MAYOR WHITE AND THE US MAYOR’S CLIMATE PROTECTION AGREEMENT
By Greg Harmon
A new organization has formed for the specific purpose of petitioning Houston mayor Bill White to join the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.
The agreement was initiated by Seattle mayor Greg Nichols as a response to the Bush Administration’s refusal to join the Kyoto Protocol, ratified by 141 countries around the world as a response to Global Warming. Under the Nichols program, cities agree to:
- strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in their own communities, through actions ranging from anti-sprawl land-use policies to urban forest restoration projects to public information campaigns;
- urge their state governments, and the federal government, to enact policies and programs to meet or beat the greenhouse gas emission reduction target suggested for the United States in the Kyoto Protocol – 7% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012; and
- urge the US Congress to pass the bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction legislation, which would establish a national emission trading system.
White has been approached several times by different organizations and individuals about joining the national effort to address greenhouse gas emissions. Each advance has been rebuffed.
When contacted by the Houston Press, White’s press secretary said the mayor “had no interest in doing something just because the mayor of Seattle wanted him to.”
At this year’s environmental conference sponsored by the city’s waste department, “Houston as a Model Environmental City,” the mayor’s environmental policy director said the city may “one day” address greenhouse gases.
“That day must be today,” HGWA co-founder Gertrude Barnstone says.
“It’s obvious that something needs fixing when Houston – the fourth largest city in the US, known as the energy capital of the world – doesn’t join such an important collective effort to fight global warming,” Barnstone said. “This is an effort to show Mayor White that people care.”
Barnstone is a local artist and former member of the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees. The group’s other founders are Barry Reese and Patsy Cravens. Reese is a civic activist who has coordinated several inner city inaugural residential curbside recycling programs and served as chair for Houston’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Cravens is a third-generation Houstonian, daughter of a founder of the Citizen’s Environmental Coalition, and longtime lover and protector of the natural world. She is a published author and photographer.
Nine cities across Texas, including Dallas, Austin, and Sugar Land, have already joined the agreement. Across the country, more than 200 cities have signed. For a full list of participating cities, see the Agreement website.
To sign HGWA’s petition, log onto the Earth Houston website. To receive more information about Houstonians for Global Warming, e-mail Barry Reese at metropassengers@hotmail.com.