A pair of Minnesota organizations are teaming up to facilitate a dialogue on shifting climate patterns in Winona County, and they’re looking for county residents to serve as citizen jurors.
The dialogue, hosted by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and the Jefferson Center, will take place in Winona March 3-5. It’s the third in a series of dialogues on the topic, with prior events in Morris, Minn. in 2014, and Grand Rapids, Minn. in 2015.
Organizers said the dialogues are set up as an opportunity for ordinary folks to get the facts from local experts and have a conversation with other county residents, where all opinions are welcome.
IATP climate and rural communities program associate Tara Ritter said the dialogues focus on rural areas because rural communities are at risk of disproportionately bearing the burden of extreme weather and shifting climate patterns.
For example, weather events such as floods, hailstorms and frequent freeze-thaw cycles can cause expensive damage to property and wear down aging infrastructure. In addition, agricultural crops and natural resources such as forests could be susceptible to pests and diseases because of warming trends.
And because of their distance from services, rural residents have to spend more of their income on transportation, Ritter said. At the same time, rural homes tend to be older and less energy-efficient, so rising fossil fuel costs would affect residents of rural areas more drastically.
Ritter said the climate dialogue is aimed at getting the rural voice into the conversation at the state level, because though they tend to be overlooked, rural communities are well suited to providing many of the renewable resources the world will need, including agriculture and forestry, along with solar and wind power.
“The challenges in rural communities generally aren’t integrated into policy solutions,” Ritter said. “Most importantly, (the dialogue) is to bring up that voice on how rural areas are leading the way.”
...