
Slide 7 -
Engage the community about climate change through art and poetry:
Call for Art- In late 2021 we put out a call for art about Climate Change for an exhibit called “The Art of ReClimation” The curated collection represented over 30 artists and some poets and was on display in the Library’s Kramer Gallery and Abbott Room April- May 2022.
The Exhibit is also available as a digital exhibit on our webpage.
Slide 8
ABCD's summer 2022 photo contest, "Celebrating Belfast: Places & Play!"
We asked for submissions about what you love about our area, what you care about and would like to protect in the face of Climate Change Impacts. We received 35 great submissions! See thte winners and runners up at the top .
Slide 9- Tide Gauge:
ABCD was excited to take part in the Unveiling of Belfast's new tide gauges and high water mark signs in October 2021 : This project was the result of three years of work involving the Climate Crisis Committee, Students from BAHS, US Harbors, our Harbor Master and many more.
With the installation of these new gauges Belfast can gather local data to better understand what is happening right here with sea level rise and storm surges The data is sent to National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. Work continues on this project.
Slide 10- Outreach at Harbor Fest-
tabled with the CCC, demonstration of electric vehicles.
Slide 11-
Our Monthly Newsletter- outreach to the community- with news and events often with reports about our programs.
If you would like to sign up I have a sheet for you to do so.
Past issues on the website.
Slide 12- 14 Educate:
When we started the project in fall of 2020 we did what we could to start the conversation about climate change by adding educational resources to the library’s collection and website:
>We began adding books to the library collection.
>We created new webpages with information about climate change and the value of talking about climate change.
> Resources about Climate Action Planning and Climate Action Leadership.
Slide 15 -Maine Won’t Wait:
In December of 2020 the Maine Climate Council and the Governor's Office of Policy and Innovation for the Future released Maine Won’t Wait: A Four Year Plan for Climate Action.
Four Goals : 1.To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions,
2.Avoid the Impacts and Costs of Inaction, 3. Foster Economic Opportunity and Prosperity,and 4. Advance Equity through Maine’s Climate Response.
The plan has 8 topic areas with recommendations for action. It’s a Very Comprehensive plan.
Its release informed and influenced the direction of our programming as we touched on the topics:
Slide 16 & 17
We hosted programs to explain the goals and implementation of the plan like this one with Dr. Rose from GOPIF
and Dr. Fernandez from Umaine on the role of carbon management...a topic also addressed in Maine won’t wait.
Slide 18 & 19
Another Covid pivot was to host zoom programs for community organizations
The Library was able to use zoom to create an event series co-sponsored with Belfast organizations such as the Garden Club and BBWC,
we agreed to have the topics in the series be about climate change.
(there are a lot of them!). We have a lot of really smart people in our state!
Did any of you attend one of our zoom programs?
BTW- All of these programs were recorded and can be found on the Belfast Free Library’s YouTube Channel.
Slide 20
Maine Won’t Wait two year progress report last December is an encouraging report that outlines statewide successes in the reduction in GHG as well as the growing number of communities participating in the Community Resilience Partnership- a state program to help with climate planning and funding to implement projects to mitigate or adapt to climate disruption. Lots to talk about.
DISCUSS or TALK ABOUT IT
Slide 21- June 14th:
So…. Here in Belfast, we were inspired by MWW and the need for planning for climate change impacts.
In June of 2022, we teamed up with Belfast’s Climate Crisis Committee to host a series of Community Climate Conversations on topics to be included in a Belfast Climate Action Plan. This first conversation was broad, seeking suggestions from the audience.
Slide 22
Since June of 2022 we have hosted 3 more Community Climate Conversations: one on Building Resilience for Big Storms and Flooding,
one on Modernizing our Homes and Buildings, and this one in February being most recent and inspirational on the Future of Transportation in Belfast and Waldo County.
In each of these conversations : we brainstormed ideas through a framework of actions individuals can do, actions we can do as a community together and the things we recommend the municipality can do. We called these the “three buckets”
All of the notes, recordings and full reports are available on our ABCD collection site linked to from the ABCD Drop down menu.
Slide 23
Earlier in 2022 With the CCC we also hosted the Waldo County Climate Symposium on zoom. The goal of the symposium was to foster collaboration and coordination among the active organizations.
Fifteen Waldo County organizations with climate change-related activities attended the symposium. Each gave a 5-minute presentation about who they are, their present activities related to climate change, and their future plans. A summary of each presentation is available in the symposium report in the ABCD Collection. The symposium ended with an enthusiastic call for continued conversation.
Slide 24
Zoom community panel discussions like this panel of Local Farmers….
Poignant discussion about their first had experiences dealing with unpredictable weather in every season making it challenging to grow our food! Thank a Farmer.
(You will be viewing this recording later in the course, I show this to put it in context for you)
Each of these programs and discussions are archived on the ABCD collection site (Omeka URL), and the recordings are on our YouTube Channel.
Slides 25- 28: ARCHIVE:
Early on in the project we were able to create this online collection space where we invited Belfast area residents to post writings, letters, artwork, poems, pictures - anything that captures their observations, fears, hopes, or priorities about Climate Change. These are some examples….
While we have gotten some submissions – always seeking more.
The suggestions and ideas.This site serves as a digital archive of the ABCD project, with more in depth reports of the programs and discussions.
Thoughts/ Obersvations:
What we have learned/observed from all the programs and conversations is that there is a need for leadership for Community Driven Climate Action Planning.
Climate Change and all the issues around it can be overwhelming and lead to despair, I often hear people say, What can I do about it? or it’s too late…
But we have found that working together towards solutions can be uplifting and motivating. Like when we had the community climate conversations and people got excited about
Examples can be found in A Climate to Thrive (ACTT)
Slide 29 : Local Mentors and Models
ACTT: A community based Climate Action group from MDI.
They started small (2015) gathered at potlucks to develop a shared vision of solutions to climate change impacts. They are now a non-profit with paid staff, offering programs and support to help folks transition off fossil fuels. They are working towards energy independence for MDI by 2030. Lats year I began attending their Local Leads the Way meetings- this is a support group for communities engaged in community drivenm solutions focused climate action.
Other ACTT programs on slide- Building Solutions and Climate Ambassador Training.
Slide 30-Sierra Club
Helps commnities work together on climate advocacy to influence decision makers.
I recently met with Sierra Club’s grassroots Climate Action Organizer, Nyalat Biliew. She had lots of ideas and suggestions for us. We plan to invite hespeak to us sometime soon...
Slide 31- Final slide
What’s Next ?
