PEORIA -- The Greater Peoria League of Women Voters was asked on Jan. 17 to help form a coalition of community groups in Peoria to push the mayor and city council to join the Cool Cities movement, to work for energy efficiency and reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The Central Illinois Global Warming Group's founders Dave Pittman and Kirsteen Sheets spoke to the League about how to turn the nation's cities green.
Pittman began by presenting the facts on the depletion of the world's natural resources and the threats posed by global warming. "We will be judged by how we measure up to the challenges," of solving these problems, he said.
Quoting Tom Friedman's book Hot, Flat and Crowded, Pittman said, "globalization puts everything on a level playing field." The internet equalizes opportunity and increases expectations, he said.
"It's not just the whales and polar bears. It's about us," he said of global warming and rising expectations. "The other 5.5 billion people want the prosperity we have. Demand grows while resources shrink."
Meanwhile, global warming from energy use threatens us all. "The use of coal to generate electricity has to be stopped. Coal must be gone in 30 years," Pittman said. Clean coal technology has not been developed, and is likely to be very expensive.
That means retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency while turning to other forms of energy generation, he said.
Sheets said that cities and other public organizations have joined the Cool Cities movement, including 48 cities and one county in Illinois. They are working on adoption of green building codes because energy efficiency is the top goal of this movement, she said. Other initiatives include insulating more homes, buying hybred vehicles for government use and breaks such as free parking for drivers of hybred vehicles.
East Peoria has signed onto the Cool Cities plan and is busily pursuing projects, she said. Other cities in the area are interested.
Peoria likely will be the hardest city to move, she said, so a coalition of advocates is necessary to push city officials to join the movement.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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