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