The 2nd Annual Nantucket Climate Change Summit Highlights Island-based Adaptation and Community Conversation

The 2nd Annual Nantucket Climate Change Summit is being held September 4th 2024 from 4-6:30pm, hosted at the Great Harbor Yacht Club and organized by the Linda Loring Nature Foundation (LLNF) and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation (NCF) with support from the Nantucket Community Foundation’s Remain Nantucket Fund. Nantucket recognizes September as Climate Change Awareness month and this event will give the community a chance to gain a common language around climate change status and impacts on Nantucket as well as learn about the ways various island organizations and businesses are already adapting to climate change.

The focus of the summit will be how the Nantucket community is experiencing climate change impacts and how the community has already been adapting to these changes. Dr. Sarah Bois of the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, and Dr. Jen Karberg of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, co-founders of the Summit, will give a short introduction to the climate change impacts we’re already seeing on-island. They have also invited a panel of speakers to highlight various aspect of island life.

This year’s speakers include people from varied island industries; historic preservation and tourism, commercial fishing and aquaculture, and landscape and garden design. Speakers will bring their expertise and knowledge to discuss impacts to their industry and how they are adapting to changing conditions. Short talks are followed by questions for the panel from our moderator as well as the audience.

Cecil Barron Jensen, Executive Director of Remain, will moderate the panel. This year’s panelists will be Julie Jordan, owner of Garden Design Company and champion of native plants and adaptation to climate change, Matt Herr, owner of Grey Lady Oyster and long-time fisherman and shell fisherman on Nantucket, and Niles Parker, Executive Director of the Nantucket Historical Association. Each will bring their unique perspective to these issues.

The panel session is following by a cocktail reception where the conversation can continue. The event is free but registration is required as space is limited.

This is the second annual Nantucket Climate Change Summit which was created by Drs. Bois and Karberg in 2023 after years of teaching their own Coastal Ecology Class and hosting other climate change-related events.

“We conceived the Nantucket Climate Change Summit to understand and explore what's happening right here on Nantucket and how our island is adapting to change. We hear about erosion and sea level rise but the impacts of a changing climate are much broader than that. The Summit helps bring the community together to learn and share and provide hope for the future!” Dr. Karberg notes.

Drs. Bois and Karberg plan to continue the Summit as an annual event that will build community participation and involvement in both understanding Nantucket’s changing climate, but also helping our community adapt.

To learn more and to register, visit the Nantucket Climate Change Summit website: www.ackclimatesummit.com.