Monday, September 18, 2006
Editorial: Clean the air in S.W. Virginia
Roanoke and Blacksburg should join national coalitions to reduce emissions.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
The old environmental adage "think globally, act locally" is making the rounds in Roanoke and Blacksburg. The two communities have been asked to join coalitions fighting for a cleaner environment. Their contributions to the looming global crisis would individually be small, but they would join many others whose collective efforts can make a difference.
Tonight, Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris and Concilwoman Gwen Mason will urge their fellow council members to pass a resolution joining ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and its Cities for Climate Protection Campaign. Roanoke would receive assistance monitoring and reducing emissions of pollutants if it joins.
In Blacksburg, last week, Virginia Tech physics professor emeritus David Roper asked the town to join the Cool Cities coalition. Doing so would include signing onto the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement and agreeing to reduce emissions of global-warming gases by 2012.
Such local action is increasingly popular as the federal government refuses to adopt substantive measures.
Critics say it only amounts to cities' thumbing their noses at the Bush administration. The mayoral agreement proposed in Blacksburg particularly digs at Washington by committing to standards in the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which the United States has not signed. The public does not elect local officials to make national policy decisions.
Fair enough, but it does elect them to do what is best for their communities. Energy efficiency saves money, and cleaner air has a host of benefits. The more localities that work toward improving the environment, the greater the total impact.
Portraying it as only a token statement about national policy is overly simplistic. One city alone thumbs its nose. As part of a broader coalition, it sends a powerful message, and hundreds of localities have already committed to these alliances.
Roanoke, Blacksburg and other nearby communities have been cleaning up for years. They have pursued energy efficiency and moved toward vehicles that run on cleaner fuels. Joining national coalitions would codify those policies and make Roanoke and Blacksburg part of something bigger.
