Land use and greenhouse gas emissions intersect in the courtroom

Sometimes government needs to avoid being sued, especially when we know we’re likely to lose. The King County Prosecutor’s Office believes that the State of Washington’s existing environmental laws and a number of court decisions already require us to establish carbon emission standards. This would apply to the Comprehensive Plans and transportation plans and investments of cities, counties, and the state. So, my office developed carbon emission standards for transportation and land use. This work has received widespread support among groups and agencies interested in this highly technical field. USDOT, on its own accord, awarded us a grant to develop models to analyze carbon emissions for transportation corridors like I-90 and State Highway 520.

You would assume that a legal opinion and validation of our emissions reduction work would give us the credence to move forward. To say the least, things have not been easy. The glaciers of Greenland have been melting faster than the acceptance and adoption of measures that actually reduce harmful emissions. Major stakeholders are slowly, quite slowly coming to accept the legal need for carbon measures. The political processes would rather defer this discussion until next year or the years thereafter. All of this reminded me of the reaction to the efforts of County Councilman Bruce Laing and I when we tried to establish an office of Climate Change in 1988. It was not well received. Hopefully, the media will report the implications of suits being brought against Thurston County and the City of Seattle. You would think that in an age of global warming elected officials and others would enthusiastically embrace measuring carbon emissions of the transportation and land use sectors. Hopefully, the wheels of government will work before the Courts compel us to follow the law.

Learn more at:

• Land Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intersect in the Courtroom
• Foes back anti-sprawl measure

Coping with climate change

I’m not interested in any more stories about Polar Bears. Those stories are just incremental measures of the climate change that we all know is coming. One reporter I spoke with this week called people who want to still debate whether climate change is real “members of the flat earth society. I say the scientists have it right.

Now, we need to figure out how to live with the change that is happening no matter how much we reduce greenhouse gases. That’s the real story.How are ordinary people going to cope with floods, record heat, water shortages, shorelines washed away and even new diseases that will thrive where they couldn’t before? It’s my job to make sure our community is resilient to climate change.

In the coming years there will be winners and losers in the world and the winners will live where governments have looked at how to best cope with the inevitable change. I am determined to make sure we are winners. Our safety, health and economy for the next 50 years depend on the work we do today that will protect us in the future.

I’m thinking and talking about this a lot this week as we host a meeting of nine metropolitan leaders who are all doing the work to provide resiliency and sharing this work to build a model for the rest of the world to use. The work is being led by the Center for Clean Air Policy, a think tank in Washington, D.C., and partially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. It’s important work, and I’m thankful to have the support of both organizations. Learn more on their Web sites. Or watch a video about the event.

Highlights from the Earth Day Expo

On Earth Day, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Bert the Salmon, EcoConsumer Tom Watson, the Yard Talk Guys and hundreds of folks who stopped by the 5th annual King County Earth Day Expo in Seattle’s Westlake Park. Our DNRP staff set up the King County booth and shared ideas on easy ways to go green, volunteer for Earth-friendly activities, reduce your carbon footprint and make your home and garden more environmentally sound.

Events like that are so fun for me because I can talk to people about how this fits into their lives and what it means for their family. Taking the bus more often or carpooling, shutting off the water while you brush your teeth, using low-flow water fixtures and energy-efficient light bulbs, recycling and composting are things most people can do to help.

As part of “living green” at our house, we recycle, compost our food scraps to use in our garden, bike to work when the weather permits, and use a hybrid car when it doesn’t. Sure, they’re small steps. But they have a big impact when we all pitch in.

The best part of the Earth Day Expo for me was seeing all the kids in the Children’s activity corner learning how to promote environmental awareness and learn fun ecological facts. I want kids like my granddaughter to inherit a world that’s better off environmentally than it is now. We have a lot of work to do, but the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks has some tips on making easy environmental choices at the website It’s Easy Being Green. Peace to you.

Green baseball: throwing the first pitch

It’s easy being green. Even at a baseball game. Actually, it took a lot of planning and effort by the Mariner’s to celebrate Earth Day 2008 with the first carbon neutral major league baseball game in history! I was honored to throw the ceremonial first pitch. The M’s not only won the game, 4-2 against the Orioles, the earth scored with less carbon emissions as the team owners purchased carbon offsets for all energy use at the stadium and all travel including jet travel by both teams and the umps. They promoted recycling among vendors and fans and pitched the idea to thousands of fans that by making small changes in the usual way they do things we get a healthier earth including the air and water we depend on. The county’s DNRP had a booth titled “It’s easy being green” and saw a surprising amount of interest from fans who stopped by. It was an Earth Day home run!