Is Your City Cool, Dude?

Every serious scientific periodical currently seems to be headlining the future effects of global warming, and predicting that future to be much closer than was thought even a few years ago. Science Magazine (Special Online Collection: Breaking the Ice), Nature Magazine (Warnings Rise Over Rising Seas), Scientific American (Climate Model Predicts Greater Melting, Submerged Cities), and as I mentioned over the weekend, the April 3 issue of Time Magazine also has our future fate as the cover story.

None of these stories posits this as merely a theory, or a vague possibility; it's happening, baby, as we speak, and that is how the story is being told. So, the good news - and there is some - is that while our federal government dithers and twitters, doubts and spins, many of our city mayors are taking matters into their own and their citizens' hands. The most active of these mayors has to be Greg Nickels of Seattle, Washington:

Over the past year, Nickels has led a campaign to get U.S. cities to pledge to meet or beat the goals set in the international Kyoto Protocol, an agreement rejected by the Bush administration that strives to cut global-warming emissions.

By Friday, 219 cities had joined the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. (City commits to big cut in greenhouse gas emissions, Seattle Post Intelligencer)

The strategies that Nickels and other mayors are using in this campaign are mainly: pushing for cleaner vehicles, energy efficiency, sustainable buildings and renewable energy. Nickels has created a Green Ribbon Commission on Climate Protection; the homepage for which is accesible here. None of this is high-tech futuristic stuff, it's merely asking citizens to make some changes in their fossil-fuel-burning lifestyles and conserve energy:

The plan focuses on curbing emissions from cars, trucks, SUVs and buses -- Seattle's leading source of greenhouse gases. Globally, gases come primarily from burning fossil fuels such as gasoline, coal, natural gas, diesel and oil.

The proposed solutions are multi-faceted in their approach and include increasing bus service, building more bike lanes and parking spaces, and discouraging driving by imposing tolls and higher parking lot taxes. There are recommended zoning changes that would encourage the creation of pedestrian-friendly communities where stores, jobs and homes are close together. (Op.cit.)

The Sierra Club is working with many American cities and their mayors, including the star of the show, Seattle and Mayor Nickels, via a program they call "Cool Cities," the slogan for which is: "Solving Global Warming One City at a Time." These cities are not making vague promises about doing something thirty years down the road, their pledge is to reduce global warming carbon pollution in their cities to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. This is an accomplishment which would make a real difference.

At the Cool Cities site you can find out if your city is on the list, learn the four steps involved in becoming a Cool City, and how to become an activist in this struggle. I repeat Dave's plea from his post, What Can We Do?: "Listen, the best thing you can do is get involved. Please care. Please believe that a small group of dedicated individuals can make a difference in the world. All of us are needed. Find what works for you. But please get involved. We really can make a difference."

| +Save/Share | |