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NEW BEDFORD — More than 150 people attended last week’s Community Conversation on rising seas and climate change hosted by The New Bedford Light. An expert panel mixed with an engaged and thoughtful community to discuss next steps and how to adapt to the extreme changes in the environment.
If you were unable to attend, sit back and watch the conversation in full. The panel included Adam Goldstein, climate and environment reporter at The New Bedford Light; Chad McGuire, professor of Public Policy at UMass Dartmouth; Rachel Jakuba, vice president for bay science at the Buzzards Bay Coalition; Sara Grady, senior coastal ecologist for Mass Audubon; and John Bullard, Westport Climate Resilience Committee chair and former regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries.
We’ve received positive feedback on our first Community Conversation of the year and look forward to more conversation in the future. Here’s a sampling of comments left on our Facebook post:
“It was an evening of great sharing by a five-star panel, terrific questions from an attentive audience and a communal sense of urgency. So glad I went.”
— Rachel G. Thomas
“I sincerely hope there’s going to be another opportunity to hear more about this very important topic.”
— Jeanne Costa
“Important beginning of the discussion. We all have much work to do.”
— Bob Pink Jr.
“Thank you for sponsoring and thank you to the articulate panel for sharing their expertise.”
— Maureen Sullivan McQuillan
“This was terrific and a much-needed discussion.”
— Diane M. Gilbert
“Very informative. You’ll need a larger venue for the next event.”
— Halima Mohidin Tiffany
“Great event! You’re gonna need a bigger boat!”
— RISE Recovery Support Center
“Agreed. They might want to consider the large meeting room at the library.”
— Mark Lavallee
John Bullard made a lot of excellent comments about how the Westport will be affected by rising tides, but there was no relative comparison to New Bedford’s beaches, rivers and ponds. So, how are we being affected and what do we do to prepare in New Bedford? I’m hoping this event will happen again, in a larger space, with conversations about New Bedford. Attending a climate change event in New Bedford, with very little conversation about the impact rising waters on New Bedford communities left me puzzled. I asked a question to begin a discussion around the waters of New Bedford neighborhoods, starting with the cove in front of my house in order to grasp and ground concepts that seem almost other-worldly, and felt summarily dismissed to look up my question on the internet. Was it because of my location, being a woman, a person of color? I was on the New Bedford Parks board for several years and understand that several of our parks are on the water. I also served on the Community Preservation Committee and understand that there are funds that can support open spaces. How can residents – home owners and renters be asked to participate when there is no conversation that targets their concerns? Being better listeners was mentioned, and if local people are expected to participate, then understanding what is happening in their local communities will have to be addressed along with the big idea questions that are outside of the reach of local people’ everyday lives.