Climate Action Team - Davis

The purpose of the Ad Hoc Climate Action Team (CAT) is to assist city staff in accelerating the development of a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan (Plan) for the City of Davis and the community as a whole to address the issues of greenhouse gas emissions. The CAT will develop and implement with the active involvement of designated city staff a process to facilitate community input and comment designed to increase overall awareness of the efforts as well as to generate innovative approaches and comprehensive strategies to address the City’s goal of significantly reducing the GHG emissions of the City and the community as a whole.

Objectives of the CAT

With a primary focus on community wide GHG emissions, the CAT will, as directed by the City Council, and under the general coordination of the City Sustainability Coordinator:

1. Work on defined objectives, within the defined time frame, to produce materials that will assist in the rapid development of a Greenhouse Gas Reduction for the City.

2. Plan, organize, and conduct public workshops to solicit community input and identify potential elements of an action plan for the city, including inviting appropriate speakers or others to make presentations at these forums.

3. Identify and interview persons with specific expertise important to the development of a city action plan.

4. Identify potential public education materials to promote the city’s climate change program.

5. Identify potential partners and partnerships, which the city may wish to pursue in implementing a community–wide Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan.

6. Research programs in other cities, develop detailed descriptions of these programs, and report to city staff, including recommendations.

7. Assist in the identification and evaluation of potential community wide GHG emission reduction targets and measures for inclusion in the Plan.

8. In the interest of streamlining adoption of early GHG emission reduction measures by the City, the CAT will not have a primary role in the identification or evaluation of these early action measures.

Community Involvement and Forums

The City of Davis Climate Action Team http://cityofdavis.org/pgs/Sustainability/CAT.cfm held its first public forum in June of 2008, where hundreds of citizens provided input and suggestions to the CAT in its effort to identify potential actions to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions. In a challenging process, the CAT researched and prioritized the potential actions down to a list of several dozen.

On Thursday, April 30th, 2009 the CAT, nearing the end of its work, hosted a public progress report on the CAT’s efforts. The informational meeting focused on the CAT’s work to identify early actions that will yield early greenhouse gas emission reductions. Their recommended list was forwarded to the City’s Natural Resources Commission and City Council for further analysis and adoption.

During the course of their work, the CAT hosted several issue-specific forums. Since the completion of their tasks and the disestablishment of the CAT, many members have continued to host these forums in partnership with the Valley Climate Action Center.

Low Carbon Diet Challenge

From October 12th, 2008 thru November 10th, 2008 the City of Davis and the Climate Action Team challenged 100 households to participate in a 30 day pilot program to reduce their carbon emissions by 5,000 pounds each. Over 100 households answered the challenge, with participation ranging from average Davis households to City Council members, City staff, UC Davis campus administrators, scientists, students, and business owners.

Upon conclusion of the program, households reported the amount of carbon emissions they were able to lose through an anonymous online reporting tool. Of the 47 survey responses received, 253,723 annual pounds of carbon have been reported to be saved as a result of this program. This calculates to an average of 5,398 pounds saved per household!

Based on these results and feedback from participants, the apparent success of the pilot program appears to be due in part to the peer support and accountability built into the program. Also, by assigning values to actions taken, the workbook provided households with a tangible idea of the impact they could make by taking action and participating in the program.

Due to the positive feedback and success of this pilot program, the City offered the Low Carbon Diet program to even more residents in 2009. The program has gained a lot of public support

For more information go to http://cityofdavis.org/pgs/lowcarbondiet

“This program is the first step-by-step plan for turning environmental concern into action” The Chicago Tribune.

The City hopes to build from this pilot program to eventually engage thousands of Davis households to increase energy efficiency, reduce waste, and continue on a path toward a low carbon future for the community. This program is a part of the Davis Community Sustainability and Climate Change mission http://www.cityofdavis.org/cmo/Sustainability/.

As author David Gershon points out in The Low Carbon Diet: “This is a fun and active plan to ‘…save money …save energy …save the planet!’”

For more information on the Low Carbon Diet, visit the Empowerment Institute’s web site at: http://www.empowermentinstitute.net/lcd/index.html.

