Posted on 01/30/2008 8:14:17 AM PST by NormsRevenge
BERKELEY — City leaders on Monday took a hydrogen-powered bus to a solar-powered building made of rice straw bales to unveil an innovative new program to reduce Berkeley's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.
About a year after 81 percent of Berkeley voters approved Measure G, Berkeley city leaders have released the draft Climate Action Plan, a blueprint for getting Berkeley residents and merchants to do their part to save the planet from global warming, city leaders said.
"Berkeley is putting meat on the bones of Measure G, which is important. It's a very (inclusive) effort and it's the sort of thing that cities don't usually do," said Dan Kammen, who directs the University of California, Berkeley, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab and helped the city develop the program.
Kammen credited Berkeley for tackling some of the problems that aren't the city's alone.
"All of the residents in the East Bay get their power from the same power provider and we all drive vehicles, and no one stops at the edge of their city," Kammen said.
While the long-term goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, Berkeley is aiming to slice emissions by 33 percent below year-2000 levels by 2020.
In 2000, Berkeley's emissions totaled 696,000 tons of greenhouse gases, officials said. To reach the target, emissions must be reduced by about
2 percent annually between now and 2050.
Between 2000 and 2005, emissions in Berkeley fell by 61,000 tons due to a number of city efforts already under way.
City leaders said the Climate Action Plan was hammered out over the last year during a series of community meetings and workshops and contact with at least 2,000 people.
More than 1,000 suggestions were received and many were included in the plan.
"It is not supposed to just be a list of policies for the city. It does have policies in it, but it's also about a vision on how we are going to change as a city and how we all can participate in this effort," said Cisco De Vries, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates. De Vries has worked on the plan since its inception.
The plan aims to:
-Send no waste to landfills.
-Ensure the majority of residents' food is produced within a few hundred miles to cut down on shipping.
-Make public transit, walking and biking the primary means of transportation and get personal vehicles to run on alternative fuels or electricity.
The 65-page document is broken into five sections.
"It's set up so you can spend as much or as little time as you want on it," De Vries said. "The point is to take a look and give your feedback (online) at any part or any level that you like
to ..."
The sections are:
-Building Energy Use, which talks about a plan called Berkeley FIRST where the city finances solar panels for homeowners who pay for it through property tax payments.
-Sustainable Transportation and Land Use, which aims to boost public transit, biking and walking with car sharing, new bike routes, increased housing and retail services in the transit corridors and free public transit programs. It's a lofty goal — as of 2005, transportation accounted for 47 percent of all emissions.
-Waste Reduction and Recycling, which builds on the city's adopted goal of zero waste to landfills by the year 2020 with recommendations for mandatory recycling at public events and reduced packaging.
-Adapting to a Changing Climate, which recommends preparedness plans for increased fire risk, loss of drinking water, rising Bay waters, and increasing energy costs because of global warming.
-Community Outreach and Empowerment, which talks about long-term community-wide engagement to provide information, resources, and a way for people to learn from and help each other.
"You can change all the light bulbs you want, but that will only get you half way," city spokeswoman Mary Kay Clunies-Ross said. "To reduce emissions by 80 percent we have to find energy savings in all areas. It's not that changing light bulbs doesn't matter, it does. But so does getting people out of their cars and addressing land-use questions."
At the event, Bates said Berkeley has already taken steps to reduce its emissions.
"This effort is not starting today, it is well underway," Bates said. "Look around Berkeley. Talk to residents or business owners. You will hear about the amazing work being done to reduce energy use, cut down on car travel and go green."
Among those efforts, he said:
-Berkeley has more than 90 green-certified businesses, with 50 more businesses waiting for a green certification.
-Twenty percent of businesses have been retrofitted under the SmartLights program, saving more than $500,000 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 850 tons annually.
-A team of volunteers at Kyoto USA put solar panels on Washington Elementary School, and now are planning to put panels on every Berkeley school.
-Berkeley has the third highest number of solar installations of all cities in Northern California — surpassing cities many times its size.
Those are not green house gases given off at Berkely, it is BS.
I am 100% in support of anyone who chooses to voluntarily reduce carbon dioxide gas and emissions. I am also 100% in support of those who heat their house with oil, and use internal combustion engines.
I am 100% against any quack who uses shaky, unproven science to attempt to impose costly restrictions on my standard of life.
Heck, they could achieve that reduction in emissions just by shutting their collective pie-holes.
The majority of the planet has lost its mind—it’s only downhill from here I’m afraid.
It would be devastating to the California economy if the rest of the states took such a position WRT agricultural products.
Why don’t they go for a 100% emision cut — pack up and move to Europe.
-Ensure the majority of residents' food is produced within a few hundred miles to cut down on shipping.
(Victory Gardens revisted, renmamed Defeat Gardens)
-Make public transit, walking and biking the primary means of transportation and get personal vehicles to run on alternative fuels or electricity.
(Why not get rid of all roads, you'll need the land for the PCH's and Defeat Gardens)
Since di-hydrogen monoxide makes up 95% of the greenhouse gases, how will Berkeley deal with that issue?
Water vapor is a deadly gas, you know.
Idiots
Outlaw showers? No, wait. I think they already did that.
Shows how much this guy knows. The city of Alameda (pop. @ 70,000) has its own power company and generates @ 85% of the city's power from renewable sources, mainly geothermal.
This has been going on forever.
LET THOSE TAX DOLLARS FLOW!!!!!!!!!
If they all held their breath for 25 minutes, the CO2 would be much reduced permanently.
Old hippies. What won’t they get up to next?
I wonder what "a few hundred miles" means? Seems quite manipulable.
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