What does our community need to move forward on Climate Action Planning?
Before I open it up to your comments I want to share this:
We envision the formation of a coordinating body to bring all the groups working on Climate related issues together. A network/ alliance/ umbrella group
> to be created by ? You and me.
The CCC is an advisory board to the city. They are doing a great job in this capacity. But they are not a Community Driven Climate Action Team.
We have observed that citizens want help and resources and support of all kinds to make the changes needed to get off the dependence on Fossil Fuels.
Municipalities can’t do this for individuals.
But we can.
Watch the Zoom recording here.
In recent years, Mainers have noticed chaotic weather patterns caused by climate change. In this program, state representative and soil scientist Laurie Osher discussed the impact of climate change on our $3.6 billion agricultural industry, and described how land management practices can be improved to decrease that impact.
Osher’s rare combination of scientific research and public leadership made for a rich conversation. She discussed practices that preserve and enhance soil organic matter to increase sequestration of carbon in soils. She also outlined the bills she’s introduced and co-sponsored with the aim of improving land management. Osher spoke about helping communities in Penobscot, Piscataquis and Aroostook counties obtain funding from the state so they can become more resilient to climate changes.
A former University of Maine faculty member, Osher has worked at the EPA’s Natural Exposure Research Lab in Athens, Georgia and several other federal agencies. She has represented Orono in the Maine legislature since 2020 and served as an Orono Town Councilor from 2017 to 2022.
]]>On March 28, 2023, Dr. Laurie Osher presented “Rx for a Chaotic Climate: Healthy Soils” as the third installment in the winter Belfast Garden Club Evening Lecture Series, co-sponsored by All of Belfast Climate Dialogues, focusing on the effects of the Climate Crisis on local environments.
Watch the Zoom recording here.
In recent years, Mainers have noticed chaotic weather patterns caused by climate change. In this program, state representative and soil scientist Laurie Osher discussed the impact of climate change on our $3.6 billion agricultural industry, and described how land management practices can be improved to decrease that impact.
Osher’s rare combination of scientific research and public leadership made for a rich conversation. She discussed practices that preserve and enhance soil organic matter to increase sequestration of carbon in soils. She also outlined the bills she’s introduced and co-sponsored with the aim of improving land management. Osher spoke about helping communities in Penobscot, Piscataquis and Aroostook counties obtain funding from the state so they can become more resilient to climate changes.
A former University of Maine faculty member, Osher has worked at the EPA’s Natural Exposure Research Lab in Athens, Georgia and several other federal agencies. She has represented Orono in the Maine legislature since 2020 and served as an Orono Town Councilor from 2017 to 2022.
I've been a hostess at Nautilus since May 2016 - nearly as long as we have been located here on the waterfront. In this storm, the parking lot was flooded, which we have seen before, but for the first time it came right up to our front entrance door, covering the handicap parking spots.
The tide came within an inch or two of the front patio door. Storm windows were smashed and patio fencing was broken.
At the back of the building, our dumpsters were floating. The Belfast City Landing ice machine was swept up against the waterside fencing.
After the storm, heavy equipment was brought in to clean up the parking lot, resulting in a mountain of seaweed and debris by the breakwater.
One of the owners, watching the waters approach the front door, disbelievingly said it was a “freaky” sight, and that he had never seen the waters this high. Our customers and friends, responding to these photos and videos on Facebook, echoed that they had “never seen the water this high in Belfast.”
While we narrowly avoided flooding, our neighbors at Three Tides & Marshall Wharf Brewing were not so fortunate. Their tasting room and beer garden were flooded.
Many of us love the exhilarating experience of a wild storm, the wind buffeting your body, raindrops stinging your face, seeing the crashing waves and feeling the powerful force of the ocean.
But it is a helpless feeling and seems unreal to watch the flood waters coming in fast, and to hold your breath - hoping they don’t come in.
Here are a couple articles about this powerful storm which none of us will soon forget:
]]>These photos and videos were taken by staff at Nautilus Seafood & Grill on the Belfast waterfront, on December 23, 2022. This was a tremendous storm with sustained hurricane-force winds and astronomical high tides.
I've been a hostess at Nautilus since May 2016 - nearly as long as we have been located here on the waterfront. In this storm, the parking lot was flooded, which we have seen before, but for the first time it came right up to our front entrance door, covering the handicap parking spots.
The tide came within an inch or two of the front patio door. Storm windows were smashed and patio fencing was broken.
At the back of the building, our dumpsters were floating. The Belfast City Landing ice machine was swept up against the waterside fencing.
After the storm, heavy equipment was brought in to clean up the parking lot, resulting in a mountain of seaweed and debris by the breakwater.
One of the owners, watching the waters approach the front door, disbelievingly said it was a “freaky” sight, and that he had never seen the waters this high. Our customers and friends, responding to these photos and videos on Facebook, echoed that they had “never seen the water this high in Belfast.”
While we narrowly avoided flooding, our neighbors at Three Tides & Marshall Wharf Brewing were not so fortunate. Their tasting room and beer garden were flooded.
Many of us love the exhilarating experience of a wild storm, the wind buffeting your body, raindrops stinging your face, seeing the crashing waves and feeling the powerful force of the ocean.
But it is a helpless feeling and seems unreal to watch the flood waters coming in fast, and to hold your breath - hoping they don’t come in.
Here are a couple articles about this powerful storm which none of us will soon forget:
For more background please see: https://belfastlibrary.org/belfast-climate-action-plan-input/
This 2-question online survey was available on the Belfast Free Library’s ABCD web pages (and disseminated via the ABCD monthly newsletter, social media posts and at events), and had 18 respondents from February to September 2022. The complete responses are as follows:
1 ) What do you think are the most urgent issues to address in the Belfast Climate Action Plan? (multiple choice)
The top 3 issues respondents identified were:
These issues were closely followed by:
9 respondents also specified the following issues under the “Other” category (entries are shown in their entirety, unedited):
Preserve open space and habitat.
Local governments need to include these issues in their comprehensive plans, and their land use zoning.
Make Belfast the most pedestrian and bike friendly town in New England. Parking garage on outskirts of town, no vehicles on main and high, deliveries on side roads only.
Development of standards for the Council, Planning Board, and Economic Development that quantify and address carbon footprint.
Stop the corporate take over of Penobscot Bay, Little River Estruary by the fish, if you thought a few small chicken plants ruined the bay, wait until these huge Confined Animal Feeding Operations get dug in here!
