BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 21, 2024
When state officials created a climate council in 2019, it was to investigate how global warming was affecting Maine and what could be done to lessen those impacts. Much of the council’s work has focused on Maine’s energy and transportation needs, promoting a reduction in the use of the fossil fuels that are accelerating climate change. But over the past two years, and in particular this past winter, the impact of climate-driven storms has become much clearer. Since December, storms have flooded significant portions of inland Maine and wreaked havoc along the coast, destroying docks, damaging homes and wiping out protective sand dunes. That urgency is why Gov. Janet Mills created a new entity on Tuesday specifically to look into how to make infrastructure less vulnerable to storms, which are getting stronger as a result of climate change.