Seattle's Green Mayor Brings Kyoto to the Backyard

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Seattle's Green Mayor Brings Kyoto to the Backyard

 

August 04, 2006 — By Mary Milliken and Daisuke Wakabayashi, Reuters

SEATTLE — On the frontier of the fight against global warming, the mayor of

Seattle boldly goes where the U.S. president will not -- like right to America's

backyards.

 

As the mayor spearheading a drive to get U.S. cities to sharply reduce

greenhouse gas emissions, Greg Nickels is proposing a host of " green "

initiatives, like urging Seattle dwellers to build rental units in their

backyards to stem city sprawl and get people to live closer to downtown.

 

" We have lots of jobs downtown and we want to balance that with having a lot of

new residents so that people are literally walking to work, " Nickels told

Reuters in an interview this week in his energy-efficient City Hall overlooking

Puget Sound.

 

Nickels is the mayor who first urged U.S. cities to adhere to the targets of the

Kyoto Protocol, the 164-nation agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

President Bush pulled the United States out of the treaty in 2001.

 

One year after launching the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, Nickels

said 275 mayors representing 48 million Americans had promised to cut their

heat-trapping gas emissions 7 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

 

While recognizing that there is really no way to enforce the pledges, Nickels

said the cities -- like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas and even some

smaller ones like Denton, Texas -- are working to share their best ideas.

 

" We will come up with a menu of things that other cities and states and

ultimately the country can use as a menu for how we achieve this goal, " he said.

 

SEGWAYS YES, HIGHWAYS NO

 

Another prominent west coast politician, California's Republican Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger this week took a similar stand as the Democrat Nickels, accusing

the federal government of lacking leadership on the environment. The United

States is the biggest producer of greenhouse gases, with a quarter of the world

total.

 

Bush refuses to discuss mandatory cuts he says would hurt the economy. But

Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair teamed up with an agreement

on research for clean energy technologies and work on emissions trading.

 

Former President Bill Clinton, who signed the United States up for Kyoto, turned

his foundations's focus to fighting global warming this week by joining up with

22 of the largest cities around the world to help them become more energy

efficient.

 

Most scientists link greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emitted from the

burning of fossil fuels, to global warming that could lead to heat waves,

stronger storms and flooding from rising sea levels.

 

Seattle, a city of 575,000 people, wants to lead by example. Its public utility,

Seattle City Light, became the first major U.S. electric utility to achieve zero

net emissions of greenhouse gases last year.

 

The mayor exchanged his Cadillac sedan for a Toyota hybrid sports utility

vehicle and Seattle meter readers ride electric motor Segways around the city.

 

He predicted a groundswell of support for environmental programs on the local

and state level would capture the attention of U.S. presidential candidates and

put the environment on the front burner for the 2008 election.

 

" The next administration, whether it's a Democrat or a Republican elected

president, will take this issue seriously and rejoin the community of nations in

trying to find an answer, " Nickels said.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

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