WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As intense summer heat bakes South Florida and extreme weather makes headlines elsewhere, Palm Beach County is looking to residents to share their thoughts on the climate with a series of climate conversations that start this week.
"We are trying to have these community conversations, go out to neighborhoods, figure out, how is climate change impacting them right now?" Megan Houston, director of the county's Office of Resilience, said. "How is it personally impacting you and what would you like us to do about it?"
Her office is in the middle of several years of information gathering on several climate issues that may face the county in the future.
"Coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, algal blooms, extreme heat, wildfires," Houston said. "There's a range of different impacts that can come from climate change."
For some time now, scientists have been talking about the man-made effects and the changes in weather.
"By 2050 we're going to see many, many days in the high 90s in Florida," Bob Bunting, of the Climate Adaptation Center, said. "The land use zoning has to change where we create green spaces in our urban environments, for example. Because those green spaces modulate the heat."
The first climate conversation is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Belle Glade Library and Civic Center at 725 NW Fourth St.