Adopt-a-Mayor is Here

By working with your own local government, you can make a real difference to the environment. A priority of Oregon Local Sustainability is to get people in different cities and towns across the state working with their own city governments to bring about change; this site will help you start a campaign for sustainability in your own community.

Here's how to begin:

1) Find out what your city is already doing to become more sustainable and reduce its contribution to global warming. Click here to see if your city is already on Oregon Local Sustainability's list of communities that are working to prevent climate change.

2) Once you know a little about what your city is or is not already doing, it's time to contact the mayor or a city councilor. If your city already has some kind of policy or formal agreement on sustainability, it will be your job to help it live up to its lofty goals. If the city currently lacks any such policy, then formulating one might be a good place to start. Consider asking your city to sign onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement as a possible means to get the community started on thinking about climate change. For a more detailed step-by-step plan of action to get your city working on sustainability, click here.

3) Report back to Oregon Sustainability about the progress you make. Leave questions or comments on this site's main page. The purpose of this site is to help you accomplish change in your community,

If we can get enough people in different cities working on sustainability and reporting back to this site, we will soon have a statewide network of activists accomplishing real change. But this all depends on people like you beginning to work with your city government. There's no time like the present to get started.

Just Imagine....

Imagine an Oregon in which several of our largest cities are working together to reduce greenhouse emissions. What if our local governments decided to make agreements amongst themselves on a timeline for reducing emissions, while sharing ideas with one another on how to achieve their goals? It could happen. Five of Oregon's six largest cities have signed onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement; it's unclear how serious some of them are about taking urgently-needed action, but the public statement they have made by signing the Agreement could make it more likely that they would be willing to talk about cross-city emissions-reduction goals.

Oregon cities like Portland and Eugene are already leading the way to a sustainable future; if the rest of our large urban areas get in on the action, the effect could be profound. And it's not just about the big cities - smaller suburbs and towns have can make a difference, too! Imagine a conference where representatives from cities across the state of Oregon sat down and made plans to reduce their collective greenhouse emissions. So far, this is just a theoretical concept - your help is needed to turn it into reality. The Adopt-a-Mayor program, soon to be launched by Oregon Local Sustainability, will encourage the local governments to get involved in global warming solutions. The work of individuals who care about the environment can turn Oregon's cities into leaders in local sustainability.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY ACTION DASHBOARD

Is Your Mayor Serious About Climate Change?

Many cities across the state of Oregon have taken at least tentative steps toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Ten of our cities have signed onto the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Several are working with the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) to bring emissions down. But it's safe to say that the number of mayors who have made lofty statements about confronting climate change exceeds the number of cities that are really doing what is required to curb global warming. Take, for instance, the city of Beaverton. Beaverton mayor Rob Drake has signed the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and says the city is commited to fighting climate change. It is far from clear, however, that his city really intends to back up these brave words with meaningful action. The situation in other cities is similar to that in Beaverton. Given all this, how can concerned citizens be sure that their city government really takes climate change seriously?

What is needed is a state-wide network of people who are willing to push their governments for real change, keep tabs on some of the emission-reduction projects in their cities, and report on what they find out. Oregon Local Sustainability will soon be introducing the Adopt-a-Mayor program, to make this vision a reality. Oregon Local Sustainability will provide you with as much information as possible about the current status of emissions-reduction projects in your city. Concerned citizens who wish to participate will then be able to push their city towards taking the next step toward real progress. Questions or comments about the Adopt-a-Mayor program can be posted on this website; your inquiries about how to get started will be answered by someone with experience convincing a local government to reduce emissions. If you are interested in participating, look for a new post on this blog soon, with more information about Adopt-a-Mayor. City be city, we will move Oregon toward carbon neutrality.

MEANWHILE, THERE ARE OTHER INITIATIVES ON THE LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY ACTION DASHBOARD THAT CAN GET YOU STARTED ON MAKING CHANGE

Hillsboro Argus: Global Warming is Not a Priority

On May 15th, the Hillsboro City Council voted unanimously to work with the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions, and authorized Mayor Tom Hughes to sign the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. This was a landmark moment in the effort to make the city more sustainable. It's importance, however, was lost on the press; the city newspaper, the Hillsboro Argus, has not reported on the victory, and does not plan to do so. An Argus reporter was present at the public city council meeting at which the vote was made, but does not consider the decision to be worth writing about. This is a confirmation of a sad fact; even at this time when "green" issues are getting more attention from the public than they have for years, even in the environmentally renowned Northwest, it is hard to convince people that the health of the planet is not just a "side issue" to the mainstream news.

THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE. CLICK HERE TO PROTECT OREGON'S ENVIRONMENT

Twice in the past year, the Argus did report on the city's efforts to do something about global warming. The first article was as much a human-interest story as an environmental one, as it covered the role of a Hillsboro student in convincing the city council to look at further reducing greenhouse emissions. The second article, a 223 blurb printed five months later, briefly stated the city council's intention to vote on the resolution that ended up passing on May 15th. With a third, slightly higher-profile article reporting on the adoption of the resolution, the Argus could have done a reasonably decent job following the global warming story. But no such article is going to come out of the paper. The reporter who wrote the first two articles states that she feels she has "already covered [global warming] sufficiently." Apparently, environmental crisis is a minor concern, worthy of a short piece here and there when the paper has a shortage of good stories. This generation of Americans' response to global warming could be the defining feature of the early twenty-first century. But someone forgot to tell the Argus.