Learning how to discuss the interconnected news of all these issues and create a framework for considering them at all levels of decision-making
food forests, passive Haus, off-road bike trails
Stop causing mass depression in gen x people because the climate crisis folks won't condemn the horrible effects of the Nordic project. You've lost my support since you won't challenge city council.
Climate change education for everyone from 9 to 90. One avenue would be weekly informative articles in the Republican Journal.
2 ) Please tell us more about your specific concerns, and share your suggestions.
Need to prioritize the issues: they are all important. I checked the most urgent.
Comprehensive planning needs to acknowledge these critical climate issues
We have to deal with bay/ocean rising and with changing weather patterns. Given more extreme precipitation events, more consideration needs to be given to where we build and how we build. Local zoning codes should be re-examined with this in mind. There should be restrictions on areas that are flood prone due to ocean rising, but also consider preventing further problems of runoff and flooding due to extreme precipitation events.
I do find the proposed and nearly 100% approved Nordic fish farm to be contrary to all climate mitigation measures. From the enormous use of water and its warm, nutrient-rich effluent to the loss of forestland to build the dang thing and the diesel generators to keep it going, it seems to take Belfast in the wrong direction.
We need a Climate Action Plan that is balanced between PROactive and REactive strategies. The reactive actions are critical to abate climate injury that is already happening. The proactive actions are equally or even more critical to stop the perpetuation of short-sided decisions on the part of City governance, planning, and economic development that enable new climate injury to be initiated.
Also, we are in a crisis and need all hands on deck, working together. We have no time to duplicate efforts or get gridlocked in differences. Let the science tell us what we need to do.
Helping families afford to make changes to their heat sources would be helpful both to the climate and the local economy.
Many do not realise that many citizens of Belfast did not want chicken plants on the harbor 50 years ago. Also, consider that a vocal half of Bucksport did not want the paper mill in the 60s. These industries came, went, and left a mess. Tax benefits after infrastructure costs was not a benefit to the citizens.
I think education about the issues is key. Many residents may not have adequate information, or be guided by misinformation, in not considering the urgency of now for each of our individual and collective responses and contributions. Suggestion: A Showing of "Earth Emergency" - a documentary from PBS - 45 minutes - that is an excellent program on the 4 major feedback loops contributing to global warming. I mention this program, with hopes that we could have access to showing it at the Library, given that recently Camden Library hosted a showing of another PBS documentary. Thank you.
My daughter and her husband own one of the organic farms poisoned with forever chemicals as a result of sludge spread 30 years ago. Even knowing what we know now(and knew then), we continue to make short-term decisions without acknowledging the consequences for those who come after us. We also continue to calculate cost in immediate dollars without bringing in the other real costs that are part of many decisions. I would like to see us come up with a model of decision-making that identifies and includes these costs. Thank you for your work!!
All 6 described categories are important, as are public education and planning our response to sea level rise. Improving transportation emissions and housing heating/cooling technology would address the elements which produce around 3/4s of Belfast's GHG emissions. Beneficial electrification requires that we increase green power production, without which we cannot reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
More severe weather is coming, and we must upgrade our city's infrastructure in preparation.
I would like to see gentler bike transportation with useful destinations. I would like an integrated food hub on route 1.
How many heat pumps will it take to offset nordic's CO2 footprint?
I appreciate the CCC's invitation to help develop a CAP. Thank you for all you have done to prepare our town for the effects of climate change. I applaud your inclusion of young people on your committee.
1) In order to have community buy-in, I think education about climate change is important.I'd be happy to brainstorm with others about how to disseminate useful and appropriate information about climate change in Maine.
2) Lowering Belfast's greenhouse gas emissions is like putting out a forest fire (climate change) with a squirt gun. Our energy is better spent on adaptation to sea level rise, looking at the need to relocate the water treatment facility, etc.
All of the issues above are critical. So proud of this committee for forging ahead on these issues with education and possible solutions. Available to help.
What Should Be In Belfast’s Climate Action Plan?
2022 Online Survey Summary
All of Belfast Climate Dialogues (ABCD) & Belfast Climate Crisis Committee (CCC)
For more background please see: https://belfastlibrary.org/belfast-climate-action-plan-input/
This 2-question online survey was available on the Belfast Free Library’s ABCD web pages (and disseminated via the ABCD monthly newsletter, social media posts and at events), and had 18 respondents from February to September 2022. The complete responses are as follows:
1 ) What do you think are the most urgent issues to address in the Belfast Climate Action Plan? (multiple choice)
The top 3 issues respondents identified were:
These issues were closely followed by:
9 respondents also specified the following issues under the “Other” category (entries are shown in their entirety, unedited):
Preserve open space and habitat.
Local governments need to include these issues in their comprehensive plans, and their land use zoning.
Make Belfast the most pedestrian and bike friendly town in New England. Parking garage on outskirts of town, no vehicles on main and high, deliveries on side roads only.
Development of standards for the Council, Planning Board, and Economic Development that quantify and address carbon footprint.
Stop the corporate take over of Penobscot Bay, Little River Estruary by the fish, if you thought a few small chicken plants ruined the bay, wait until these huge Confined Animal Feeding Operations get dug in here!
Learning how to discuss the interconnected news of all these issues and create a framework for considering them at all levels of decision-making
food forests, passive Haus, off-road bike trails
Stop causing mass depression in gen x people because the climate crisis folks won't condemn the horrible effects of the Nordic project. You've lost my support since you won't challenge city council.
Climate change education for everyone from 9 to 90. One avenue would be weekly informative articles in the Republican Journal.
2 ) Please tell us more about your specific concerns, and share your suggestions.
Need to prioritize the issues: they are all important. I checked the most urgent.
Comprehensive planning needs to acknowledge these critical climate issues
We have to deal with bay/ocean rising and with changing weather patterns. Given more extreme precipitation events, more consideration needs to be given to where we build and how we build. Local zoning codes should be re-examined with this in mind. There should be restrictions on areas that are flood prone due to ocean rising, but also consider preventing further problems of runoff and flooding due to extreme precipitation events.
I do find the proposed and nearly 100% approved Nordic fish farm to be contrary to all climate mitigation measures. From the enormous use of water and its warm, nutrient-rich effluent to the loss of forestland to build the dang thing and the diesel generators to keep it going, it seems to take Belfast in the wrong direction.
We need a Climate Action Plan that is balanced between PROactive and REactive strategies. The reactive actions are critical to abate climate injury that is already happening. The proactive actions are equally or even more critical to stop the perpetuation of short-sided decisions on the part of City governance, planning, and economic development that enable new climate injury to be initiated.
