It was an electric evening June 12, when more than 750 people came together at the Barnstable High School Performing Arts Center to hear three inspiring, engaging and passionate speakers talk for nearly three hours about the emergency of our warming world and what we can do about it. The Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative 2023 feature event: “It’s Time for Climate Collaboration” featured author/activist Bill McKibben, Danish community energy leader Soren Hermansen, and first-in-the-nation state Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer, and they did not disappoint. Collaborative Board President Dorothy Savarese and board member Dan Wolf, who emceed throughout the event, provided background on the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative and its current priorities, and recognized the number of state representatives and senators in the audience. In welcoming Bill McKibben to the stage, Savarese said that through McKibben’s books, articles and founding of 350.org and Third Act, “It’s not an exaggeration to say that he has inspired thousands, if not millions to address climate change.”

McKibben pulled no punches in his talk and quickly laid out the stark truth of what our continued reliance on fossil fuels has done and continues to do to our planet and our civilization. After describing several recent climate change-induced calamities, like wildfires in Canada and deluges in Pakistan last August that displaced 33 million people from their homes (the number of people from Boston to Baltimore, he pointed out), he added,“The scary part is that we’re still nearer the beginning of this story than the end. We’ve raised the temperature two degrees fahrenheit so far, but we’re on track to raise it five or six degrees before the youngest people in this room are as old as I am.” While he said it’s too late to stop climate change, McKibben called on everyone to work to “stop it short of the point where it cuts civilization off at the knees.” He called it “the biggest task that humans have ever had to address, and we don’t know if we can do it.” Read more.

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Don’t miss the summer sizzler! Schedule a NO-COST home energy assessment here: https://www.capelightcompact.org/home-energy-assessments/

The Climate Collaborative recently partnered with Recharge Massachusetts, Cape Cod Commission, and the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority for an Electric Vehicle Expo held on June 3.

At the event, attendees had the opportunity to take an EV out for a spin, learn about current financial incentives for purchasing (and leasing!) an EV, get hands-on experience with charging, and get a feel for how EVs could fit into their lives.

Attendees spoke EV owners and visited with regional exhibitors to learn about plans for public charging and EV adoption, clean transportation and clean energy infrastructure, and learn about local, state, and federal incentives.

– Ban Ki-moon, Former Secretary-General of UN

Image: NPR

The OneCape Summit will take place on July 31 and August 1, 2023 and we look forward to seeing you there! The annual OneCape Summit provides a regional forum for collaboration, innovation, and excellence across the major policy issues and areas that impact Cape Cod.

Register and learn more at onecape.capecodcommission.org

Register online, at https://www.falmouthpubliclibrary.org/  and look for the “Upcoming Events” calendar, then search by date.

We are a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is reduce the Cape & Islands' contributions to climate change and protect our region from its potentially devastating impacts. We depend upon the generosity of our stakeholders to conduct our work. All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.

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