While these conservation, precautionary principles and
energy-efficiency/cost-savings measures will not avoid an Energy Decline Era,
they are welcome and necessary to prepare us for the creative and pragmatic changes
we must implement on our shared horizons.
Related links below. Links are live. KwC
The
Revolution Will Be Localized
Sundance getaway converts mayors into climate activists
By Amanda Griscom Little, Grist,
14 Jul 2005
City leaders from around the U.S. were treated
to a rare bird's-eye view of the environment earlier this week at the Sundance
Summit, a three-day mayors' retreat on climate change hosted by Robert Redford in Salt Lake City and at his 6,000-acre resort nestled
beneath Utah's Mount Timpanogos, near Park City. In
between briefings on "The State of the Science" and "Why You
Should Care," and tutorials on emissions-trading programs and retrofitting
public transport, a bipartisan troupe of 46 mayors representing nearly 10
million U.S. citizens slathered on sunscreen, grabbed bag lunches, and glided
up the Sundance chairlift over miles of tumbling creeks, quivering aspens, and
ponderosa pines.
"Oh, I'm just lovin' mayor camp!" said Melvin
"Kip" Holden (D), mayor of Baton Rouge, La., as
he dismounted the lift and headed back to the conference center. "I feel
like I'm back in college -- it's just that excitement of learning, that
bigger-than-you feeling of wanting to make change."
That's precisely what Redford and his co-hosts -- Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson (D) and the
nonprofit ICLEI/Local Governments for
Sustainability --
had in mind when they organized the all-expenses-paid gathering, funded in part
by Pew Charitable Trusts and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. "The whole idea was to bring
leaders together in a magical place where the monumental implications of
climate change and a passion for solutions could really take hold," Anderson
told Muckraker.
New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson (D), who served as energy secretary under President Clinton, kicked off
the retreat with a feisty call to arms: "Let's face it, if we wait around
for the federal government to act, we aren't going to see anything
happen," he said. Though Richardson has been a pioneer in promoting renewable energy at the state level, he argued
that "even the states are not as accelerated as the cities" when it
comes to implementing climate initiatives. "I know where the power is, and
I know it's with you guys."
Redford echoed that theme in his opening speech: "You here are closest to
the people," he said. "The best
and most significant change comes from the grassroots." He
later added, "We can't let America play Nero while the planet burns."
The summit was just the latest in a string of recent efforts to galvanize local action on climate change. This year, at the
urging of Seattle Mayor Greg
Nickels, more than 170 mayors nationwide have pledged to adopt
Kyoto targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. The New Cities Project, launched by Madison, Wis., Mayor Dave Cieslewicz (D), has a
network of mayors working to implement on the local level the energy-independence proposals of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor, environmental, and other groups that
aims to spur eco-friendly economic growth. The Institute
for Policy Studies in June launched a Cities for Progress campaign that's pushing for energy security, among other
goals.
The Nation recently chronicled these and other progressive
city-level campaigns in its cover story "Urban
Archipelago," arguing
that cities are the spots to watch for innovative, positive change. And last
week, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof praised Portland,
Ore.,
for having slashed
its greenhouse-gas emissions below 1990 levels, even as it's been booming
economically, proving wrong President Bush's recent claim that "Kyoto would have wrecked our
economy."
Do
the Bright Thing
This kind of economic optimism was a
recurring theme during the Sundance Summit. Executives from the British-based
consultancy The Climate Group impressed many in the audience when describing how 17 major U.S. cities had already reduced
their emissions below 1990 levels and saved a total of $600 million through
efficiency measures. "You must understand that tackling climate is
financially a competitive advantage, not a liability," stressed
Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate
Group.
Patrick McCrory (R), mayor of Charlotte, N.C., and head of the Republican mayors'
association, noted that municipal leaders have the power to move markets:
"We are the ones building roads, designing mass transit, buying the police
cars and dump trucks and earthmovers. We're the ones lighting up the earth when
you look at those maps from space," he said. "Together we have huge purchasing power, and if we
invest wisely, that can have huge implications for the environment."
But not all of the attendees, at first, drank in the cheer. Mark
Begich (D), mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, told Muckraker that
among his predominantly conservative constituency, climate-change initiatives
are a hard sell: "There are members on my city council who think the term
'global warming' is more objectionable than the term 'liberal.' Some consider
it a wacko radical concept."
