It's Time to Bring Up Climate Change Again

Overshadowed by topics like politics, pandemic, racism, and curious conspiracy theories, talking about or even thinking about climate change seems passe. We don't have the current bandwidth for something less than immediate and not always tangible. But as some of these issues seem to be either improving, seeming hopeful, being talked about, or slightly diminishing from the newsfeed, it seems like a good opportunity to pick up the megaphone and see if we can get some attention again on a subject that will have the gravest of consequences if not immediately and aggressively addressed by all sectors.

Many of you may have heard about and some may have followed the work of the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Subcommittee of the Harvard Energy Advisory Committee (HEAC). Admittedly, this name was a mouthful and not very descriptive. The State's MVP program was established to help Massachusetts communities become more resilient and sustainable in the face of anticipated climate change impacts. The program provided grant funding for cities and towns to develop prioritization plans which once completed and submitted to the State, gave an official MVP Community status to the Town of Harvard and also gave us eligibility for additional funding in the form of MVP action grants. Harvard became an MVP Community in September of 2019 and the MVP Subcommittee ceased to exist by design.

Following MVP certification, Harvard applied for and received MVP Action Grant Funding for a comprehensive climate action plan. A new MVP group named the Community Resilience Working Group (CRWG) was formed as a Planning Board subcommittee to continue working on MVP matters. However, MVP funding received was less than 50% of what was requested and then COVID-19 hit. Yet, CRWG persevered, received a complete climate action plan for agriculture, and an outline and outreach materials for completing the remainder of a local plan. Soon thereafter, Harvard partnered with the Town of Bolton and Devens on a project entitled Apple Country Nature Based Solutions. This project, currently wrapping up, looked at farms, turf fields, wetlands, and forests for ideas regarding nature-based solutions for protection of these resources. You can see the work of the project HERE.

This brought us to the end of 2020 when the Working Group had to say farewell to the initial Chair, and welcome a new one. We formed three project-oriented working groups to focus on three priority areas: the Apple Country project, furthering the development of the climate action plan, and conducting outreach to gain greater public visibility and participation.

As we are slowly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel regarding the pandemic, we are hoping to get some of your attention regarding the topic generally and what the CRWG is doing specifically. The Group has had a municipal website HERE since the beginning, admittedly traffic is similar to a Sunday night blizzard, but we try to keep it up to date and welcome your suggestions. We also maintain a page for the climate action plan project HERE.

While under construction, the CRWG is developing a more robust website that should be available for prime time fairly soon and we'll also have a Facebook and Instagram presence. We also have a new email address at harvardmaclimate [at] gmail [dot] com so if you are interested in the topic of climate change or community sustainability, please drop a line and introduce yourself. We also encourage you to visit our current and future web presences and join in the discussion on Facebook and other social media platforms as they emerge.

Finally, just a sampling of some of the projects we'll be working on in the near future include environmental forums and workshops, videos on topics like seeds and gardening, forestry, stream crossings and stormwater, emergency preparedness, and a reading group, in addition to the more administrative work like the outreach efforts.