Media

The 2% Solution Videocast, The Davis Voice 2008-01-30
Climate Action Team Convenes, The Davis Voice 2008-03-13
Climate Action Team Begins Work, The Davis Voice 2008-04-03
Climate Action Team completes greenhouse gas inventory, California Aggie 2008-04-08
Editorial: CAT Progress, California Aggie 2008-04-10
Climate Action Team Public Forum, The Davis Voice 2008-06-26
City, residents collaborate on climate change measures, California Aggie 2008-06-30
Cooling the Earth One House at a Time, The Davis Voice 2009-09-30
A Holiday Green Shopping Guide, The Davis Voice 2009-12-09
Low Carbon Cruising is Here, The Davis Voice 2010-01-14

Comments:

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2008-05-23 13:49:39 Here's news flash for anyone thinking about getting involved...

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, reluctantly stated that there has been no global warming so far in the 21st century. Last year there was a average global *drop* in temperature of .7C despite predictions that it would be the warmest year on record.

Read the whole article and make up your own mind....

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/environment/story.html?id=525590

—JimStewart

That's hardly what I'd call a good amount of information for someone to make up their own mind. The National Post is a generally conservative paper and has been running a series of articles hellbent on displaying global warming as either false, a hoax, or vastly unsettled science — a little bit of research uncovers this (1, 2, 3 - which explains a bit how the newspaper had scientists untrained in climate science, such as statisticians, evaluate data blindly and then claim they were global warming deniers). The implication that because temperatures dropped (relative to the previous year) global warming isn't happening is a one-dimensional outlook on the problem. If you look at this graph and you can see how a dip in the global mean temperature in, say, 2005, doesn't mean that there isn't a clear trend here.

I'd certainly encourage anyone out there who's thinking of getting involved to do so. And I'd certainly encourage them to do research on global warming. But those National Post articles are pure garbage. —PhilipNeustrom

And here is a more recent analysis of the statistical trends by independent statisticians, this time in favor of global warming and against so-called global cooling. They saw the trend even without knowing what the data were representing. —CovertProfessor

2009-11-17 10:53:05 If you actually want some valid arguments against the existence of climate change, you should definitely look at the relationship between carbon dioxide and vegetation (this argues that carbon does not cause global warming) as well as the relationship between the sun and carbon dioxide. You could also look into who profits the most from a panic over global warming (General Electric and Al Gore). A drop during a year really proves nothing. —hankim

The sun isn't causing global warming. I'm not sure about your first claim, but I'm betting you're talking about deforestation causing warming rather than our direct CO2 output? There's little difference: both contribute to CO2 in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. The increase in CO2 in the atmosphere is anthropogenic.

Folks, this is serious stuff. I'd recommend you guys check out What's the Worst that could happen? because it's up your alley. The author has a series of videos as well. —PhilipNeustrom

Nope, I'm talking about the correlation between Earth's carbon content and the "explosion" in vegetation that it causes according to an article I read a while back. There are also correlations between solar activity, carbon, and the temperature: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8299079.stm . Hoover Institute (yes it is conservative) arguing about lack of link between economy (more factories and therefore pollution) and temperature fluctuations: http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3460191.html . —hankim

Can you please try to link/find the article you're referring to? Also, any thoughts on rising C02 and ocean acidification? -ES

Sorry, could only find a paragraph on crop yields from CATO : http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6633

I'd very much recommend you watch those videos I linked to. —PhilipNeustrom

I just watched the YouTube video and he seems to have downplayed economic damages that certain policies would cause. Some international policies would cripple developing nations, leaving them severely vulnerable to tyranny, oppression, poverty, and exploitation. Domestic policies put people out of jobs and increase the costs of living, not to mention limit our liberties as well. Just writing down economic problems does not equally show both sides, especially if he went into specifics with hurricanes and storms on the other side. Also, the basis for his argument is that the policies environmentalists push such as quotas and switching to electricity will actually lower carbon emissions. Electric cars still need power from somewhere, and generating that power will cause emissions. If you want to argue about solar panels, think about what factories have to do to produce those panels and how much land is needed to generate a certain amount of energy. I like how some of the companies the guy cited that support policies are the ones making money off of the global climate change scare (General Electric for one, they own two of the biggest global climate change supporting networks, NBC and the Weather Channel). Energy companies would love quotas seeing that they will increase the price of energy artificially allowing them to make money while producing less. Also, what kind of company would not accept free money from the government if they switched to something that the government has determined to be environmentally friendly? —hankim

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