Also, we are in a crisis and need all hands on deck, working together. We have no time to duplicate efforts or get gridlocked in differences. Let the science tell us what we need to do.
Helping families afford to make changes to their heat sources would be helpful both to the climate and the local economy.
Many do not realise that many citizens of Belfast did not want chicken plants on the harbor 50 years ago. Also, consider that a vocal half of Bucksport did not want the paper mill in the 60s. These industries came, went, and left a mess. Tax benefits after infrastructure costs was not a benefit to the citizens.
I think education about the issues is key. Many residents may not have adequate information, or be guided by misinformation, in not considering the urgency of now for each of our individual and collective responses and contributions. Suggestion: A Showing of "Earth Emergency" - a documentary from PBS - 45 minutes - that is an excellent program on the 4 major feedback loops contributing to global warming. I mention this program, with hopes that we could have access to showing it at the Library, given that recently Camden Library hosted a showing of another PBS documentary. Thank you.
My daughter and her husband own one of the organic farms poisoned with forever chemicals as a result of sludge spread 30 years ago. Even knowing what we know now(and knew then), we continue to make short-term decisions without acknowledging the consequences for those who come after us. We also continue to calculate cost in immediate dollars without bringing in the other real costs that are part of many decisions. I would like to see us come up with a model of decision-making that identifies and includes these costs. Thank you for your work!!
All 6 described categories are important, as are public education and planning our response to sea level rise. Improving transportation emissions and housing heating/cooling technology would address the elements which produce around 3/4s of Belfast's GHG emissions. Beneficial electrification requires that we increase green power production, without which we cannot reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
More severe weather is coming, and we must upgrade our city's infrastructure in preparation.
I would like to see gentler bike transportation with useful destinations. I would like an integrated food hub on route 1.
How many heat pumps will it take to offset nordic's CO2 footprint?
I appreciate the CCC's invitation to help develop a CAP. Thank you for all you have done to prepare our town for the effects of climate change. I applaud your inclusion of young people on your committee.
1) In order to have community buy-in, I think education about climate change is important.I'd be happy to brainstorm with others about how to disseminate useful and appropriate information about climate change in Maine.
2) Lowering Belfast's greenhouse gas emissions is like putting out a forest fire (climate change) with a squirt gun. Our energy is better spent on adaptation to sea level rise, looking at the need to relocate the water treatment facility, etc.
All of the issues above are critical. So proud of this committee for forging ahead on these issues with education and possible solutions. Available to help.
You can read all comments in context of our summary of the 6/14/22 Community Climate Conversation; they are also on this page as a PDF file.
]]>This ABCD survey was created mainly to collect ideas from attendees at the June 14, 2022 Community Climate Conversation providing input to the Belfast Climate Crisis Committee for drafting Belfast’s Climate Action Plan.
6 people submitted their comments; mainly those attending the meeting on Zoom, but a couple other folks responded after the meeting.
You can read all comments in context of our summary of the 6/14/22 Community Climate Conversation; they are also on this page as a PDF file.
Of the 2 survey respondents, one said “Yes” to livelihood/business being affected by climate change; the other said “Maybe” (this second person noted they are retired).
1. Tell us more about how your business or job has been affected by climate change.
I sense that this is intended as a narrow lens question, in that there are many careers and societal roles that are not aptly characterized as either "livelihood" or "business." Precision and context would help, as the question invites a bit of interpretation and presumption. I don't wish for a "No" answer to be interpreted as equivalent to saying "Climate change doesn't have an impact on human society." Further, let's say that I'm a school nurse who sees the socio-emotional impacts on the children of someone whose livelihood is impacted by climate change (in fishing or agriculture, e.g.). Is that tantamount to saying that I am "affected by climate change?" As powerful as individual narratives are, I think we should focus data--not interpretation.
2. What things have you done to adapt or cope with these effects of climate change on your business or livelihood?
Again, working around your language: I have built an energy efficient home; I installed a photovoltaic solar array the supplies all my electricity needs; I grow a significant percentage of the food I consume; I drive a car that achieves 40 mpg; I try not to support companies and stores whose shelves are stocked with products made on the other side of the globe (and thus with entailed negative environmental costs); I try to learn more about and advocate for policies that show promise for mitigating the negative effects of climate change (such as the carbon fee and dividend); I try to avoid products with plastic packaging; I compost.
This ABCD survey was included in our February 2022 newsletter, complementing the Farmer Panel Discussion we held with local farmers on how climate change was affecting their livelihoods.
Of the 2 survey respondents, one said “Yes” to livelihood/business being affected by climate change; the other said “Maybe” (this second person noted they are retired).
1. Tell us more about how your business or job has been affected by climate change.
I sense that this is intended as a narrow lens question, in that there are many careers and societal roles that are not aptly characterized as either "livelihood" or "business." Precision and context would help, as the question invites a bit of interpretation and presumption. I don't wish for a "No" answer to be interpreted as equivalent to saying "Climate change doesn't have an impact on human society." Further, let's say that I'm a school nurse who sees the socio-emotional impacts on the children of someone whose livelihood is impacted by climate change (in fishing or agriculture, e.g.). Is that tantamount to saying that I am "affected by climate change?" As powerful as individual narratives are, I think we should focus data--not interpretation.
2. What things have you done to adapt or cope with these effects of climate change on your business or livelihood?
Again, working around your language: I have built an energy efficient home; I installed a photovoltaic solar array the supplies all my electricity needs; I grow a significant percentage of the food I consume; I drive a car that achieves 40 mpg; I try not to support companies and stores whose shelves are stocked with products made on the other side of the globe (and thus with entailed negative environmental costs); I try to learn more about and advocate for policies that show promise for mitigating the negative effects of climate change (such as the carbon fee and dividend); I try to avoid products with plastic packaging; I compost.
__ Increased local awareness & community action
__ Individual consumer choices and actions
__ Solar farms / renewable electricity
__ Ingenuity of humans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
__ Changes in the national political landscape
__ Changes in Maine’s political landscape
__ Progress on Maine's Climate Action Plan
__ Other
The most-chosen item was "Increased local awareness & community action", followed by "Solar farms / renewable electricity" and "Progress on Maine's Climate Action Plan".
Other items mentioned included "The action and organizing of young people to address climate change and environmental justice", and "Inclusive community forums, such as this one."
I did not check the boxes related to political landscape because I'm not sure those will last more than another year; however, I do hope that there will be growing awareness across the political spectrum of the disastrous effects of climate change--unprecedented fires, floods, etc.--that affect everyone regardless of their political affiliation.
