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A Conversation with Keith Bergman
Provincetown Town Manager Keith Bergman is one of the first 50 of 1,000 people nationwide that Al Gore trained to give his Inconvenient Truth slide show on global warming. To date, his audiences include residents of his own town, Wellfleet, Hyannis and Nantucket, and the Cape Cod Commission, the Cape Cod National Seashore Commission and the Cape Light Compact.

Bergman spoke with Independent environmental reporter Peter B. Brace on Monday about climate change issues facing Nantucket and the rest of the world.

What gets you out in front of a crowd of people to give this presentation -- why is Keith Bergman doing this?

"I've seen the light. I had my personal epiphany about ayear ago when I first saw Al Gore give his presentation on global warming. It was my awakening and I'm not the same person I was before. I got to be a part of the effort to inform the public about the situation we're in and how something can be done about it."

What do you say to the skeptics who admit global warming is happening but now say that you, Al Gore and the climate change scientists are not showing the public any actual data as proof?

"Here's the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community: there's more than a 90-percent certainty based on the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report that was issued a couple weeks ago, that global warming is fact. In the face of such overwhelming evidence, it's vitally important that the information get out and that people make an informed judgment based on the truth, however inconvenient that truth may be."

Where can Nantucket residents look to find tangible, convincing evidence of climate change on their island?

"The canaries in the coal mine, the early warning signs of climate change are found in areas like Antarctica and the Arctic region where there is unmistakable evidence of melting ice mass, melting glaciers. For places like Nantucket and other coastal communities right at sea level, the stakes are very high because of the threat of melting glaciers. The impact they could have on the rise in sea levels would have a much greater impact on coastal communities like Nantucket than places inland."

Realistically, ethanol is not the long-term solution everyone thinks it is as an alternative fuel for transportation, but what is?

"I think biodiesel is at the top of the list of alternative fuels that could be pursued. I think that we're very close to having other fuels like E85 ethanol, but I think there are still some bugs to be worked out. E85 based on corn is not a panacea, it's not the ultimate answer, but there may be other technologies that are just a short time away.

"We need to be doing things like having our municipal fleets be flex fuel vehicles, which could shift over to alternative fuels."

Sixty-six percent of Nantucket voters said no to Cape Wind's proposed wind farm for Nantucket Sound in a non-binding referendum in our 2006 local elections. If not Nantucket Sound, then where?

"I hope the jury's not out on Nantucket Sound and I don't think that Nantucket Sound is the beginning of the end of wind energy in the waters of Massachusetts. Provincetown and other communities are looking at onshore and offshore sites for wind. I think the issue of wind energy is a much, much bigger than Cape Wind. Cape Wind should become the background noise of the issue of wind energy."

The IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report said that sea level increases are not going to be as severe as originally predicted. Regardless, what should Nantucketers do to prepare for any increase in ocean levels?

"I think the answer is to be part of a worldwide shift in energy policy. While it's certainly going to take individual efforts, even from true believers who have watched the film, An Inconvenient Truth, they say 'OK, I get it, I've watched it, global warming is a problem, so therefore I should change a light bulb.' They're being facetious about that because you need to do a lot more than just change a light bulb, although the individual act that is represented by that is very important.

"I think Nantucket is in an unusual position to carve out for itself a leadership role in our new green economy. If people are looking for places like Nantucket and the Cape, which prides [themselves] with their link to the environment as being a place people could come to appreciate the natural surroundings, then I think it's a tremendous opportunity for Nantucket to look at ways it can be a national show place."

What is the importance of the town signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, thereby ratifying the Kyoto Protocol?

"In Provincetown, we brought it to Town Meeting. With the act of over 400 voters, Town Meeting overwhelmingly endorsed it. That may have been unusual. We may have been the only Town Meeting where the measure was brought forward. But I felt it was important to have an indication of a broad community support for the initiative.

"Whether it's a Town Meeting or whether it's the board of selectmen or the community or the mayor, it's an act of political leadership and vision about

the future." I