Portland

Report casts doubt

A new report questions whether the 358 U.S. cities that pledged to meet Kyoto's targets will be successful. That's a fine question, but it's perhaps easy to misconstrue as an implicit criticism that the promises were meaningless.

There is every reason to think that the cities can meet the targets. (And, heck, the pledge is only 18 months old!) Portland, in fact, is already well on its way.

What the report should serve to highlight is this:

Green power programs at utilities remain teensy

From last week, good news about Portland General Electric:

PGE [has moved to] the head of the pack nationally in terms of demand for green energy. Under its green-power program, Oregon's largest utility sells more kilowatts of renewable power to its residential customers than any other utility in the country, regardless of size. [Emphasis added]

Wow. PGE is nowhere near the nation's largest utility. Still, it leads the nation "green energy" signups -- people who opt to pay a bit extra on their home utility bills to support wind, solar, small hydro, or similar climate-friendly energy sources. Seems like PGE, and its customers, deserve a pat on on the back.

But wait, there's more! (Or perhaps less ...)

Some Portland skepticism

In re: the post below on Kristof's obsession with Portland, David Appell writes to say that the main claim -- that Portland has reached pre-1990 GHG levels -- is probably false anyway. The Portland Office of Sustainable Development apparently all but admitted as much.

See "Portland's Compliance with Kyoto: The Birth of an Urban Myth" (Word doc) for details.

Kristof vu

Nic Kristof, last July:

"Kyoto would have wrecked our economy,'' Mr. Bush told a Danish interviewer recently, referring to the accord to curb carbon emissions. Maybe that was a plausible argument a few years ago, but now the city of Portland is proving it flat wrong.

Newly released data show that Portland, America's environmental laboratory, has achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions. It has reduced emissions below the levels of 1990, the benchmark for the Kyoto accord, while booming economically.

Nic Kristof, this July:

But all across the country, states and local governments have chipped away at those arguments for delay -- actually, pretty much demolished them -- by showing that there are myriad small steps we can take that significantly curb carbon emissions and that are easily affordable.

A leader of that effort has been Portland, earnestly green even when it is wintry gray. In 1993, the city adopted a plan to curb greenhouse gases, and it is bearing remarkable fruit: local greenhouse gas emissions are back down to 1990 levels, while nationally they are up 16 percent. And instead of damaging its economy, Portland has boomed.

Kristof really likes Portland. Or else he's having trouble finding other good news.

Some hope from HOPES

A couple of folks on another post commented on how environmental activity is limited to progressive cities and campuses. Since I just got back from a green campus in a green city, I thought readers might want to hear about some good stuff going on in that small corner of the world.

The University of Oregon's annual HOPES Conference just wrapped up on the 16th. Now in it's 12th year, HOPES is a student-run environmental-design conference. If you are depressed by the level of environmental apathy around you, this was a place to recharge your faith and hope in humanity, especially the college-age segment of humanity.

Everything you wanted to know about Portland…

Well I'll be. I was skeptical about whether Treehugger's "tell us about your city" thing was going to work, but they asked about Portland, OR, and man did they get an earful. Some really fascinating stuff in comments.

The local-food movement may bring red and blue together

Last week, The New York Times ran a feature by Marian Burros on New Seasons Markets, a grocery store chain in Portland that's banking on consumer interest in local, sustainable food -- as opposed to simply organic.

The chain recently completed an inventory of the origins of its stock and has labeled everything grown in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California "Homegrown." They've already got six stores and three more on the way, but remain adamantly opposed to expanding beyond the Portland suburbs -- a testament to their commitment to being grounded in the local food economy.

New American dream towns

Outside magazine has a list of 10 "New American Dream Towns."

When we combed the country for the sweetest innovations and the freshest ideas for making neighborhoods better places to live, work, and play -- with tons of green space, easy access to the outdoors, and big-think visions for smarter, more sustainable everyday living -- we hit the jackpot. ...

To spotlight the new American dream towns, we started with a wish list of criteria: commitment to open space, smart solutions to sprawl and gridlock, can-do community spirit, and an active embrace of the adventurous life. We looked for green design and green-thinking mayors, thriving farmers' markets and healthy job markets. We found it all -- and then some: ten towns that might tempt you to box up your belongings, plus nine more whose bright ideas are well worth stealing. Check out these shining prototypes for what a 21st-century town -- what your hometown, perhaps -- can be: cleaner, greener, smarter. Better.

Some of the choices are expected (Chicago, Portland, Ore.), but some may surprise you. (They surprised me anyway, particularly given my lifelong hostility toward Salt Lake City.) And don't miss the short pieces at the end of the package: Smart Urban Ideas parts one, two, and three.

(via Treehugger)

Portland and vanity

Re: the previous post, another quote from the Portland guy caught my eye:

Mr. Sten added that Portland's officials were able to curb carbon emissions only because the steps they took were intrinsically popular and cheap, serving other purposes like reducing traffic congestion or saving on electrical costs. "I haven't seen that much willingness even among our environmentalists," he said, "to do huge masochistic things to save the planet."

Two things to note here, related to my post on hypocrisy from yesterday:

• Sten hasn't seen much "willingness even among environmentalists to do masochistic things to save the planet." Me neither. There are people who will sacrifice amenities and conveniences to live a life of environmental virtue, but they are now, and will always be, in the small minority. Welcome to homo sapiens.
• But that's okay. The people of Portland are leading lives of increasing environmental virtue just by living in Portland. Thanks to some savvy organizing and good government, Portland has made structural changes -- new traffic lights, more transit routes, more bike trails, etc. -- that make extraordinary individual sacrifice unnecessary. They are making environmental virtue the path of least resistance.

What's the lesson?

Get involved in your community. Organize. Write letters to the editor. Run for city council. Join a campaign. Inform others. Get informed. Vote.

Change the structure of our collective life. All else is vanity.