I hope the Maine legislature passes the Pine Tree Amendment which would guarantee the right to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment for all Maine people. The Pine Tree Amendment would add these environmental rights to the state constitution. In order to do this 2/3 of the state House and Senate have to approve the bill (LD 489). If they do, then the Pine Tree Amendment would appear on the ballot in November of 2022, and would need a majority of Maine people to vote "yes" in order to pass and become law. There is good momentum in the state to add environmental rights to our state constitution, but we need help to pass it, especially in the House. I hope that people will contact their representatives in Augusta and ask them to support this important initiative!
Invest in solar and offshore wind
I am trying very hard to do what I can as an individual and to communicate my concerns to government officials. I hope that the political landscape does not regress in terms of climate policy - we need to do more!
I am most concerned about food production being challenged long term and already challenged, here and world wide. Also learning how to cope with heat without machinery.
I’m hopeful for greater awareness and conversation on local scales
The invasion of Ukraine is spurring European countries to examine and curb their reliance on fossil fuels, largely from Russia. I hope the US will feel pressure to get more serious in our own efforts.
Also, the climate/environmental issues surrounding the influx of large industrial aquafarming proposals in Maine is starting to receive state-wide attention as a real threat to both our environment and our climate goals and concerns.
Our City needs to wake up to the realities of this corporate invasion.
I believe that increased community education, awareness and participation will lead to the other items listed below.
I hope that each US citizen makes reducing their carbon footprint their #1 goal.
I'd like to be more aware and hear the ideas and observations of others.
I have been actively waving my arms about climate change and our lack of reponse since 2006. I don't think we have been able to prioritise it. (I used to live in hot low income countries with autocratic governments)
In January 2022, ABCD sent a survey in our monthly newsletter (and our our website and Facebook page). Respondents were asked in multiple-choice form, what gives you the most hope for climate change this year? 13 people responded, including a couple later responses through July 2022. Comments are shown in full below (Question #2).
__ Increased local awareness & community action
__ Individual consumer choices and actions
__ Solar farms / renewable electricity
__ Ingenuity of humans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
__ Changes in the national political landscape
__ Changes in Maine’s political landscape
__ Progress on Maine's Climate Action Plan
__ Other
The most-chosen item was "Increased local awareness & community action", followed by "Solar farms / renewable electricity" and "Progress on Maine's Climate Action Plan".
Other items mentioned included "The action and organizing of young people to address climate change and environmental justice", and "Inclusive community forums, such as this one."
I did not check the boxes related to political landscape because I'm not sure those will last more than another year; however, I do hope that there will be growing awareness across the political spectrum of the disastrous effects of climate change--unprecedented fires, floods, etc.--that affect everyone regardless of their political affiliation.
I hope the Maine legislature passes the Pine Tree Amendment which would guarantee the right to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment for all Maine people. The Pine Tree Amendment would add these environmental rights to the state constitution. In order to do this 2/3 of the state House and Senate have to approve the bill (LD 489). If they do, then the Pine Tree Amendment would appear on the ballot in November of 2022, and would need a majority of Maine people to vote "yes" in order to pass and become law. There is good momentum in the state to add environmental rights to our state constitution, but we need help to pass it, especially in the House. I hope that people will contact their representatives in Augusta and ask them to support this important initiative!
Invest in solar and offshore wind
I am trying very hard to do what I can as an individual and to communicate my concerns to government officials. I hope that the political landscape does not regress in terms of climate policy - we need to do more!
I am most concerned about food production being challenged long term and already challenged, here and world wide. Also learning how to cope with heat without machinery.
I’m hopeful for greater awareness and conversation on local scales
The invasion of Ukraine is spurring European countries to examine and curb their reliance on fossil fuels, largely from Russia. I hope the US will feel pressure to get more serious in our own efforts.
Also, the climate/environmental issues surrounding the influx of large industrial aquafarming proposals in Maine is starting to receive state-wide attention as a real threat to both our environment and our climate goals and concerns.
Our City needs to wake up to the realities of this corporate invasion.
I believe that increased community education, awareness and participation will lead to the other items listed below.
I hope that each US citizen makes reducing their carbon footprint their #1 goal.
I'd like to be more aware and hear the ideas and observations of others.
I have been actively waving my arms about climate change and our lack of reponse since 2006. I don't think we have been able to prioritise it. (I used to live in hot low income countries with autocratic governments)
69% of respondents said yes, their habits or traditions had changed.
69% of respondents said yes, their habits or traditions had changed.
Food waste is a major contributor to climate change in the U.S. Maine, to its credit, has led a national campaign to recycle food waste, and the state Climate Action Plan supports community composting. Belfast has considered piloting a community site, but has not succeeded long-term. Residents have proposed it to the BGC, but the club doesn’t have sufficient capacity. Food and garden waste is recycled locally by many home gardeners, but the food waste problem cannot be dealt with at scale by individuals.
This interactive program invited members and neighbors to learn about and discuss the options.
Watch the recording.
Panelists:
Scott Hesse is a BGC member and co-director of the Wales Park Community Garden in Belfast. WPCG strengthens food security by making garden plots available for Belfast residents and organizations. Currently, WPCG does not compost onsite.
Davis Saltonstall is a co-owner of ScrapDogs Community Compost, which works to divert food scraps from incinerators and landfills. He’s won several awards for his work exploring a renewable energy transition and entrepreneurial zero-waste efforts.
David Wessels is a science teacher and garden coordinator at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast. Students supply ~2,000 pounds of produce annually to their cafeteria and maintain an extensive seed collection. Composting is part of the program—offering lessons in healthy soil—and of course recycling food waste from the cafeteria.
Watch the recording here.
This program, offered on Tuesday, February 28th, 2023 at 6:30 PM on Zoom, was the second installment in the winter Belfast Garden Club Evening Lecture Series. It was co-sponsored by All of Belfast Climate Dialogues, a project of the Belfast Free Library, focusing on the effects of the Climate Crisis on local environments.
Food waste is a major contributor to climate change in the U.S. Maine, to its credit, has led a national campaign to recycle food waste, and the state Climate Action Plan supports community composting. Belfast has considered piloting a community site, but has not succeeded long-term. Residents have proposed it to the BGC, but the club doesn’t have sufficient capacity. Food and garden waste is recycled locally by many home gardeners, but the food waste problem cannot be dealt with at scale by individuals.
This interactive program invited members and neighbors to learn about and discuss the options.
Watch the recording.
