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Water and ClimateCCWI’s Water and Climate Project provides education and outreach on how climate will affect California water supply, along with easy ways to reduce ghg emissions focused on water use, and efficiency. What can you do about climate change? 1)
Educate yourself about the issue. 1) Educate yourself about the issue. Climate change is a very complex topic. The science and politics involved reach from the North Pole to the car you drive. New-
Go see "An Inconvenient Truth"- A documentary movie about climate
change featuring Al Gore, who
travels across America describing the threat of global warming and how
to address it. The film starts the weekend of June 2nd and runs through
June 8th at the Rialto theater in Santa Rosa. Visit the information table
on opening weekend sponsored by the Climate Protection Campaign and CCWI.
Community Clean Water Institute, the Climate Protection Campaign, the
Sierra Club, and Solar Sebastopol will have a table in the lobby after
the film, where you can learn more about what we are doing locally to
reduce green house gas emissions and take action, including endorsing
Sonoma's community target for greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 25%
below 1990 levels by 2015. For more information, check www.climatecrisis.net.
News: Katrina and Climate Change Here
are some links to find out more about climate change: Here are a few effective consumer choices you can make to reduce your use of fossil fuels: 1) Buy a fuel efficient or hybrid car (the Toyota Prius gets ~50 mpg), 2) plant a native plant garden instead of a lawn and use low flow shower heads and toilets, 3) insulate your house better with double pane windows and buy Energy Star appliances, 4) donate money to groups like CCWI that work on this issue. OK, that was easy, now check out the Big Picture Solutions. 3) Talk to people, form a group, join a group, lobby for change! In 2001, two concerned citizens (just like you) decided to get every city in Sonoma County to pass resolutions to quantify and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. You can do the same in your city and county. Once all the cities had passed the resolution, they approached the regional air quality district to include them in the regional effort. Citizens can be the wind driving the ship of government. 4) Big Picture Solutions Climate change is a big problem, and here are some big picture solutions, including Contraction and Convergence, and Individual Emissions Entitlements. Click here. CCWI's Water and Climate Program- Current projects: Report
(pdf file) to Air District on the overlap of air quality and climate protection.
Big Picture Solutions: Climate change is a big problem so let's think big. About Water and Climate Change: Global climate change is one of the greatest threats to water resources and ecosystems over the next century. Climate change is expected to impact U.S. water resources and water availability in the western United States, including the following: decreased snowfall and snowmelt, a major source of drinking water for much of California; rising sea levels threatening coastal aquifers and water supplies; increases in lake and stream temperatures threatening fish, water species, and critical habitats such as wetlands.
Although the U.S. population represents approximately 5 percent of the world’s total, it accounts for over 25 percent of the emissions that cause global climate change. Accomplishments: CCWI works with the Sonoma County Climate Protection Campaign to promote smart water policies to elected officials, schools, businesses, and others. CCWI has been encouraging water treatment plants to incorporate energy efficiency into their operations. Background on Sonoma County Climate Protection Efforts: Local governments in Sonoma County set a national precedent in 2002 when Sonoma County and all nine of its cities pledged by resolution to quantify and reduce the ghg emissions resulting from their operations. The County adopted a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from the year 2000 to 2010, (the target set by the Kyoto Protocol, which has not been ratified by the U.S. government, is to reduce emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels).
According
to the City of Santa Rosa’s
GHG emissions inventory, emissions have increased by 11 percent over
the past nine years. When emissions from the Laguna Wastewater Treatment
Plant are added in, the increase jumps to 40 percent. Energy use around
water was described by City Councilmember Jane Bender as the City’s
largest user of energy. The City is installing new efficient air blowers
at the plant, estimated to use 50 percent less energy than the current
blowers, reduce over 2,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year,
and save more than $400,000 per year. CCWI's work to assist cities and counties to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions has resulted in the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's decision to study the overlap of air quality and climate protection. This is the first time an Air District in California is directly looking at becoming involved in the issue of climate change. The
8 city GHG report is available at the Climate Protection Campaign website.
