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Randy Blankenhorn
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CMAP Climate Change summit. On Tuesday, we'll convene our second Innovation + Integration summit, this one intended to begin discussion of a regional approach to climate change. Coincidentally, the United Nations summit on climate change is underway in Bali, Indonesia. The New York Times has an excellent blog called Dot Earth, which today points out the irony that such a two-week conference with 10,000 international attendees leaves quite a carbon footprint of its own. Despite earlier agreements including the Kyoto Protocol, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to increase at a rate that scientists find alarming.
In our summit on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, we'll hear from a number of experts -- including Argonne National Laboratory director Dr. Robert Rosner -- who will help us find a regional context for anticipated climate change. This will include discussion of anticipated effects including potential water shortages, and of possible actions that our region and its communities can take to be prepared for the changes and to reduce our own GHG emissions. Better and coordinated planning has a clear role to play in shaping this discussion and the region's response.
Sustainability snapshot. At the summit, we'll also release our new Regional Snapshot on Sustainability. You can download a preview of this report, which distills a longer technical report that is available at that same link. The report establishes a working definition of sustainability for purposes of our planning process. The term is now used commonly even in the mainstream media, but there isn't a common understanding of what it is. This snapshot also explores how to measure sustainability with specific proposed indicators, which we anticipate the CMAP Board will vote to adopt in Fall 2008, for use in the alternative future scenarios that will be developed as part of the Regional Comprehensive Plan, which CMAP is now developing for completion in 2010.
The report looks at a wide range of issues -- not just the environment, but also the economy, housing, transportation, and more. Among the two dozen indicators, many cut across the issue of climate change. These include GHG emissions, the region's environmental footprint, petroleum consumption, and total energy use -- all of which are factors that can be significantly influenced through better planning of land use and transportation. As an agency, we want to influence development patterns across the region, to encourage infill, redevelopment, and compact growth. By pursuing such policies at the local level, municipalities can help make their communities more livable and help address the congestion that contributes to diminished quality of life, in addition to having serious consequences for the economy and the environment.
Mass transit update. An important factor in achieving sustainability is to protect the precious resource that is our regional transit system. This week we've seen indications that the current stalemate in Springfield could continue into 2008. There would never be a good time for such nonsense, but it's especially sad that the holidays are marred for many residents who can't be sure how they'll travel to work in the new year. Pension and health benefit concessions made by the CTA are scheduled to expire unless new transit funding is provided by December 31.
Posted by Tom Garritano at 12/07/2007 03:02:42 PM |