Greenpeace

Four days ago, I sent emails to the Mayors of Hillsboro and Beaverton - the two largest cities in Washington County - asking them to contact the Washington County Board of Commissioners, and express support for this becoming a Cool County.  Both Hillsboro and Beaverton are already Cool Cities; it would be very valuable for the county commissioners to hear about why these local governments chose to participate in the city-level part of the movement that the county must now join.  I'm happy to say that Mayor Rob Drake, of Beaverton, was quick in responding to my message, and agreed to speak with Chairman Tom Brian, of the County Board of Commissioners, about reducing global warming pollutants. 

Mayor Drake states that the City of Beaverton is "proud of supporting the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement [which it endorsed in order to become a Cool City] and the work we'll do to achieve positive results toward a more sustainable community."  The city governments of both Beaverton and Hillsboro are on the right track, in looking for ways that they can cut back on global warming pollutants from their area; however, the county must get involved, too.  Once Washington County has agreed to go "Cool," Beaverton, Hillsboro, and the county government will be able to work together to make a real difference to our planet.

If you want to support the campaign to make Washington County a Cool County, please sign the brand-new petition to the Board of Commissioners.  The Board needs to hear from ordinary people who care about the environment; make your voice matter.

Where do the Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement find the most in common?  Both depend on shifting US energy usage away from fossil fuels, and onto wind, solar, and other renewable forms of energy.  As long as US is powering its economy with oil and other fossil fuels extracted largely from conflict-prone regions of the world, we will never have lasting peace.  And as long as the burning of fossil fuels continues to change our climate - faster than it has ever changed due to natural causes - the global environment is in mortal peril.  Last night, peace and environmentalism intersected at the weekly Washington County Peace Vigil in Beaverton, Oregon.

The Peace Vigil has been assembling every Wednesday at 6:30 pm, at Hall Blvd & 5th St in Beaverton, for nearly two years.  Each week, ordinary people from all walks of life come together to hold cardboard signs up to passing cars, in protest of the Iraq war and the myth that violence can solve our problems.  I myself am a relative newcomer to the Peace Vigil, but have been attending whenever possible for the past few months.  And last night, I came prepared to give other activists the chance to help stear Washington County toward a fossil fuel-free future.  Wearing a sign that read, "Ask Me How WA County can Kick the Oil Addiction," I handed out "peace dove," cards asking the county Board of Commissioners to sign onto the US Cool Counties Climate Stabilzation Declaration. 

Find out more about how WA County can become a Cool County at the WASHINGTON COUNTY CAMPAIGN CENTER 

The cards will eventually be delivered to Chairman Tom Brian of the Washington County Board of Commissioners.  Last night was truly inspiring, with many people expressing their wish that the county, the nation, and the world might move toward a new future where violence and the exploitation of our environment gives way to respect for our global ecosystem and all forms of life.  Admitedly, convincing one county to decrease its use of fossil fuels is a very small part of the solution; however, it is only through hundreds of small steps like this that real change will be made.

The "peace dove" project is just one part of the campaign to make Washington County a Cool County.  The county is being approached by ordinary citizens and local politicians, and the campaign is using many of the same tactics that succeeded in making Hillsboro, Oregon, a Cool City.  Read more about the project at the Washington County Campaign Center.

-Nick

 The American public seems frantic for strong government action that addresses global warming.  Yet, although the federal government may finally be starting to take this issue seriously, progress at the federal level continues to move forward at a glacial pace.  In its version of this year's Energy Bill, the US Senate took some very modest steps toward decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels, which include establishing a 35 mph fuel economy standard for cars, trucks, and SUVs.  Even these measures, however, still hinge on approval by the House of Representatives. 

