a story on how-to, from bozeman

Taking on the Climate Challenge in the Northern Rockies

By Marcia Youngman, Guest Writer, 7-24-07

Editor’s Note: As the oppressive summer heat descends on us, it’s hard to not consider our impact on the temperature.

This is the first of two articles by Marcia, who, this week, will discuss general climate action in the Rockies, Bozeman’s grassroots initiative and the first steps of the task force, who was appointed on July 9th. Next week, Marcia will share will us a step-by-step guide on how to mobilize your community, including resources, networks and objectives. — LS

Picking the first ripe tomato on the Fourth of July in Bozeman, a month earlier than usual. Searing regional temperatures, including 106º at Belgrade, breaking all-time records. Irrigation water cut off so early it threatens crops and farmer livelihoods.

These developments are not by themselves proof of global warming. One season of regional weather extremes does not indicate a climate trend. But it does cause a visceral reaction and get people thinking more seriously about the predicted impacts of global warming.

The news has been full of regional and international symptoms that match or exceed predictions—an early forest fire season, spreading drought, increasingly severe storms, polar ice caps crumbling faster than worst-case predictions, species approaching extinction. In addition, the media have reported a barrage of new scientific reports with compelling data documenting climate change and urgent recommendations for action.

One result of the confluence of improved media coverage, potent scientific data, and mounting personal experiences with extreme weather is that global warming finally has become a mainstream concern.

Several months before two billion people attended or tuned in to the seven-continent Live Earth concerts on July 7 and were encouraged to adopt more climate-friendly practices, Bozeman joined with hundreds of other U.S. cities to support the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement.

Climate Action in the Rockies
When the Bozeman City Commission voted unanimously on November 27, 2006, to adopt the agreement, 321 cities had already signed on, including Missoula and Billings. Now 608 cities have endorsed the climate protection agreement, including the 3 Montana cities, 6 cities in Idaho, 11 in Colorado, 9 in Oregon, 3 in Utah, and 1 in Wyoming.

The 2005 brainchild of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, the agreement was soon endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which helped share it with cities nationwide and has now established a Climate Protection Center to track implementation efforts.

Since endorsing the agreement, Bozeman has added climate protection to its goals and hired Hattie Baker, a recent MSU MPA grad, as an intern to provide staff support. It has joined Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) to take advantage of its technical support for calculating an emissions baseline and determining effective actions to reduce local emissions. In June the City Commission adopted objectives for a climate protection task force. And on July 9 the commission appointed 15 stunningly qualified people to the task force.

The climate protection agreement is far more than nice-sounding words. It commits the cities who adopt it to significant actions. Cities not only promise to urge adoption of state and federal policies and programs to reduce carbon and other global warming pollution levels. They also agree to act locally to establish a task force, develop an action plan, and act to meet or beat the target of 7% reduction of global warming emissions below 1990 levels by 2012.

The agreement focuses on such actions as adopting land use policies that reduce sprawl and promote a walkable and livable community, tree planting, increasing the use of alternative energy, improving the fuel efficiency of the City fleet, promoting transportation alternatives, making energy efficiency a priority for City facilities and the community as a whole through building code changes and other actions, increasing recycling rates, and more.

Bozeman Grassroots Initiative
The Bozeman City Commission took the first step of voting to support the climate protection agreement due to the efforts of a leaderless, informal grassroots organization, Citizens Concerned about Climate Change (CCCC). Most of the steps the City has taken since adopting the agreement, from joining ICLEI to task force formation, were also recommended by CCCC.

The group coalesced in fall of 2006 in response to a panel discussion on climate change at the October Bioneers Conference in Bozeman.

CCCC scheduled time on the commission agenda to do the following:
• present the mayors’ agreement and ask the commission to support it;
• summarize predicted local and state effects of global warming on quality of life, communities, the environment, and the economy;
• demonstrate the strength and diversity of support for strong local climate protection action;
• suggest first steps to take to implement the climate protection agreement; and
• present a draft action plan to implement the agreement.

We turned out a crowd and focused on sharing information we thought would give the commission evidence and support for taking decisive action. It worked.

It was my pleasure as one of the organizers of CCCC to help plan topics to be covered, identify speakers, and prepare a rough draft of the action plan. The action plan identifies ways to implement the objectives of the mayors’ agreement and additional climate protection action ideas based on knowledge of local organizations, programs, and policies such as the 2020 Community Growth Plan.

Before preparing our recommendations, we reviewed committee membership and action plans posted on the Web for a variety of cities from Burlington, Vermont, to Boulder, Colorado, as well as local action recommendations of national organizations such as the Rocky Mountain Institute and ICLEI.

Task Force and Action Plan
We urged the commission not to adopt the action plan along with the mayors’ agreement, though at least a majority was willing to, but rather to establish a broad-based task force and provide it to them as a starting point for discussion. This gives the task force the opportunity to work with all City departments and other community institutions, businesses, and the public to develop a more in-depth action plan after identifying the emissions baseline, to assess effectiveness and cost/savings of various action alternatives, and also to improve community understanding of the issue.

When the commission took seven months to appoint a task force after adopting the agreement, some of us began to think we’d been foolish not to just ask them to endorse our draft action plan! However, the task force is so stellar it was worth the wait.

The task force membership includes two climate scientists, a solar physicist, a recently retired chemist committed to bicycling and other sustainable transportation options, a bio-resource civil engineering student involved with the MSU Network of Environmentally Conscious Organizations, two building industry members experienced in green and energy-efficient building, Bioregional Outreach Network (BORN organizes the Bioneers Conference) and Sonoran Institute staff, a Northwestern Energy employee, a transportation researcher with expertise in transit and air quality modeling, a wildlife vet, a CCCC member skilled in outreach, a city planner, and a journalist who’s written about climate change.

The volunteers the commission did not appoint to the task force were as qualified and knowledgeable as those who were appointed. CCCC hopes the task force will establish a method of involving all interested members of the public in the task force’s work.

One of CCCC’s recommendations is to invite City advisory boards with any connection to climate change, from the tree board to the bike board, to help the task force identify possible actions. And Bozeman is in the process of updating its growth plan and its transportation master plan, perfect timing for ensuring land use policies are optimally crafted for climate protection. Numerous other City policies, from building codes to economic development loan standards, may also be considered as the action plan takes shape.

Keep an eye on this task force. It’s going to be doing exciting work. One of its members, Otto Pohl, commented on his application, “I know that a solution can be found as soon as we put our energy and minds to the problem.” When global warming has you breaking into a sweat, literally and figuratively, that’s an attitude likely to get things done!

Marcia Youngman, an editor of science textbooks, recently finished serving 12 years on the Bozeman City Commission, including a term as mayor, and is now enjoying the chance to be an activist on local issues she cares about, from global warming to affordable housing.

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