Panelists:
Scott Hesse is a BGC member and co-director of the Wales Park Community Garden in Belfast. WPCG strengthens food security by making garden plots available for Belfast residents and organizations. Currently, WPCG does not compost onsite.
Davis Saltonstall is a co-owner of ScrapDogs Community Compost, which works to divert food scraps from incinerators and landfills. He’s won several awards for his work exploring a renewable energy transition and entrepreneurial zero-waste efforts.
David Wessels is a science teacher and garden coordinator at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast. Students supply ~2,000 pounds of produce annually to their cafeteria and maintain an extensive seed collection. Composting is part of the program—offering lessons in healthy soil—and of course recycling food waste from the cafeteria.
• Two years ago, I cycled from Calais, ME to DC. I followed the East Coast Greenway for the most part and traveled on many bike paths. Three were worth noting:
1. Southington, CT to New Haven CT – Long enough to be worthwhile. Many places to stop and rest. Pavilions are key.
2. Baltimore, MD to Annapolis, MD – This was almost a full-days ride with more pavilions and places to stop and enjoy the surroundings.
3. Arlington, VA to Leesburg, VA – Another full ride and most of it on flat terrain.
• Cost to build a bike trail = $1,000,000 per mile average.
• Consider Biking Calculus. Rates of Change, etc… It become easier to travel a longer distance on a flatter route. E.G. cycling around and up Grove Street is easier than pushing up Main Street.
• Intregrate building development and active transportation. I like to think in 50 mile grids. That is my most comfortable biking distance per day.
• Road Policy: In a city with multi-modal transportation, where might we see different modes of transport. Leg-Powered traffic is much different in behavior than motor-assist traffic. Across the width of a typical road, what policies are in place to protect slower kinds of traffic.
• I’m still wishing to see a pedestrian way between Priscilla Lane and School Street.
• Destinations: Where does the active transportation wind up? The local shopping center? With bikes going an average of 15-20 mph and cars doing 25 – 30 mph, should they really be using the same lane?
Transportation Feedback:
Reflecting on the conversation from the Thursday in which Transportation was discussed, I have the following thoughts to share.
• Two years ago, I cycled from Calais, ME to DC. I followed the East Coast Greenway for the most part and traveled on many bike paths. Three were worth noting:
1. Southington, CT to New Haven CT – Long enough to be worthwhile. Many places to stop and rest. Pavilions are key.
2. Baltimore, MD to Annapolis, MD – This was almost a full-days ride with more pavilions and places to stop and enjoy the surroundings.
3. Arlington, VA to Leesburg, VA – Another full ride and most of it on flat terrain.
• Cost to build a bike trail = $1,000,000 per mile average.
• Consider Biking Calculus. Rates of Change, etc… It become easier to travel a longer distance on a flatter route. E.G. cycling around and up Grove Street is easier than pushing up Main Street.
• Intregrate building development and active transportation. I like to think in 50 mile grids. That is my most comfortable biking distance per day.
• Road Policy: In a city with multi-modal transportation, where might we see different modes of transport. Leg-Powered traffic is much different in behavior than motor-assist traffic. Across the width of a typical road, what policies are in place to protect slower kinds of traffic.
• I’m still wishing to see a pedestrian way between Priscilla Lane and School Street.
• Destinations: Where does the active transportation wind up? The local shopping center? With bikes going an average of 15-20 mph and cars doing 25 – 30 mph, should they really be using the same lane?
View the recording of the event
Transportation accounts for 49% of carbon emissions, both in Belfast and statewide. Reducing carbon pollution from transportation here in Belfast and Waldo County will certainly require a variety of approaches.
This report contains reflections on our event from the ABCD team, followed by short summaries of the comments from:
Fred Bowers, chair of the Climate Crisis Committee,
Jerry Brand, Climate Crisis Committee member, and
Cara Harshman from the Belfast Pedestrian, Biking & Hiking Committee.
We also share highlights from our lively community discussion.
What follows are highlights of the evening’s presentations and discussion.
The chair of the Belfast Climate Crisis Committee (CCC), Fred Bowers, introduced the evening with some exciting updates. With the support of the CCC working with city grant-writer Thomas Kittredge, the City is currently in the process of applying for Maine’s Community Resilience Partnership program. Joining this program will make Belfast eligible for significant no-match grant monies for projects to help reduce carbon emissions, transition to clean energy, and become more resilient to climate change effects.
As part of the process, the City needs to adopt a municipal resolution. It also will complete a self-evaluation to review what has already been accomplished in Belfast (municipal solar installations, building energy audits, electric vehicle chargers and more) and to help identify additional opportunities and priorities for community action.
Public input to help identify Belfast’s top priorities is a required part of the application process to the Maine Community Resilience Partnership.
CCC member Jerry Brand presented an overview of the current state of transportation in Belfast and Waldo County, and some future transportation options, including electric cars and buses, low-fee/no-fee public bus transport, reconfiguring Belfast to promote walking and bicycling, and exploring intra-city railway. He reviewed a number of current policy initiatives including the Maine Clean School Bus Program, Efficiency Maine electric vehicle rebates, and other Maine and federal initiatives to improve public transportation, expand ride sharing, and support enhanced mobility for seniors and those with disabilities.
Please see additional details in Jerry’s slides. (They are shown in the slider at the top of this page along with the event photos - note, you can use the arrows at upper right corner to expand the view).
Cara Harshman shared that the Pedestrian, Biking & Hiking Committee presented their annual report to the City on February 7. The Committee makes a strong case for the value of having a comprehensive vision that can guide action and infrastructure change as opportunity and funding allow. Their key recommendation is that the City hire a professional planner to help draft an official comprehensive pedestrian/bike plan. See the full set of 2023 Pedestrian, Biking & Hiking Committee priorities, including creation of a “Complete Streets Policy”, and addressing specific problem areas such as the Rt. 52/Rt. 1 crossing. Watch the Committee’s presentation to the City Council (starting at 24:00 minute mark in the recording).
The Maine Department of Transportation is working on a Statewide Active Transportation Plan, and State planner Dakota Hewlett recently told the Ped/Bike Committee that “Belfast is ready!” - we are well-positioned to create our own plan to seek project funding. A Belfast active transit plan would include visual mapping of problematic areas; a high level map of connectivity through the entire city; and ways to create safe, accessible ways to get from places like the YMCA to the high school. It would also include low-cost ideas such as:
The Ped/Bike Committee, with the City Council’s enthusiastic support, is pursuing exciting grants that would provide a 50/50 match from the State and the City for $50,000 to hire the professional planner to create the master plan.
