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CarbonWise: Strategic approach to climate change

The title of this column, CarbonWise, is the name of one of the programs that has been started by Climate Action Powell River (CAPR).
Climate Action Powell River guest speaker Andrea Hedley
Climate Action Powell River guest speaker Andrea Hedley.

The title of this column, CarbonWise, is the name of one of the programs that has been started by Climate Action Powell River (CAPR). It is a component in the overall strategy we have come up with out of our research into effective and practical approaches to climate change.

We are continuing our efforts to invite and involve the community in finding the best solutions. We are starting a lecture series this month, always followed with discussion and hopefully participation from residents.

We want to highlight the possible as well as the difficult. This challenge offers new possibilities for us to find new work, new direction and new meaning in a rapidly changing landscape.

For a couple of hundred years we didn’t know the black rock we dug out of the ground and the liquid that came out of the depths of the earth would someday not serve us but threaten our very existence.

It brought amazing prosperity and invention. It built a civilization that no one could ever imagine possible before its advent, but gradually we learned the science of its effect on our atmosphere and it became feared by some, clung onto by many and slowly observed by us all as we began to believe the science and see the impacts.

The first lecture in our series is titled, “Citizen Participation in Climate Action” and is being presented by environmental planner Andrea Hedley, who recently completed her master thesis on the subject. She studied, visited and interviewed four separate active organizations for the purpose of finding what they have been doing and what is working for them. She finds several similarities and some unique qualities in the individual approaches. This is where the rubber meets the road.

Citizens must play their part. Governments must play theirs. Institutions and businesses, churches and hockey teams all have roles to play.

Hedley is local. She and her husband live south of town with their young son Levi, so this is more than an academic exercise. This is part of their commitment for a better world and a deep appreciation for the human challenge of this situation.

We will listen to how four other communities, led by ordinary citizens like all of us, are doing what they can to make a difference and help to turn the tide of this global challenge.

For anyone who has wanted to be part of the solution and didn’t know where to start, this talk and discussion may be the right place. The lecture takes place from 2 to 4 pm on Saturday, November 10, in the Poplar Room at Powell River Recreation Complex. Residents interested can also visit us on Facebook or go to climateactionpowellriver.earth.

Climate Action Powell River Society is a non-profit society committed to helping the residents and businesses of Powell River to reduce their greenhouse gas.