Global warming and climate change have become hot topics more and more as more natural disasters and devastation frequently reoccur.
The ASEEDS Partnership held a two-day “Acting on Climate Change Together to make Duck Hill and Montgomery County More Resilient” at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church in Eskridge to discuss how local residents can help reverse the ever-changing climate.
The first day was a stakeholder’s meeting for all residents, elected officials and anyone concerned with climate change in Montgomery County. However, people from Holmes County who attended.
The goal of the conference was to work toward making Mississippi a climate-ready state. The plan would be the first-ever in the state of Mississippi. Currently, the state doesn’t have a climate-change plan and residents in Montgomery County would be the first to issue one. Friday, there was a small group discussion about what can be done and what climate change could cause.
Alex Score and Lauren Lynch, scientists with EcoAdapt, told the group that the temperature will increase by 2-3 degrees by 2100. That means, by summer time, instead of seeing 100 degree days, people will see around 105 degree days and in some places in the country around 120. Score said the rise in the temperature could cause for warmer nights, higher electric bills, and more cause for heat-related deaths.
The group discussed the lack of education about things in the community that can help people not only stay cool during the summer months and warm during the winter months, but how to make money – like when to harvest trees, plant trees, and how to profit off of the land that they own.
They also discussed the health risks that can occur with more frequent sinus infections, asthma, allergies and colds, respiratory problems, flu, and pneumonia in the summer and winter months when a home isn’t properly heated or properly cooled and the effect climate change can have.
After small groups, the group came together to discuss some of their solutions, which included using existing resources and weatherization for seniors and veterans, clean up debris along Highway 51, creating community gardens, educating resident on existing programs for energy efficiency, creating rain gardens and the use of rain barrels, creating an emergency plan using churches, and ensuring people are counted in the Census.
