Cape Cod Climate Task Force

Here’s a pro­pos­al for some big pic­ture think­ing. Can we come togeth­er to cre­ate a Cape Cod cli­mate task force, using com­mon sense and good­will to cre­ate a blue­print, a com­pact, to guide and unite us all in this new era?

https://www.capecodtimes.com/opinion/20190911/call-for-cape-cod-climate-task-force

As my bio states, I am the “envi­ron­men­tal guy”. Click here to learn more about my sto­ry, my inter­ests, and why I believe that I can help to make Barn­sta­ble resilient in the face of cli­mate evolution.

And for those of you for whom the link does­n’t work, here’s the copy from Mimi McConnel­l’s Cape Cod Times Edi­to­r­i­al of Sept. 11, 2019.

Hats off to Well­fleet and its neigh­bors for their enlight­ened approach in explor­ing non­tra­di­tion­al meth­ods to reduce waste­water pol­lu­tion in Well­fleet Har­bor (“Well­fleet weighs mul­ti­fac­eted water­shed cleanup approach,” Aug. 26, Page 1).

This augurs well for the rest of Cape Cod if we can open our minds to exam­in­ing and then adopt­ing new solu­tions proven else­where in our coun­try but also in oth­er nations – whether it be to address water qual­i­ty or oth­er issues. Too often we turn to “horse and bug­gy” fix­es in today’s world of reli­able alter­na­tives and new technologies.

But this brings up the larg­er ques­tion fac­ing this penin­su­la: What are we doing now, today, in con­cert, to pre­pare for the esca­lat­ing impacts of glob­al cli­mate change? We do not have the 10- to 12-year peri­od we hear tout­ed; the changes are cas­cad­ing now, affect­ing weath­er, the econ­o­my, ris­ing seas, the bal­ance of nature and ulti­mate­ly our way of life right here.

Can we come togeth­er to cre­ate a Cape Cod cli­mate task force, using com­mon sense and good­will to cre­ate a blue­print, a com­pact, to guide and unite us all in this new era?

This would obvi­ous­ly require leg­is­la­tion, cre­at­ed by the peo­ple of Cape Cod after inten­sive input from all ele­ments of our pop­u­la­tion. We are blessed with world-class sci­en­tists right here in Woods Hole; we have pro­gres­sive busi­ness lead­er­ship; we have coura­geous envi­ron­men­tal and groups; we have enlight­ened polit­i­cal lead­ers; we have an informed but unor­ga­nized pub­lic open to new ideas – yet there is no cohe­sive or unit­ed effort yet to address the biggest chal­lenge of our time.

This is not a pro­pos­al for a feel-good study group but rather a con­ven­ing of knowl­edge­able and deter­mined Cape Cod­ders. Care in form­ing this task force would be imper­a­tive to ensure bal­ance, fair­ness and doa­bil­i­ty. Fund­ing for staff and logis­tics would be need­ed and could come from finan­cial and real estate enti­ties (whose futures are cen­tral to this effort). Might our Cape Cod Cham­ber of Com­merce take the lead in form­ing this task force, using great care to be inclu­sive, bal­anced and prac­ti­cal, with a dead­line of, say, 18 months?

Yes, this is com­pli­cat­ed, and indeed daunt­ing; but I have faith that we on Cape Cod will find com­mon ground at this extra­or­di­nary time of awak­en­ing to this local yet inter­na­tion­al chal­lenge to the plan­et entrust­ed to us. It will require inge­nu­ity, integri­ty and wis­dom to play our part in the future of our glob­al vil­lage. Let’s make it happen!