Elected leaders in Kalamazoo say local governments can honor the Paris Agreement on climate even if the federal government will not. About 100 people rallied in Bronson Park on Wednesday, where speakers called for the City of Kalamazoo to inventory its greenhouse gas emissions and to make city buildings and cars carbon-neutral within thirteen years.
The group called on other local governments to make climate action plans by the end of next year.
President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the treaty earlier this month, a move that environmentalists have criticized as a reckless act of climate denial.
Kalamazoo County Commissioner Kevin Wordelman says authorities in the county can work together “to set real goals – you know, like 25 percent of our energy should be from renewable sources within the next few years. That’s not that far out of the realm of possibility if we commit ourselves to it,” he told the crowd on Wednesday.
Wordelman says that reaching for those goals gives people who are concerned about climate change a way to get beyond despair. He says he’ll talk about the role the county commission could play at its next meeting on Tuesday.
City Commissioner Erin Knott spoke about what sustainability might look like in Kalamazoo.
“It means protecting our wellfields, the river and creeks to guarantee that we all have healthy water resources,” she said to cheers from the audience. “It means providing sustainable community redevelopment that remediates lead lines.”
“No more coal, no more oil, keep your carbon in the soil,” participants chanted before the rally wrapped up.
