Climate Action Plan

The draft Climate Action Plan is before Mercer Island City Council along with all the submitted public comments. At the March 7 meeting, the council will give direction for the plan.

The proposed CAP is a measured response to the current climate situation. I wish it went further, but it lays out necessary steps, whatever the future brings.

I think climate is the defining issue of our day and affluent communities like ours bear much of the responsibility for where we are on climate. We need to do our part in addressing the problem. There may be aspects of the CAP that are costly, but we can afford them. What we can’t afford is continued business as usual and to think our contribution to the solution doesn’t matter enough to try.

So let the council know that you support aggressive action on climate. With the heat dome two years ago and the record number of 90 degree days last summer, it’s clear we don’t have much time. Nobody wants to change — but change we must — for ourselves, for our kids, for the generations to come, and for the billions of people on the planet right now who do not have anything like the means necessary to weather the oncoming climate-change fueled disasters.

Chris Goelz, Mercer Island