March 6, 2025
Originally published in The Baltimore Banner.
When Sarah Broadwater first started a rose garden across the street from her East Baltimore home, more than 30 years ago, she hoped it would lend the oft-littered neighborhood some charm.
The 89-year-old Milton-Montford resident still tends that garden, but today she also appreciates the measure of resilience it brings against the rising heat of climate change.
“I think we need to try to control it,” Broadwater said of the warming climate. “We’re not going to stop it, but we need to try to control it.”
Broadwater is among a broad majority of Baltimore-area residents who say they’re worried about how climate change could harm their lives, according to a new survey by Johns Hopkins University researchers. Overall, 73% of residents who answered the survey in the city and Baltimore County expressed concern that climate change will harm them personally.