The Cape Cod Commission is asking locals for feedback on how best to prepare the region for climate change.
At the first meetings in Chatham and Wellfleet on Monday, the commission explained its goal: to use the public's feedback to develop a policy framework that will draw more attention and resources to the Cape.
“So I think that is our biggest challenge: coming up with that menu of options. What is that list? What does that strategy database look like?” said Kristy Senatori, executive director of the Commission.
The Commission is taking input on a variety of challenges, from developing sustainable public transportation, to new energy sources, to wetlands restoration.
Then, Senatori says, the commission will work on the next piece, coming up with “some of the strategies that each level of government, each individual—in the public sector, private sector—can implement.”
Susan Starkey, of the Faith Communities Environmental Network, said she hopes these meetings mark a shift from talking about climate change, to acting on it.
“How can we wake ourselves up to respond—without more studying it to death—and just get to it,” she asked. “How can we preserve the Cape to be the special place that it always has been, in completely new ways?”
The commission will hold the final community meetings Tuesday, Oct. 22, in Yarmouth, and Tuesday, Oct. 29, in Mashpee.
