SierraScape February - March 2006
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by Jill Miller

Across the country, nearly 200 mayors have now made a commitment to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming in their cities by signing onto the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. The Sierra Club featured energy-conservation minded "Cool Cities" in a national guide released last Fall.

Through citizen letters, phone calls, and some smart community partnerships, we created four Cool Cities in the St. Louis area in 2005. The mayors of St. Louis City, University City, Maplewood, and Florissant have now signed onto the Agreement, pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 7% below 1990 levels by 2010.

While mayors earned praise from the EMG, our local efforts earned praise and recognition of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who initiated the Mayors' Agreement last Spring. Cities that sign the Agreement are listed on the Seattle mayor's website, along with the full text of the agreement and the sign-on page.

In December, Nickels thanked the Sierra Club for joining this effort in a press conference during international climate change talks in Montreal.

The Cool Cities campaign has now been adopted by Sierra Club activists in Columbus, OH, Atlanta, GA, Omaha, NE, New Hampshire, and elsewhere around the country.

Get your mayor on board in 2006!

Right now the EMG Energy Committee is developing a strategy to contact dozens of local mayors and educate them about energy-saving steps they can implement to save taxpayer dollars and lower emissions. What local mayors need most is to hear from their constituents, asking them to think globally and act locally on climate change.

Please get involved today by contacting Jill Miller at (314) 645-2032, jill.miller@sierraclub.org. All members are welcome to attend Energy Committee meetings, too; call chair Henry Robertson at (314) 647-5603.