Smackdown: 146 and Counting
Major props to Seattle mayor Greg Nickels who recently started the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. It is becoming something of a smackdown to federal leadership that refuses to take global warming seriously. The idea is simple: if the US government won't ratify the Kyoto Protocol, then the constituent parts of the nation will.
So Seattle made the pledge to meet Kyoto's standards (reduce greenhouse gas emissions 7 percent from 1990 levels by 2012); and then Nickels started rounding up other cities to join in. The response has been overwhelming, and not just from small-fry or blue-state cities either. The full list is here. Following are a few of my favorites:
New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Miami, Newark, Denver, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Little Rock, Louisville, New Orleans, Boston, Kansas City, Albuquerque, Austin, Portland, and Tacoma.
It's a surprisingly diverse list, drawing together nearly 31 million Americans from 36 states--everywhere from Cambridge, Mass to Macon, Georgia to Gary, Indiana. Nickel's initiative picked up some nice media coverage in the New York Times recently, among other places.
For Cascadia counters: The list includes 12 cities in Washington, 3 in Oregon, 2 in Montana, and 30 in California. None, so far, in Idaho or Alaska.
UPDATE: Some other non-Cascadian pledges worth noting: The states of New York, Massachusetts, and Maine have all pledged to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent by 2020. New Jersey has pledged 5 percent reductions by 2005. Taken together, these northeast state initiatives add up to more than 35 million Americans who are pledging to Kyoto-like carbon targets.
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