Hillsboro, Oregon's fifth largest city, is working on a plan to reduce its greenhouse emissions. Several important details remain unresolved, for instance, should the city sign onto the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and join approximately 400 other local governments in the US that have signed onto this document? The Mayors Climate Protection Agreement was drafted in 2005, by mayors who resolved to reduce global warming pollution in their cities by 7% below 1990 levels by the year 2012. Since then, hundreds of cities have signed on, but some cities have interpreted the Agreement differently.
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The goal of bringing emissions "7% below 1990 levels by 2012" is unrealistic for cities like Hillsboro, whose population has more than doubled in the last seventeen years. However, cities unable to meet that specific goal can develop their own target, and still sign the Agreement to show their general support for curbing global warming. The hundreds of cities that have signed the document send a powerful message: they show that global warming is an issue important to city governments. By signing the Agreement a city commits to reducing emissions in whatever way it can, but putting the mayor's signature on the document also confirms that the city is part of a nation-wide movement that confronts one of the most important issues ever taken on by local governments. So should Hillsboro sign the Agreement? What do you think?
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