Public voices concern about climate change

Dozens of people came out to the Citizens Forum at Lakeview Arena to discuss climate change Wednesday night.

Michigan State Extension, City of Marquette, Superior Watershed Partnership, and the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessment Center (GLISA) hosted ‘A Community Conversation on Climate Variability’.  They wanted to get the public’s opinions on how climate change effects their lives, Marquette, and the Upper Peninsula.

Claire Layman, MSU Extenstion’s Public Policy Specialist said they will compile the suggestions from the public with climate data and give that to the city.  Marquette can then decide what aspects of climate change to focus on for the future.

GLISA wants to see places that the public see as vulnerable to climate change.  They will then take it to scientists and use that in climate change discussions, especially for the Upper Peninsula and Upper Great Lakes Region.

People put their climate change concerns on sticky notes, and answered climate change questions in small discussion groups.

That information will be used for Marquette’s climate adaptation plan, which is part of the city’s master plan.

Marquette was one of the two cities chosen in the state to talk about climate change because of its vulnerability to the effects of climate change, the community’s resources to support a climate adaption plan, and since the city is surrounded by natural resources.