去年，两人被任命为 社区应变能力工作小组 由 缅因州气候委员会. The Council oversees several large working groups made up of scientists, 行业领导者, 地方和州政府官员, and engaged citizens who are addressing areas impacted by climate change, 比如建筑和基础设施, 海岸, 能源, 土地, 运输, 和股票.
该委员会最初是由州长设立的. 珍妮特·米尔斯2019年, 是在第二次迭代中, with a mandate to devise an updated state action plan 由 end of the year. 第一个行动计划, 2020年建成, led to initiatives to exp和 number of heat pumps in homes, 使适应气候条件的建筑, 节约土地, 绿色电网, 创造清洁能源工作岗位, 增加电动汽车的使用. Beckett Slayton ’21 served on a working group with first Council和约翰逊一起.
从去年秋天开始，一直持续到今年, the 社区应变能力工作小组 is regularly meeting to develop proposals to present to the Climate Council for its for consideration in the next "缅因州不会等待“报告. The report will be presented to state policymakers early next year.
"We want to focus not just on how communities mitigate the impacts of climate change but to make sure we have plans in place for when these big storms happen,莫里森说, 社区复原力工作组的使命. “现在我们真的在体验它们, it’s one thing to underst和 science of why they're happening, it's another thing to have clear goals and programs for when they do happen."
莫里森 is the only youth representative in the 社区应变能力工作小组. 其他青年代表也在其他团体服务.
It took 莫里森 a bit of time to adjust to her role in such a high-priority mission. “尽管一开始很吓人, 有这么多经验和专业知识的人, it feels like people genuinely want to hear from us [the youth reps] and value what we say,她说. "I kept reminding myself that I wouldn't be here if they didn't think I had something to contribute."
她高中的一个老师， 莱亚洛瑞去年夏天，他向工作组推荐了莫里森. 莫里森, 谁是从肯纳邦克来的, 缅因州, was deeply involved in environmental activism in her public high school. 她还担任过 气候倡议， for which she participated in a series of community conversations about the impacts of sea-level rise on waterfront communities 和 working waterfront.
到目前为止, she has been an outspoken advocate in the monthly committee meetings for the need to consider not just the pressures on the physical hardiness of 缅因州 communities, but also the psychological and emotional toll of climate change.
“在我与社区人们的对话中, I saw how emotional those conversations can get and how deeply feelings of hopelessness can creep into everyday life,莫里森说, describing how she often heard elderly people speak about their grief at seeing their homes 和 places they had lived their entire lives disappearing before their eyes. "It is something that gets overlooked when we have big picture things to focus on."
虽然莫里森曾在买球平台和约翰逊一起上过课环境研究概论 (in which students read and discussed 缅因州's first climate action plan)—they were both surprised and pleased to discover in October that they were serving on the same working group together.
Besides the community resiliency working group, Johnson is also a member of the 科学技术小组委员会 和 公平委员会. She agreed that adding young people to these conversations is important.
“我们都可能囿于自己思考事物的方式, 所以通过引入不同的声音, 我们对应该关注的领域有了更广泛的理解,约翰逊说. "I think it is important to have as wide a representation of people as possible."
Johnson was particularly struck by an anecdote 莫里森 shared at an earlier meeting, when she spoke about her yearning to have the same kind of memories as older residents in her home town.
去年夏天，在她的一次社区谈话中, 莫里森 said that a Kennebunkport man in his eighties shared his memories of a beloved beach called Mother's Beach. (The beach was the first place 莫里森's mother took her as a newborn after they left the hospital.)
The man described playing baseball with his friends during lunch breaks on the vast expanse of sand between the sea and sea wall. Over the years, as the ocean has risen, that strip of sand has become narrower. "He was showing me pictures and talking about how many memories he had created there, 那是他生命中多么重要的地方. He had been feeling really emotional that it seems to be vanishing," she recalled.
This encounter prompted her to reflect on how she will likely miss out on sharing the beach with her own children. “等我有了孩子，它就会被淹没了,她说, and "I thought how much I wanted to have the same memories as the man did or my mother did, 现在我不确定我是否会."
During the recent January downpour that devastated 缅因州's coast, a playground on Mother's Beach was demolished 由 storm surge 和 road became impassable to vehicles.
"It is great that man has those memories and pictures of how the beach was, 但我的孩子们永远不会知道他从小一起长大的海滩,她说.
