U.S. mayors meet in Seattle to push for a green revolution

[jpak]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/337597_climate01.html

Fluorescent bulbs were climate change activism on training wheels. For the next generation, it's time for a green revolution, for overthrowing the old order and ushering in the new, environmental and local elected leaders say.

They talk about a campaign as passionate as the civil rights movement, as nationally unifying as World War II patriotism. They're talking put-a-man-on-the-moon-sized investments in the development of clean energy. They want strict standards for vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions. They're begging the public to pressure national politicians to champion ambitious efforts to curb global warming.

This week Seattle is the epicenter for city-led crusades to slow global warming as it hosts the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Summit. Seattle and Mayor Greg Nickels are acknowledged leaders in the effort to tame climate change. Officials Monday announced that the city's emissions beat Kyoto Protocol goals -- an achievement few have matched.

So just as residents were starting to feel good about the new weatherstripping around their drafty windows and the occasional bus commute, the new message is more is needed -- much more. But it's no reason to succumb to green fatigue, activists say.

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