If you are able to attend the meeting (March 16 at 4:30 p.m. in room 3220 County Administration Building, 400 N. Fourth Street), please do. The more people who show up and demand change, the more chance we have of affecting change. If you cannot attend, at least please email or call you committee member (shown in the article).
As we know, driving personal vehicles is one of the most environmentally damaging things people can do. If the tipping point for catastrophic climate change is near, at what point do we recognize that a major change is required?
The article is here: http://lacrossetribune.com/
=====
** Update on car sharing in La Crosse. At the March 5 Climate Action Fair, several people discussed the idea of bringing a car sharing program to La Crosse and we ran a TEDTalk by the founder of ZipCar, one of the oldest and best known car sharing programs in the US.
A car sharing program is a membership program. When you join, you pay a membership fee and get access to a universal key and a fleet of cars. The program owns, insures, fuels, and maintains the cars using membership fees. In larger cities, the fleet includes a variety of vehicles from small coupes and hatchbacks to trucks and vans and these are parked around the city to be easily accessible by members . Members reserve a fleet vehicle, use the vehicle for a few hours or a day or several days, and return it. They are usually charged a per mile fee and/or a day rate. The member pays for the vehicle when she/he needs it but not for the 95% of the time the vehicle is parked and idle. The program allows 20 or more people to share one car, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, provides local jobs, and relieves congestion. The program hires people to maintain and clean the cars and troubleshoot when needed.
Enterprise operates car share programs on several college campuses including UWL. Brian Kosiak has contacted the local Enterprise about the possibility of expanding that program into the La Crosse community. It is a possibility IF enough people are interested.
WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN A LA CROSSE AREA CAR SHARE PROGRAM? If you would be interested in joining such a program OR if you would like to help plan and promote such a program here, EMAIL couleeregionclimatealliance@gmail.com with subject line CAR SHARE.
To quote Robin Chase, founder of ZipCar (from a TEDTalk given in 2007)
"I'm really scared. We need to reduce CO2 emissions in 10 to 15 years by 80% in order to avert catastrophic effects, and I am astounded that I am standing here to tell you that, what are catastrophic effects? a three degree centigrade climate change rise that will result in 50% species extinction. It's not a movie. This is real life. And I'm really worried because when people talk about cars, which I know something about, the press and politicians and people in this room are all thinking, 'Let's use fuel efficient cars.' If we started today, ten years from now, at the end of this window of opportunity, those fuel efficient cars would reduce our fossil fuel needs by four per cent.That is NOT enough."
No comments:
Post a Comment