Nick Kristof in today's NYT tells Bush that
greenhouse gases can be reduced with benefits, not penalties. Portland Oregon shows how to do it.
"Kyoto would have wrecked our economy," Mr. Bush told a Danish interviewer recently, referring to the accord to curb carbon emissions. Maybe that was a plausible argument a few years ago, but now the city of Portland [Oregon] is proving it flat wrong.
Newly released data show that Portland, America's environmental laboratory, has achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions. It has reduced emissions below the levels of 1990, the benchmark for the Kyoto accord, while booming economically.
In 1993, Portland became the first local government in the United States to adopt a strategy to deal with climate change. The latest data, released a few weeks ago, show the results: Greenhouse gas emissions last year in Multnomah County, which includes Portland, dropped below the level of 1990, and per capita emissions were down 13 percent.
Multnomah Co, population 600,000 (and 77% voting for Kerry) does things that any city can do:
[more in extended]
- This was achieved partly by a major increase in public transit, including two light rail lines and a streetcar system. The city has also built 750 miles of bicycle paths, and the number of people commuting by foot or on bicycle has increased 10 percent.
- Portland offers all city employees either a $25-per-month bus pass or car pool parking. Private businesses are told that if they provide employees with subsidized parking, they should also subsidize bus commutes.
- The city has also offered financial incentives and technical assistance to anyone constructing a "green building" with built-in energy efficiency.
- Then there are innumerable little steps, such as encouraging people to weatherize their homes. Portland also replaced the bulbs in the city's traffic lights with light-emitting diodes, which reduce electricity use by 80 percent and save the city almost $500,000 a year.
So as he heads to the summit meeting, Mr. Bush should get a briefing on Portland's experience (a full report is at www.sustainableportland.org) and accept that we don't need to surrender to global warming.
Mr. Bush, no more watered down and distorted science and economics from your hacks! Join the rest of the G8 at the UK meeting, and support and extend the Kyoto Protocol.
This IS a way to control and reverse global warming with benefits to the US.
more links:
http://www.portlandonline.com/
http://www.pova.org/