From grassroots to government, Kentuckians will gather this month to talk about climate change

Record rainfall — at times more than 4 inches in an hour — in late July 2022 produced widespread flash floods in southeastern Kentucky, killing 45 people. Command Sergeant Major Tim Lewis of the Kentucky National Guard secures Candace Spencer, 24, while she holds her son Wyatt Spencer, 1, after being airlifted on July 30, 2022 from South Fork in Breathitt County. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Lauren Cagle wants to make something clear. Despite popular assumptions about Kentuckians’ priorities and politics, they do care about climate change.

Cagle, a University of Kentucky professor of writing, rhetoric and digital studies, told the Lantern despite narratives that “red states have a certain point of view on climate change,” the reality of what’s happening in communities across the state is much different.

“There’s so much work happening around climate, and when we put all those people in a room together, that becomes visible in a way that’s undeniable,” Cagle said.

Kentucky Climate Symposium

When: 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Sept. 26, 2024

Where: Harris Ballroom, Gatton Student Center, University of Kentucky

Organizer: Kentucky Climate Consortium

More info: Click here.

An event at the University of Kentucky later this month will do that by bringing together Kentuckians from a wide range of fields including researchers, grassroots organizers and government employees and leaders to share insights and spark collaboration on dealing with the increasing threat of climate change.

Speakers at the Kentucky Climate Symposium on Sept. 26 will include nonprofit housing developers in Eastern Kentucky, a representative from the Kentucky Division for Air Quality, and former Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House, who will be one of those giving opening remarks at the event.

Cagle also leads the Kentucky Climate Consortium , a network of higher education researchers that organized the day-long event. She hopes sessions and speakers on disaster preparedness and public health can build a broader network of Kentuckians focused on climate change.

“There are so many ways that we can partner with people that we don’t see eye to eye with on every issue and still make progress heading in a direction that we all like,” Cagle said. “That is an approach to climate solutions that we have seen be successful in other places, and it can be successful here in Kentucky.”

Speakers come from a variety of backgrounds including:

• Michael Borchers, the hydrology and hydraulics section chief at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District.
• Scott McReynolds, the executive director of the Housing Development Alliance in Eastern Kentucky.
• Jerry Brotzge, the Kentucky state climatologist at Western Kentucky University.
• Misty Skaggs, a co-founder of EKY Mutual Aid, a network of volunteers providing financial assistance and other support to Eastern Kentuckians.
• Steve Velasco III, the Kentucky state veterinarian
• Eboni Cochran, co-director of Rubbertown Emergency ACTion (REACT), a grassroots organization trying to protect Louisville residents from air pollution coming from Rubbertown, the name for a collection of industrial and chemical plants along the Ohio River.

Cochran, the co-director of REACT, told the Lantern she wants to make sure the discussion goes beyond conversations about reducing greenhouse gas emissions to also look at climate change  through an environmental justice lens and how it directly impacts Kentucky.

In Louisville’s Rubbertown, she said, more storms, flooding and higher risks of tornadoes from climate change could expose residents to chemical leaks from nearby chemical and other industrial plants.

“How do chemical facilities fortify their facilities to make sure that when their power goes out, or if there’s flooding, that we don’t have adverse impacts in our neighborhoods where we either have to evacuate, or we just have to shelter in place or we just have to breathe it in — all of that,” Cochran said.

Cochran said she’s looking forward to dialogue at the symposium between government leaders and grassroots organizers and hearing about each other’s work. How to fortify people living in impacted neighborhoods is a critical part of that conversation for her.

Cagle believes finding common ground on solutions for climate change in Kentucky is possible, despite sometimes conflicting stances among the expected attendees. For example, she said nonprofit electric utility East Kentucky Power Cooperative is sending representatives to the symposium. The utility has welcomed major federal funding to add renewable energy while also fighting federal regulations seeking to curb greenhouse gas emissions from its fossil fuel-fired power plants . An East Kentucky Power spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment asking about their attendance.

The only baseline attendees should have in the room, Cagle said, is that “everyone agrees climate change is happening.”

According to December 2023 estimates from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication , 62% of Kentuckians think global warming is happening, below the national average of 72%. Among Kentuckians, 48% think global warming is caused mostly by human activity, below the national average of 58%.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body of the world’s leading climate scientists, in its latest synthesis report found human activities primarily from greenhouse gas emissions have “unequivocally” caused global warming with impacts to ecosystems on land and water, increases in extreme heat events and sea level rises likely attributed to climate change.

“Obviously, we’re going to have disagreements. That’s healthy,” Cagle said. “We need to create spaces where we can have those conversations and where we can get out of the trap of just constantly talking about, ‘is it happening or not.’”