by Jill Miller, Conservation Organizer,
Sierra Club Global Warming & Energy Program
 At Drury University in Springfield, dozens of students, faculty and staff learned about Missouri’s home-grown Mercury Mariner and other hybrids. Photo by Jill Miller |
What makes a city “cool”? When it makes a commitment to curb global warming pollution and set a positive example for others.
The Sierra Club highlighted solutions-minded places across the country this fall by releasing a new national guide called “Cool Cities: Solving Global Warming One City at a Time.” The guide is available athttp://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/coolcities. Volunteers then generated dozens of events around the Midwest, New England and the Southeast.
Missouri Sierra Club had a lot to celebrate, so with a three-city hybrid tour the week of October 18, we applauded a myriad of cool accomplishments and ongoing efforts. Among them:
- The city of Columbia earned a prominent mention in the Cool Cities guide. Last year, with 78 percent of the vote, citizens overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative requiring the city to increase the amount of electricity it gets from renewable sources such as wind and solar.
- Energy activists in Springfield have educated citizens and changed minds about the practicality of improved efficiency and renewable sources of power, building citizen support for an energy conservation plan as an alternative to City Utilities’ coal-fired power plant proposal.
- The Eastern Missouri Group launched a successful grassroots campaign urging mayors to sign onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. As a result, four have signed so far, including the city of St. Louis.
- Kansas City’s mayor was the first in Missouri to sign on to the Mayors Agreement, and deserved recognition as well.
Initiated by the mayor of Seattle earlier this year, the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement is a pledge to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012. Some suggestions are quick and simple to implement, while others call for long-range planning. To read the Agreement, visit http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/climate.
To date, 188 mayors from 38 states, representing some 40 million Americans, have signed on. Five (so far) are in Missouri: Mayor Kay Barnes, Kansas City, Missouri; Mayor Francis Slay, St. Louis City; Mayor Mark Langston, Maplewood; Mayor Joseph Adams, University City; and most recently, Mayor Robert Lowery of Florissant.
 In St. Louis, Sierra Club energy activists and allies applauded several cool mayors. From left to right: Jim Young, Mayor Joseph Adams (U. City), Henry Robertson, Jill Miller, Erin Noble (MO Coalition for the Environment), and Dan Albes. Photo by Emily Andrews |
We kicked off the Cool Cities tour in St. Louis on October 18 with a press conference hosted by Mayor Mark Langston on the front lawn of Maplewood City Hall. A 2006 hybrid Mercury Mariner, manufactured in Missouri and on loan from Ford Motor Company for the tour, served as one great example of fuel-saving technology.
The Eastern Missouri Group’s new Energy Committee was well-represented, including chair Henry Robertson, Jim Young, Janet Jump, and others. I introduced the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities guide and helped present certificates of appreciation to Langston and to Mayor Joseph Adams of University City. Both mayors spoke movingly of the need for local leadership on global warming and protecting natural resources for our children and grandchildren.
Our community partners highlighted a few specific actions cities can take, such as adopting the U.S. Green Building Council’s standards for building design, called the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Having a policy in place to prevent school buses and other vehicles from idling at the curb is a simple but important step. Replacing traditional traffic signals with Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lighting instead has already saved Salt Lake City tens of thousands of dollars.
Later that evening, fifty more St. Louisans got a chance to check out the hybrid Mariner and Young’s Toyota Prius at a fun St. Louis Green Drinks event. The topic was sustainable transportation, and I was a panelist. I explained how cities are saving money and reducing pollution by replacing their gas-guzzling fleet vehicles with high-mileage, fuel-sipping hybrids.
The next day, I headed to Springfield. To further emphasize ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption, I carpooled with Sierra Club volunteer Steven Schoeffler, executive director of a free carpooling website, eRideShare.com. Schoeffler notes that people can save thousands of dollars a year by carpooling. At the same time, sharing a ride helps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
On October 20, we held a successful hybrid event at Drury University organized by Dr. Wendy Anderson, professor of biology, as part of Drury’s ongoing Sustainability series. Sierra Club energy activist Linda Chipperfield brought her Prius, while another volunteer provided a hybrid Honda Civic. More than a hundred students, faculty and staff stopped by, and the event was covered by two local television stations.
 Jill Miller and Carla Klein thank Mayor Kay Barnes of Kansas City, Missouri for signing onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Photo by Steven Schoeffler |
Hitting the road once again, our final stop was Kansas City for an exciting October 21 press conference at Ilus Davis Park near City Hall. We presented a certificate of recognition to Mayor Kay Barnes, who had signed on to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in June, and urged her to enact a serious action plan. Mayor Barnes told the small crowd that she believes local action is critical to solving global warming.
Our Chapter Director, Carla Klein, spoke about the wisdom of energy from wind and solar, and how renewables can benefit our farmers and economy as well as the environment.
To underscore that point perfectly, she was followed by Jim Stoufer, the President of United Autoworkers Local 249. Stoufer arrived in a silvery-green hybrid Ford Escape built at the Claycomo assembly plant. The Escape was the first hybrid ever built in the U.S., as well as the first hybrid SUV. Stoufer explained how the hybrid Escape and Mariner are supporting thousands of well-paying jobs in the Kansas City area.
These local actions by cities and states represent a welcome trend, one that stands in stark contrast to the Bush administration’s policy of taxpayer handouts to the coal and oil industries.
Our efforts in Missouri are continuing, and Sierra Club’s Cool Cities campaign model has now been adopted by Sierra Club programs in several cities and states around the country for 2006.
To get involved, please speak up at your next Sierra Club gathering, or email globalwarming@sierraclub.org. .