................. GO KYOTO

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Note...The following essay by Lisa Kadonga, a geographer at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, describes Go Kyoto's first group project, an attempt to have the City of Utah Go Kyoto by the time of its Olympic Games. There is a petition to that effect for you to sign here. Lisa Kadonga's essay also outlines our long-term strategy. The Utah Plan Or, how America got its groove back, and saved the planet by Lisa Kadonaga Picture yourself at the opening ceremonies of the upcoming Winter Games. You're in the stadium along with thousands of spectators, and a global television audience numbering in the millions. With the five-ringed Olympic flag flying proudly overhead, the mayor of the host city steps up to the microphone -- and makes a surprise announcement that astounds and delights the world. As the crowd's roar of approval echoes across the stadium, startled commentators begin to translate the mayor's words into a dozen languages: Salt Lake City has decided to opt into the Kyoto Protocol, adding another 1.3 million to the growing segment of the U.S. population which has joined in the effort to halt global warming. By now, it's become usual for organizers to announce that their Games will be "the greenest Games ever". This time, it really could be. The above scenario is fiction -- but there's still time to make it happen. With so much attention turned on Salt Lake City, the Games present a priceless opportunity to demonstrate to the world that the Bush Administration does not speak for the majority of Americans. As a nod to ancient Greece, the Olympics are awarded not to nations (which didn't really exist back then) -- but to individual cities. And it's the cities which will end up playing a crucial role, in the United States and worldwide, when it comes to halting global warming. Recently the mayor of Seattle announced his city's intention to meet, and even exceed, the emissions goals set by the international meeting at Bonn in July. They have a plan to do this by planting trees, reducing road traffic, and recycling industrial waste and heat. Is this possible? My own city of Victoria recently won accolades for being the "healthiest city in Canada", in terms of the residents' level of physical activity. As someone who moved here only a few years ago, it was kind of annoying to watch people virtuously preening themselves in front of the media (even the bagpipe player down by the Inner Harbour was sucking in his gut for the tourists). But the important point in all of this is that the things for which we were being recognized had little to do with the federal government (which recently cut back our internationally-recognized "Participaction" fitness program). No: all the crucial decisions were made by municipal and provincial governments. The city's network of commuting trails and bicycle lanes, protection of recreational greenspace, arrangements with businesses so employees could get low-cost public transit passes -- these were all local initiatives. According to the 2000 U.S. census, if you add up the population of the cities over 75,000 in the "blue states", plus a couple of dozen of the "red state" cities, such as El Paso, Memphis, and Miami, which voted Democrat -- this includes more than 50% of Americans. It's altogether possible that if enough municipalities follow Seattle's example, a majority of people in the United States could opt into the Kyoto Protocol. Groups are already being launched to get more cities involved: http://www.bushwatch.org/gokyoto.htm . Ultimately, this would be more meaningful than national ratification. Even if for whatever reason George W. Bush decided to sign onto Kyoto, not much could be accomplished in practical terms, unless it's implemented at the local level. Basically, your commitment is much more important than his lack thereof. Your municipality's compliance carries more weight than a blanket endorsement by the federal government. Europeans would have to agree -- the same goes for them. It's one thing to ratify, but for this to work, every town and city on the planet has to get down to brass tacks and actually start doing something. As far as I'm concerned, those who continue to lump the city of Seattle in with the Bush White House are more concerned with criticizing the United States, than actually cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions. This could be big -- bigger than the anti-nuclear movement, and it has the potential to be more effective. More than other issues, the power rests with individual citizens, and their decisions about how they want to live. By myself I can't do anything about the nuclear-armed submarines cruising up and down the strait, besides writing letters to my Member of Parliament -- but turning down my thermostat and deciding not to drive to work today are well within my span of control. