Climate change has been recognized as impacting everything from economics and the environment to human, ecological, and agricultural health and climate migration. It poses a threat to the world’s quality of life and our cultural heritage is not immune.
Thanks to the efforts and expertise of Phoebe Ward, Lead For Minnesota Fellow for the City of Little Falls, the Morrison County Historical Society (MCHS) has the benefit of a report covering how climate change can and will affect the organization and the collections in its care. Resource Vulnerability Assessment – The Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Museum analyses the threats climate change poses to Minnesota’s cultural heritage using the four climate response pillars identified by the National Park Service – science, mitigation, adaptation and communication. This well-documented report focuses on the potential impacts of climate change to MCHS and provides recommended actions.
As stewards of history, cultural heritage organizations need to be aware of climate change and its significance both now and into the future. It’s a big task, but one that cannot be ignored. May all cultural heritage organizations be lucky enough to have the help of someone like Phoebe!
~Ann Marie Johnson, Preservationist