Over 50 area residents and Hamilton College students attended a Kirkland-Clinton Community Climate Meeting last week via Zoom.
The online forum was hosted by the Clinton-Kirkland Climate Smart Task Force. The reason behind the meeting was to gather information from Clinton and Kirkland residents about impacts of climate change in this area.
The meeting started with a basic overview of the local climate task force’s initiatives.
The group’s website, kirklandclintonclimatesmart.org, states, “The CSC Task Force, made up of volunteers, with Carol Gable as Coordinator, advises and helps in carrying out the various actions for climate mitigation and adaptation.”
Aaron Strong, assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Hamilton College, explained various aspects of climate change to the Zoom audience. He also spoke about what climate change looks like for this community.
Reading from a slide, Strong said the five warmest years on the planet on record were 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. He said Syracuse reported its warmest month on record in July of this year.
“The climate is changing,” Strong said. “We have all the evidence we need all over the world to unequivocally say that climate change is happening.”
Strong said human activities are the cause of climate change. “Driving gas powered cars, heating with gas and oil, and generating electricity…