Climate Solutions From All Over

Earlier in the month, we asked readers and Nature Conservancy followers on Twitter and Facebook, where they were seeing local solutions to climate change in their communities. We got some great responses on the site and through social media that I wanted to share with everyone. Here’s a selection:

Amy in Glen Cove New York: We started a food co-op in our community where we are supporting sustainably raised food from local and regional sources. We will hopefully break ground on a community garden next spring.
How it’s helping: Sourcing food from local and regional areas cuts down on emissions from food transportation. Supporting smaller, established sustainable farms can help decrease land conversion, which, along with deforestation, is responsible for 15 percent of global emissions.

Nate: I live in El Cerrito, CA which is doing a lot to control climate change and save water. They have planted dozens of trees and, on the main street, have torn up sections of the sidewalks to plant “rain-catcher basins” to reduce the amount of water that runs into San Francisco Bay carrying dirt and toxins from the roads.
How it’s helping: Trees eat carbon dioxide, so the more trees we have, the less CO2 will be in the air and the better off we’ll all be. Also, urban trees can help decrease the “urban heat island” effect, meaning people are using less air conditioning and  saving energy.

Facebook user Lezalel: In Isle of Pines in New Caledonia, we have 3 huge wind farms and we are thinking about planting trees in some areas but nothing has been decided by our Town Hall yet!
How it’s helping: As we all know, wind farms are a clean, renewable energy source! Right on!

Facebook user Diane reports: We experienced about a 1-ft SL rise in SE Fla about a week ago (during a higher than usual Mean High water tide) – 4 of our counties are working together & putting together a regional climate action plan – and glad to report that Nature Conservancy is one of the partners in the effort!
How it’s helping: Climate change adaptation is an essential, but often overlooked  tool in the fight against climate change.  Many places around the world are already feeling the effects of climate change. But conservation can help. As nature becomes more stressed because of climate change, we need new approaches that will ensure that living systems — such as oceans, grasslands, and forests — can continue to support the needs of human communities and are better able to withstand future changes.

Thanks to all of you for the awesome stories of local action! Please continue to share them in the comments of this post, or in the original post. We’d love to continue to share these with the community as they come in!

Post by: Dave Connell, associate director of strategic communications for digital marketing, The Nature Conservancy

(image: ©Stuart Freedman. Picking produce in London’s Borough market.)