Town council makes global warming become local

We've all heard that global warming is causing climate change.

Many of us have seen "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's book and movie on the subject, with its shocking graphics of coastal areas flooding as the polar ice caps melt.

The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, is responsible for producing approximately 25 percent of the world's global-warming pollutants.

So what is being done about it?

The United Nations has been trying to address the problem since the early 1990s, most recently with the Kyoto Protocol. This is an international agreement in which participating countries agree to reduce their emissions to below the amount that was being produced in 1990. Unfortunately, the United States has refused to ratify this agreement. The reasons President Bush has given for this refusal are: First, China didn't have to, so why should we?; second, the Kyoto Protocol doesn't go far enough; and last, that it's too hard -- it might cause layoffs and price increases.

As a developing country, China is exempt from reductions requirements. This is indeed troubling since, according to the New York Times, China may surpass the U.S. as the greatest emitter of gasses linked to global warming as early as 2009.

But it is the third complaint that is probably primarily behind the U.S. refusal to ratify -- reducing emissions might have a short-term negative impact on the economy.

This is opposed, of course, to a long-term negative impact on the planet.

Many in the U.S. are dissatisfied with the president's refusal to ratify. In 2005 when the Kyoto Protocol took effect in 141 other countries, the mayor of Seattle challenged mayors across the country to take action to reduce global warming pollution.

Now there are 376 mayors from 50 states participating in the "Cool Cities" initiative. These mayors represent over 56.4 million people. Nearby participants include Alexandria, Charlottesville and Richmond, and in North Carolina, Charlotte and Durham.

And in November, Blacksburg Town Council, approved a motion to adopt the Cool Cities initiative with a 6-1 vote. Only Mayor Ron Rordam voted against it.

I spoke with Blacksburg Councilman Don Langrehr about what this is going to mean for Blacksburg. He explained that it begins with inventorying greenhouse gas emissions to see how much Blacksburg was emitting in 1990 -- rough estimates will be based on fuel and electricity costs the town itself incurred. This will show how much diesel fuel we were burning and how much electricity we were using.

Then we can take steps to reduce the emissions.

What kind of steps? Some measures have been implemented within town limits already. Langrehr pointed out the "Make the Switch" campaign that is currently taking place on Virginia Tech's campus, in which interior design students will replace 25,000 typical light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. "This saves an amazing amount of energy," he said.

Hopefully later this year Blacksburg's town fleet will switch from regular diesel to biodiesel. There are hopes that Blacksburg Transit will join in. When asked where Blacksburg will get the biodiesel, Langrehr said the town already is checking if the few suppliers in Virginia will deliver. If Virginia Tech signs on, it will make the town that much more attractive to suppliers.

Asked how residents could help reduce the town's emissions, Langrehr suggested switching light bulbs to compact fluorescent types, bicycling and walking, and using mass transit.

"We pride ourselves on being a pedestrian community," he said. "What we see as being a parking problem is really a car problem. Walking three blocks shouldn't be a problem."

As for fostering walkable communities instead of sprawl, "We can adopt zoning ordinances that create the smart growth," Langrehr said. "So a lot of the responsibilities will fall on our [the town council's] shoulders."

For more information, take a look at the town Web site, where the video coverage of the Nov. 28 town council meeting and the poignant and heartfelt comments from local residents are available.

Also look up sustainableblacksburg.org, a companion group with projects closely aligned with the Cool Cities initiatives. It's good to be part of a group that will step up to take responsibility and assume leadership positions when our national leaders let us down.

Pris Sears grew up in Florida, lives in Blacksburg and works among Virginia Tech's computers.