Using the analysis in this report the Sonoma County Water Agency can focus its conservation efforts at the peaks of the graph, where water delivery is most expensive and also carries the greatest environmental impact. A timeline of climate protection advocacy in the North Bay: In September 2001, Mike Sandler and Ann Hancock discussed ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection (R) Program at a Rio+10/Local Agenda 21 Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ann had worked on the Ecological Footprint, but was beginning to feel that CO2 was the ultimate ecological indicator. Mike was certain that his hometown, Sebastopol, would join Cities for Climate Protection. The Sonoma County Climate Protection Campaign was born. From September 2001 to July 2002, CCWI worked alongside the Sonoma County Climate Protection Campaign to introduce ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection to local jurisdictions in Sonoma County. The first few meetings were with Sebastopol Councilmember Sam Spooner, County Public Works Director Ken Wells, Santa Rosa Councilmember Jane Bender, Petaluma Councilmember Pam Torliatt, and Supervisor Tim Smith. After approximately 30 meetings, the program gained momentum, and City Managers and others began to discuss how this program could be implemented throughout Sonoma County. In January 2002, newly hired CCWI Program Coordinator Mike Sandler began approaching decision makers regarding encouraging the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to assist local jurisdictions in implementing their climate protection goals. In May 2002, Mike Sandler and Ann Hancock attended a meeting with all the Mayors in Sonoma County and described the idea of including the Air District in the climate protection program. In September
2002 the Sonoma County Mayors' and Council members' Association sent a
letter to the Chair of the Board of the Bay Area Air Quality Management
District encouraging the district to support climate protection. February 2003, CCWI Program Coordinator Mike Sandler and Ann Hancock of the Climate Protection Campaign met with Air District Boardmembers Pam Torliatt and Tim Smith to discuss the Air District's involvement in Climate Protection. March 16-23, 2003 CCWI Program Coordinator Mike Sandler attended the World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan and gave a presentation to a panel of international water experts, regarding the impacts of water use and wastewater treatment in Sonoma County on climate change and presented a poster on Water and Climate. May 2003, CCWI Program Coordinator Mike Sandler and Ann Hancock of the Climate Protection Campaign attended an Air District Board meeting, and presented their plan. In June 2003, the Air District Board approved a request for financial support of a two-part study comprised of a GHG inventory for all sectors of Sonoma County, and research regarding actions underway regionally and nationwide in which air quality and climate protection efforts are being integrated. In September 2003 the remaining eight Sonoma cities completed inventories of the emissions produced by their internal operations. In doing so, Sonoma set a second national precedent when 100 percent of its municipalities completed their baseline emission inventories. In 2004, CCWI and the Climate Protection Campaign began work on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's study of the overlap of air quality and climate protection. This is the first time an Air District in California is directly looking at becoming involved in the issue of climate change. In 2004,
Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, and Cotati set their emission reduction targets
- Milestone Two - for their internal operations. All three cities' targets
are the same as the County's except Sebastopol's which is 30% from 2000
by 2008. Resources: Water
+ Energy = Watergy. When you use less water, you also use less energy.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report for 8 cities in Sonoma County is now available at www.skymetrics.us The California Urban Water Conservation Council has a great list of Best Management Practices for water agencies. The Sonoma County Water Agency's water conservation program. Q:
Why should you become an advocate for climate protection? You've got problems, here's a solution: Author Richard Douthwaite's brilliant proposal to solve multiple problems: climate change, global inequality, Third World debt, oil dependence, and problems in the monetary system. The proposal involves Contraction and Convergence, and issuing Emissions Rights and an energy backed currency. Find out more. CCWI will be analyzing the concepts in this proposal on the Big Picture webpage. Stay tuned.
Direct any
questions to info@ccwi.org. About Us | Resources | Programs | Events | Contact
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