A new group called “Walk & Roll Belfast” is also being created to help citizens band together to create more active transit in our community. SIGN UP to learn more: send your email address to walkandrollbelfast@gmail.com to be added to the list!
Cara, echoed by several other attendees in the room, noted that we need folks to advocate for more active transit, and the City Council wants to hear from everyone! You can share public comments at the beginning of every meeting (1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month at 7PM), or email, mail, or drop off your comments to the Council.
See Cara’s slides for more.
(They are shown in the slider at the top of this page along with the event photos - note, you can use the arrows at upper right corner to expand the view).
Watch her presentation, which begins at the 26:00 minute mark in the YouTube recording.
After Cara’s presentation, attendees largely focused on the concept she outlined, “active transit” (defined as “any mode of human powered transportation” - walking, biking, wheelchair or other ability device, skateboarding, etc.). We talked about rethinking our expectations and habits about how we get around, and how we might work toward a “diversity of mobility options” to serve different populations.
Here are some highlights from the engaged attendee discussion (which begins at approximately 46:00 in the recording). Photos of our community discussion flip chart notes are also included on this page.
And finally, a closing invitation from Fred Bowers, Climate Crisis Committee chair:
Please plan to attend the meeting for public input on the City’s Maine Community Resilience Partnership application (date TBD); and the Comprehensive Plan meetings. The Council would like to hear everyone’s input.
At the end of the evening, we went back through our flip chart notes (see photos in the image slider at the top of the page) and identified all the things that people can do now. The majority of ideas had at least some element that people can do now, whether it’s going to city councilors to advocate for the idea or taking it upon themselves to reduce trips or share trips. Looking back on the night’s conversations, this is a huge topic with lots of room for more discussion! It was an exciting community conversation that was both visionary and action-focused.
View the recording of the event
ABCD and the Belfast Climate Crisis Committee (CCC) hosted the fourth in a series of Community Climate Conversations on February 9, 2023. These conversations are designed to inform residents and solicit ideas for the Climate Action Plan being drafted by the CCC. “The Future of Transportation in Belfast & Waldo County” event took place in the Abbott Room at the Belfast Free Library. 13 people attended on Zoom and 24 people came in person, despite what turned into an icy night for traversing the roads and sidewalks.
View the recording of the event
Transportation accounts for 49% of carbon emissions, both in Belfast and statewide. Reducing carbon pollution from transportation here in Belfast and Waldo County will certainly require a variety of approaches.
This report contains reflections on our event from the ABCD team, followed by short summaries of the comments from:
Fred Bowers, chair of the Climate Crisis Committee,
Jerry Brand, Climate Crisis Committee member, and
Cara Harshman from the Belfast Pedestrian, Biking & Hiking Committee.
We also share highlights from our lively community discussion.
What follows are highlights of the evening’s presentations and discussion.
The chair of the Belfast Climate Crisis Committee (CCC), Fred Bowers, introduced the evening with some exciting updates. With the support of the CCC working with city grant-writer Thomas Kittredge, the City is currently in the process of applying for Maine’s Community Resilience Partnership program. Joining this program will make Belfast eligible for significant no-match grant monies for projects to help reduce carbon emissions, transition to clean energy, and become more resilient to climate change effects.
As part of the process, the City needs to adopt a municipal resolution. It also will complete a self-evaluation to review what has already been accomplished in Belfast (municipal solar installations, building energy audits, electric vehicle chargers and more) and to help identify additional opportunities and priorities for community action.
Public input to help identify Belfast’s top priorities is a required part of the application process to the Maine Community Resilience Partnership.
CCC member Jerry Brand presented an overview of the current state of transportation in Belfast and Waldo County, and some future transportation options, including electric cars and buses, low-fee/no-fee public bus transport, reconfiguring Belfast to promote walking and bicycling, and exploring intra-city railway. He reviewed a number of current policy initiatives including the Maine Clean School Bus Program, Efficiency Maine electric vehicle rebates, and other Maine and federal initiatives to improve public transportation, expand ride sharing, and support enhanced mobility for seniors and those with disabilities.
Please see additional details in Jerry’s slides. (They are shown in the slider at the top of this page along with the event photos - note, you can use the arrows at upper right corner to expand the view).
Cara Harshman shared that the Pedestrian, Biking & Hiking Committee presented their annual report to the City on February 7. The Committee makes a strong case for the value of having a comprehensive vision that can guide action and infrastructure change as opportunity and funding allow. Their key recommendation is that the City hire a professional planner to help draft an official comprehensive pedestrian/bike plan. See the full set of 2023 Pedestrian, Biking & Hiking Committee priorities, including creation of a “Complete Streets Policy”, and addressing specific problem areas such as the Rt. 52/Rt. 1 crossing. Watch the Committee’s presentation to the City Council (starting at 24:00 minute mark in the recording).
The Maine Department of Transportation is working on a Statewide Active Transportation Plan, and State planner Dakota Hewlett recently told the Ped/Bike Committee that “Belfast is ready!” - we are well-positioned to create our own plan to seek project funding. A Belfast active transit plan would include visual mapping of problematic areas; a high level map of connectivity through the entire city; and ways to create safe, accessible ways to get from places like the YMCA to the high school. It would also include low-cost ideas such as:
The Ped/Bike Committee, with the City Council’s enthusiastic support, is pursuing exciting grants that would provide a 50/50 match from the State and the City for $50,000 to hire the professional planner to create the master plan.
A new group called “Walk & Roll Belfast” is also being created to help citizens band together to create more active transit in our community. SIGN UP to learn more: send your email address to walkandrollbelfast@gmail.com to be added to the list!
Cara, echoed by several other attendees in the room, noted that we need folks to advocate for more active transit, and the City Council wants to hear from everyone! You can share public comments at the beginning of every meeting (1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month at 7PM), or email, mail, or drop off your comments to the Council.
See Cara’s slides for more.
(They are shown in the slider at the top of this page along with the event photos - note, you can use the arrows at upper right corner to expand the view).
Watch her presentation, which begins at the 26:00 minute mark in the YouTube recording.
After Cara’s presentation, attendees largely focused on the concept she outlined, “active transit” (defined as “any mode of human powered transportation” - walking, biking, wheelchair or other ability device, skateboarding, etc.). We talked about rethinking our expectations and habits about how we get around, and how we might work toward a “diversity of mobility options” to serve different populations.
Here are some highlights from the engaged attendee discussion (which begins at approximately 46:00 in the recording). Photos of our community discussion flip chart notes are also included on this page.
