Students Advise Mayor Before Copenhagen Conference

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Author: Ben Dalgetty

 

Last Friday Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa met with Occidental students to hear their ideas and solutions to global climate change in anticipation of his speech at the Copenhagen climate conference. The conference, the largest both in size and potential influence since Kyoto in 1996, began on Monday and will feature Prime Ministers, Presidents and scientific experts from across the globe.

The 10 students who presented were physics, economics, politics and Urban and Environmental Policy majors. They spoke before a Booth Hall Quad packed with students, staff and faculty. Their solutions for climate change ranged from using biodiesel for Oxy’s automobiles to increasing K-12 nutritional education.

Prior to the Mayor’s arrival, audience comments were taken. Those in attendance cited the development of public and alternative forms of transportation as a necessary step toward addressing climate change. They also stated that more people need to take the issue of climate change seriously. Oxy Physics Professor Dan Snowden-Ift said that “despite recent news reports, the climate change problem is real.” Fellow Physics Professor Adrian Hightower emphasized the “necessity for bold and decisive change.”

The Mayor opened by saying that, since the days of L.A.’s smog alerts, “A lot has changed . . . in no small part because of progressive and young people like you.”

Villaraigosa described Oxy as “a place where people come because they want to change the world.” He said that he came to Oxy before going to Copenhagen in order to “harness the vision and energy of the youth of Los Angeles.”

 

Jason Lehman (senior) opened the discussion by bringing up solar energy and Oxy’s aspirations to install an array. Villaraigosa responded that he supports the Oxy project and wants to utilize a diversity of renewable energy sources, including solar, to reach his goal of L.A. achieving a 20 percent renewable energy portfolio by the end of 2010.

 

According to Mayor Villaraigosa, who was one of 150 mayors to adopt the Kyoto protocol in 2005, by reducing its CO2 emissions by 10 million metric tons, L.A. will be the only carbon-coal free city in the U.S. by 2020. Additionally, since Villaraigosa has taken office, Los Angeles has become 19 times more energy efficient.

Villaraigosa said he doesn’t expect much of a commitment from countries on climate change due to the international community’s penchant for bickering over results. “Everybody’s pointing fingers [at each other] except for mayors.” He instead advocated for community-level engagement over climate change and said that the successes thus far have earned Mayors a seat at the table over solutions to the global situation. Finding solutions to the problem of climate change is “critical to the fate of the human race,” Villaraigosa said.

 

 

Additional reporting by Mariko Powers

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