Frustrated by stalling on the federal level, local leaders are moving forward with innovative energy solutions that cut our dependence on oil, benefit public health and save tax payer dollars. Nebraska’s own mayor of Bellevue, Jerry Ryan, is one 195 city leaders who have joined a nationwide effort to curb global warming pollution in their communities.

These elected officials are taking the lead with the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement initiated by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickel. It was introduced on Feb. 16, 2005 – the same day the Kyoto Protocol international global warming treaty took effect in 141 nations worldwide, but not in the United States. The agreement is gathering support around the country and has earned the backing of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. To date, 195 mayors representing more than 40 million Americans in 38 states have signed on, pledging to reduce globalwarming carbon dioxide pollution in their cities to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

There are only four steps for a community to become a “Cool City.” First, each mayor is asked to sign onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. After your mayor signs on, an inventory of the city’s current global warming emissions is taken, a solutions plan is created. Finally, your city implements and monitors its global warming reduction.

In Bellevue, Mayor Ryan is working to identify the city’s major sources of emissions contributing to global warming. As we are learning across the country, through projects from cities as large as Portland, Ore., and as small as Keene, N.H., curbing global warming pollution is as easy as investing in fuel-efficient vehicles, clean renewable energy, and energy-efficient buildings. “Realizing that this is a problem,” Mayor Ryan said, “whether immediate or longterm, we need to start addressing it so that it doesn’t become a larger problem for future generations.”

The scientific community has concluded that burning fossil fuels – oil, coal, and natural gas – to power our cars, homes and businesses is causing global temperatures to rise. This heating of the earth poses a serious threat to our health, safety, and the environment. The national science academies of the United States, England, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, Brazil, China and India issued the following joint statement in June 2005: “The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to the justify nations to take prompt action.”

The world’s leading scientists ask us to “recognize that delayed action will increase the risk of adverse environmental effects and will likely incur a greater cost.” (Source: “Joint Science Academics’ Statement: Global Response to Climate Change” June 2005) The good news is our cities have not become paralyzed by the threat of global climate change. We have one forward-thinking mayor in Nebraska working to curb global-warming pollution on a very local level, and he serves as a good example to other mayors interested in doing the same. With the help of volunteers we can work to make more Nebraska cities, including Omaha and Lincoln, “Cool Cities.”

If you are interested in helping with the “Cool Cities” campaigns for Omaha or Lincoln, contact Cammy Watkins at camellia.watkins@sierraclub.org.