Mayor and City Council Redding, California
Feb 05, 2007 in Redding
On Tuesday, February 6, 2007 I will stand before the Redding City Council in Shasta County in Northern California and ask the Mayor and the Council to sign the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement for the second time. The Agreement itself will accomplish little but in my view it is an essential sign that a city, its leaders and its inhabitants are ready to take the first step to tackle the most serious problem to ever face humanity. What follows are the comments I plan to make.
Hello, my name is Doug Craig. It has been almost exactly ten months since my last appearance on this stand when I requested that the council authorize the signing of the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. As you may recall at that time there were 224 other mayors across the nation who had already signed the agreement which acknowledged that thousands of the top climate scientists across the planet and representatives from the governments of the world, including our own, clearly recognized that there is no longer any credible doubt that climate disruption is a reality and that human activities are largely responsible for increasing concentrations of global warming pollution.
Last Friday, that same group of scientists issued their latest report as you know and stated that they are 90 per cent certain that global climate change is man-made. One scientist said the report was based on science that is “rock-solid, peer-reviewed, conservative” and indisputable.
Since I stood before you 10 months ago, 169 more mayors have signed the agreement including the mayor of Chico. Approximately every two days another mayor in America signs on. Today the mayors of nearly 400 cities have now signed the agreement representing nearly 60 million Americans. Last year then Mayor Murray, Councilwoman Stegall, and Mr. Jim Feider met with me and two others to consider the agreement. At that time you declined. But as you know, ignoring problems does not make them go away.
In the year since you last considered this issue, each of us has produced the equivalence of a large elephant—6 tons—of carbon dioxide emissions and placed it in our atmosphere where it will outlive us all. For every gallon of gasoline we burn we add another 25 pounds of CO2 to our air where it will trap heat for at least a century.
Scientists tell us that there is more CO2 in our atmosphere right now than has been there for 650,000 years, that eleven of the last twelve years rank among the twelve hottest years on record and that hot extremes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.
The report concludes that if we take no action to reduce emissions, there will be “twice as much warming over the next two decades than if we had stabilized heat-trapping gases at 2000 levels.”
For the sake of our children and grandchildren and all generations to come who will live in the atmosphere we create for them, I urge you to do the right thing, sign the agreement and provide Redding with the leadership we require. Thank you for your time.
Doug Craig