by MARIA VIRGINIA OLANO, MARCH 15th, 2018
Winter is far from over in New England. This week the Northeast was hit with another winter storm, the third in 10 days, and the fourth severe storm this winter. Yet another nor’easter blasted the East Coast, especially Boston and New England, with heavy snow and powerful wind gusts.
While the previous storms brought heavy rains and flooding, this latest one hit with heavy snowfall throughout the day on Tuesday, disrupting transportation systems, and resulting in massive power outages across the state, once again. Boston received about 15 inches of snow all through Tuesday, while other parts of the state saw about two feet of snowfall. More than 200,000 homes and businesses were powerless by Tuesday morning in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Along with a severe storm in the first week of January, the recent nor’easters have raised new questions about the state’s resiliency to weather events and a changing climate. Current infrastructure has proven insufficient to withstand climate events, as seawalls along the coast have been breached and both public and private transportation has been heavily affected. These climate threats are only forecasted to get worse, which is why climate adaptation and mitigation efforts should be a top priority for both policymakers and private sector leaders.
Small local businesses are especially vulnerable to such weather events and flooding resulting from rising sea levels. In an effort to help businesses address this issue, CABA launched its first Businesses Acting on Rising Seas (BARS) campaign in 2015. The program’s goal is to help local businesses learn and act on climate resilience.
Our Award-Winning BARS campaign transformed the way more than 500 coastal businesses respond to climate change, including feasibility studies for concrete solutions to power and electric needs such as the implementation on microgrids.
Building on this momentum, we are preparing to launch our third campaign this summer. The 2018 BARS Campaign will focus on conducting interviews and gathering data with small business owners in the Greater Boston Area. We will be learning about their in-depth stories and overall concerns to share local stories and provide resources for businesses to be proactive in taking action on climate change.
MARIA VIRGINIA OLANO
Maria Virginia is a young professional with experience in non-profit and coalition organizing in the areas of disarmament and human rights. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Security and Resilience Policy at Northeastern University, where she also completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science. During her time at Northeastern she studied abroad in Japan, India and Saudi Arabia and worked as a journalism intern in Bosnia Herzegovina and Turkey. She is passionate about travel and photography and in her free time loves to watch movies, eat lots of food and read.
