KENNEBEC JOURNAL • October 1, 2023
Action is my favorite source of hope. In 2021, a neighbor and I decided to form a community climate group. Within the month, our nascent group of four had 12 subcommittees and a mailing list of several hundred. So many people had been looking for structure, for action…for hope. The scale of destruction in the world means that the climate crisis is existential. It can feel overwhelming. One activity about which I am particularly excited is the new citizen science collaboration between the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the National Weather Service monitoring coastal flooding. The findings feed directly into resiliency priorities of towns from Scarborough to Belfast. Town residents become stakeholders in their own community’s response. Like so much meaningful climate action, hope can be found with no special skills beyond a desire to learn about the water. At a time of scary weather patterns and falling records, look around, there are helpers everywhere. ~ Susana Hancock, international climate scientist and polar explorer, Freeport