The seventh and final event in the Drawdown: Book to Action Climate Series culminated in a project focusing on community composting.
The series, hosted by Cook Inletkeeper and KenaiChange, has now hosted seven meetings over the last six months. Each meeting has used the book “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming” as a jumping off point for community members to discuss and brainstorm local solutions to climate change.
At their last meeting on Oct. 15, the group went over their top ideas for local solutions, including a solarize the central peninsula initiative, community composting, embracing carpooling technology, planting trees in public spaces, capturing methane gas from local landfills, an energy audit of borough buildings and other projects that seek to lower greenhouse gas emissions at the local level.
“It sounds like a big task, but it’s really about making climate change — which seems unsolvable and daunting — into something we can actually take action to make our communities healthier and more vibrant and sustainable,” Kaitlin Vadla, Kenai regional director for Cook Inletkeeper said at the meeting.
Each of the group’s meetings have been divided into different topics like food and agriculture, transportation, land use, energy and others. Kaitlin Vadla, Kenai regional director for Cook Inletkeeper, said that numerous ideas for solutions have come out of the series.
At the Oct. 15 meeting, community members voted for the project they wanted to tackle first. Community composting won the crowd.
The event’s organizers discussed where composting is already happening at a local level, with waste from Salmonfest and Kenai Riverfest being composted along with wood chips and salmon carcasses every summer.
Event participants said restaurant owners who typically toss large amounts of food could get involved.
The group will set meeting times to begin organizing a plan forward.
Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion Kaitlin Vadla, Kenai regional director of Cook Inletkeeper, keeps track of community members votes Tuesday at the final community Drawdown: Climate Series event near Soldotna.
