Maine: The Way Life Could Be 3/1/22: Climate Change in Our Lifetime, Part 1 of 2

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne
With assistance from Ann Luther and Matt Murphy
This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission:

When we asked Mainers to weigh in on the most important issues facing the state in their lifetimes, climate change was at the top of the list for many. Our March and April shows will feature the voices of Mainers – from town planners to academics to community activists of all ages who are working on the issue.

Today we hear from Dr. Ivan Fernandez, Distinguished Professor at the University of Maine in the School of Forest Services, part of the University’s Climate Change Institute, and a member of the state government’s Maine Climate Council ; Kathleen Billings, Stonington Town Manager; Anne Krieg, Bangor Planning Officer; Jim Fisher, Deer Isle Town Manager; Sherri Mitchell, member of the Penobscot Nation, an attorney with a focus on Indigenous Issues, an author and international speaker. Sherri is also the Founding Director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the global protection of Indigenous land and water rights and the preservation of the Indigenous way of life. Sherri has been a frequent guest on WERU over the years, and was the host of the Love (and Revolution) podcast that was aired by the station; and a brief comment from Grace, a high school student that we’ll hear more from in April.

What do YOU think the impact of climate change will be on Maine in your lifetime? Record a brief comment at www.weru.org or send us an email at [email protected] and we may use your comment on an upcoming show.

FMI:

Maine’s Climate Future 2020 – a University of Maine report authored by Ivan Fernandez, Sean Birkel, Catherine Schmitt, Julia Simonson, Brad Lyon, Andrew Pershing, Esperanza Stancioff, George
Jacobson, and Paul Mayewski.

Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and Its Effects in Maine, by the Maine Climate Council Scientific and Technical Subcommittee

Inaction on Climate Change is Taking a Toll on Young People’s Mental Health, Brennan Center for Justice

Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey, The Lancet, Caroline Hickman, MSc, Elizabeth Marks, ClinPsyD, Panu Pihkala, PhD, Prof Susan Clayton, PhD, R Eric Lewandowski, PhD,Elouise E Mayall, BSc
et al.

About the hosts:

Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.