[Texgreen] Environmental reform pressure in San Antonio

[Roger Baker]

Editorial page commentary from San Antonio Express-News Sept 14, 2006:

Rebeca Chapa: Activists pressuring local governments to go green
Web Posted: 09/13/2006 06:08 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News

Some see it as a moral imperative. Others see it as a religious  
mandate. And some just think it's the right thing to do.

An awareness of environmental degradation and the responsibility of  
mankind to stem it are coming to fuller flower in San Antonio, where  
a group of secular and religious organizations is hoping to bend more  
ears on the issue.

Bill Sinkin, a longtime community leader and a passionate promoter of  
solar and other renewable energy, is spearheading the effort. He said  
while some in local government are catching on, San Antonio has a  
long way to go in making environmental awareness a key component of  
governmental policy.

"It takes the vision of elected officials to institutionalize the  
necessity of developing renewable energy and educational  
opportunities to inform the citizens," he said.

Right now, "there is no burning commitment."

On the weekend of Sept. 22-24, Sinkin and members of the religious  
and secular communities are hoping to arouse that sense of commitment  
citywide in houses of worship with the first Stewardship Earth  
Sermon. Among the organizations involved are the San Antonio  
Community of Churches, the Archdiocese of San Antonio, the Southwest  
Conference of the United Methodist Church, Frost Bank, Wells Fargo  
and CPS Energy.

"In a city that is about to fall off the edge in terms of  
nonattainment, we're in desperate need of making the shift to energy  
self-sufficiency," said Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson.

Going local isn't a novel approach.

Communities all over the country are taking up the question of  
environmental sustainability, hoping to fill in the gaps left by the  
federal government. Nearly 300 mayors have signed on to the Climate  
Protection Agreement.

The agreement challenges local governments to meet or exceed the 7  
percent greenhouse emission targets set forth by the international  
Kyoto Protocol by the year 2012.

The Rev. Karen Vannoy, a minister at Travis Park United Methodist  
Church, noted that even if the federal government were to strengthen  
environmental regulations and comply with Kyoto, it falls to local  
government to facilitate the behaviors that make it happen.

That includes urban planning that provides, for example, more hike- 
and-bike trails, encourages greater water conservation and promotes  
collective transportation over individual auto use.

Sinkin envisions the creation of a local energy commission with  
representatives from city and county government and CPS "to plan the  
energy sources for the future, 2010, 2015 and so on," he said.

Ultimately, Sinkin would like to see Texas take pro-active, pro- 
environmental steps, as California recently did with its landmark  
emissions legislation.
Until governments begin modeling that commitment, inertia will keep  
consumers from changing their mind-set and profits will keep business  
from changing its practices.

While politically positive, the recent discovery of vast oil reserves  
beneath the Gulf of Mexico will, if exploited fully, only prolong our  
oil consumption.

A study released this week by the National Academy of Sciences  
asserts that human activity has a significant impact on climate  
change, which feeds the growing power of hurricanes in the Atlantic  
and Pacific Oceans.

"The work that we've done kind of closes the loop here," Tom Wigley  
of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. and  
a co-author of the paper said in news accounts.

"The important conclusion is that the observed (sea-surface  
temperature) increases in these hurricane breeding grounds cannot be  
explained by natural processes alone. The best explanation for these  
changes has to include a large human influence."

Global warming has its share of skeptics, and some are loath to  
believe human activity has either led to it or can stanch it. Sinkin  
said that's backward thinking.
"People who once considered the world flat tried to eliminate the  
people who believed the world was round," he said. "Believing there  
is no global warming today, given the tremendous opinion of most  
scientists, is going back to a flat world concept."