This summer, a Brown U. research project was transformed into legislation aiming to address the effects of climate change in Rhode Island. The new law was supported by Rep. David Segal, D-Providence and East Providence, in the state House of Representatives and Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, in the state Senate.
The piece of legislation — which was passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly in June and became law — adopted three of the 26 recommendations made by students in the fall 2009 seminar, ENVS 2010: “Special Topics in Environmental Studies: Urban Adaptation to Climate Change,” taught by J. Timmons Roberts, director of the Center for Environmental Studies and professor of sociology and environmental studies.
Under the new law, the state will establish a commission this fall to determine how climate change will affect Rhode Island and what can be done to mitigate those effects. The law also calls for climate provisions in municipal planning, as well as an emergency response system for natural disasters.
One student who was particularly involved in the project was Sara Mersha GS. She pointed out that though not every recommendation made it into the bill, the creation of a commission was a good start.
“We thought there should be an institutional body in the state to take this issue seriously,” Mersha said. “It is our hope that the commission acts as an incubator for future pieces of legislation.”
Roberts said the combination of the hard work his students put into the project and the University’s connections within the community was key in making this legislation a reality.
“There is an amazing connection between the Center for Environmental Studies and state agencies in Rhode Island,” Roberts said. “It was clear when I arrived last fall that there were decades of good will built up by students and faculty and Rhode Islanders.”
Clean Water Action was one of the community groups that worked with the students to turn their report into a bill to present before the General Assembly.
“We’re always open to working with students on projects like these,” said the group’s Rhode Island Director Sheila Dormody. “We’ve worked with the Center for Environmental Studies in the past and we appreciate all the work they do around this issue.”
Roberts pointed out that such a project was uniquely placed to succeed in Rhode Island, due in part to the state’s small size and the accessibility of community groups and legislators.
“Rhode Island is like a scale model of a state,” Roberts said. “We just had to convince a handful of people that we needed a commission on climate change, and we were able to make it happen.”
He also stated that although one group of students started the project, future students working with the Center for Environmental Studies will be involved in the state’s efforts to deal with climate change.
“This is a great example of problem-based learning,” Roberts said. “I could see this being integrated into student projects for the next five to 10 years.”
Mersha said that although previous efforts to combat climate change often focused on reducing emissions, this new approach to dealing with the effects of increased temperatures is just beginning to take form in the state.
“Rhode Island has thought about climate change from the perspective about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the idea of how we’re going to be affected by it is new to many people,” Mersha said.
Dormody said that the recent flooding in Rhode Island was just a sign of what is to come in the future.
“We’re already seeing the effects of climate change here in Rhode Island, and we know we’re going to see even more extreme weather,” Dormody said. “I see the commission as an important building block to build the political will to address this growing problem.”