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not like buying a ticket in a lottery: rather, everyone will get something back. The ideas being suggested are not unreasonable, and certainly not unachievable. In many cases they would accomplish more than one goal. They can help us save money (for many people, it would be a bigger bonus than the much-touted Bush tax cut). They contribute to healthier, cleaner cities -- safer and more pleasant neighborhoods -- and decreased urban sprawl. Essentially, this is a large global effort that's so exciting, it makes the Manhattan Project look like a pinewood derby. It would not be an exaggeration to say that its potential effects on day-to-day life are more far-reaching than splitting the atom. If we succeed, it would mean a new industrial revolution -- bigger than Sputnik, bigger than the Internet. Here's a list of five things which could be done right now, to decrease individual CO2 emissions. I'm calling this the Utah Plan, in honor of the people in that state who are working towards making Salt Lake City a signatory of Kyoto -- but the basic principles are applicable across our continent. 1) Cut back on gasoline use. I'm not saying people ought to get rid of their cars, but keeping them well-maintained can decrease emissions substantially. Look at your schedule, and try to set aside two days during the week when you walk, cycle, or take public transit to work. If you haven't bought a car yet, postpone your decision as long as possible -- the longer you wait, the more affordable low-emission vehicles will become. Reevaluate your use of gasoline-powered landscaping equipment (those little two-stroke engines are very inefficient). Ask yourself -- do you really NEED a leafblower? When you're planning a holiday, consider ship or rail travel as an option. Vacation in your home region, or think about avoiding the hectic round of sightseeing by taking fewer (but longer) overseas trips. 2) Make your household more energy and water-efficient. Turn down your water heater by a few degrees. Do some laundry in warm or cold water rather than hot, and consider a drying rack or clothesline. Use a lighter touch on the heating and air conditioning (one of those programmable thermostats can help). If you can acclimatize yourself to being a few degrees warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter, even this much can make a difference to energy consumption. Do this gradually, a couple of degrees at a time. Stock up with warm and cold-weather clothing and bedding (the bonus is, if the power goes out on you, it will be much less of an inconvenience). After doing the math, I went out and got a portable reading lamp, so I can finally read the newspaper without turning on a half-dozen overhead lights. Installing energy-saving or fluorescent bulbs in your fixtures also works well. 3) Shop regionally. Buying goods from local sources helps stimulate employment in your own area. And no matter how organic produce might be, if it has to travel several thousand miles to get to you, that's a lot of fuel being burned. I like the occasional mango or avocado, but not every day -- and I really can't see the need to buy apples from New Zealand when there are plenty in B.C. and Washington State already. Thanks to globalization, it's possible to get strawberries from the other side of the planet, in December -- but let's face facts, by the time they get to you they aren't as nice as the in-season local fruit. 4) Demand what George W. Bush has -- a workplace within easy commuting distance, and a state-of-the-art geothermal heating system*. Why not? You're just as deserving a human being -- you work just as hard, and if anything, you're the one who really needs the energy savings. I think that there's a classic opportunity here. Call up local news organizations to lobby for information on his Crawford setup. If you're out demonstrating with a sign that reads: "Give us your heat pump!", the press might be so intrigued that they'll ask you to explain. We want double-page spreads, with photos and full-color diagrams. Show us the technical specifications! If he gave out the details on his water system**, he should be just as willing to dish on this. I mean, next to a pop quiz on "Leaders of the Former Soviet Republics", or criticism about the NMD plan, questions on his heating and cooling system are an easy sell. If Mr. Bush wants a photo op out of it, fine. He can pose next to it in a wet T-shirt, if it makes him happy. The main thing is we get the specific details -- enough so that we can demand tax credits and incentives, so more people can afford what he's got. What's he going to do, say: "No, you can't have it -- this is MINE!"? He's in way too far on this "I love my ranch" thing to back out now, without looking like a total doofus. 