Continued lack of action from the federal government means that making change at lower government levels is more important than ever.  Some of Oregon's national representatives, such as Earl Blumenauer and David Wu, have shown a commitment to the fight against global warming.  However in Oregon, as in the nation at large, the real heroes in the fight against global warming are local officials.  Cities like Portland and Eugene have already taken great strides toward carbon neutrality, with Hillsboro, Beaverton, and others poised to follow their lead.  Furthermore, the county level of government is now getting in on the action; with some pressure from ordinary citizens, the counties of the Portland Metropolitan Area may end up becoming some of the nation's first Cool Counties.  The absence of action from Congress and the White House does not mean hope is lost.  Rather, it simply underlines the importance of working for change at lower levels of government.  Want to get more involved?  Visit the Global Warming Action Dashboard.

-Nick

Over 600 cities across the United States - including ten in Oregon - are now Cool Cities, meaning that they hav signed onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and pledged to reduce their emissions of global warming pollutants.  The Cool Cities movement has helped inspire initiatives across the country that are designed to decrease our cities' dependence on fossil fuels, while improving environmental quality.  Now it is time to build on this success, and move up to the next level of government: counties.  The new Cool Counties campaign, initiated partly by the Sierra Club, will encourage US counties to reduce their greenhouse emissions.  Will your county be one of the first to get on board the movement?

The three counties responsible for starting up the campaign are King County, WA, Fairfax County, VA, and Nassau County, NY.  These three, and others, have committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below current levels by the year 2050, most likely cutting emissions by about 2% each year until that time.  A reduction of this type is what scientists say we need to make all across the country, in order to stave off the effects of global warming.  And this is what all counties that sign onto the Cool Counties initiative will be doing.  Here in Oregon, it's we need to make sure that our major counties make this pledge that others have already taken on.

I will be working to make Washington County, OR, a Cool County.  If activists in all of our state's major counties begin working with their own county governments, we can bring on real change very soon.  There are far fewer counties in Oregon that there are cities, so we can cover the whole state more quickly working county by county than we could working city by city.  I will keep readers of this blog up-to-date on the Washington County campaign.  It's up to you to get in your own county government - whether you live inside Oregon or not - and begin the process of world-changing there.

-Nick

On June 4th, the city council of Corvallis, Oregon, unanimously agreed to give Legend Homes - a subsidiary of Matrix Homes - permission to build 221 suburban houses on fifty seven acres of the Witham Oaks tract - an area of oak savanna, oak forest, and wetlands within walking distance of 10,000 Corvallis citizens.  The oak savanna within Witham Oaks represents a habitat type that is declining across North America; remaining pockets of oak savanna, like those in the Corvallis area, should be set aside as preserves.  However, the City of Corvallis, normally considered pretty "green," has approved this environmentally devastating project.  In addition to destroying threatened ecosystems, the Witham Oaks development will add urban sprawl to the city, encouraging long-distance commuting and the associated greenhouse gas emissions.  This is a bad deal for the environment all around.

Fortunately, Corvallis residents concerned about the impacts of this project are appealing the case to the Land Use Board of Appeals, in hopes of overturning the city council's verdict.  There is still time to save Witham Oaks.  I am looking at ways ordinary people can help, and will keep you updated on this blog.  In the meantime, feel free to visit the "Keep Witham Wild" website, which was put together by the Corvallis citizens resisting the development project.  And don't hesitate to spread the word about the desructive practices of Legend Home - below is a photo that shows one activist's idea of "protesting" Legend's activities.

Under former Mayor Helen Berg, Corvallis became one of the first four cities in Oregon to sign onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (there are now ten signatoree cities in Oregon).  By signing this historic Agreement, the city committed to reducing global warming pollutants, and also urged the federal government to take strong action against climate change. 

After doing some research, I learned this year that Helen Berg is no longer in office - she resigned after serving Corvallis for many years, and the post of mayor was taken over by Charles Tomlinson.  This called into question whether Corvallis would continue to be a participant in the Mayors Agreement, and I sent an email to Mayor Tomlinson to ask if the city intended to continue upholding its commitment; the mayor said he would pass my message on to the current city council.  I am happy to report that I received another email from Charles Tomlinson yesterday, stating that the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement had been re-ratified in Corvallis; this means the city intends to continue working toward environmental solutions.

