Imagining a More Resilient Asheville
The Collider is bridging the gap between climate science, mitigation, and adaptation, and we need your help.
By Mickey Snowdon, Communications Liaison at The Collider
When I first started working at The Collider, I had a basic understanding of climate change. I knew that greenhouse gases heat our earth, warm our oceans, and melt our glaciers.
I understood that forests, wetlands, and green spaces sequester carbon dioxide and that destroying them causes a positive feedback loop in which the earth continues to warm due to an increased reduction in carbon sinks.
I knew that the agricultural sector — specifically livestock — was a significant contributor of methane, a greenhouse gas 25–30 times more efficient at trapping greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide.
I also knew that climate change disproportionately impacted marginalized communities. I had studied urban heat maps and knew the correlation between heat, air quality, and race. I knew that temperatures in the Arctic were warming twice as fast as other parts of the planet and that indigenous peoples were being forced to adapt to this new reality with little assistance from the rest of the world. I knew that the Global South is ground zero for climate change and that 200 million people are expected to be displaced by severe climate events worldwide by 2050.
I knew that climate and weather are different. I knew that weather refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, while climate is an average of weather over a specific period of time (or, as our friends at the National Centers for Environmental Information say, “Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get”). You need to know this when talking to climate scientists.
But I quickly realized there was so much I didn’t know about climate change after joining The Collider.
What Does The Collider Do?
It’s no secret that The Collider has undergone numerous administrative changes over its four-year life. One of my first tasks as Communications Liaison was redesigning The Collider’s mission statement to reflect a return to its original intention of supporting its members in advancing climate solutions. Coming from a background in marketing, I understood that a mission statement is only as strong as the actions behind it. Thankfully, our staff and our members fully supported our new mission statement, and we immediately began pouring our efforts into building a robust, engaged network of climate service professionals here in Asheville and beyond.
The Collider is a nonprofit member-driven network advancing climate solutions for all to mitigate, adapt, and thrive in a changing climate.
I began working at The Collider because I was in my second year of graduate school at the University of North Carolina — Asheville studying environmental and cultural sustainability, and I needed relevant work experience. I came to the job with the preconceived notion that everyone who worked in the climate sector was either a scientist, a government employee, or a professor. While there are plenty of these people working in climate, it turns out there’s also an entire group working to bring climate products (applications and other technologies and programs) and services (consulting, training, education and outreach, engineering, etc.) to market. These entrepreneurs, companies, organizations, and institutions make up the climate services field, and bridge the gap between the private and public sectors.
Collider members help introduce climate policy, like North Carolina’s recent Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan. They create applications that map (and thus protect) wetlands and inform users of current air quality in their area. They work with local governments and communities to address public health issues like COVID-19 and connect the dots between climate change and human health. They train regional business leaders on the various risks and opportunities presented by climate change.
Integrating the Asheville Climate Network with The Collider
So where do we go from here? The City of Asheville and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce identified climate technology as one of five key target industries in their 2025 5x5 Economic Development Strategic Plan. They also found that there were over 1,100 residents (around 500 full-time) working in climate technology in Buncombe County in 2018.
This shows that there are a plethora of organizations and companies in Asheville working in the climate sector who aren’t Collider members. We call this suggestive network of climate-affiliated entities the Asheville Climate Network (ACN) and envision The Collider as the conduit for anyone working in climate in Asheville “to do good while doing good,” as our founding philanthropist, Mack Pearsall, likes to say.
Many of these companies and organizations may not even realize they work in climate. For example, RiverLink is a local nonprofit organization committed to promoting the environmental and economic viability of the French Broad River watershed. While they don’t directly advertise a focus on climate change, the health of our streams and rivers is dependent upon the health of our climate, meaning RiverLink has an important role in the ACN.
RiverLink recently worked with two Collider members, Blue Earth and Ecosystem Services, on a plan to improve the health of three streams comprising the Central Asheville Watershed. This cross-collaboration is exactly what Asheville needs in order to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. If we had other local organizations and businesses working on topics like environmental justice (the Southern Environmental Law Center), preserving our urban tree canopy (Asheville Greenworks), providing data storage and IT services (Immedion), and even brewing great beer (I’m looking at you, New Belgium and Sierra Nevada) involved in The Collider’s network, the possibilities for the breadth and quality of climate services and technology we could provide Asheville — and the world — are endless.
Integrating the figurative Asheville Climate Network with The Collider is our vision — to connect anyone who wants to work on, learn about, or support climate solutions with experts and entrepreneurs in the field. We believe that this connection will directly benefit our community and the rest of the world environmentally, socially, and economically.
I make the point ad nauseam that everyone is both impacted by and impacts our climate. Because humans like to categorize things, including our economy, we refer to the economics and science of climate as the “climate sector.” But in reality, we all live and work in the climate sector through our daily interactions with our environment. Thus, climate connects us all, and everyone living and working in and around Asheville can play a role in the ACN. After all, if there’s anything our nation can take away from COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the storms, wildfires, and drought that have ravaged large portions of our country this year, it’s that our social and environmental issues are massively entwined.
Let’s work together to build the community we want to live in and share our experience with the rest of the world.
