Speaking in Copenhagen during the United Nations climate talks last year, Melbourne Mayor Robert Doyle described the chaos that paralyzed his government as wildfires licked the city's outskirts during the Southern Hemisphere's summer in January, 2009. "If those conditions are what my city is going to have to deal with (in a warmer world), my city is not ready," he said.

Former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels got more than 1,000 U.S. mayors to commit to acting on climate change, a movement that has pushed governors and in turn federal lawmakers facilitate those local efforts. He was with Doyle in Copenhagen to lobby for a global accord. "We at the local level have too much to lose," he said then. "We will go further, and we will make it safe (for politicians) to go further."

Back outside Denver, Littleton Mayor Doug Clark didn't pay too much attention to Copenhagen. He's not a part of Nickels' coalition. Nor is he watching the Senate climate talks in D.C. But he sure is looking at his community's bottom-line energy costs.

Clark represents a conservative town of 41,000, mostly commuters, south of Denver. Like many of his voters, he is not so sure he believes this "climate warming stuff."

In March, the Littleton City Council voted against spending $107,807 to match a federal grant to put solar atop the town's nature center. "It didn't make economic sense," Clark said.

But Clark likes light-rail. And he's in favor of pushing forward on FasTracks, despite the ballooning costs.

"Some of this stuff makes sense to do just because it's the rational thing to do," he said. "Reducing fuel consumption, switching to cleaner fuels – all that stuff is common-sense smart stuff to do regardless of where you come down on global climate change."

"We don't want to wait for the feds."

6 Comments

1. 1. JamesDavis 06:46 AM 5/22/10

   If Cisco DeVries would hit these states that use fossil fuel to produce power and teach them a better way and implement laws in those states, we would not have to wait 50 years to start cutting and cleaning up greenhouse gases. We could start living in a clean environment much faster. It would be good to drink clean stream water, breathe clean air, and live on clean land again like I did when I was a child before all this greed and destruction began.

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2. 2. jtdwyer 11:14 AM 5/22/10

   A better title would be: "Local Governments Lead Efforts to Combat Global Warming".
   
   Combating 'Climate Change' would be particularly futile, unless we can stop the progression of time - right now!
   
   If you don't like the weather in (name of place here), stick around - it'll change!

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3. 3. jtdwyer in reply to vendicar9 04:16 AM 5/24/10

   vendicar9 - Your more intelligent remarks are far more humorous than I could ever hope to hope for! What a moron - get it?

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4. 4. Soccerdad 08:56 AM 5/24/10

   One would think that the city government of Berkeley has everything under control so that they can focuus on wider issues than mundane things like city services and budget managment. However that seems not to be the case.
   
   From the Berkely Daily Planet, in an article entitled Berkeley's Budget Nightmare, it states that "After years of high spending and high local taxation, the City of Berkeley is facing an annual operating deficit of 16.5M which will grow exponentially unless drastic measures are taken. Clearly this is a terrible situation for the City, its residents, and its taxpayers."
   

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5. 5. vendicar9 11:42 PM 5/24/10

   "From the Berkely Daily Planet, in an article entitled Berkeley's Budget Nightmare, it states that "After years of high spending and high local taxation, the City of Berkeley is facing an annual operating deficit of 16.5M which will grow exponentially unless drastic measures are taken. " - Soccer Dad
   
   The entire American State is a fiscal basketcase.
   
   Uncle Sam is morally, ethically, intellectually and fiscally bankrupt.
   
   

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6. 6. eco-steve 01:28 AM 5/25/10

   Why wait for local governments to make the first move?
   The only way to tackle climate change is to work in industry on research and development of alternative solutions.
   Energy company lobbys influence politicians who become mere puppets. Rather than just griping, readers would be well advised to roll their slieves up and discover new green solutions.

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