Signing the Mayors Agreement is a good way for a city to publicly state its intention of reducing greenhouse emissions.  The Agreement is, however, non-binding.  It will be important to monitor the current city government, and make sure that it follows through with the commitment stated in the Agreement.  Corvallis also has a city-wide sustainability policy, and a sustainability coordinator to oversee environmental projects.  However, it is no Ecotopia, as yet.  The approval this spring of the Witham Oaks development project, which plopped over 200 suburban houses onto what had formerly been a unique oak savanna, cast a shadow over Corvallis' pledge to become sustainable. 

The Witham Oaks project added to urban sprawl, and doomed a valuable ecosystem unnecessarily.  It remains to be seen whether the future of Corvallis will be dominated by destructive projects like this, or by sustainable development and environmentally sound practices.  The re-ratification of the Mayors Agreement is an encouraging sign, but there are still many questions to be answered.  Feel free to contact Mayor Tomlinson at mayor@council.ci.corvallis.or.us to let him know your thoughts.  And if you do contact the mayor, please let be know in a reply to this post.

   What you do today, to fight global warming, will matter for centuries.  We have only about a decade to really begin reducing worldwide greenhouse emissions; we have to do what it takes to make this happen, and we have to do it now.  Imagine if Americans took the fight against global warming as seriously as they took the threat of Nazism during World War II.  Millions of ordinary people in the US mobilized during the 1940's to support the war effort, consuming fewer materials so that resources could be use for war equipment, planting vegetable gardens at home so crops could go to feeding armies in Europe, and driving much less so that gasoline could go to powering the war.  US citizens were encouraged to carpool with the admonishen, "If you ride alone, you ride with Hitler."  All of these practices, if taken up today, would help to stop global warming.  The difference, of course, is that instead of using the resources we save to power a war, we should refrain from consuming them at all; we must keep fossil fuels in the ground where they belong, instead of burning them.  We have to take the strain off rainforests and other ecosystems that absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

Individual choices matter in this effort.  It will be neccessary for everyone who cares about the environment to choose responsibility over pleasure in coming years.  My own family just made the decision that instead of spending money on a weekend vacation by car - which would add carbon to the air - we will invest in an Energy Star washing machine, and reduce our household's carbon footprint.  Choices like this do matter.  So replace the incandescent lightbulbs in your house with more efficient fluorescent bulbs.  Drive less.  Consume less.  Unplug electric appliances when they aren't in use.  This is a fight we can win, but we must approach it with as much determination as the generation of Word War II approached the struggle against Facism.  Can we triumph over global warming?  It's up to each of us to show that we can.

From the summer of 2005 to the fall of 2007, I had the priviledge of working with some remarkable people to convince the city council of Hillsboro, Oregon to adopt a resolution on sustainability which ensures that the city will sign onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and become a member of the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI).  Hillsboro will still face many decisions regarding what kind of action to take and how to make its communities more sustainable.  It will be important that the city councilors and Mayor Tom Hughes hold fast to the commitment they have made, and take tangible steps to curb global warming.  However, the resolution that the council passed is a remarkable first step.  Now the city has signed onto the Mayors Agreement, and it is applying for membership in ICLEI.  By working with ICLEI staff, Hillsboro will be able to inventory current sources of greenhouse emissions, set a goal for reducing them, and then take real steps to curb emissions.  Hillsboro is the fifth largest city in Oregon, and for it to commit to this kind of goal is a big deal. 

To ensure that Hillsboro follows through with its commitment, the local government needs to hear from people who care about the future of the planet, and who appreciate what the city is trying to do.  Whether you live inside Hillsboro or not, please click here to send an email to Mayor Tom Hughes, thanking him for helping to move this project toward completion.