First, let’s dispense with a common objection: Our climate is dynamic; it changes, and always will. So, why the headlines about climate change? And why is our town (and many towns around it) working to slow that change, to diminish its effects? Why are we on the verge of adopting a Climate Action Plan as part of trying to put a “cap” on climate change?

Here’s a simple answer. Yes, climate changes. But humanity’s concern is about the rate of change. If climate changes quickly, all the lives adapted to the current climate have little — too little — time to adjust. Whole swaths of life — forests, for example, or food crops — won’t have time to adapt, and so they’ll vanish.

Brunswick’s evolving CAP is rich with local responses to this dilemma. This column asks that you read and respond to that plan. It is a great primer in having local effect.

Our current ways of working and living amount to poking the climate bear. We create an upward rush of heat-trapping gases (carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) from our lives as currently pursued. We are warming our planet too quickly for our lives to adjust. Science is clear about this trend.

Two simple questions arise: Do you want to poke this “climate bear”? If not, how might you lessen your chances of doing so?

With a comment period ending on Dec. 5, to be followed by a Town Council appraisal of its aspirations, Brunswick’s Climate Action Plan nears a time of public influence. After more than a year’s intensive work by the council-appointed committee, led by co-chairpersons Mark Battle and Rebecca Lincoln and ably staffed by town Environmental Planner Ashley Charleson, the full draft (or 17-page executive summary) of the plan and a link to the public survey are available on the Brunswick website, brunswickme.gov/654/Climate-Action-Plan.

You and me

Let’s get little for a moment. Perhaps you, too, have difficulty grasping the weight of climate change. We are talking about greenhouse gases, and, as we’ve all noted, they are hard to hold onto; we walk right through them. No one we know was ever crushed by CO2. Here’s a way to gauge their heft: take a 10-pound chunk of wood from your woodpile. You’ve already been warmed twice (or more) by it as you cut, then split, then stack it.

Now burn it. What do you get beyond warmth? Ashes, maybe 8 ounces, gray and light, if the fire’s been a good one. And? We know from the law of conservation of matter that the 9-plus pounds of former wood is still around somewhere. Ah, gases, of course. What’s up there now? Available calculators will tell you that your burned chunk, where each carbon atom has joined with the two oxygen atoms to form CO2, has issued roughly 20 pounds of gases. Now, pick up a 20-pound weight.

That’s not meant to be guilt-inducing. There is, after all, no such thing as effect-free living. It is meant to awaken awareness that we make choices all day, every day. Do I drive or walk to see my friend? Did I turn off the lights when I left the house? What sort of car will I drive? The list goes on, and it adds up to each of us living a life of consequence. What each of us does is important, weighty. It weighs on the present and the future, and our collective awareness enables us to weigh in on both.

How to do so is the subject of Brunswick’s Climate Action Plan, and the plan’s 111 pages (and its 17-page executive summary) are filled with wisdom, questions and answers. Required reading, I think, for us all.

“It’s a LOT!” said one local citizen when asked for thoughts about the Climate Action Plan and its hopes. “And,” said the same citizen, “I’m so glad I read it and spent time thinking about it. This huge, looming thing has become personal, and I can do my-sized things to help.”

Us all

Here’s an example of an upcoming chance to consider climate and make your voice heard: Our collective action is important, particularly in view of the proposed plans for the expansion of the Brunswick Executive Airport to accommodate more traffic and larger planes, producing more greenhouse gases. For those interested in commenting on these plans, there will be a MRRA Airport Master Plan Meeting from 6:30-8 p.m. on Dec. 18 (brunswicklanding.us/event/mrra-airport-master-plan-meeting/).

Sandy Stott is a Brunswick resident, chair of the town’s Conservation Commission, chair of The Mere Brook Steering Committee, and a member of Brunswick Topsham Land Trust’s Board of Directors. He writes for a variety of publications. He may be reached at fsandystott@gmail.com.