PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 17, 2023
I’ve spent my working life deciphering emotional tone. A good crowd has gathered to hear a presentation about the “Impacts of Sea Level Rise and Weather Events on Freeport.” The last time I was here to hear a lecture on sea-level rise and its effect on Freeport’s saltmarshes was five years ago. The young land planner from Maine Coast Heritage Trust spoke carefully. A feeling of alarm filled the room, my body. Tonight, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute team talks about estimates of 1.5 feet in 2050 and 4 feet in 2100 in sea-level rise, as if scientists hadn’t weighed in about how incredibly unlikely those low numbers are. The emotional tone of the audience registers as flat. While the speakers were earnest, they talked about the most life-threatening moment in history without any sense of urgency. Now that we see the terrible reality of a threatened planet, how do we live a life, go to work, get kids to school, clean the house and at the same time hold the urgency of the moment? Maybe we can’t. But we have to try. ~ Kathleen Sullivan, Freeport Climate Action Now