CamdenCAN

Backyard Gardening Adventures
2025-04-08 18:30 - 19:45 (America/New_York) | ME
Camden Public Library. Another in our Camden Talks Climate series: Backyard Gardening Adventures for Biodiversity, Resiliency, Food, and Fun. Camden gardener Anna Dembska shares stories, techniques, and tips from her experiments in turning her undersized, once-neglected yard into a thriving, evolving environment providing nourishment both physical and psychic. Topics include: rapid, inexpensive, low-input yard-to-garden transformation; seed saving and promiscuous pollination to develop locally thriving plants for food in a changing environment; and freely incorporating elements of permaculture, native planting, and community for maximum success and enjoyment. The evening will also include some hands-on activities, including creating your own seedling pots from sustainable materials. In person and via zoom. See poster below, and more here and register via zoom here.

In Transition 5
2025-04-08 17:00 - 18:00 | 90 Mechanic Street, Camden (for 11/11 only), 90 Mechanic Street, Camden, ME, 04843, United States
Tuesdays, Every Other Week until April, 5-5:45 pm, Camden Public Library, CamdenCAN Reading and Discussion Group, In Transition. Our bi-monthly reading group explores ideas from The Permaculture City by Toby Hemenway. (Via the Internet Archive you can read the book online here.)
Together, we’ll tackle topics like creating home and community gardens, mastering water wisdom, finding energy solutions, fostering local livelihoods and wealth, embracing bioregionalism, and rethinking governance. Bring your curiosity, your ideas, and your passion for resilience—your voice will help secure our community’s future.
Led by Joline Blais. Joline researches regenerative design, teaches permaculture, and advises the Terrell House Permaculture Center at UMaine. See also here.

Rockport’s Climate Future
2025-03-30 16:00 - 18:00 | ME
Rockport Opera House. Rising Tides, Lifting All Boats: Visualizing Rockport’s Climate Future. Join the Rockport Conservation Commission (RCC) for a special evening at the Rockport Opera House! Experience complex climate data transformed into an engaging artistic performance by the Halcyon Quartet. This innovative event will feature data from Rockport’s vulnerability assessments and GHG emissions study. Learn about the town’s climate resilience efforts and enjoy a post-show panel discussion with local experts. There will be a happy hour featuring businesses that prioritize sustainable practices. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, connect, and commit to climate action in Rockport!

Maine Sustainability and Water Conference
2025-03-27 | ME
Thursday, all day, Augusta, Mitchell Center, 2025 Maine Sustainability and Water Conference. The Maine Sustainability & Water Conference provides an annual forum where professionals, researchers, consultants, citizens, students, regulators, and planners gather to exchange information and present new findings on sustainability and water resource issues in Maine. Launched in 1994 by UMaine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Center with a primary focus on the future of Maine’s water resources, the conference has grown to incorporate topics related to many of the sustainability challenges facing Maine, including issues related to climate change, energy futures, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism, and municipal planning. The conference attracts a broad audience of close to 500 participants from across the state.

In Transition 4
2025-03-25 17:00 - 18:00 | 90 Mechanic Street, Camden (for 11/11 only), 90 Mechanic Street, Camden, ME, 04843, United States

In Transition 3
2025-03-11 17:00 - 18:00 | ME

How to Instigate Action
2025-03-06 18:00 - 19:45 | ME
Camden Public Library.
Camden Talks Climate “How to Instigate Action on Climate Change,” with Kerry Emanuel, MIT Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science at MIT. Property insurance rates are skyrocketing in Camden and nationwide due in large part to catastrophes like wildfires in Los Angeles and hurricanes in Florida that are caused or worsened by climate change. Yet the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change continue to rise, and little is being done to adapt infrastructure to handle the change. Emanuel argues that this inaction and, even worse, migration from less risky to more risky places, are natural consequences of tax and insurance systems that subsidize building and rebuilding in high-risk locations. Professor Emanuel will present ideas for reversing this migration and sensible measures to deal with our changing climate.

Committee Hearings to Remove Net Energy Billing Incentives for Solar
2025-02-27 09:00 - 10:30 | ME
Tuesday, 9:00 am, Augusta State House, live and via zoom, Committee Hearings to Remove Net Energy Billing Incentives for Solar. Many thanks to readers who have already submitted testimony regarding NEB. There were only two bills opposing net billing—now there are five: LD 32, LD 257, LD 359, LD 450, LD 515. Read the bills, submit testimony. It’s easy and it makes a big difference. See more information on the matter at this page from A Climate to Thrive.

In Transition 2
2025-02-25 17:00 - 17:45 | ME

Saving Walden's World
2025-02-20 18:30 - 19:45 | ME
Thursday, 6:30-7:45 pm, Camden Public Library. Screening of Belfast filmmaker Jim Merkel’s Saving Walden’s World as part of the free monthly series Camden Talks Climate. The showing will be followed by a Q&A and audience discussion with Merkel and Camden-based permaculture educator Joline Blais.
The award-winning film tells the compelling story of how individuals and communities can make profound impacts on the planet. Saving Walden’s World explores the urgent need for ecological balance through stories of resilience, sustainability, and hope in Slovenia, Cuba, and Kerala, India. The film challenges us to rethink our relationship with nature, empowering us to take meaningful actions for a healthier, more harmonious world.
Jim Merkel is a filmmaker, author, and educator who moved from military weapons development to rural homesteading. His book Radical Simplicity empowers readers to create a globally equitable way of life. Jim worked as Dartmouth College’s Sustainability Coordinator and volunteers with the Sierra Club and other community organizations. He and his partner Susan Cutting and their child Walden live off-the-grid, growing much of their food, in a home they built in Belfast, Maine. See more here and here.

Camden Harbor Resilience Visioning Session
2025-02-05 16:30 - 18:00 | 90 Mechanic Street, Camden (for 11/11 only), 90 Mechanic Street, Camden, ME, 04843, United States
Richardson Associates will share the outcomes of the survey and conversations to date and present preliminary high-level harbor visioning alternatives that provide resilience in different concept plans.
They’ll seek community input on these alternatives to better understand the community’s preferences before shaping final recommendations.
This interactive session will have each alternative printed in a large format so folks can comment and identify strengths and weaknesses, using stickers dots and post-it notes. They’ll break the project area into six different sections called “reaches.”
Participants will be asked to comment and prioritize the resilience strategies they like best in each reach, rather than simply picking option A or option B. Refreshments and child care will be provided.

In Transition 1
2025-01-28 17:00 - 18:00 | 90 Mechanic Street, Camden (for 11/11 only), 90 Mechanic Street, Camden, ME, 04843, United States
We’re kicking off 2025 with an inspiring screening of “In Transition 2.0,” a thought-provoking film that explores how many towns are building stronger, more connected communities.
Afterward, dive deeper with our bi-monthly reading group, exploring ideas from The Permaculture City by Toby Hemenway. Together, we’ll tackle topics like creating home and community gardens, mastering water wisdom, finding energy solutions, fostering local livelihoods and wealth, embracing bioregionalism, and rethinking governance.
Bring your curiosity, your ideas, and your passion for resilience—your voice will help secure our community’s future. Led by Joline Blais. Joline researches regenerative design, teaches permaculture, and advises the Terrell House Permaculture Center at UMaine.
Free viewing of The Permaculture City by Toby Hemenway via Internet archive.
