Financial Support Provided
Friends of the North Kingstown Free Library
Lecture 1. September 19. Climate Change in North Kingstown
Teresa Crean. Director of Planning, Building and Resiliency, Town of Barrington and NK resident since 2015
Coastal flooding is more and more frequent in Wickford and other areas while intense storms are over-taxing our stormwater systems. This lecture will introduce how we can make sense of climate data in our daily lives, and how RI’s state offices and municipalities are using this information to guide decision-making, allocation of funding, and leveraging partnerships to advance local projects.
Lecture 2. October 3. How the natural world is changing around us.
Jameson Chace, Salve Regina University
Professor
Dept of Cultural, Environmental, and Global Studies (Chair)
Dept of Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Director of Community Engaged Learning
Salve Regina University
Climate Change is altering the natural world. Gardeners have noticed the rising temperatures have changed plant hardiness zones, birders have noticed changes in bird assemblages, and fishermen notice changes in the fish they catch. This talk will review some of the changes we are seeing and describe how each of us can take action to help plants and animals to adapt to a changing climate..
Lecture 3. Oct 10. Keeping History Above Water.
Margaret Back, Preservation Projects Manager, Newport Restoration Foundation
Keeping History Above Water™ (KHAW) was founded in 2016 by the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) to foster a national conversation focused on the increasing and varied risks posed by sea-level rise to historic coastal communities. KHAW programs, conferences, and workshops focus on protecting historic buildings, landscapes, and neighborhoods from the increasing threat of inundation. Since the inaugural conference in Newport, KHAW events have been hosted in Annapolis, Palo Alto, Des Moines, St. Augustine, Nantucket, Charleston, Salem, Norfolk, Trinidad and Tobago, Portsmouth, and Honolulu. The lecture will review current strategies the NRF is employing to protect its portfolio of vulnerable properties, as well as explore RI relevant case studies from past conferences.
Lecture 4. Oct 17. What can you do on your own property to reduce your carbon emissions and enhance your climate resilience?
Dave Caldwell, Vice President, Caldwell and Johnson
Ryan Kopp and Rebecca Reeves, Stormwater Innovation Center
We all are now experiencing the impacts of climate change and we need to think about how we can reduce our own carbon emissions. While utilities switch to renewable energy sources, homes and businesses need to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy. At the same time, we need to figure out how to manage water at our homes and businesses using green stormwater practices like rain gardens and rain barrels.
