Summary: In 1996, the small, southern town of Vaxjo, Sweden decided to abate their dependence on fossil fuels. Today, after cutting CO2 emissions by 30 percent, environmental luminaries from around the world are seeking guidance on how they did it. Vaxjo is a pioneer for dozens of cities in Europe currently that are not waited for national or international regulations to curb their emissions. For example, London charges for traffic, Paris has a city bike program, and Barcelona has a solar power campaign. The message is summed up by the environmental controller of Vaxjo, “We want to show everyone else that you can accomplish a lot at the local level.” The European Union, in seeing many member states failing to meet Kyoto mandated emission cuts, has taken notice and now encourages cities to set their own targets. There are naysayers though, such as the manager of C40 – a global network of major cities exchanging ideas on tackling climate change. He is concerned cities do not know exactly what they are cutting and what targets they should be setting. Regardless, cities are forming plans and taking action. Several U.S. cities – Austin, Portland, and Seattle – have launched their own programs. Vaxjo took on global warming by cutting emissions at heating and power plants. The plants replaced oil with wood chips from local sawmills as it main source of fuel and then returned the ashes to the forest as nutrients. Vaxjo also invested in energy efficient street-light bulbs and has begun using wood to build buildings.
My Take: This is just great stuff! I heard a while back about this city in Sweden and it is fantastic other cities are now emulating their strategy. The bottom line is there is no reason every city cannot do this. It did not take a whole lot of money, it is not costing anyone a whole lot of money, and it increased everyone’s quality of living two-fold. Without a doubt, this city will be one of the most pleasurable places to live in 50 years because the air quality will be amazing, the people will be healthier and happy, and it appears as if they will be doing just fine financially. I think there is a great opportunity here for me and others like me to get involved and make a difference. Anyone can step up and lead initiatives at the local level and that is where this work is being done. For all the talk of our global economy, it is starting to hold very true that there is plenty of opportunity at the local level – especially because most everyone has ignored it to focus on the globally for so long now. Overall, I found this article very refreshing and energizing.
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