It’s not just hippie enclaves in Vermont and California that have enacted low carbon emissions laws. Cities and towns throughout the States are passing legislation and taking steps to improve public transportation, pedestrian walking and bike paths, overall ped-friendliness, and energy efficiency.
Small cities, like Arlington,Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C, are attracting more eco-conscious residents with the greener lifestyle options.
From the New York Times:
For decades, Arlington County’s development has been consciously clustered around its subway line. There is abundant open space to plant thousands of trees. Residents also seem eager to cut back on their own energy use.
Jose R. Fernandez, who moved here last year and works at the nearby national headquarters of the National Guard, chose to settle in Arlington because he does not need a car. “I can go anywhere on the bus,” Mr. Fernandez said, “or I can ride my bike anywhere.”
But, despite Arlington’s best intentions, the city has butted heads with the state government over tight budgets and other legal restrictions that have impeded green progress and development. According to the NYT, emissions in Arlington are now 15 tons annually and rising.
Over 300 other communities in the U.S. belong to the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, which supplies software that enables towns and cities to determine how much carbon emissions they’re sending into the atmosphere.
Five years ago, five municipalities in Sonoma County, California signed climate-protection agreements. Ann Hancock, executive director of the Climate Protection Campaign, a nonprofit based in Sonoma County, told the Times that the biggest obstacle to lowering emissions on her turf is cars, car culture, and a lack of public transportation.
From the NYT:
All the big items in the inventory of emissions — from tailpipes, from the energy needed to supply drinking water and treat waste water, from heating and cooling buildings — are the product of residents’ and businesses’ individual decisions about how and where to live and drive and shop.
“They’ve seen the Al Gore movie, but they still have their lifestyle to contend with,” she said.
“We need to get people out of their cars, and we can’t under the present circumstances,” because of the limited alternative in public transportation, Ms. Hancock said.
Other cities, like Austin, Cleveland, and Providence, R.I. have run up against similar obstacles. In Texas, where one vehicle in every four is a pickup truck, Laura Fiffick, director of the office of environmental quality in Dallas, has reservations about citizens taking personal responsibility reducing emissions (via NYT): “How do you reach an individual citizen and tell them: Everybody makes a difference.”
Fiffick fears that if the bar is set too high, people will feel helpless and unmotivated to pitch in. But, at this dire stage, can the bar be high enough? A smart first step would be to ditch the pick-ups and build up public transit. Despite Fiffick’s qualms, everybody does make a difference, however small or large, for good or bad. We have to live with the fallout of our collective choices; it’s our responsibility, as individuals and communities, to make decisions that honor humanity and the earth, even if it means reevaluating our lifestyle and sacrificing some of our selfish comforts.
Photo via flickr by UrbanObserver & dehub.
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