Community Need: Climate Change and Sustainability

I have always been very aware of the issue that is climate change, but I never knew what I could do since it is such a large scale issue, it seemed like I was powerless in fixing it. After researching the things that we could do in our everyday life to help with climate change, I found that what people know about climate change is pretty limited. When you think about the issue of climate change as a whole, it is a pretty daunting task to fix. We often hear about things like global warming, sea level rise, extreme weather, pollution and many other broad topics. But what we don't often hear about is the smaller elements that build up to cause these major issues. For example, pollution is made up of a ton of different things like house and vehicle emissions as well as poor waste management, like littering. When you can see climate change as a name for a bunch of smaller issues, you can see how to help, like not littering.  Making the smaller parts known can separate the issue of climate change into many little pieces helping people understand what they can do to help. In short, I want to help make ending climate change look like a more achievable goal.

Project Goals and Progress:

My goals for this project are to: spread awareness about climate change and its impacts, work to make ending Climate Change look like a more achievable goal, and teach what things can be done within our everyday lives to help with saving our planet. I am creating posters that will list many of the ways you can help reduce emissions or properly manage waste at any age. In addition I am working on a website to house in depth information, contacts, and information about possible events.

Community Partners:

My main community partnership has been Holliston's Sustainability Coordinator,  Amelia Landau. Holliston’s Sustainability Coordinator job is to identify issues and find a solution that are sustainable, such as reducing the town's energy usage by implementing policies promoting sustainable practices, implementing sustainable energy technologies, and preserving natural resources and ecosystems. She has helped me with my project  by providing me with knowledge about local issues and the efforts being put in place to combat them, along with other resources with related information. 

On thursday December 4 I had the pleasure of hosting Amelia Landau as a guest speaker for the Intro To Global Citizens and Service Learning classes. She had a wonderful presentation on the basics of sustainability, what is going on in the world with sustainability, and how we can be more sustainable.