Daily Sitka Sentinel

May 20, 2022, Community Happenings

Climate Connection: Multi-Solving for All of Us

Most of us are worried about our future on a warming earth. It seems increasingly inevitable that we will have weather disasters, financial chaos, heat stress deaths, climate refugees, polarizing conflict. The challenge is so immense that we are immobilized. There is no single action that will be enough to change the course of earth’s warming and the wellbeing of our children and grandchildren, other species, and our country. 

To adapt to our future, to increase our resilience, we need to find short-run benefits, independent of climate effects, that we can agree on and that bridge the partisan divide. For example, electric school buses protect children from diesel emissions and toxic gases, improving their health while decreasing air pollution that affects rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and premature births for the whole community. Electrifying land transport keeps fossil fuel dollars in our community to spread the cost of clean hydropower and motivates new jobs in the green economy. Electrified and increased hours of public transport provides mobility to those unable to afford private vehicles. It increases equity for participation in community events and jobs, while decreasing our contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, electrifying transportation solves health, equity, and cost of living challenges in adapting to a world with less fossil fuels. 

Many examples of multi-solving exist in Sitka: being bicycle-friendly, growing foods locally, distributing food during the pandemic, providing local fish to schools, reinstating the community schools program, etc. All of these improve Sitka by increasing our health, self-reliance, and sense of community. Many are also good for decreasing greenhouse gases from transport of foods and ourselves. To find win-wins from multi-solving, we need to address obstacles created by departmental and disciplinary silos, budgets organized by narrow functions, boundaries resulting in inequities, and unfamiliarity with whole system approaches. We need to care about others’ problems, think about who needs to participate in policy initiatives, and how we can strengthen connections among us. 

This is what Transition Sitka seeks to support in adapting to a world with less fossil fuels and less waste, while improving our quality of life and connectedness. There are so many choices each of us can make that will contribute to a better climate future as well as short-term benefits for ourselves. We citizens have to come together to multi-solve, serving as a compelling model for our elected officials in a  local government with siloed priorities. 

Kay Kreiss, Transition Sitka

Sitka Cycling Club

Volunteers Needed

The Sitka Cycling Club will host weekly work parties 4:30-6:30 p.m. Mondays in May and June.

Participants will meet at the gravel pile at the end of the 907-trail exit that connects with the Sitka Cross Trail.

Volunteers will be building a new single-track trail. For information go to https://sitkacycling.wordpress.com/

Community Bike

Ride on May 28

Cyclists of all abilities are invited to the annual Sitka Community Bike Ride in observance of the first bike to come to Sitka on May 28, 1891.

Riders will gather at the Salty Spoke Bike Co-op, starting at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 28. The short ride will begin at 11 a.m. and go down Lincoln Street to Sitka National Historical Park and back.

Unique bicycles and gear for the pre-ride show, tell-and-sell are being encouraged, organizers said. Helmets are required. The event will have door prizes. For information on the family friendly event, or to join the Sitka Cycling Club, go to sitkacycling.wordpress.com

Recruitment For

Bear Task Force

The City and Borough of Sitka is looking for a volunteer to serve on the Sitka Bear Task Force.

Members review previous task force suggestions, investigate efforts in other communities to reduce bear/human conflicts, and provide recommendations back to the Assembly.

Applications will be accepted through June 7 and can be found online at www.cityofsitka.com or at the Municipal Clerk’s Office in City Hall, 100 Lincoln Street. Call 907-747-1826 or email clerk@cityofsitka.org for information.

Ship Cancels

The city has received notification  that the Radiance of the Seas will not call in Sitka on Monday, May 23.

For information on cruise ship arrivals, see the Daily Sitka Sentinel’s front page box.