4A |
SATURDAY EDITION
| MAY 22, 2021
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
| 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
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87439
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Letters to the Editor policy
Is Florence essential in the fight to curb climate change?
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint sub-
missions on this and other topics are
always welcome as part of our goal to
encourage community discussion and
exchange of perspectives.)
set demonstrates it is true that
cities are essential in the fight
to curb global warming. This
is because globally they are re-
sponsible for about three-quar-
When it comes to fight-
Guest Viewpoint
ing climate change the good
By Michael Allen
news is that globally more
Florence
environmental advocate
and more cities are taking
action. The bad news is that
few are focusing on the most
important ways to impact green ters of greenhouse gas emis-
sions and use about two-thirds
house gas emissions.
Of the 812 cities surveyed of the world’s energy. I reported
by the nonprofit Carbon Dis- these same statistics when I ap-
cloure Project (CDP), less than peared before the City Council
half have a detailed plan to ad- on July 15, 2019.
Disclosing climate disrup-
dress climate change.
So, Florence is not alone tions is the first step to help
when it comes to avoiding the cities understand their climate
most pressing issue of our time. risks. After that they should
CDP has provided a compre- develop a plan with short- and
hensive dataset on corporate long-term targets and a pro-
and city climate action. See cedure for regularly reporting
their re-port at www.cdp.net/ progress.
This plan must be aligned
en/research/global-reports/cit-
with
clearly defined sci-
ies-on-the-route-to-2030
In addition, the CDP’s data- ence-based targets.
Buildings, transport, energy
and waste have the most po-
tential to reduce emissions, ac-
cording to the CDP report.
Climate scientists say emis-
sions need to be halved by
2030 and reach net zero by
2050 to keep warming at or
close to the threshold of 1.5
degrees Celsius by the end of
the century.
It will require robust action
by all our cities, large and small,
to reach these goals.
I am again urging the Flor-
ence City Council to respond to
our climate petition which now
has 391 signatories.
Our petition simply asks
Florence to join with many oth-
er cities by recognizing we have
a climate emergency and form
a community-based commis-
sion charged with developing a
comprehensive climate action
plan.
Time is rapidly running out.
Florence must act now.
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As with all letters and advertising content, the
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ject any letter that doesn’t follow the above criteria.
Email letters to:
nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com
WHERE TO WRITE
President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
TTY/TDD: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
Email: Sen.DickAnderson@
oregonlegislature.gov
Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown
State Rep.
Boomer Wright (Dist. 9)
State Sen. Dick
Anderson (Dist. 5)
160 State Capitol 900 Court St.
900 Court St. NE
Salem, Ore. 97301-4047
Salem, OR 97301
Message Line:
503-986-1409
503-378-4582
Email: Rep.BoomerWright@
www.oregon.gov/gov
oregonlegislature.gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244 | 541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
Lane County Dist. 1
Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
Email: Jay.Bozievich@
co.lane.or.us
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753 | 541-465-6750
Florence City Council
www.merkley.senate.gov
& Mayor Joe Henry
Florence City Hall, 250
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio Highway 101, Florence, 97439
(4th Dist.)
541-997-3437
2134 Rayburn HOB
ci.florence.or.us
Washington, DC 20515
Email comments to Florence
202-225-6416
City Recorder Kelli Weese at
541-269-2609 | 541-465-6732 kelli.weese@ci.florence.or.us
www.defazio.house.gov