With or without a blessing from the press, we must make real environmental change. VISIT LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY'S ACTION DASHBOARD TO GET STARTED

Hillsboro Commits to Fight Global Warming

Global warming is the most serious environmental problem of our time, but local governments can take meaningful action to stop it. On Tuesday, May 15th, the fifth largest city in Oregon resolved to take serious steps to address this issue that threatens life on the planet Earth. That night, the Hillsboro City Council voted unanimously to work with ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability on a plan to reduce the city's emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants. In addition, the council authorized Mayor Tom Hughes to sign the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which would also commit the city to cutting its emissions. The mayor expressed his intention of signing.

This is a big step for Hillsboro. By signing onto the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, the city will publicly state its intention to "turn down the heat." ICLEI will then help Hillsboro to measure its current emissions, devise a realistic plan for reducing those emissions, and live up to the lofty goals it has set for itself. Hillsboro will be the ninth city in Oregon to have signed onto the Mayors Agreement. Once it joins the others, five of the states six largest cities will have signed on (the only one holding out is Salem). This makes a powerful statement, which officials at higher levels of government will have to listen to. Truly, Tuesday evening was a good night for the environment.

We can make real change to create sustainable communities. Visit the OREGON LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY ACTION DASHBOARD to find out what else is going on.

Small Steps

VISIT THE OCCSN ACTION DASHBOARD TO URGE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TO ACT AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING

What are you willing to do to stop global warming? What is each one of us willing to do, individually? To stop the catastrophic effects of climate change, worldwide greenhouse emissions must be cut more drastically and more quickly than any country is currently planning to cut them. If the United States had signed onto the Kyoto Treaty, that would not have solved our problems; it would have been a start, but Kyoto does not call for reducing emissions by anything close to the amount needed to avoid disaster. What we need is for the United States - the largest emitter of carbon dioxide - to develop a plan that is much more aggressive than Kyoto, and dramatically reduce its contributions to global warming within the next few decades. However, the federal government has refused to take any action at all, while need for it grows all the time. So how are we going to pull through this crisis?

I will now provide a link to the OCCSN Action Dashboard, where you can urge cities to reduce their greenhouse emissions. Check it out, by all means - but the point I'm making in this post is slightly different from usual.

It may be hard, but we will all have to pitch in if global warming is going to be stopped. Maybe soon the federal government will do something meaningful, but politics in our country - largely controlled by corporate interests - is unlikely to allow the action of the kind we need. States will still have to do their part. Cities and counties will have to do their part. And individuals will have to help, too.

Are you willing to mow your lawn by hand, instead of using a motorized lawn mower? Are you willing to ride a bike to the grocery store, instead of driving in a car? Are you willing to take a walk outdoors for exercise, instead of walking on an electric treadmill? Are you willing to do all of this so that civilization - and the world - can have a future? I'm not trying to be like Al Gore, who stands up in front of Congress asking for change, but at home uses twenty times as much energy as the average American. I actually walk the walk, as best I can. I take public transportation; I use fluorescent lighting, instead of incandescent bulbs; I keep the thermostat low; I purchase locally grown food. I am doing what I can - and so are hundreds of other people across the country. But what we need is not action from hundreds of people, but millions. Global warming could be stopped without any action from the federal government at all. The question is: are you willing to do what it takes?

Putting the Heat on Salem and Medford

On February 20th, 2007, the Oregon Cities Climate Solutions Network sent a letter to Janet Taylor, mayor of Salem, and to Gary Wheeler, mayor of Medford. These are two of the largest cities in Oregon that have not yet committed to developing a comprehensive plan to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions throughout the city; OCCSN asked that they join major cities such as Portland, Eugene, and Gresham, which have already made that commitment. It is important that all the larger cities in the state contribute to the effort to combat global warming at the local level, so the success of the Salem/Medford campaign is essential. Signatures collected on the petitions sponsored by OCCSN, which ask the mayors of these two cities to take action, will help to back up the letters that were sent on the 20th.

VISIT THE OCCSN ACTION DASHBOARD AND SIGN THE PETITIONS

We need to get as many signatures as possible on those two petitions, so that Salem and Medford will have no choice but to listen to our request. The movement to make Oregon a leader in renewable energy and anti-global warming technology is well on its way, with action taking place at both state and local levels. However, there are still major cities that have not committed to joining in this effort, and that needs to change. Please sign the petitions, if you have not done so already, and urge others to sign them as well.

A Unique Chance to Make Change

All over this nation, local governments have become an essential part of the movement to stop global warming. Unfortunately, higher levels of government have often been lagging behind. This web site normally deals with Oregon issues, but right now we have a unique chance to help our fellow activists in Texas. The Texas state government plans to allow the utility company TXU to build eleven new giant coal plants that would release 78 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year. It is imperative that this project be stopped, and luckily, hundreds of people are working to make sure that plans for the coal plants are discarded. In a shining example of how local government officials can contribute to climate solutions, a coalition of Texas mayors has formed in opposition to the coal plant project - this is just the sort of thing we want to encourage in Oregon, and all over the country! Help these brave mayors out by signing a petition, sponsored by the Rainforest Action Network, which urges major banks to refuse to fund the TXU coal plants.

SIGN THE PETITION!

VISIT THE OCCSN ACTION DASHBOARD TO TAKE FURTHER ACTION!