Climate Change, Citizens and Government

By Chris Bernstein

Two recent articles, “City Energy Project Mayors Support the Clean Power Plan” by Kimi Narita and Emily Barkdoll at the Natural Resources Defense Council and “36 towns to vote on climate change resolution” in Vermont by Neal Goswami at WCAX, show that citizens in our country are more concerned about climate change than the government is. This may be obvious to many people, but there are many citizens like myself that most likely place too much trust in our government to deal with such issues properly.

A common theme in both articles is that government officials that hold greater power than citizens are not as concerned about the well-being of our environment as their citizens are. It seems backwards to me that the government would ignore the destruction that has been taking place all over the world due to severe weather that can be linked to climate change. It doesn’t make sense why citizens across the nation must push their local government officials to take action because higher officials just aren’t doing enough. However, it’s also reassuring that citizens have the passion and courage to take action because they know things won’t change unless they do something. It’s so important to recognize how we as a country contribute to much of the environmental destruction, and it’s even more important to realize when we need to take action ourselves when leaders won’t.

When I compare what the government is doing (or not doing) against what people all over the country are doing, I see the potential for attitudes to change and further action to take place. With climate change becoming a bigger point of discussion across the country, I think that the “small” strides that communities are taking to lower their own carbon footprint will lead to more people doing the same.

After reading some of the ways that city mayors across the United States are working towards reducing their carbon output, as reported in “City Energy Project Mayors Support the Clean Power Plan,” I feel hopeful for our environment’s well-being, as there seems to be things that every city can do that’s within its resources to increase its sustainable initiatives. I’ll be interested to learn about more stories like these as time goes by of cities across the United States and even the world that come up with unique and creative ways to reduce their carbon footprint and to ultimately reduce the effects of climate change.

For more information:

www.nrdc.org/experts/kimi-narita/city-energy-project-mayors-support-clean-power-plan

www.wcax.com/content/news/36-towns-to-vote-on-climate-change-resolution-475315343.html