5) Tell other people. You don't have to cycle across the country, like these kids did (www.thebet.ca). But you can still spread the word. Go to your city council meeting and figure out who the likely supporters are. Submit information on your municipal government to www.bushwatch.org/gokyoto.htm , so others in your area who want to get involved will know what to do. If you want to learn more about the issues, there are lots of good clearinghouses online, such as the World Resources Institute (www.wri.org) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (www.ipcc.ch). Several organizations have worked out "emissions calculators" you can use, if you want to figure out specific steps for reducing your household's energy consumption: www.geic.or.jp/co2-cal/ www.carboncalculator.org www.americanforests.org/clmt_chg/carbcalc.php3 www.lpb.org/programs/forest/calculator.html "Solving the Kyoto Quandary", a very interesting report describing how we could meet our Kyoto commitments and stimulate the economy, is available online at http://www.ipsep.org . Along with short-term actions, there are other things we could be doing over the next few years which could lead to significant improvements down the line. 6) The next time you purchase a vehicle, upgrade to a more fuel efficient model. The price of hybrids is starting to come down, and by the time today's kindergarten students are old enough to drive, the internal-combustion engine will be a thing of the past. 7) Lobby for improved public transit. There's an increasing number of Rider's Associations springing up, to advocate for public transit users in various cities. If transit is pleasant, cheap, and convenient, a lot more people will use it. In Seattle, you can ride free in the downtown core. (I hope Victoria follows suit -- snooping on each other for ideas is a time-honored practice in the Northwest. First we swiped their globed lampposts and coffee carts -- I hope this comes next.) 8) Make local legislation more environmentally-friendly. There are places which don't allow clotheslines, on the grounds that they are "unsightly". A lot of bylaws and city ordinances don't make much sense, and are downright obstructive to emission reduction. Lobby to get these repealed. One place to start is allowing a more relaxed lawn care policy, in public parks as well as private property. It's ridiculous to have a situation where people who are saving water and energy, and eliminating pesticide use, are being penalized under obsolete regulations. Why coddle a lawn -- common grass! -- as if it were prizewinning cucumbers or rosebushes! For thousands of years, wild grasslands withstood drought, fire, grasshoppers, being trampled by herds of bison. Why should I spend more money on beauty products for my lawn than I do on myself? 9) Support more sensible planning policies. Starting from scratch, to build a more sustainable city, is not very practical. We've got to work with what we've got, which in most of North America is 50 years of infrastructure designed around cars rather than people***. What we can do is examine current zoning practices that result in urban sprawl, and situations where a car becomes a necessity. Some cities are encouraging the development of higher-density "clusters", where commercial and residential areas are mixed. In my own neighborhood, I'm only a block away from a grocery store, three banks, laundromat, pharmacy, pub, post office, video rental place, and several restaurants. A public library branch, movie theater, K-Mart, and hardware store are less than a mile away. After growing up in a typical suburb, this was quite a different setting, but I got used to it quickly -- sometimes more than a week goes by before I have to go downtown for something. In rural areas, we need to support policies which encourage reforestation and farmland retirement. Back in Ontario, I've heard of several places where farmers have banded together to take their less productive land out of production and create nature sanctuaries, in association with local universities and nature organizations. I know that we won't be able to justify pumping increasing amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere just because we have such "sinks" -- but they are part of the solution, and besides, they can help conserve biodiversity and buffer ecosystems against the shock of rapid change. 10) Invest in greener companies. The conventional wisdom used to be that "ethical" companies and mutual funds don't make as much money -- but consistently, they have shown themselves to be among the smarter investments possible. Part of the reason may be the additional research required to operate, and identify, these companies. If they are careless about the environment, and unresponsive to employee or consumer concerns, this tends to show up in other ways too. So that's the outline for the Utah Plan. I know that there are many more things people could do, but it's a start. Every city's approach will be different, because every city is different. But they all will have a similar goal. During the presidential debates, Al Gore said, about the greenhouse effect, "What are we going to tell our children?" This is our answer. Tell them this is what we decided to do -- and this is how we reclaimed America's place as an environmental leader. Lisa Kadonaga studies global environmental change in Victoria, B.C., Canada. * http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/Old-Heating-Idea.htm ** http://www.nowra.org/news/article-bush.html *** http://www.kunstler.com