What do you do when your state’s ski resorts are firing their employees due to lack of snow, and the federal government doesn’t seem to care?

• On Friday, Greg Nickels, President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, announced that 1,000 mayors around the country had signed on to an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their cities in keeping with the Kyoto protocols, an international agreement designed to combat global warming.
• With most of the nation’s population and economy concentrated in cities, mayors felt it was their duty to step in to reduce emissions where the federal government fell short. The U.S. government has not yet signed on to the Kyoto protocols.
• In addition to reducing emissions in their own cities, the group of mayors also lobbies Congress for grants and funding for greenhouse-gas-reducing projects, and advocates for a nationwide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 7% of the 1990 level by 2012.

Facts & Figures

• The city of Cleveland has converted to 25% renewable energy.
• Boston has increased its use of solar power by 300%
• Los Angeles met the 7% Kyoto target for emissions reduction four years early in 2008; Seattle reduced its 1990-level emissions by 8% three years earlier than that, in 2005.

Best Quote

“I am signing up because this is too important an issue for us to stand on the sideline. This is not a group without diversity, it’s not a group that agrees on everything, but it is a group that is completely united and committed to this one issue.” – Scott Smith, Mayor of Mesa, AZ

Tags: climate change, Environment, global warming, greenhouse gases, Kyoto protocols, local government