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Gianne Connard

April 27, 2022

1) Where do you live? Describe something meaningful to you in your environment or community, or in the place where you grew up.

I live in downtown Belfast, within easy walking distance of the COOP and the harbor. After having grown up on a 'gentleman's farm' in Eastern Pennsylvania, I mostly lived in major cities for the past 40 plus years before moving full time to Belfast in 2015. I have always loved both the intensity of the urban environment and the solitude and beauty of the outdoors, but not much in between. Belfast somehow manages to embrace enough of both. I love being able to go for days without getting in my car, while also having the bay, with its sea smoke, sunrises, and vast horizons, right down the hill.

2) What changes in your environment have you observed that may be due to climate change?

When I first came to Belfast in 2003, the winters were long and strong, snow on the ground for months. There were no ticks, you wouldn't think of planting in your garden til after Memorial Day, and I thought I would never have to worry about conserving water - but never worry about flooding, either. Well, all that has changed, and one never knows what new insect will appear, how many hundred-year storms I will experience, or how long into October (!) I will be able to pick my cherry tomatoes.

3) How are you responding emotionally to these changes?

It is wonderful to have a longer growing season, which I have fully embraced, but it is not a fair exchange for all the problems climate change has brought. I would gladly give up that longer growing season if, with my magic wand, I could remove all the new destructive insects, ensure that our beloved sugar maples, ash trees and emblematic lobsters, salmon and alewives can live on - and recover their - in their current habitats, and that the young puffins can find the food they need to grow. Mostly, I am sad that as the human race destroys so much that we love, that we don't have the resolve to correct our mistakes and therefore leave it to our grandchildren to clean up after our consumptive and selfish selves.

4) What are some ways you are creating a positive future?

Good question - clearly not enough, because like so many I am overwhelmed. I do try to reduce my own consumption and use of plastics; I reuse and recycle, walk when I can, drive a hybrid, got heat pumps, keep the heat down (much to the consternation of guests), avoid excessive packaging...