{"id":3002,"date":"2022-03-18T03:29:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T03:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worabia.com\/news\/top-trends\/3002\/"},"modified":"2022-03-18T03:29:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T03:29:15","slug":"climate-change-why-weather-changes-worry-wales-wettest-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worabia.com\/news\/top-trends\/3002\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change: Why weather changes worry Wales&#8217; &#8216;wettest town&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div >\n<p ><b >Fittingly, it&#8217;s drizzling on the day we visit the city billed as the wettest in Wales.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >A gray sky blends with the towering mounds of slate surrounding Blaenau Ffestiniog, whose quarries once &#8220;covered the world&#8221; and helped earn it UNESCO World Heritage status.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Nestled between mountains in the heart of Snowdonia, the area&#8217;s reputation as one of the wettest places in the UK is also considered a badge of honour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Residents even organized a Rain Festival for a few years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Now they are being asked to work together to decide on ways to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >In the largest project of its kind so far in Wales, five climate assemblies are being organized in Gwynedd, North West Wales, to engage local communities in the push for a greener future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >One of the first to sign up during a closed-door recruitment drive was Amy Karamian, with her young daughter Anri in her arms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >He runs a vegetable box delivery scheme and said climate change was a pressing concern for someone who works with farmers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<div >\n<ul >\n<li>Everyday actions that can help save the planet<\/li>\n<li>Simple guide on climate change.<\/li>\n<li>Seven ways to stop climate change <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;It&#8217;s just constant seasonal updates from growers being hit by storms, droughts, rains, kind of a constant cascade that affects crops,&#8221; Amy said at her doorstep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >She feels it&#8217;s important for the community to look into providing more growing space and teaching people the skills to grow their own fruits and vegetables in case access to food becomes &#8220;more and more limited&#8221; in the long run.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >As Amy spoke, builders were working on a nearby house that had its roof blown off by Storm Eunice, one of three to hit the UK in quick succession in February.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The impact of a wetter, wilder climate on the city&#8217;s aging stone-built homes is something Community Councilman Rory Francis is concerned about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;We have (among) the highest levels of rainfall of any city in Wales and England, so it&#8217;s hard to keep houses warm and dry,&#8221; he said, with particular problems of dampness and poor insulation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >But Rory said it&#8217;s worth remembering how lucky residents are to have such a beautiful local setting: &#8220;During the lockdowns, I could be walking through the countryside, through tree-covered ravines every day, while my son was stuck in a small apartment (in the city).&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >He said the city council had recently declared a climate and natural emergency, and he had &#8220;high hopes&#8221; that the new climate assembly would help them develop environmental policies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Luke Mason joined several young people to sign up as organizers recruited along Main Street, as the 19-year-old said it&#8217;s &#8220;disturbing how much change is happening on our planet, it&#8217;s on a massive scale.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >He would like to see better public transportation to encourage people to get out of their cars because his hometown &#8220;is a bit isolated if you don&#8217;t drive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Sophie Lewis was another 19-year-old who signed up because she would like to see more parks and activities for teens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The chef trainee also hoped there would be a focus on helping people with the cost of living: &#8220;Electricity and gas are going up a lot, it&#8217;s getting hard to pay rent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >It was a point we repeatedly heard outside the offices of Cwmni Cymunedol Bro Ffestiniog, which brings together various social enterprises.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;We call it an umbrella organization, instead of umbrellas, because it&#8217;s always so sunny here,&#8221; development officer Ceri Cunnington joked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >One of the projects offers a drop service for people who need advice on topics such as saving energy and finding a job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Ceri said she just spoke to someone in tears because her monthly gas bill is going to rise from around \u00a360 to more than \u00a3200 in April.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;How are people supposed to live like this?&#8221;  she asked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<div >\n<ul >\n<li><b >EXPLAINED: <\/b>Why are energy bills so high?<\/li>\n<li><b >WARNING: <\/b>UK faces biggest drop in income in decades<\/li>\n<li><b >APPEAL: <\/b>Activist says families need urgent help<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >He sees the idea of \u200b\u200bthe climate assembly as a way of trying to achieve social justice in a place that suffers from one of the highest levels of energy poverty in Wales and yet has enormous potential for generating green energy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;Water flows down the mountains and the hydroelectric plants in this area generate 133% of our electricity needs,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >\u201cAll that resource is being absorbed.  It&#8217;s a scandal.  But by coming together with a collective voice we can address some of these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Traditionally, climate assemblies have tended to result in a report or recommendations for politicians or the government, but the organizers want to focus on actions that the community could take on its own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >That might involve brainstorming ideas and then applying for grants to see them through. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;The town halls are for everyone, you don&#8217;t need to know anything about climate change, you can have all kinds of opinions and ideas,&#8221; explained Nina Bentley of Gwyrddni, the lottery-funded organization set up to run the project in Gwynedd.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >There has already been an assembly in the UK, as well as for Scotland and locally in other parts of Wales.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >A leading academic who has been involved in evaluating the work of other climate caucuses said they were &#8220;still an ongoing experiment in how to engage people in decision-making&#8221; on climate change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >But Dr Stuart Capstick, deputy director of Cardiff University&#8217;s center for climate change and social transformations, said participants tended to feel &#8220;positive about it and quite motivated afterwards&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;They go from being a little curious to becoming knowledgeable and, as a result, quite active and outspoken,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<div >\n<ul >\n<li>What is climate change doing to Wales?<\/li>\n<li>What does net zero mean?<\/li>\n<li>What will climate change look like for you?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;We know from our own research that, generally speaking, the public is very concerned about climate change, but they often don&#8217;t know where they fit in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;It is often presented as a huge, vast and complex international problem or boiled down to individual actions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;So the value of these kinds of processes is that they help bridge that gap and provide some context at the local level as to what kind of local policy steps or actions can be taken.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Back at Blaenau Ffestiniog, Ceri Cunnington is aware of the dangers this could lead to in a talk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;It&#8217;s when you climb higher that it&#8217;s a conversation store,&#8221; he said with a wry smile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;Wales is brilliant at writing strategies, probably the best in the world. But acting on them is something else entirely, and that&#8217;s where the community comes in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;The community responds, works together and can find solutions, and we discovered that during Covid.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >In addition to the Blaenau Ffestiniog area assembly, others are being organized for Pen Ll\u0177n, Dyffryn Ogwen, Dyffryn Nantlle and Dyffryn Peris over the next two years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Residents have until April 4 to sign up in person or online before a representative panel of 50 people is selected to participate in each area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-wales-60764061?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=KARANGA\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fittingly, it&#8217;s drizzling on the day we visit the city billed as the wettest in Wales. A gray sky blends with the towering mounds of slate surrounding Blaenau Ffestiniog, whose quarries once &#8220;covered the world&#8221; and helped earn it UNESCO World Heritage status. Nestled between mountains in the heart of Snowdonia, the area&#8217;s reputation as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-trends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v17.9 (Yoast SEO v18.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Climate change: Why weather changes worry Wales&#039; &#039;wettest town&#039; - Worabia News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worabia.com\/news\/top-trends\/3002\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Climate change: Why weather changes worry Wales&#039; &#039;wettest town&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fittingly, it&#8217;s drizzling on the day we visit the city billed as the wettest in Wales. 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