Hot and Bothered Forum Presentations and Reports Now Online
By Contributor
Many people have been asking how they can get information from the April 22-23 Hot and Bothered Forums and now there is information on the website and Facebook page “Hot and Bothered in the Kootenays” as well as a guide for starting conversations in your community or neighbourhood.
The website http://www.hotandbotheredinthekoots.org/ which was part of the very successful forums on Water, Drought and Climate Change held in Nelson on April 22 and 23, has been updated to allow continued community engagement.
The updates include power points from the knowledgeable forum speakers such as Robert Sandford (Water Security, Climate Stability and Planetary Health in a Warming World), Colin Innes (Overviewof Local Water Supplies) and John Cathro (Interface and Wildfire, What to Expect) plus many more. In hopes that community members will keep the forum discussion going in their area, the website also provides a convenor’s guide for community discussions that can be used along with the downloadable presentation power points and audio recordings.
Summaries of the small group discussions are also included on the site.
The discussions amongst the 180 participants at the April 23 forum, as well as the post-forum survey results, indicated that participants were very concerned about long term impacts of climate change “glocally”. Their comments focused on the biophysical issues impacting the community ( e.g. depleting water supplies, forest and interface fire, ecosystem damage, health issues, and food security), the individual and institutional behaviors and actions that were needed (e.g. water conservation, emission reduction, government policy and monitoring, access to data, community engagement), as well as the personal and cultural attitudes and beliefs impacting these behaviors (e.g. enjoying consumptive lifestyles, ability to collaborate, reliance on economic growth, willingness to change).
Approximately 55 government and agency representatives attended the local government think tank on April 22 and they too expressed a need to keep climate change as a top priority in their regions, with a focus on finding ways to collaborate, educate, engage the public, and have more accessibility to data.
They felt that ongoing discussions were needed. Therefore the possibility of forming a Kootenay Climate Collaborative between various levels of government and stakeholders is being explored.
When tallied it was found that the ad hoc team that hosted the forums had put in a combined 1700 hours of pro bono work to plan and execute these forums.
Considering the time it takes to engage cross- regional, cross- sector dialogue, the team felt that this investment, plus the varied and generous community funds, was put to good use in meeting the forum goals of building awareness, broadening a positive ongoing community and regional discussion, and empowering actions.
Continued work is of course needed across various levels of government, NGO’s, faith groups, schools, and citizens in general for the region to respond productively to the challenging issues of climate change related to water, drought and fire.
It is hoped that the website and Facebook page will continue to provide relevant regional information on these efforts and upcoming events.
Team:
Jan Inglis,
Valerie Warmington
Laura Sacks
Lynne Betts
Avery Deboer-Smith
Mel Reasoner
Martin Carver
Ramona Faust