Mike McKinnon, mayor of
Lynnwood, Wash., said he wasn't even sure what his constituents thought on the
matter. "I don't believe we've had any discussions in our community on
climate change. I have one staff member who is half-time on recycling -- that's
the full extent of my resources on the environment." When asked why he
attended the conference if the issue was so low on his radar screen, he said,
"When I read on the invitation, 'Salt Lake City ... Sundance ... Robert
Redford ... all expenses paid,' that said yes to me!"
Des Moines, Iowa, Mayor T. M. Franklin
Cownie (D) said he wasn't willing to sign any
climate-related agreements without first getting the support of his city
council. "I want to sell 'em first rather than go dump it on 'em. I need
to make sure they understand gas-house [sic] emissions and all that before I
make any big pledges," he told Muckraker.
Graham Richard (D) of Fort
Wayne, Ind., put it this way: "My job is to be pragmatic. If I approach
this issue with my constituents as some kind of Kyoto thing, I guarantee
that'll raise a stink. Now if I sell it as a cost-saving measure, that's
another story."
After hearing a litany of suggestions for investing in energy-efficient
lighting, clean energy for municipal buildings, and hybrid-engine police cars, Roberta Cooper of Hayward,
Calif., said, "I am a small-town mayor with small-town resources. I don't
have the budget or the political leverage" to buy into such programs.
But these are precisely the doubts and barriers that the Sundance organizers
hoped to address. "We didn't want to bring the choir here," said
Mayor Anderson. ICLEI Executive Director Michelle
Wyman explained that a lot of research went into selecting
cities and towns that "historically tended to be more conservative on
enviro issues and were also hotspots for CO2 emissions. We wanted to cut
through the partisan barriers and recruit grassroots climate leaders in new
regions." And they had reason to be proud of their outreach -- of the 58
invitations sent out, 48 were accepted.
Sunny
Daze, Sweeping the Clouds Away
Indeed, as the sessions went on, skepticism
began to fade and the message got through to even some of the most dubious
participants.
The most persuasive cris de coeur came from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D), whose
photograph was snapped admiringly by more than a few of his smaller-town
counterparts. He has implemented measures on everything from tree planting and
bike paths to renewable-energy standards and requirements that "all of our major big-box [stores] have to do green
roofs," he said. He later told Muckraker that cities, more than
states or federal agencies, "are terrific laboratories for testing
environmental policies and initiatives. We can demonstrate what works [to
reduce emissions] and send a signal to the federal level that they are
economically safe to implement."
Soon, the ideas were flowing. Hayward's Cooper suggested that all small-town
mayors unite in a coalition to increase their purchasing power for clean energy
and green products: "If I join forces with mayors in neighboring cities, I
have more leverage. By joining each other we can be more effective and
adventurous than by standing alone." Fort Wayne's Richard then expanded on
the idea, proposing a large nationwide network of mayors that could buy green
products collectively in an online auction to accelerate economies of scale.
Aspen Mayor Helen Klanderud
suggested that cities participate in a "Canary Alliance" (see below) in which they would document the local
impacts of climate change -- "how warming is threatening the skiing
industry in Aspen, how drought is affecting crops in Idaho, and so on. That's
the way to get people to understand that it is a local
problem."
ICLEI's Wyman was thrilled with the results of the conference, saying, "What happened over the course of the past three days
will change the way U.S. cities consume resources and do business."
She pledged that her organization would help implement the ideas that emerged,
chronicle successes and failures, and organize annual follow-up summits.
Redford, too, was positively buoyant: "What gives me hope is that in
politics, baby steps can lead to sea change," he told Muckraker. "The
whole political system can be terribly sluggish, stalemated, constipated -- the
barriers can seem insurmountable. But then all these distributed little pockets
of inspiration slowly begin opening up, joining together, building a collective
force, and can suddenly give way to tremendous momentum and change. That, I
hope, is what's under way."
McKinnon of Lynnwood may end up bringing inspiration back to his pocket of the
world; he's now vowed to strike up a dialogue in his community on climate
change. "I've decided to make my half-time employee full-time," he
beamed, "with a focus not just on recycling, but climate too. I just can't
wait to get back home and start implementing."
|
Amanda Griscom Little writes Grist's Muckraker column on environmental
politics and policy and interviews green luminaries for the magazine. Her
articles on energy and the environment have also appeared in publications
ranging from Rolling
Stone to The New York Times
Magazine.
|
http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2005/07/14/little-sundance/
Related
Aspen, Colorado Canary Initiative http://www.agci.org/canary.html
Sustainable Business.com http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/
