by Naomi Roslyn Galtz, Ph.D; J.D. in Environmental Law 2008; Legal Intern RPA
It was at the fifth meeting of my village's Climate Change Task Force that I began to lose hope. We'd reviewed other communities' climate change plans, progressed through several rounds of brainstorming, and were in the midst of organizing our ideas.
Then it hit me. We were charged with creating a plan to lessen our community's impact on climate and ready the Village for global warming's gravest effects. Yet so far there was just one proposal that enjoyed unqualified support among us. It was:
"Hold a Design Contest to Create a Village Canvas Shopping Bag."
While I've got nothing against cloth shopping bags, it's hard to see how designing one will do much, even in the long run, to reduce carbon emissions. Even as a symbolic gesture, it was a decidedly small one. So how had this become the only common ground, within a group of people sincerely committed to addressing climate change?
The answer to this question is more important than it might appear on first glance. As we move forward to address climate change, we need real, substantive actions not only at the national and international levels, but on the local level, where most American land use policies are hammered out. Localities have the promise of being the main engine for U.S. progress on climate change. But while there are scattered examples of towns and villages that have mobilized full force, the 'criticality of the locality' is liable to go largely untapped if States to do not step in to encourage this path.
Let's begin by acknowledging that it's no mystery how the heartfelt desire of local citizens to avert what may be the largest challenge yet faced by human kind can be compressed down to a kid's design contest aimed at reducing the use of plastic bags. And it has nothing to do with competence, or even ideology.
Our Task Force includes six highly intelligent individuals with significant professional expertise. We are all well aware of the stakes involved, and happily there's not a climate change skeptic among us.
Yet there are numerous factors that can prevent local groups like ours from coalescing around truly useful climate action plans. One factor is the soup of possibilities: with so many ways to address global warming, it can be difficult to rank potential actions. Discussion--at least in our group--tends to careen precipitously between the 'voice of urgency' and the 'voice of reason,' and there's no doubt that minute personal interests can tip the balance. (A proposed anti-idling ordinance, for example, might fall before the specter of one's child trudging to school on subzero days.)
There is an obvious danger in committing enormous time and energy just to reinvent the wheel, but because small towns and villages tend to cherish their uniqueness, folks may be wary of using other community plans as templates. Add to this a free-floating fear of being perceived as 'too strident,' and the natural propensity--in the school-focused atmosphere of small towns - to favor educational solutions, and - voila! - the canvas bag solution to climate change.
This is precisely the terrain American efforts to stem climate change must negotiate, as they wend their way through the micro-capillaries of local power. We know that land use patterns, as well as building design and retrofit, are central to any climate fix. But zoning powers are squarely in the hands of the localities, as is oversight for building codes and (typically) the ability to carve out "more restrictive local standards" in those codes. The local scene, so to speak, may now comprise the most important front in climate action.
This is not all bad news. As public attitudes tip decisively in favor of action on climate change, strong local planning efforts could actually serve as the critical mobilizing factor to move the nation forward. But localities need help identifying and prioritizing truly effective strategies. They need tuned-in outsiders to help sort through the pile-up of competing fears, desires and demands. Perhaps more than anything, as localities become aware and motivated, they need good old, inclusive and well-planned 'visioning' sessions to help them understand what climate change will look like locally - and how their communities might look and feel if they strategically shaped them to mitigate carbon output.
If done well and done soon, this is work that could make climate change more real than it has yet been in America, giving traction to state and national efforts over the long term.
Of course, there are numerous obstacles to be overcome to make this vision a reality. But one easy way to begin tapping the latent power of localities is for states to offer incentives and financial support for comprehensive municipal planning efforts centered on climate change. While it will take some time to overcome the natural fear of change and the tendency of local committees to think small, a nudge in the right direction--even a few dollars, say, for extra planning help--could lead more towns away from the canvas bag and toward real solutions.
It was at the fifth meeting of my village's Climate Change Task Force that I began to lose hope. We'd reviewed other communities' climate change plans, progressed through several rounds of brainstorming, and were in the midst of organizing our ideas.
Then it hit me. We were charged with creating a plan to lessen our community's impact on climate and ready the Village for global warming's gravest effects. Yet so far there was just one proposal that enjoyed unqualified support among us. It was:
"Hold a Design Contest to Create a Village Canvas Shopping Bag."
While I've got nothing against cloth shopping bags, it's hard to see how designing one will do much, even in the long run, to reduce carbon emissions. Even as a symbolic gesture, it was a decidedly small one. So how had this become the only common ground, within a group of people sincerely committed to addressing climate change?
The answer to this question is more important than it might appear on first glance. As we move forward to address climate change, we need real, substantive actions not only at the national and international levels, but on the local level, where most American land use policies are hammered out. Localities have the promise of being the main engine for U.S. progress on climate change. But while there are scattered examples of towns and villages that have mobilized full force, the 'criticality of the locality' is liable to go largely untapped if States to do not step in to encourage this path.
Let's begin by acknowledging that it's no mystery how the heartfelt desire of local citizens to avert what may be the largest challenge yet faced by human kind can be compressed down to a kid's design contest aimed at reducing the use of plastic bags. And it has nothing to do with competence, or even ideology.
Our Task Force includes six highly intelligent individuals with significant professional expertise. We are all well aware of the stakes involved, and happily there's not a climate change skeptic among us.
Yet there are numerous factors that can prevent local groups like ours from coalescing around truly useful climate action plans. One factor is the soup of possibilities: with so many ways to address global warming, it can be difficult to rank potential actions. Discussion--at least in our group--tends to careen precipitously between the 'voice of urgency' and the 'voice of reason,' and there's no doubt that minute personal interests can tip the balance. (A proposed anti-idling ordinance, for example, might fall before the specter of one's child trudging to school on subzero days.)
There is an obvious danger in committing enormous time and energy just to reinvent the wheel, but because small towns and villages tend to cherish their uniqueness, folks may be wary of using other community plans as templates. Add to this a free-floating fear of being perceived as 'too strident,' and the natural propensity--in the school-focused atmosphere of small towns - to favor educational solutions, and - voila! - the canvas bag solution to climate change.
This is precisely the terrain American efforts to stem climate change must negotiate, as they wend their way through the micro-capillaries of local power. We know that land use patterns, as well as building design and retrofit, are central to any climate fix. But zoning powers are squarely in the hands of the localities, as is oversight for building codes and (typically) the ability to carve out "more restrictive local standards" in those codes. The local scene, so to speak, may now comprise the most important front in climate action.
This is not all bad news. As public attitudes tip decisively in favor of action on climate change, strong local planning efforts could actually serve as the critical mobilizing factor to move the nation forward. But localities need help identifying and prioritizing truly effective strategies. They need tuned-in outsiders to help sort through the pile-up of competing fears, desires and demands. Perhaps more than anything, as localities become aware and motivated, they need good old, inclusive and well-planned 'visioning' sessions to help them understand what climate change will look like locally - and how their communities might look and feel if they strategically shaped them to mitigate carbon output.
If done well and done soon, this is work that could make climate change more real than it has yet been in America, giving traction to state and national efforts over the long term.
Of course, there are numerous obstacles to be overcome to make this vision a reality. But one easy way to begin tapping the latent power of localities is for states to offer incentives and financial support for comprehensive municipal planning efforts centered on climate change. While it will take some time to overcome the natural fear of change and the tendency of local committees to think small, a nudge in the right direction--even a few dollars, say, for extra planning help--could lead more towns away from the canvas bag and toward real solutions.
@RegionalPlan
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