And finally, a closing invitation from Fred Bowers, Climate Crisis Committee chair:
Please plan to attend the meeting for public input on the City’s Maine Community Resilience Partnership application (date TBD); and the Comprehensive Plan meetings. The Council would like to hear everyone’s input.
At the end of the evening, we went back through our flip chart notes (see photos in the image slider at the top of the page) and identified all the things that people can do now. The majority of ideas had at least some element that people can do now, whether it’s going to city councilors to advocate for the idea or taking it upon themselves to reduce trips or share trips. Looking back on the night’s conversations, this is a huge topic with lots of room for more discussion! It was an exciting community conversation that was both visionary and action-focused.
View the recording of the event
Do you have excess water on your property following a rain event? A rain garden could be an effective and attractive solution for helping to direct and infiltrate the runoff or pooling on your property.
This presentation on February 2, 2023, “Rain Gardens and Other Water Management Techniques for Your Property” with presenter Rebecca Jacobs of the Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District, helped attendees learn the ins and outs of properly installing a rain garden as well as other water management techniques that could benefit home properties.
This event was a follow-up program inspired by the second ABCD Community Climate Conversation event on October 18th, 2022 on the topic of “Creating Resilience to Big Storms and Flooding”, which attracted an engaged audience of 40 citizens. Attendees were energized by brainstorming actions the community could take together - most particularly the idea of creating a rain garden in a public location in Belfast and using it as an educational model.
Watch the recording here.
Buildings are responsible for about 30% of Maine’s greenhouse gas emissions, and, according to the recently released report on Greenhouse Gas emissions in Belfast, residential and commercial energy combined account for 50% of emissions in Belfast. According to the Maine Won’t Wait Two-Year Progress Report (December 2022), Maine is THE most fuel oil dependent state in the country, and with our older housing stock, there are tremendous opportunities for weatherizing and electrifying our homes and buildings - both for our immediate comfort and cost savings, but also for the greater good.
We kicked off the evening with two introductory speakers. Ross Anthony provided a Maine-wide overview on the building efficiency. Naomi Albert shared an example of community-led work in Downeast Maine.
The Governor’s Energy Office has put together a 2022-2023 Winter Heating Guide with tips & resources to help Mainers save money and utilize available programs. Ross encouraged us to use and share this guide with others who may benefit from it.
Ross also reported that information is still coming in daily regarding federal funding from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). These will include a lot of funding through many programs, including help for individuals through the IRA with additional federal rebates for heat pumps and property tax credits for weatherization. These programs will likely launch in late 2023.
There are two immediate actions Belfast and its citizens can take:
You can view Ross’s slide presentation here.
A Climate To Thrive arose from community potluck discussions, and it is now a non-profit with a vision to achieve energy independence for MDI by 2030 - and to inspire and collaborate with other community-based climate action efforts in Maine.
Naomi gave an overview of ACTT’s soon-to-be-launched Comprehensive Building Solutions Program, which pulls together all their previous building-related efficiency efforts into one program: weatherization, solar, heat pumps, heat pump hot water heaters, battery storage, info about electric appliances, and quicker fixes like LED light bulbs and low-flow shower heads.
Although transitioning to an efficient, electric home is becoming increasingly economical with more federal assistance in the works, the process can still be daunting and confusing for homeowners. Recognizing this, ACTT has come up with some inspiring strategies and approaches:
Naomi invited attendees to learn more about ACTT’s upcoming Building Solutions Fair on Saturday, January 14th, 2023 at MDI High School, including workshops and conversations with energy experts and contractors.
If you’d like to learn or do more:
You can view Naomi’s slide presentation here.
After the two presentations and a Q&A session with the speakers, attendees elected to start our discussion by brainstorming ideas for things people can work on together with the intention of informing the Climate Action Plan draft and inspiring immediate action.
In the category of “things we can do together,” ideas included:
Our discussion next turned to “things we'd like Belfast (the City) to do” and like to see in the Climate Action Plan:
The group also wanted answers/clarity on the following questions:
Buildings are responsible for about 30% of Maine’s greenhouse gas emissions, and, according to the recently released report on Greenhouse Gas emissions in Belfast, residential and commercial energy combined account for 50% of emissions in Belfast. According to the Maine Won’t Wait Two-Year Progress Report (December 2022), Maine is THE most fuel oil dependent state in the country, and with our older housing stock, there are tremendous opportunities for weatherizing and electrifying our homes and buildings - both for our immediate comfort and cost savings, but also for the greater good.
We kicked off the evening with two introductory speakers. Ross Anthony provided a Maine-wide overview on the building efficiency. Naomi Albert shared an example of community-led work in Downeast Maine.
The Governor’s Energy Office has put together a 2022-2023 Winter Heating Guide with tips & resources to help Mainers save money and utilize available programs. Ross encouraged us to use and share this guide with others who may benefit from it.
Ross also reported that information is still coming in daily regarding federal funding from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). These will include a lot of funding through many programs, including help for individuals through the IRA with additional federal rebates for heat pumps and property tax credits for weatherization. These programs will likely launch in late 2023.
There are two immediate actions Belfast and its citizens can take:
You can view Ross’s slide presentation here.
A Climate To Thrive arose from community potluck discussions, and it is now a non-profit with a vision to achieve energy independence for MDI by 2030 - and to inspire and collaborate with other community-based climate action efforts in Maine.
Naomi gave an overview of ACTT’s soon-to-be-launched Comprehensive Building Solutions Program, which pulls together all their previous building-related efficiency efforts into one program: weatherization, solar, heat pumps, heat pump hot water heaters, battery storage, info about electric appliances, and quicker fixes like LED light bulbs and low-flow shower heads.
Although transitioning to an efficient, electric home is becoming increasingly economical with more federal assistance in the works, the process can still be daunting and confusing for homeowners. Recognizing this, ACTT has come up with some inspiring strategies and approaches:
Naomi invited attendees to learn more about ACTT’s upcoming Building Solutions Fair on Saturday, January 14th, 2023 at MDI High School, including workshops and conversations with energy experts and contractors.
If you’d like to learn or do more:
You can view Naomi’s slide presentation here.
After the two presentations and a Q&A session with the speakers, attendees elected to start our discussion by brainstorming ideas for things people can work on together with the intention of informing the Climate Action Plan draft and inspiring immediate action.
In the category of “things we can do together,” ideas included:
Our discussion next turned to “things we'd like Belfast (the City) to do” and like to see in the Climate Action Plan:
The group also wanted answers/clarity on the following questions: